In the dark ages of Greece between the Bronze Age and the birth of the alphabet in the eighth century BC, Greek civilization had spread far and wide in the Mediterranean. Greek colonies, little city-states perched on headlands or nestled in harbors sprouted up wherever Greek traders sailed, as trading posts and bases of operations. The Aegean coast of Anatolia (now Turkey) was covered with Greek colonies, including Smyrna (now Izmir), Miletus, and Ephesus in the northeast. The Black Sea housed Greek colonies in the land of the Golden Fleece. In the southeast Naucratis, meaning ‘Sea Power,’ was planted in the Nile River and Cyrene in what is now Libya. In the northwest Massilia grew to be Roman Massalia and then French Marseille. A colony was planted on the island of Corsica, by the name of Alalia.
But by far the greatest concentration of Greek city-states abroad was found in southern Italy and the triangular island of Sicily, which became known as Magna Graecia. During the Peloponnesian War the city of Syracuse, on the southern part of the east coast of Sicily, had withstood a siege by the Athenians and emerged victorious, cementing its place as a leading city of the region. A decade later, around 405 BC, the Greek city-states were faced with an invasion from another major power of the region, the city of Carthage, itself a colony in north Africa of Phoenicia in the Levant of Asia. The Carthaginians held the western corner of Sicily, and had captured and destroyed the Greek city of Himera on the northern coast. They now threatened Acragas (near modern Agrigento) on the south coast. After winning one battle against the invaders, the people of Acragas, after a long siege, escaped from their city and fled east towards the lands controlled by the Greeks.
The bastion of Greek power in Sicily was now Syracuse. At an assembly of that metropolis was Dionysius, the man who had distinguished himself in the battle for Acragas. He now stood up and delivered a passionate speech in which he accused the generals of his city of incompetence in bungling the defense of Acragas; he demanded that they be dismissed. He was fined for breaking the rules of the democracy. But his friend and supporter, Philistus, a historian, paid the fine. His accusations, together with the frustrations of the people at their military losses, carried the day, and the generals were removed from office. Inspired by Dionysius’ determination, they elected him general with unlimited powers.
He now took his army to Leontini, a neighboring city under the control of Syracuse and camped nearby. He spread a rumor that there had been an attempt on his life; he convened an assembly of people from Leontini, who were nominally citizens of Syracuse, and demanded he be given a bodyguard to protect him against assassination. The petition was approved, giving him a bodyguard of 600 and then 1000 soldiers. He was now well on his way to becoming a tyrant.
The Carthaginian army was now besieging Gela, a city roughly halfway between Acragas and the southeastern tip of the island. Dionysius marched there with an army partly composed of native troops (non-Greeks) from Italy and Sicily. Here he bungled the defense of Gela no less than the generals he had accused of failing at Acragas. He rounded up the inhabitants of Gela and then of Camarina to the east and brought them all to Syracuse as refugees and as a potential pool of new soldiers. He may, in fact, have colluded with the Carthaginian leaders in order to consolidate his position as tyrant of Syracuse. As he was marching with his army and his mass of refugees, the Syracusan cavalry rode ahead to Syracuse and ransacked Dionysius’ house in retaliation for his failures. Dionysius was forced to lead a contingent of his army to dislodge the cavalry and take control of the city.
Dionysius made a treaty with the Carthaginians, ceding to them all the territories of Sicily they controlled, and acknowledging the sway of Syracuse over most of the Greek states remaining on the island. Syracuse had control also of the Sican communities (one of the native ethnic groups of the island), but the Sicels (another native group) were left independent. But the Greek city of Messene (or Messana, to use the Doric pronunciation) in the northeast and Leontini, near Syracuse, were left independent also. One other provision of the treaty made Dionysius the ruler of Syracuse, thus securing his precarious position in the government of his city. This last provision was likely the result of a secret promise of Dionysius not to challenge Carthaginian power on the island.
The city of Syracuse was built on the north of the Great Harbor, which was partially closed off by a peninsula called Ortygia, extending southward from the northeast shore of the harbor. Dionysius now built a strong wall across the peninsula, in effect making it an almost impregnable island. Here he would establish his own personal citadel where he hoped to be safe from attack, especially by the people of Syracuse. He also built a mole or breakwater to block the entrance to the harbor, with a gate covering a passageway wide enough to admit only one ship at a time entrance into or exit from the harbor. The city, which had already stood against the might of Athens in 415 BC, was now an even more formidable stronghold.
In 403, the army of Syracuse, which was in the field besieging a city of Sicels, revolted and returned home to besiege Syracuse. Calling on neighboring cities, they raised a large army and a fleet of eighty ships. Dionysius pretended to surrender to them, asking only for time to gather his possessions. After the besieging forces dispersed, he summoned an army of mercenaries who had settled on the island to counterattack and save him from his fate.
After recovering his power, he attacked Mt. Etna, the great volcano to the north, driving away his enemies who had taken refuge there. He defeated the cities of Catane, Naxos, and Leontini, which had stood against him, and now had no major opponents among the Greek cities of the island.