Ducetius

Ducetius (died 440 BCE) was a Hellenized leader of the Sicels and founder of a united Sicilian state and numerous cities. It is thought he may have been born around the town of Mineo. His story is told through the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BCE, who drew on the work of Timaeus. He was a native Sicilian, but his education was Greek and was very much influenced by Greek civilization in Sicily. He is sometimes known by the Hellenized name of Douketios.

Sicily at this time was under the tyranny of Gelo and his brother Hiero. After the death of Hiero in 467 BCE, Syracuse became a democracy. There were however, troubles in the aftermath of the tyranny's collapse. War had broken out between Syracuse and its former colony Catana in 460 BCE. Ducetius assisted Syracuse because Catana had occupied Sicel land, and together defeated them. Ducetius went on to found the city of Menai (today Mineo) and occupy Morgantina.

By 452 BCE he had united central Sicily and founded the city of Palice, the seat of his power, near the Lacus Palicorum, then two holy crater lakes and site of a temple to the Sicel gods of Palici. The city grew quickly as it became a place of refuge for runaway slaves. Ducetius then conquered Aetna, southwest of Mount Etna, before moving into Agrigentum.

Syracuse, although an ally, became concerned by Ducetius' unchecked expansion. However, Ducetius did not necessarily pose a threat to Syracuse in the same way Carthage had. But with Ducetius' taking in 451 BCE of Motyon, a stronghold held by Agrigentum, Syracuse decided to assist Agrigentum, but was not able defeat him. It was in this year that Ducetius' Sicel empire was at its height. Only a year later in 450 BCE, it would be decisively defeated at Nomae. His surviving army was scattered amongst the Sicel cities, and Ducetius was left with only a handful of followers. Agrigentum retook Motyon and Ducetius fled to Syracuse. Ducetius was tried by a politically moderate general assembly in Syracuse. They voted to pay to have him exiled to Corinth, Syracuse's mother-city, on the condition that he never return to Sicily.

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