that draws violently

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. (Acts 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.

Now Siracasa, a large and celebrated city on the eastern coast of Sicily, furnished with a capacious and excellent harbor. The city, founded 734 B. C., was opulent and powerful, and was divided into four or five quarters or districts, which were of themselves separate cities. The whole circumference is stated by Strabo to have been one hundred and eighty stadia, or about twenty-two English miles. Syracuse is celebrated as having been the birthplace and residence of Archimedes, whose ingenious mechanical contrivances during its siege by the Romans, 200 B. C., long delayed its capture. Paul passed three days here, on his way from Melita to Rome, in the spring of A. D. 63, Acts 28:12. Population anciently 200,000; now 11,000.

sir'-a-kus, sir-a-kus' (Surakousai; 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 (Acts 28:12). The original Corinthian colony rounded in 734 B.C. (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 B.C.; compare Herodotus vii.154-55) and Hieron (478-467 B.C.). It nourisher greatly after the establishment of popular government in 466 B.C. (Diodorus xi.68-72). The Syracusans successfully withstood the famous siege by the Athenians in 414 B.C., 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 B.C., 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 B.C. (Plutarch, Timoleon), popular rule was not of long duration.

The most famous of the later rulers was the wise Hieron (275-216 B.C.), 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). George H. Allen