SYRACUSE (Siracusa), a town on the east coast of Sicily, 30 miles S.S.E. from Catania, and about the same distance N. by E. of Cape Pageant, the southern extremity of Sicily. Ancient Syracuse, in the time of its splendour, was the largest city in Sicily, and one of tho largest in the ancient world : It WA of a triangular form, and con. slated of five towns, adjoining one another, but separated by walls: the oldest of these towns was Ortygia on the peninsula, originally an island of an oblong shape, about two miles in circumference, lying between the Great Harbour on the west, which is a splendid piece of water about five miles in circumference, and the Little Harbour, which was paved with marble flags, on the east. On the other side of the Little Harbour was the town of Acradina, which extended for about. three miles to the eastward along the sea-coast, until it reached a bay, where was the port Trogilus, outside of the city. The western part of Acradlns, adjoining Ortygia, stood on low ground, on a level with the island ; but the remaining and larger portion of it lay on a range of heights which stretch from the sea for several miles inland, and are divided from the lowland by a natural wall of rocks. North of Acradina, and inland, stood the town of Tycho, on the same range of heights as the upper part of Acradina, being divided from the latter only by • double wall and intermural road. Tyche extended inland to the northward for a length of above two miles, and at its western extremity was the Epipoim, consisting of several commanding heights, which were inclosed and made into a vast fortress by Dionysius the elder. South-west of Tyche, in the lower ground at the foot of the heights, was Neapolia, or the New Town, which, at its southern end, adjoined the lower part of Acradina. The whole was surrounded by an external wall, the length of which was 180 stadia. Ortygia was the firstpart inhabited ; but the population increasing, the island was joined to the mainland by a causeway across the narrow channel of the sea, and the neighbouring low ground? were built upon. Suburbs and gardens extended south of Neapolis to the mouth of the river Anapus, and beyond it, round the western shore of the Great Harbour to the steep peninsula of Plem rnyriurn, which faced Ortygia. After the Roman conquest, the popu
lation, having gradually decreased, became restricted to the original Ortygis and the lower part of Acradina, and all the upper city was already abandoned in the time of Augustus. The Saracens in the 9th century plundered and devastated Syracuse, which contained till then about 100,000 inhabitants ; and from that time Ortygia, or the island, has been the only part inhabited.
The greater part of the upper town of Acradina, especially near the sea, is now a naked dreary rock, the surface having been thoroughly cleared of the materials of the ancient city. No traces of antiquity, except some steps and a few courses of stones, not a vestige of a house, temple, or monument is to be seen on the extensive plain. The sea has undermined the shore, and the town-walls have fallen in and disappeared. Considerable remains of the external wall, built by Dionysius the elder, are seen farther north round Tyche and the Epipolai. Not far from Scala Grmea, at a place called Targetta, are the remains of a gate, whence a street can be traced across the eito of Tyche to the ancient theatre at the other end near Neapolis. Traces of other streets aro also seen, with foundations for walls cut in the rocks. The fields within and near the external walls of this part of the town are covered with immense heaps of stones thrown confusedly together. On the outside of the walls a green slope reaches from the foot of the rock to the plain, and is covered with old olive-trees.
Between the upper and the lower parts of the town, and near the borders of Tyche, Acradina, and Neapolis, is the ancient theatre, hewn out of the solid rock, now half-hidden with bushes. Not far from the theatre are the remains of an amphitheatre of the Roman period ; and nearer to Ortygia are the remains of the palace of the 60 beds, said to have been built by Agathocles. Near it are vestiges of the wide street mentioned by Cicero, which may be traced from the isthmus of Ortygia, and across the site of the upper town, to a spot called Santa Bonaccia, on the edge of the Martins Trogilus.