Editing Timoleon

{{Short description|Greek statesman and general (c.411–337 BC)}}
{{About||the racehorse|Timoleon (horse)|the South Australian journalist|David Gordon (Australian politician)}}
[[File:Timoleon-Corynth.jpg|thumb|Timoleon in [[Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum|a 1553 image]]]]
'''Timoleon''' ([[Ancient Greek language|Greek]]: [[wikt:Τιμολέων|Τιμολέων]]), son of Timodemus, of [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]] ({{circa|411}}–337 BC) was a Greek statesman and general.

As a brilliant general, a champion of [[Greece]] against [[Ancient Carthage|Carthage]], and a fighter against despotism, he is closely connected with the [[history of Sicily#Classical Age|history of Sicily]], especially [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Westlake |first=H. D. |date=1942 |title=Timoleon and the Reconstruction of Syracuse |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020793 |journal=Cambridge Historical Journal |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=73–100 |issn=1474-6913}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Westlake |first=H. D. |date=1949 |title=The Purpose of Timoleon's Mission |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/290966 |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=65–75 |doi=10.2307/290966 |issn=0002-9475|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kagan |first=Donald |date=1960 |title=Timoleon's Mission to Sicily and its Political Background |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24437695 |journal=The Historian |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |issn=0018-2370}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[Image:Timoleon setting sail for Sicily.jpg|thumb|right|Timoleon sets sail for Sicily (as depicted in ''Children's Plutarch'',  1900)]]

Timoleon was a member of the Corinthian oligarchy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=History of Greece, Vol. 11|last=Grote|first=George}}</ref>  In the mid 360s BC, [[Timophanes]], the brother of Timoleon, took possession of the [[acropolis]] of Corinth and effectively made himself tyrant of the city. In response, Timoleon, who had earlier heroically saved his brother's life in battle, and after repeatedly pleading with him to desist,<ref name=":1" /> became involved in the assassination of Timophanes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Who's Who in the Classical World|last = Hornblower|first = Simon|publisher = Oxford Paperback Reference|year = 2000|isbn = 0192801074|location = New York|pages = 403|last2 = Spawforth|first2 = Tony}}</ref> Most Corinthians approved his conduct as patriotic; however, the tragic occurrence, the actual fratricide, the curses of his mother, and the indignation of some of his fellow citizens, drove him into a self-imposed early withdrawal from politics and civic life for twenty years.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Sicily==
Because of inner strife, the depredations and decline in Syracuse caused by the despots [[Dionysius I of Syracuse|Dionysius I]] and [[Dionysius II of Syracuse|his son who succeeded him]], and because of the repeated conflicts with powerful Carthage, a group of Syracusans sent an  appeal for help to Corinth, their mother city, which reached that city-state in 344 BC.<ref>''History of Greece'', [[George Grote]], vol. 7 pp. 575-6.</ref> 
Corinth agreed to help, but her chief citizens declined to accept the seemingly hopeless task of establishing a stable government in tyrannical, fractious, insecure, and turbulent Syracuse.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Timoleon, being named by an unknown voice in the Corinthian popular assembly, was chosen by a unanimous vote to undertake the mission. He set sail for Sicily with seven ships, a few of the leading citizens of Corinth, and a small force of 700 Greek mercenaries.<ref name=":0" /> He eluded a Carthaginian squadron by an ingenious stratagem and landed at [[Tauromenium]] (now Taormina) in 344 BC, where he met with a friendly reception. At this time [[Hicetas of Leontini|Hicetas]], tyrant of [[Leontini]], was master of Syracuse, with the exception of the island of [[Ortygia]], which was occupied by [[Dionysius II of Syracuse|Dionysius II]], still nominally ruler.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

[[File:Sicily cultures 431bc.jpg|thumb|left|Sicily in 431 BC]]

Hicetas was defeated by Timoleon at [[Adrano|Adranum]], an inland town, and driven back to Syracuse. After his initial unexpected success, Timoleon was sent reinforcements from Corinth and some north-western Greek states.<ref name=":0" />  Following the [[Siege of Syracuse (343 BC)|siege of Syracuse]], Dionysius II surrendered Ortygia in 343 BC on the condition of his being granted a safe conduct to Corinth, where he ended his life as a private, well-off, citizen.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Hicetas now received help from Carthage (60,000 men), but ill-success roused mutual suspicion; the Carthaginians abandoned Hicetas, who was besieged in Leontini, and who was then compelled to surrender. Timoleon was thus master of Syracuse.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He at once began the work of restoration, beginning with the symbolic act of destroying the citadel constructed and used by the tyrants to oppress the people of Syracuse, and replacing it with a courthouse. He brought new settlers to depopulated Sicily from all over Greece, and re-established a popular government on the basis of the democratic laws of [[Diocles of Syracuse|Diocles]]. The ''amphipolos'', or priest of Olympian [[Zeus]] ({{lang|grc|ἀμφίπολος Διὸς Ὀλυμπίου}}),<ref>{{LSJ|a)mfi/polos|ἀμφίπολος|ref}}.</ref> who was chosen annually by lot out of three clans, was invested with the chief magistracy. The impress of Timoleon's reforms seems to have lasted to the days of [[Augustus]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Hicetas persuaded Carthage to send (340–339 BC) a great army of 70,000 men, which landed at Lilybaeum (now [[Marsala]]). With a miscellaneous levy of about 12,000 men, most of them mercenaries, Timoleon marched westwards across the island to the neighbourhood of [[Selinus]]. Against all odds, after being deserted by a part of his army who believed that facing a foe six times as large as their own was hopeless, Timoleon, at the head of his infantry, won a great and decisive [[Battle of the Crimissus|victory on the Crimissus]]. His victory was made possible by the fact that the Carthaginian army had not yet completed the river crossing, so his small force only had to fight the elite part of the Carthaginian force. He was also aided by a violent storm at the backs of his troops but blinding to the Carthaginians.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Later, Carthage dispatched mercenaries to prolong the conflict between Timoleon and the Greek tyrants. But this ended in the defeat of Hicetas, who was taken prisoner and put to death. A treaty in 338 BC was agreed upon, by which Carthage was confined in Sicily to the west of the [[Platani (river)|Halycus (Platani) river]] and undertook to give no further help to Sicilian tyrants.  Most of the remaining tyrants were killed or expelled.<ref name="World, Editor p207">Historians' History of the World, Editor: Henry Smith Williams vol 4 p207</ref> This treaty gave the Greeks of Sicily many years of peace, restored prosperity, rule of law, and safety from Carthage.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Ruler of Syracuse ==
Timoleon established a new Syracusan constitution, described at the time as democratic. For a short time he had wide powers equivalent to a supreme commander. He invited settlers from mainland Greece to assist in the re-population of Syracuse and other Sicilian cities. During this period, Greek Sicily enjoyed a recovery in its economy and culture.<ref name=":0" />

==Retirement==
Timoleon retired into private life shortly after the goals he set out to accomplish were met. He remained almost universally admired for his brilliant victories, moderation, and the restoration of democracy after half a century of tyranny, suffering, near economic collapse, turmoil, and depopulation. After his retirement, when important issues were under discussion the by-now blind Timoleon was carried to the  assembly to give his opinion, which was usually accepted.<ref name="World, Editor p207"/> He was buried at the cost of the citizens of Syracuse, who erected a monument to his memory in their market-place, afterwards surrounded with porticoes, and a gymnasium called Timoleonteum.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Historical analysis==
The ancient historian [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] praised Timoleon. Polybius, an ancient historian with oligarchic sympathies, said Timaeus was biased in favour of Timoleon and many modern historians have agreed with Polybius.<ref>Peter Green, ''Alexander to Actium'' p. 219.</ref> Peter Green said that Timoleon tended to pose as a democrat while using the methods of a tyrant (albeit benevolently), and that Timoleon tried to maintain the outward forms of democracy, reformed Syracuse in a democratic direction, and demolished the stronghold of the island that had been useful to tyrants in the past.<ref>Peter Green, ''Alexander to Actium'', pp. 219-20.</ref>

When taken to court on spurious grounds, Timoleon refused to be exempted, saying that this was the "precise purpose for which he had so long laboured and combated—in order that every Syracusan citizen might be enabled to appeal to the laws and exercise freely his legal rights."<ref name=":1" />

The historian George Grote agreed with a eulogy given by a Syracusan at Timoleon's funeral, about three years after the Crimissus victory:<ref name=":1" /><blockquote>The Syracusan people solemnise, at the cost of 200 [[Mina (unit)|minae]], the funeral of this man . . .They have passed a vote to honour him for all future time. . .,—because, after having put down the despots, subdued the foreign enemy, and re-colonised the greatest among the ruined cities, he restored to the Sicilian Greeks their constitution and laws.</blockquote>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==

===Primary sources===
* [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/nepos.htm#Timoleon Cornelius Nepos, ''Timoleon''].
* [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''Historical Library'', xvi.65–90.

===Secondary sources===
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Timoleon*.html Plutarch, ''Life of Timoleon''].
*{{EB1911|wstitle= Timoleon|volume=26|page=989}}

==Further reading==
* Westlake, H.D. ''Timoleon and His Relations With Tyrants''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1952 (hardcover, {{ISBN|0-7190-1217-1}}).
* Bicknell, P.J. "The Date of Timoleon's Crossing to Italy and the Comet of 361&nbsp;B.C.", ''The Classical Quarterly'', New Series, Vol.&nbsp;34, No.&nbsp;1. (1984), pp.&nbsp;130–134.
* Talbert, R.J.A. ''Timoleon and the Revival of Greek Sicily, 344–317 B.C. (Cambridge Classical Studies)''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975 (hardcover, {{ISBN|0-521-20419-4}}); 2008 (paperback, {{ISBN|0-521-03413-2}}).

{{s-start}}
|width=25% align=center|'''Preceded by:'''<br>'''[[Dionysius II of Syracuse|Dionysius the Younger]]'''
|width=25% align=center|'''[[List of Tyrants of Syracuse|Tyrant of Syracuse]]'''<br>345–337 BC
|width=25% align=center|'''Succeeded by:'''<br>'''''[[oligarchy]]'''''<br> <small>position next held by <br>[[Agathocles of Syracuse|Agathocles]] in 320 BC</small>
|-
{{s-end}}

{{Ancient Athenian statesmen}}
{{Plutarch}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:410s BC births]]
[[Category:337 BC deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Greek people]]
[[Category:Ancient Corinthians]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek generals]]
[[Category:Sicilian tyrants]]
[[Category:People of the Sicilian Wars]]