- Anaxilas
Anaxilas or Anaxilaus (Gr. polytonic|Ἀναξίλας or polytonic|Ἀναξίλαος), son of Cretines, was a
tyrant ofRhegium (modernReggio Calabria ), and ofMessenia n origin.Citation | last = Smith | first = William | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | contribution = Anaxilaus (4) | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title =Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 164 | publisher = | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0173.html ] He was master of Rhegium in 494 BC, when he instigated the Samians and otherIonia n fugitives to seizeZancle , a city across the strait inSicily that was then under the rule of the tyrantScythes . Shortly after the Samian takeover, Anaxilas besieged the city himself, drove the Samians out, peopled it with fresh inhabitants, and changed its name toMessina , after his nativeMessene . [Herodotus , vi. 22, 23] [Thucydides , vi. 4; compareAristotle , "Politics" v. 10. § 4]Pausanias tells a somewhat different story of this Anaxilas, that, after the second war with the
Sparta ns, he assisted the refugees from Messana in thePeloponnese to takeZancle in Sicily.cite book | last = Bentley | first = Richard | authorlink = Richard Bentley | coauthors =Alexander Dyce (ed.) | title = The Works of Richard Bentley | publisher = Francis MacPherson | date = 1836 | location = London | pages = 205-223 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=DAoPAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA208 | doi = | id = | isbn = ]Anaxilas married Cydippe, daughter of
Terillus , tyrant ofHimera . In 480 BC he obtained the assistance of the Carthaginians for his father-in-law, who had been expelled from his city by Theron, tyrant ofAgrigentum . [Herodotus , vii. 165] It was this auxiliary army thatGelo defeated atHimera . Anaxilas wanted to destroy theLocrians , but was prevented byHiero I of Syracuse , as related by Epicharmus.cite book | last = Larcher | first = Pierre Henri | authorlink = Pierre Henri Larcher | coauthors = | title = Larcher's Notes on Herodotus: Historical and Critical Comments on the History of Herodotus | publisher = Whittaker & Co. | date = 1844 | location = London | pages = 315-323 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=8gIubwJJAC4C&pg=PA316 | doi = | id = | isbn = ]The daughter of Anaxilas was married to Hiero. [
Scholiast , "ad Pind. Pyth." i. 112] Anaxilaus died in 476 BC, leavingMicythus guardian of his children, who obtained possession of their inheritance in 467, but was soon afterwards deprived of the sovereignty by the people. [Diodorus Siculus , xi. 48, 66, 76]References
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