IIIERO'NYMUS, grandson of Hieron II., king of Syracuse, suc ceeded him on the throne at the age of fifteen (B.c. 216), and under the guardianship of several tutors, among whom was Andronorus, his aunt's husband, who, seconded by other courtiers, and in order to monopolise the confidence of the young king, indulged him in all his caprices and follies. The court of Syracuse, which under Hieron was orderly and respectable, soon became as profligate as it had been under the younger Dionysius. Andronorus persuaded Hieronymus, against the dying injunctions of his grandfather, to forsake the Roman alliance for that of Carthage, and messengers for that purpose were sent to Hannibal in Italy, and also •to the senate of Carthage, which gladly agreed to an alliance with Syracuse, in order to effect a diversion against the Romans. The Prmtor Appius Claudius, who governed that part of Sicily which the Romans had taken from the Carthaginians, sent messengers to Hieronymus to exhort him not to forget the old friendship existing between Rome and Syracuse. The
messengers were received contemptuously, and the young king sneeringly asked them for some details concerning the battle of Cannm, which had occurred not long before. War being at last declared by Rome, Hieronymus took the field with 15,000 men : but a conspiracy broke out among his soldiers, and he was murdered, after a reign of only thirteen months. On this news a popular insurrection took place at Syracuse, the daughters and grand-daughters of Hieron wore murdered, and royalty was abolished. But the people were distracted by factions and by the mercenaries in their pay, sod revolution suc ceeded revolution until two adventurers of Syracusan extraction, but natives of Carthage, who had been sent by Hannibal to keep in coun tenance the Carthaginian party in Syracuse, became possessed of the chief power, and so provoked the Roman consul Marceline, that he laid siege to Syracuse.