Agathocles of Syracuse

Tyrant and later king of Syracuse from 317 to 289 BCE. Born of obscure origins, Diodorus reports that his father was a potter, Agathocles rose through Syracusan military service, seized power in 317 BCE in a bloody coup, and ruled for nearly three decades, styling himself basileus ("king") from approximately 304 BCE in imitation of the Hellenistic successor kingdoms. His reign was dominated by the Third Sicilian War with Carthage (311–306 BCE) and by his audacious invasion of African territory in 310–307 BCE, the first foreign army ever to operate on Carthage's home soil. Defeated in Sicily, besieged in Syracuse, with treasury empty and territory shrinking, Agathocles in 310 BCE slipped his fleet through the Carthaginian blockade, landed in Africa, burned his ships to prevent retreat, and in three campaigning seasons defeated multiple Carthaginian armies, came within striking distance of Carthage itself, and forced the recall of the Carthaginian commander in Sicily. The campaign collapsed in 307 BCE; Agathocles fled back to Sicily, abandoning his army and his sons to a Carthaginian victory. The peace of 306 BCE restored the pre-war division of Sicily. Agathocles is one of the most striking and morally ambiguous figures in Greek-Sicilian history, Polybius (15.35) treats him as a model of ruthless effective rule, Diodorus (drawing on the hostile Timaeus) as a tyrant whose career was built on betrayal.