Syracuse, Sicily

Syracuse (Italian Siracusa, Sicilian Sarausa, Greek Συρακοῦσαι, Latin Syracusae) is an Italian city on the eastern coast of Sicily and the capital of the province of Syracuse. It was founded in 734 or 733 BC by Greek settlers from Corinth and Tenea. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.

The Piazza Duomo

The Piazza Archimede

Quotes

• ...the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all...
  • Cicero, "Second Oration against Verres"

• In the extreme part of this island, there is a fresh water source named Arethusa, of incredible width, very full of fish, whose flow would be overwhelmed if it were not divided from the sea by a massive stone wall.
  • Cicero, "Second Oration against Verres"

• Stretched in front of a bay of Sicily lies an islet over against wavebeat Plemyrium; they of old called it Ortygia. Hither Alpheus the river of Elis, so rumour runs, hath cloven a secret passage beneath the sea, and now through thy well-head, Arethusa, mingles with the Sicilian waves.
  • Virgil, Æneid, book III