Читать книгу A Companion to Greek Warfare - Группа авторов - Страница 59

More important than mainland Greece was southern Italy. The territories across the Strait of Messina naturally played a decisive role in Sicilian territorial expansion, especially the Chalcidian foundation of Rhegium, frequently annexed to the Syracusan sphere of influence. Such interaction began in the early fifth century, when Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, seized power in Zancle, and renamed it Messana (Thuc. 6.4.6). As Anaxilas controlled both sides of the strait from the 490s, he gave his daughter as wife to Hiero I to prevent confrontation with Syracuse. He himself married a daughter of Terillus, tyrant of Himera, and therefore took the side of Carthage in the battle of 480 (Hdt. 7.165).

The other major polis on the Bruttian peninsula, Locri Epizephyrii, was a stable ally of Syracuse and an enemy of Rhegium since her foundation. During the Athenian advance on Sicily in 427, Locri allied herself to Syracuse, while Rhegium hosted the Athenian fleet (Thuc. 3.86). As Dionysius the Elder obviously would not leave this strategic tip of the Italian peninsula in hostile hands, he attacked Rhegium several times, but unsuccessfully, and also rebuilt Messana as a Syracusan outpost (Diod. Sic. 14.100). He also allied himself with local Lucanians, who were fighting Greek cities of Southern Italy. These poleis had united as the Italiote League (Polyb. 2.39.1–7). Together with the Lucanians, Dionysius gained a decisive victory over the League in the battle at the Eleporus River (Diod. Sic. 14.104). After the conquest of Rhegium, which at last fell to him in 386, and the destruction of Caulonia and Hipponium, Dionysius controlled the entire Bruttian peninsula. Alliances with the Lucanians and the defeated Italiotes extended his hegemony beyond Italy into the Adriatic Sea.

Long after the death of Dionysius the Elder Agathocles reestablished Syracusan hegemony over the Bruttians. In 295, after besieging and conquering Croton, he secured substantial (but not absolute) Syracusan supremacy in the region (Diod. Sic. 21.4).

Another Italian power, the Etruscans, traded with Sicily from the eighth century onward. Although the Etruscans and the Greeks never competed over the colonization of Sicily, several violent clashes occurred, the most famous of which was the triumph of Hieron’s fleet over the Etruscans in the naval battle at Cumae in 474 (Diod. Sic. 11.51). Illustrating the importance of this victory is the Etruscan helmet dedicated at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Olympia with an inscription of Hiero I as a votive from the spoils of Cumae (CIG 16). In the mid-fifth century, a Syracusan expedition to Elba and Corsica resulted in a victory over the resident Etruscans (Diod. Sic. 11.88.4–5). In 384, Dionysius the Elder attacked the Etruscan city of Pyrgi and looted a sanctuary to procure funds for his war against Carthage (Diod. Sic. 15.14.3). Apart from these conflicts, the Etruscans appear in Sicilian history as mercenaries. They joined the Athenians in their expedition against Syracuse and served the Carthaginians against Agathocles, although a fleet from Etruria assisted Agathocles in defeating Carthaginian naval forces in 307.⁹