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.