Syracuse has become a city of great…

Xerxes almost immediately suppresses the revolts in Egypt and Babylon that had broken out the year before, and appoints his brother Achaemenes as governor or satrap over Egypt.

Carthage has remained engaged in Sardinia since 510 BCE, but most of the Greek colonies in Sicily have fallen under the rule of tyrants.

The tyrants of Gela, Akragas, and Rhegion have successfully expanded their dominion at the expense of native Sicilians and other Greek cities from 505 BCE to 480 BCE, with the Dorian city of Gela being the most successful.

The Greater or City Dionysia, the annual Athenian state festival in honor of Dionysus, had added comedies to its program in 487 BCE; Aeschylus wins his first victory at in 484 BCE.

Xanthippus is a typical member of the first Athenian generation able to use the new weapon of the popular vote against the old power of family politics.

Almost certainly a member of an old family, Xanthippus had begun his political career by a dynastic marriage into the controversial family of the Alcmaeonids.

He soon left their political camp, probably on the question of relations with Persia, and has taken the new path of legal prosecution as a political weapon.

Perhaps outbid in his search for popular support, Xanthippus is ostracized in 484 BCE.

This novel custom, which made its first historical appearance in 487, is a way of getting rid of a man for ten years without depriving him of his property.

First, a vote is taken as to whether an ostracism should be held in principle; if the voters want one, a second vote is taken, and, if the total number of votes now cast exceeds six thousand, the “candidate” whose name appears on the largest number of potsherds, or ostraca, goes into this special sort of exile.

The 480s BCE in Athens are a period of intense political struggle.

Miltiades had died in disgrace and from 487 BCE to 483 BCE other leaders are successively ostracized.

Though never himself defeated, Themistocles is doubtless attacked repeatedly; he is the man accused by his enemies of being a danger to the established order.

Nonetheless, in 483 BCE he wins his greatest triumph.

The state-owned silver mines at Laurium, worked since Mycenaean times, are the site of a rich strike, and he persuades the assembly, instead of “declaring a dividend,” to devote the whole surplus to increasing the navy.

Thus when Xerxes I, the Persian king, finally marches against the Greeks in 480 BCE, Athens is to have two hundred triremes, though many of the rowers will still be untrained.

Themistocles further succeeds in selling his naval strategy to the Peloponnesians, headed by Sparta, who can raise another one hundred and fifty triremes.

The combined fleet is to fight not on their own doorstep, as Greeks prefer to do, but as far forward as possible, exploiting the geographical situation.

Gelo, recruiting mercenaries widely, builds up a strong fleet and conquers the nearby Ionian Greek cities of Euboea and …

…Megara Hyblaea in about 483 BCE, selling their common people into slavery and bringing their oligarchs to Syracuse.

He controls the Greek and Sicel communities of east Sicily and becomes linked by marriage with Theron, tyrant of Akragas (later the Roman Agrigentum, modern Agrigento).

The city of Himera had once requested Phalaris, tyrant of Akragas (570-554 BCE), to rule them.

Theron in 483 BCE emulates Phalaris when he deposes Terillus and adds Himera to his domain.

Terillos had come to power in Himera after expelling the ruling oligarchs (who had taken refuge in Akragas), and he probably lacks popular support, which may have been exploited by Theron.

Terillos requests the aid of Hamilcar, Suffet of Carthage.

Anaxilas also lobbies on his behalf, and sends his own children as hostages to Carthage as a token of loyalty.

Akragas, another Doric city, has meanwhile taken over neighboring Sican and Sicel lands under the tyrant Theron.

To forestall any conflicts between Akragas and Syracuse, Gelo and Theron have married into each other’s families, thus creating a united front against the Sicels and Ionian Greeks of Sicily.

Anaxilas of Rhegion, one of the most important cities in Magna Graecia, who had captured Zankle from Gela in 490 BCE, has allied himself with Terillus of Himera to counter this Doric threat, and married the daughter of Terillus.

Himera and Rhegion next become allies of Carthage; the tyrants even build up personal relationships with the Magonid dynasty of Carthage.

Selinus, a Doric city whose territory borders Theron's domain, also becomes a Carthaginian ally—perhaps the fear of Theron and the destruction of Megara (mother city of Selinus) by Gelo, had played a part in this decision.

Thus, three power blocks are delicately balanced in Sicily by 483 BCE—Ionians dominating the north, Carthage the west, Dorians the east and south.

The Sicels and Sicans in the interior remain passive, and if not directly under Greek rule, do not hinder the movements of their forces.

The Elymians join the Carthaginian alliance.