Gelo (or ''Gelon'') (before 266 BC – 216 BC) was the eldest son of

Hiero II Hiero II (; also Hieron ; ; c. 308 BC – 215 BC) was the Greek tyrant of Syracuse, Greek Sicily, from 275 to 215 BC, and the illegitimate son of a Syracusan noble, Hierocles, who claimed descent from Gelon. He was a former general of Pyrrhus o ...

, king of Syracuse,

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

. Gelo died shortly before his father Hiero, at the age of more than 50 years. Not much is known concerning him, but he appears to have inherited the quiet and prudent character of his father.

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

records to his praise that he sacrificed all objects of personal ambition to the duty of obedience and reverence to his parents. It seems that Hiero awarded him by associating him to his government and that he even received the title of king.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

asserts that, after the huge defeat suffered by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Cannae Cannae (now , ) is an ancient village of the region of south east Italy. It is a (civil parish) of the (municipality) of . Cannae was formerly a bishopric, and is a Latin Catholic titular see (as of 2022). Geography The commune of Cannae i ...

, Gelo was preparing to abandon the alliance of Rome for that of

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

. According to this account, he began making friendly overtures to the cities allied to Rome and might have convinced the entire island of Sicily to defect to the Carthaginian side, had he not died later in the year of 216 BC. However, this seems quite at variance with the statement of Polybius of his uniform submission to his father's views and may very likely deserve as little credit as Livy's insinuation that his death occurred so opportunely, as to cast suspicion upon Hiero being the murderer of his own son. Gelo was married to

Nereis ''Nereis'' is a genus of polychaete worms in the family Nereididae. It comprises many species, most of which are marine. ''Nereis'' possess setae and parapodia for locomotion and gas exchange. They may have two types of setae, which are found o ...

, daughter of

Pyrrhus of Epirus Pyrrhus ( ; ; 319/318–272 BC) was a Greeks, Greek king and wikt:statesman, statesman of the Hellenistic period.Plutarch. ''Parallel Lives'',Pyrrhus... He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacidae, Aeacid house, and later he became ki ...

, by whom he left a son,

Hieronymus Hieronymus, in English pronounced or , is the Latin form of the Ancient Greek name (Hierṓnymos), meaning "with a sacred name". It corresponds to the English given name Jerome (given name), Jerome. Variants * Albanian language, Albanian: Jeroni ...

, and a daughter,

Harmonia In Greek mythology, Harmonia (; /Ancient Greek phonology, harmoˈnia/, "harmony", "agreement") is the goddess of harmony and concord. Her Greek opposite is Eris (mythology), Eris and her Roman mythology, Roman counterpart is Concordia (mythol ...

, who was married to a Syracusan named Themistus.

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

dedicated to him his treatise ''

The Sand Reckoner ''The Sand Reckoner'' (, ''Psammites'') is a work by Archimedes, an Ancient Greek mathematician of the 3rd century BC, in which he set out to determine an upper bound for the number of grains of sand that fit into the universe. In order to do ...

'', in which he addresses him by the title of king.Archimedes ''The Sand Reckoner'' 1 at Heath T.L. (1897) ''Archimedes'' (London) pp221-222. The coins referred by earlier writers to the elder

Gelo Gelon also known as Gelo (Greek: Γέλων ''Gelon'', ''gen.'': Γέλωνος; died 478 BC), son of Deinomenes, was a Greek tyrant of the Sicilian cities Gela and Syracuse, Sicily, and first of the Deinomenid rulers. Early life Gelon was t ...

n are admitted by some numismatists to belong to this prince. The head on the obverse is possibly that of Gelo himself.

Notes

* 216 BC deaths 3rd-century BC people Sicilian Greeks Year of birth unknown 3rd-century BC births 3rd-century BC Syracusans {{AncientGreece-bio-stub