Timoleon

A Greek commander from the city of Korinth (Corinth) who was sent from Korinth to relieve the citizens of the city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily (circa 337 BCE).

Timoleon expelled the unpopular tyrant, Dionysus II, and took command of Syracuse; seeing the Greek colonies in disarray, the Carthaginians tried to expand their hold on Sicily; with a smaller army, Timoleon defeated the Carthaginians and reestablished the traditional boundaries which separated the Greeks and Carthaginians, that is, the Carthaginians on the western portion of the island and the Greeks on the eastern portion.

Timoleon used his military strength to banish or kill the tyrants of the other Greek cities on Sicily and became the supreme Greek commander on the island; he established a constitution but that did not restrict or inhibit his authority; over fifty thousand Greek settlers immigrated to Sicily after Timoleon had pacified the island; Timoleon eventually resigned from the government because of failing health and died in Syracuse circa 330 BCE.