ABSTRACT
At the beginning of Book 6 of his History of the Peloponnesian War, Th ucydides gives a brief survey of the cities established by the Greeks in Sicily.2 Th ere are no dates but rather a series of relative numbers based on years that begin and end with the summer months and that do not accord with modern chronological reckoning. Th ucydides’ fi gure refl ects not much more than an approximation of his own assessment of the Greeks’ progress in Sicily based on the source that he employed. No systematic record can have been in circulation, but modern precision in such a matter is not to be expected in this earliest period of historical recounting. Th is caveat must be noted in any attempt to tackle the question of a foundation date for Syracuse.3
