Syracuse, City of Legends
Dubbed “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all” by Cicero, Syracuse boasts the richest history of anywhere in Sicily. Syracuse, City of Legends – the first historical guide to the city – explores Syracuse's place within the island and the wider Mediterranean and reveals why it continues to captivate visitors today, more than two and a half millennia after its foundation.
For more than 1600 years, from its foundation by ancient Greeks in about 733 BC, Syracuse was the leading city in Sicily. As a Greek city state it competed with Athens and Carthage and was for a while an important ally of Rome. When Sicily became Rome's first province, Syracuse was the island's capital and seat of the Roman Governors. Later it became an important centre for early Christianity and its catacombs are second in scale only to those in Rome. Under Byzantine rule, the Emperor Constans II moved his court to Syracuse for five years. Capture by the Arabs in 878 AD was the event that marked the end of ancient Syracuse. In 1693, during the Spanish era, a devastating earthquake caused great destruction in eastern Sicily. The rebuilding programme that followed gave Syracuse the characteristic Baroque appearance it retains today.
The city's outstanding cast of characters includes Archimedes, the greatest mathematician of the ancient world, whose original eureka moment took place in Syracuse. It was here that Damocles endured a sword hanging over his head. Plato visited the city to discuss philosophy with the tyrant Dionysius and was lucky to escape with his life. The Roman General Scipio Africanus collected his army in Syracuse before crossing to north Africa to defeat Hannibal. Santa Lucia, patron saint of the city, was martyred here in the time of the Emperor Diocletian and it was in Syracuse that Caravaggio painted one of his last masterpieces, The Burial of Santa Lucia, which can be seen in the Basilica for which it was commissioned in 1608.
Generously illustrated, Syracuse, City of Legends offers detailed descriptions of the principal monuments and works of art. They come from different historical eras, mainly the ancient Greek, Roman, early Christian and Baroque, and are presented in their historical context, including maps showing their location.