The Battle of the Himera River was fought in 446 BC between

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

and Acragas near the Himera river. The latter had declared war on Syracuse because their common enemy, the

Sicel The Sicels (; la, Siculi; grc, Σικελοί ''Sikeloi'') were an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age. Their neighbours to the west were the Sicani. The Sicels gave Sicily the name it has held since antiquity, bu ...

leader

Ducetius Ducetius ( grc, Δουκέτιος) (died 440 BCE) was a Hellenized leader of the Sicels and founder of a united Sicilian state and numerous cities.LiviusDucetius of Sicily Retrieved on 25 April 2006. It is thought he may have been born around th ...

, had returned to

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

to colonize Cale Acte. Syracuse had exiled rather than executed Ducetius in 450 BC. Syracuse defeated Acragas and the conflict was settled with a peace treaty. In classical antiquity the name ''Himera'' was used for two rivers on Sicily: the Grande and the

Salso The Salso ( Sicilian: ''Salsu''), also known as the Imera Meridionale (Greek: ; Latin Himera), is a river of Sicily. It rises in the Madonie Mountains (Latin: Nebrodes Mons; Sicilian: Munti Madunìi) and, traversing the provinces of Enna and Calt ...

. The Grande flows north towards its mouth at the site of ancient

Himera Himera (Greek language, Greek: ), was a large and important ancient Greece, ancient Greek city, situated on the north coast of Sicily at the mouth of the river of the same name (the modern Imera Settentrionale), between Panormus (modern Palermo) ...

, the Salso follows a southern course to its mouth in modern

Licata Licata (, ; grc, Φιντίας, whence la, Phintias or ''Plintis''), formerly also Alicata (), is a city and ''comune'' located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River (the ancient ''Himera''), about midway between Agr ...

. It is not certain near which river the battle took place.

Background

In 450 BC Ducetius was decisively defeated by Syracuse in the

Battle of Nomae The Battle of Nomae was a battle fought in 450 BCE between a united Sicel army under the command of Ducetius and the Greeks of Syracuse. Ducetius was defeated and his Sicel state broke down soon after. The Sicels were one of the original inhabit ...

and by Acragas at Motyum. Fearing that he would be slain by his own people, he fled to Syracuse in a desperate attempt to save himself. At night he entered the city's marketplace and seated himself at the altars of the gods to become a suppliant who was entitled to sanctuary. The Syracusans were amazed and magistrates called a meeting of the Assembly to determine how he should be dealt with. Some proposed to punish him, but the elder citizens convinced the Assembly that it would be a sacrilege to execute a suppliant. The Syracusans exiled Ducetius to

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...

and provided him with sufficient financial resources to support himself. After spending some time in Corinth Ducetius broke the agreement and sailed back to Sicily with colonists to found Cale Acte. This angered the Acragantines, who were envious of Syracusans and accused them of releasing their common enemy without having consulted them first. They declared war on Syracuse.

Battle and aftermath

The other Greek cities of Sicily were divided, some joined Acragas and some joined Syracuse. The two forces met near the Himera River where Syracuse won the battle. Over a thousand Acragantines were killed in the fighting. After the battle Acragas sent ambassadors to Syracuse to discuss terms for a peace treaty which ended the war. The terms of the treaty are unknown. The battle may have taken place on the southern Himera River, the modern Salso. Syracuse probably had a superiority in cavalry, which made Acragas pick a battle site close to a river to negate this advantage of their enemy somewhat. Nevertheless, its superior cavalry most likely enabled Syracuse to win the battle. The number of Syracusan casualties would have been minor.

References

Sources

*{{cite book , author=Diodorus Siculus , author-link=Diodorus Siculus , year=1946 , editor-last=Oldfather , editor-first=C. H. , editor-link=Charles Henry Oldfather , title= Library of History , volume=6 , location=Cambridge, Massachusetts , publisher=Harvard University Press , isbn=978-0-674-99439-3 446 BC Himera River (446 BC)