Syracuse

Syracuse was now simply one of the provincial cities of Rome's empire. It retained much of its Greek character and many of its finest public buildings. Its importance and historic associations naturally marked it out as the residence of the Roman praetor or governor of Sicily. Cicero often speaks of it as a particularly splendid and beautiful city, as still in his own day the seat of art and culture. Caligula restored its decayed walls and some of its famous temples. It was plundered by Frankish pirates about A.D. 286. In the 4th century it is named by the poet Auson ius, chiefly, perhaps, on the strength of its historic memories; and there was a purple factory here under an imperial procura tor. In 665 Heraclius Constans fixed his capital here, but owing to his oppressive government was assassinated in 668. Syracuse has been a place of comparatively little importance since the year 878, when it was destroyed by the Saracens.

Archaeology.

The mediaeval and modern town of Syracuse (with the exception of a new quarter which has sprung up since the construction of the railway between the station and the island) is confined to the island. This contains the remains of two Doric temples. The older, belonging probably to the begin ning of the 6th century B.C., appears, from an inscription on the uppermost step, to have been dedicated to Apollo. It was a peripteral hexastyle of 42 columns; the portion excavated shows that its total width is 74ift., the width of the cella 381ft., the lower diameter of the columns 64ft. The other temple, into which the cathedral was built in A.D. 640, is to be dated 474-460 B.C. It was a peripteral hexastyle of 36 columns, with a total length of i8oft. and a total breadth of 72ft.; the columns have a lower diameter of and the intercolumniation is 13lft. It is almost certainly the temple of Athena. The site was previously occupied by buildings of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., including an archaic temple and a great sacrificial altar, which were de stroyed to make room for it. Their terra-cotta decorations were, however, carefully buried under the pavement of the space which surrounded it ; and they are of the highest importance in the history of design, showing that even if the method was Corinthian in origin it was in Sicily that it reached its highest development.

Near the west coast of the island is the famous fountain of Arethusa. According to the legend, the nymph Arethusa was changed into the fountain by Artemis to deliver her from the pursuit of the river-god Alpheus (q.v.) ; and the spring, which was fresh until an earthquake broke the barrier and let in the salt water, was supposed to be actually connected with the river. There are interesting remains of mediaeval architecture in the closely built town with its narrow streets; the beautiful 14th century windows of the Palazzo Montalto may be especially noticed, and also the 13th-centuty Castello Maniace at the south ern extremity of the island. The town also contains the large and well arranged archaeological museum which is the creation of Prof. Orsi, and is of the highest importance for both pre-Hellenic and Hellenic archaeology. The discoveries of recent years in the south-eastern portion of Sicily, including especially the ob jects found in Sicel and Greek cemeteries, may be studied there.

The isthmus connecting the island with the mainland, which was defended by strong fortifications erected by Charles V. and Philip II. (now demolished), does not occupy the site of the mole erected in the 6th or 7th century B.C., running due north from the north point of the island. On the landward side of the new isthmus was the agora, in which remains of a colonnade of the Roman pe riod have been found. To the west are the remains of an extensive building of the Roman period, probably a palaestra with a small Odeum attached. To the west-north-west is an extensive necropo lis, mostly of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. (For the cemeteries see The Year's Work in Classical Studies, p. 123 This necropolis was included within the defensive wall of Dionys ius, a portion of which, no less than '83 ft. thick, was found run ning diagonally across the new cemetery, and later an outwork in front of it was discovered. East of this point it probably fol lowed the edge of the low terrace above the marsh (the ancient Lysimeleia), while in the other direction it ran north-north-west, making straight for the western edge of the gorge known as the Portella del Fusco, which was thus included within the fortifi cations, as it would otherwise have afforded a means of access to the enemy. Here the wall gained the top of the cliffs which mark the southern edge of the plateau of Epipolae, which from this point onwards it followed as far as Euryelus. The south wall of Epipolae, considerable remains of which exist, shows traces of different periods in its construction, and was probably often restored. It is built of rectangular blocks of limestone gen erally quarried on the spot. Euryelus, the point where the ter race of Epipolae narrows down to a ridge about 6oyds. wide, which is its only link with the hills to the west, had thrice proved during the Athenian siege to be the key to Syracuse. It now bears the ruins of a mighty fortress, finer than that which defends the entrance to the acropolis of Selinus—the most imposing, indeed, that has come down to us from the Greek period—which there is no doubt is the work of Dionysius. The total length of the works is about 44oyds. In front of the castle proper are three ditches, the innermost of which can be reached from the interior of the castle by a complicated system of underground passages. The front of the castle is formed by five massive towers; behind it are two walled courtyards, to the north of the easternmost of which is the well-guarded main entrance to the plateau of Epipolae (narrower minor entrances are to be seen on both the north and the south sides) communicating by a long underground passage with the inner ditch in front of the castle proper. On the north side of Epipolae the cliffs are somewhat more abrupt ; here the wall, of a similar construction to that on the south, is also traceable, but here it is apparently all of one period. It is, indeed, recorded by Diodorus that Dionysius built the north wall from Euryelus to the Hexapylon in 20 days for a length of employing 6o,000 peasants and 6,000 yoke of oxen for the trans port of the blocks.