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Syracuse

Syracuse, also known as Siracusa, is a historic city on the Italian island of Sicily. Syracuse was founded by Corinthian settlers in 733 BC, the second Greek city to be founded on the island after Naxos. The native Sicels were well-disposed towards the Greek colonists, and Syracuse soon grew in size until it became the most powerful Greek city-state in the Mediterranean. In 485 BC, Gelon seized power as tyrant and resettled the inhabitants of Gela, Kamarina, and Megara in Syracuse, building the new Tyche and Neapolis quarters outside the city walls.

By 415 BC, Syracuse had 250,000 residents and was equal in size to Athens; the city went on to make expeditions up to Corsica and Elba and defeated the powerful Carthaginian empire at the Battle of Himera and the ancient Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. From 415 to 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, Syracuse (with Spartan aid) helped to repel the Athenians' Sicilian Expedition. During the early 4th century BC, Dionysius I of Syracuse lost Gela and Camarina to Carthage, but prevented Carthage from taking over the entire island.

In 397 BC, a Carthaginian siege of Syracuse failed due to pestilence, and a 392 BC treaty led to Syracuse founding Adranon, Tyndarion, and Tauromenos and conquering Rhegion on mainland Italy. Dionysus' son Dionysius II was overthrown in 356 BC, only to regain his throne in 347 BC. In 343 BC, democracy was restored and Dionysius lost his throne a second time, and, while the internal power struggles weakened Syracuse's position on the island, it defeated Carthage at the Battle of the Crimissus in 339 BC.

In 317 BC, Agathocles of Syracuse seized power with a coup and resumed the war against Carthage, but he was forced to flee the besieged Syracuse in 311 BC and invade Africa, where he inflicted heavy losses on the Carthaginians. The defenders of Syracuse then defeated the besieging army, but Agathocles was eventually defeated in Africa as well. Agathocles died in 289 BC, and the Carthaginians attempted one last siege of Syracuse in 278 BC, retreating at the arrival of Pyrrhus of Epirus, whom Syracuse had begged for help.

Hiero II of Syracuse came into power in 275 BC, and he oversaw 50 years of peace and prosperity. Hiero's successor Hieronymus broke the alliance with the Roman Republic after the Battle of Cannae and instead allied with Hannibal's Carthaginian army, leading to Marcus Claudius Marcellus besieging the city in 214 BC. The city held out for three years with the help of the inventor Archimedes and his defensive devices, but the city ultimately fell in 212 BC and the city was plundered; Archimedes was killed.

Syracuse went on to become the capital of Roman Sicily as the seat of the praetor, and it remained an important port city. Under Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Marziano, Christianity spread into the city during the 1st century AD, and it became one of the main centers of proselytism in the West. From 467 to 477 AD, Syracuse was occupied by the Germanic Vandals, but it fell under Ostrogothic rule in 491 and remained under Germanic occupation until 31 December 535, when the Byzantine Greek general Belisarius liberated the island. In 878, the Muslim Aghlabids of North Africa conquered Syracuse, converting the Cathedral into a mosque. In 1038, George Maniakes reconquered Syracuse for the Byzantines, but, in 1085, the Normans conquered the city for themselves. It passed under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire from 1194 to 1205, the Republic of Genoa from 1205 to 1220, restored Imperial rule from 1220 to 1266, Angevin rule from 1266 to 1298, Spanish/Aragonese rule from 1298 to 1713, Savoyard rule from 1713 to 1720, Austrian rule from 1720 to 1734, Neapolitan Bourbon rule from 1734 to 1806, British occupation from 1806 to 1814, Two Sicilies rule from 1816 to 1860, and Italian rule from 1860 onward.

In 1865, following the reunification of Italy, Syracuse regained its status of provincial capital, and its walls were demolished in 1870. Syracuse was heavily bombed by both the Allied Powers and Nazi Germany during World War II's 1943 Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. After the end of the war, northern Syracuse experienced a heavy expansion followed by quick industrialization. By 2017, Syracuse had 121,605 residents.

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