Volume one of this sweeping history chronicles the turbulent ancient history of Syracuse from the rise of Gelon to the death of Dionysius I. Situated at the heart of the Mediterranean, Syracuse was one of the most important city-states of the classical Greek world. Coveted for its wealth and strategic location, it was caught in the middle as Carthage, Epirus, Athens and then Rome each battled to gain control of the region. The threat of expansionist enemies on all sides made for a tumultuous situation within the city, resulting in repeated coups and a series of remarkable tyrants, such as Gelon, Timoleon and Dionysius. In volume one of The Tyrants of Syracuse, Jeff Champion traces the course of Syracuse's wars from the Battle of Himera against the Carthaginians down to the death of Dionysius I, whose reign proved to be the high tide of the city's power and influence. Within this period, Syracuse heroically defeated the Athenian force that besieged them for more than two years—an event with far-reaching ramifications.

This is the story of one of the most important classical cities, Syracuse, and its struggles (both internal and external) for freedom and survival. Situated at the heart of the Mediterranean, Syracuse was caught in the middle as Carthage, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Athens and then Rome battled to gain control of Sicily. The threat of expansionist enemies on all sides made for a tumultuous situation within the city, resulting in repeated coups that threw up a series of remarkable tyrants, such as Gelon, Timoleon and Dionysius. In this first volume Jeff Champion traces the course of Syracuse's wars under the tyrants from the Battle of Himera (480 BC) against the Carthaginians down to the death of Dionysius I (367 BC), whose reign proved to be the high tide of the city's power and influence. One of the highlights along the way is the city's heroic resistance to, and eventual decisive defeat of, the Athenian expeditionary force that besieged them for over two years (415-413 BC), an event with massive ramifications for the Greek world. This is the eventful life story of one of the forgotten major powers of the ancient Mediterranean world.

This addition to the Manchester Medieval Sources Series provides a translation of, and the historical background to, the History of the Tyrants of Sicily by Hugo Falcandus. The text also offers a historiographical examination of the text.

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Valerio Massimo Manfredi's Tyrant starts in Sicily 412 BC: the infinite duel between a man and a superpower begins. The man is Dionysius, who has just made himself Tyrant of Syracuse. The superpower Carthage, mercantile megalopolis and mistress of the seas. Over the next eight years, Dionysius' brutal military conquests will strike down countless enemies and many friends to make Syracuse the most powerful Greek city west of mainland Greece. He builds the largest army of antiquity and invents horrific war machines to use against the Carthaginians, who he will fight in five wars. But who was Dionysius? Historians have condemned him as one of the most ruthless, egocentric despots. But he was also patron of the arts, a dramatist, poet and tender lover.

*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts of the tyrants *Includes a bibliography for further reading "States are as the men are; they grow out of human characters. Like State, like man." - Plato, The Republic Tyranny in ancient Greece was not a phenomenon limited to any particular period. Tyrants could be found in power throughout Greece, ruling poleis from the 7th century B.C. right through to the 2nd century B.C., when Roman domination effectively put an end to this form of government throughout the Hellenistic world. That said, the heyday of tyranny was undoubtedly the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., and it is in this period, known as the "Age of Tyrants," that large numbers of tyrannies arose, particularly in the Peloponnese. The "Age of Tyrants" ended on the Greek mainland with the expulsion of the Peisistratidai in 510 B.C., but it continued in other parts of the Greek world, particularly in the Greek cities of Sicily, where tyranny did not finally end until the removal of Dionysius II of Syracuse in 344 B.C. In Asia Minor, tyranny survived the Persian conquest until the days of the Roman conquest. The governments of the majority of the Greek states in the Archaic and Classical periods were in the hands of local aristocrats, and it is a modern preoccupation with the Athenian democracy or Sparta's unique system that has tended to obscure this fact. Oligarchy was the norm, and political power derived from wealth and birth. As the wealth of city states grew, so, too, did the number of citizens who, despite personal wealth, found themselves outside the very limited aristocratic elite that conspired to maintain the political power of the few. These disenfranchised "new" men came, more and more, to resent their lack of political influence, and this dissatisfaction was fueled by the increasing use of the hoplite as the main weapon of the period, which brought all male citizens closer to each other and emphasized the interdependence that existed between individuals. The sense of camaraderie engendered a growing understanding of the potential power of the armed citizen. With that realization came the emergence of individuals who were not prepared to accept the status quo but instead were willing to exploit the discontent and the power of the citizen body to seize power for themselves. Aristotle noted that tyrants generally combined the role of a general with that of a popular leader, demagogos. To the ruling elites such a usurper was known as turannos or tyrant. The Age of Tyrants: The History of the Early Tyrants in Ancient Greece looks at the various people, places, and reigns during a crucial part of Ancient Greek history. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about tyrants in Greece like never before.