Hiero I

Hiero I. succeeded his brother Gelon as King of Syracuse in 478 B.C. He played an important part in the colonising of Sicily and Italy with Greeks, and by a great naval victory in 474 destroyed the maritime power of the Etruscans.

In spite of his avarice and cruelty, he was a patron of the arts, and a personal friend of AEschylus, Simonides, and Tindar. He died in 467.