Military leader
Born: Date unknown; place unknown Died: After 337 b. c.e.; Syracuse Category: Military
Life In 344 b. c.e., the citizens of Syracuse appealed to Corinth, the mother city that had sent the first colonists to Syracuse, for aid in overthrowing Dionysius the Younger, who oppressed the city as tyrant. The Corinthian assembly provided a small army of mercenaries, appointing Timoleon (tih-MOH-lee-uhn) of Corinth as leader. Timoleon had earned a reputation as an opponent of tyranny by aiding the assassination of his older brother when he tried to become absolute ruler of Corinth.
Landing in Sicily that summer, Timoleon rapidly defeated two opposing armies, occupied Syracuse, and sent Dionysius the Younger into exile in Corinth. By 341 b. c.e., Timoleon had unseated the other Sicilian tyrants and successfully opposed a Carthaginian invasion. He wrote a constitution for Syracuse that protected the freedom of its citizens. By inviting new settlers from Greece, Timoleon repopulated Sicily, stimulating an economic revival.
In about 337 b. c.e., Timoleon retired from office, at that time an unheard-of act, and lived his remaining life near Syracuse. Although soon becoming blind, he continued to advise the Syracuse assembly.
Influence Timoleon reestablished the rule of law and restored prosperity to Sicily. Plutarch, in his life of Timoleon, concludes that Timoleon had “done the greatest and noblest things of any Greek of his age.”
Further Reading
Talbert, R. J. A. Timoleon and the Revival of Greek Sicily, 344-317 B. C.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
Tritle, Lawrence A., ed. The Greek World in the Fourth Century. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Milton Berman
See also: Dionysius the Younger; Syracuse.
World History
