204 HISTORY OF GREECE. CHAPTER XLIII. EVENTS IN SICILY DOWN TO THE EXPULSION OF THE GELONIAN DYNASTY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF POPULAR GOVERN- MENTS THROUGHOUT THE ISLAND. I HAVE already mentioned, in the third volume of this history, the foundation of the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, together with the general fact, that in the sixth century before the Chris- tian era, they Avere among the most powerful and flourishing cities that bore the Hellenic name. Beyond this general fact, we obtain little insight into their history. Though Syracuse, after it fell into the bands of Gelo, about 485 B.C., became the most powerful city in Sicily, yet in the pre- ceding centui-y Gela and Agrigentum, on the south side of the island, had been its superiors. The latter, within a few years of its foundation, fell under the dominion of one of its own citizens, named Phalaris ; a despot energetic, warlike, and cruel. An exile from Astypalsea near Rhodes, but a rich man, and an early settler at Agrigentum, he contrived to make himself despot, seemingly, about the year 570 B.C. He had been named to one of the chief posts in the city, and having undertaken at his own cost the erection of a temple to Zeus Polieus in the acropolis (as the Athenian Alkmgeonids rebuilt the burnt temple of Delphi), he was allowed on this pretence to assemble therein a consider- able number of men ; whom he armed, and availed himself of the opportunity of a festival of Demeter to turn them against the people. He is said to have made many conquests over the stood, when the fear from Persia was not at all terminated, the Athenians would have lost more than they gained by burning the ships of the other Greeks, so that Themistokles was not very likely to conceive the scheme, nor Ar^ceides to describe it in the language put into his mouth. The story is probably the invention of some Greek of the Platonic age, who wished to contrast justice with expediency, and Aristeides with The- mistokles, — as well as to bestow at the same time panegyric upon Atheiu in the days of her glory.
