Syracuse

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that draws violently
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


SYRACUSE, on the east coast of Sicily, was the principal city in the island. It was originally a Greek colony of ancient date, which was powerful enough to defeat the famous Athenian Sicilian expedition (b.c. 415–412). Its kings were often men of distinction, even in literature, of which they were noted patrons. The city had a varied career, being sometimes a kingdom, sometimes a democracy. In b.c. 241 the Romans took the western half of Sicily from the Carthaginians, but remained in alliance with the kings of Syracuse. The last king of Syracuse coquetted with the Carthaginians; the city was besieged and captured by Marcellus in 212, and the whole island was henceforth under a prætor, who had two quæstors, one situated at Lilybæum in the W., the other at Syracuse. The city continued prosperous down till about the end of the 2nd cent. b.c. After that date it declined in importance, though it remained the capital of the eastern half of the island. In NT times a large number of the inhabitants were Roman citizens.
St. Paul’s ship lay at anchor in the harbour for three days, when he was on his way from Malta to Rome (Act_28:12). He did not preach there. Christian memorials at Syracuse are not specially early.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


A great city in the E. of Sicily. Paul arrived there from Melita ("Malta") on his way to Rome (Act_28:12). A convenient place for the Alexandrian grain ships to touch at, for the haven was good and the water from the fountain Arethusa excellent. The prevalent wind in this part of the Mediterranean, the W.N.W., would carry the vessel from Malta round the S. of Sicily to the eastern shore on which lay Syracuse. They waited three days there for the wind, then by a circuitous course, necessitated by the direction of the wind, reached Rhegium.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Syr'acuse. The celebrated city, on the eastern coast of Sicily. "The city in its splendor was the largest and richest that the Greeks possessed, in any part of the world, being 22 miles in circumference." St. Paul arrived thither, in an Alexandrian ship from Melita, on his voyage to Rome. Act_28:12. The site of Syracuse rendered it a convenient place for the African corn-ships to touch at, for the harbor was an excellent one, and the fountain Arethusa, in the island furnished an unfailing supply of excellent water.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


a famous city of Sicily, seated on the east side of the island, Act_28:12.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


sir?a-kūs, sir-a-kūs? (Συράκουσαι, Surákousai; Latin Syracusae, Ital. Siracusa): Situated on the east coast of Sicily, about midway between Catania and the southeastern extremity of the island.
The design of the present work scarcely permits more than a passing allusion to Syracuse, the most brilliant Greek colony on the shores of the Western Mediterranean, where Paul halted three days, on his way from Melita to Rome (Act_28:12). The original Corinthian colony rounded in 734 BC (Thucydides vi. 3) was confined to the islet Ortygia, which separates the Great Harbor from the sea. Later the city spread over the promontory lying northward of Ortygia and the harbor.
Syracuse assumed a pre-eminent position in the affairs of Sicily under the rule of the tyrants Gelon (485-478 BC; compare Herodotus vii. 154-55) and Hieron (478-467 BC). It nourisher greatly after the establishment of popular government in 466 BC (Diodorus xi. 68-72). The Syracusans successfully withstood the famous siege by the Athenians in 414 BC, the narrative of which is the most thrilling part of the work of Thucydides (vi, vii).
Dionysius took advantage of the fear inspired by the Carthaginians to elevate himself to despotic power in 405 BC, and he was followed, after a reign of 38 years, by his son of the same name. Although democratic government was restored by Timoleon after a period of civil dissensions in 344 BC (Plutarch, Timoleon), popular rule was not of long duration.
The most famous of the later rulers was the wise Hieron (275-216 BC), who was the steady ally of the Romans. His grandson and successor Hieronymus deserted the alliance of Rome for that of Carthage, which led to the celebrated siege of the city by the Romans under Marcellus and its fall in 212 (Livy xxiv. 21-33). Henceforth Syracuse was the capital of the Roman province of Sicily. Cicero calls it ?the greatest of Greek cities and the most beautiful of all cities? (Cicero Verr. iv. 52).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Syr?acuse, a celebrated city on the southeast coast of the island of Sicily. It was a strong, wealthy, and populous place. The great wealth and power of Syracuse arose from its trade, which was carried on extensively while it remained an independent state under its own kings; but about 200 B.C. it was taken by the Romans, after a siege rendered famous by the mechanical contrivances whereby Archimedes protracted the defense. Syracuse still exists as a considerable town under its original name, and some ruins of the ancient city yet remain. St. Paul spent three days at Syracuse, after leaving Melita, when being conveyed as a prisoner to Rome (Act_28:12).




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.



(Συρακοῦσαι; Lat. Syracusce), a celebrated city on the eastern coast of Sicily, whither Paul arrived in an Alexandrian ship from Melita, on his voyage to Rome (Act_28:12). It had a fine prospect from every entrance both by sea and land. Its port, which had the ‘sea on both sides of it, was almost all of it environed with beautiful buildings, and all that part of it which was without the city was on both sides banked up and sustained with very fair walls of marble. The city itself, while in its splendor, was the largest and richest that the Greeks possessed in any part of the world. For (according to Strabo) it was twenty-two miles in circumference, and both Plutarch and Livy inform us that the spoil of it was equal to that of Carthage. It was the oldest of the Greek colonies, being founded by Corinthians, and in a manner consisted of our cities united into one; or, as others express it, it was called quadruplex, as being divided into four parts, Acradina, Tyche, Neapolis, and the island of Ortygia. The first of these contained the famous Temple of Jupiter, the second the Temple of Fortune, the third a large amphitheatre, and a wonderful statue of Apollo in the midst of a spacious square, and the fourth the two temples of Diana and Minerva, and the renowned fountain of Arethusa. For about two hundred and fifty years the city made little noise in the world; but in the next two hundred and eighty it became conspicuous in war, in sea trade, and in wealth, under its kings Gelon, Dionysius, elder and younger, Dion, Agathocles, and Hiero.
About B.C. 210 this city was taken and sacked by Marcellus, the Roman general, and, in storming the place, Archimedes, the great mathematician, who is esteemed the first inventor of the sphere (and who, during the siege, had sorely galled the Romans with astonishing military engines of his own invention), was slain by a common soldier while intent upon his studies. After it was thus destroyed by Marcellus, Augustus rebuilt that part of it which stood upon the island, and in time it so far recovered as to have three walls, three castles, and a marble gate, and to be able to send out twelve thousand horse soldiers and four hundred. ships. In A.D. 675 the Saracens seized on it, but in 1090 it was taken from them by Roger, duke of Apulia. It yet exists under its original name (Ital. Siracasa),. and is still much frequented on account of its commodious harbor. Paul stayed here three days as he went prisoner to Rome (Act_27:12); here also Christianity was early planted, and still, at least in name, continues; but the city has lost its ancient splendor, though it is a bishop's see.
The magnificence which Cicero describes as still remaining in his time was no doubt greatly impaired when Paul visited it. The whole of the resources of Sicily had been exhausted in the civil wars of Caesar and Pompey, and the piratical warfare which Sextus Pomleius, the youngest son of the latter, subsequently carried on against the triumvir Octavius. Augustus restored Syracuse, as also Catana and Centoripa, which last had contributed much to the successful issue of his struggle with Sextus Pompeius. Yet the island Ortygia and a very small portion of the mainland adjoining sufficed for the new colonists and the remnant of the former population. But the site of Syracuse rendered it a convenient place for the African corn ships to touch at, for the harbor was an excellent one, and the fountain Arethusa in the island furnished an unfailing supply of excellent water. The prevalent wind in this part of the Mediterranean is the W.N.W. This would carry the vessels from the corn region lying eastward of Cape Bon, round the southern point of Sicily, Cape Pachynus, to the eastern shore of the island. Creeping up under the shelter of this, they would lie either in the harbor of Messana or at Rhegium, until the wind changed to a southern point and enabled them to fetch the Campanian harbor Puteoli or Gaeta, or to proceed as far as Ostia. In crossing from Africa to Sicily, if the wind was excessive, or varied two or three points to the northward, they would naturally bear up for Malta; and this had probably been the case with the “Twins,” the ship in which Paul found a passage after his shipwreck on the coast of that island. Arrived in. Malta, they watched for the opportunity of a wind to take them westward, and with such a one they readily made Syracuse. To proceed farther while it continued blowing would have exposed them to the dangers of a lee-shore, and accordingly they remained “three days.” They then, the wind having probably shifted into a westerly quarter so as to give them smooth water, coasted the shore and made (περιελθόντες κατηντήσαμεν εἰς) Rhegium. After one day there, the wind got round still more and blew from the south; they therefore weighed, and arrived at Puteoli in the course of the second day of the run (Act_28:12-14).
In the time of Paul's voyage, Sicily did not supply the Romans with corn to the extent it had done in the time of king Hiero, and in a less degree as late as the time of Cicero. It is an error, however, to suppose that the soil was exhausted; for Strabo expressly says that for corn and some other productions, Sicily even surpassed Italy. But the country had become depopulated by the long series of wars, and when it passed into the hands of Rome, her great nobles turned vast tracts into pasture. In the time of Augustus the whole of the center of the island was occupied in this manner, and among its exports (except from the neighborhood of the volcanic region, where excellent wine was produced), fat stock, hides, and wool appear to have been the prominent articles. These grazing and horse- breeding farms were kept up by slave labor; and this was the reason that the whole island was in a chronic state of disturbance, owing to the slaves continually running away and forming bands of brigands. Sometimes these became so formidable as to require the aid of regular military operations to put them down; a circumstance of which Tiberius Gracchus made use as an argument in favor of his measure of an Agrarian law (Appian, B. C. 1, 9), which would have reconverted the spacious grasslands into small arable farms cultivated by Roman freemen. In the time of Paul there were only five Roman colonies in Sicily, of which Syracuse was one. The others were Catana, Tauromenium, Thermae, and Tyndaris. Messana too, although not a colony, was a town filled with a Roman population. Probably its inhabitants were merchants connected with the wine-trade of the neighborhood, of which Messana was the shipping port. Syracuse and Panormus were important as strategical points, and a Roman force was kept up at each. Sicilians, Sicanians, Morgetians, and Iberians (aboriginal inhabitants of the island, or very early settlers), still existed in the interior, in what exact political condition it is impossible to say; but most likely in that of villains. Some few towns are mentioned by Pliny as having the Latins franchise, and some as paying a fixed tribute; but, with the exception of the five colonies, the owners of the soil of the island were mainly great absentee proprietors, and almost all its produce came to Rome (Strabo, 6:2; Appian, B. C. 4:84 sq.; 5, 15-118; Cicero, Verr. 4:53; Pliny, H. rN. 3, 8). For a full account of ancient Syracuse, see Smith's Dict. of Geog. s.v., and the, literature there cited; also Goller, De Situ et Or. qine Syracusarum (Lips. 1818); for the modern city, Badeker, Southern Italy, p. 308 sq. SEE SICILY.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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