Gelon

Gelon, tyrant of Gela and afterwards of Syracuse, was a scion of a noble family of the former city, and contrived to become successor to Hippocrates, its tyrant, in 491 B.C. Six years later he made himself master of Syracuse also, which then became the seat of his government, and to which he transferred the majority of the inhabitants of Gela. His influence soon extended itself over the half of Sicily. Gelon refused to aid the Greeks against Xerxes, as they declined to comply with his demand that he should be appointed commander-in-chief. He became embroiled with the Carthaginians because of their attack upon his ally, Theron of Agrigentum, and defeated them in a great victory at Himera, on the same day, according to tradition, on which the Greeks won the battle of Salamis. The clemency and wisdom of Gelon rendered him so generally beloved that when he appeared unarmed in an assembly of the people, and declared himself ready to resign his power, he was unanimously hailed as the deliverer and sovereign of Syracuse. Gelon died in 478 B.C., and his memory was held in such respect a century and a half after, that, when Timoleon razed to the ground all the statues of former tyrants, those of Gelon alone were spared.