1. Son of Hermon, a Syracusan, and one of the most eminent citizens of that state at the
time of the Athenian invasion. We have no account of his early life or rise, but his family
must have been illustrious, for, according to Timaeus (apud Longin. 4.3;
comp. also Plut. Nic. 1), it claimed descent from the god
Hermes, and it is evident that he was a person of consideration and influence in the state as
early as B. C. 424, as he was one of the deputies sent by the
Syracusans to the general congress of the Greek cities of Sicily, held at Gela in the summer
of that year. Thucydides, who puts a long speech into his mouth on that occasion, ascribes
mainly to his influence the resolution adopted by the assembled deputies to terminate the
troubles of Sicily by a general peace. (Thuc. 4.58, 65; Timaeus, apud Polyb. xii. Frag. Vat. 22.) In 415, when the news of the impending invasion from Athens came to be
generally rife, though still discredited by many, Hermocrates again came forward to urge the
truth of the rumour, and the necessity of immediate preparations for defence. (Thuc. 6.32_35.) It does not appear that he
at this time held any public situation or command; but in the following winter, after the
first defeat of the Syracusans by the Athenians, he represented this disaster as owing to the
too great number as well as insufficient authority of their generals, and thus induced them to
appoint himself, together with Heracleides and Sicanus, to be commanders-inchief, with full
powers. (Thuc. 6.72, 73; Plut. Nic. 16; Diod. 13.4; who, however,
places their appointment too early.) He was soon after sent to Camarina, to counteract the
influence of the Athenian envoys, and gain the Camarinaeans to the alliance of Syracuse, but
he only succeeded in inducing them to remain neutral. (Thuc. 6.75,
88.) According to Thucydides, Hermocrates had already given
proofs of valour and ability in war, before his elevation to the command; but his first
proceedings as a general were unsuccessful: his great object was to prevent the Athenians from
making themselves masters of the heights of Epipolae, above the town, but they landed suddenly
from Catana, carried the Epipolae by surprise, and commenced their lines of circumvallation.
The Syracusans next, by the advice of Hermocrates, began to construct a cross wall, to
interrupt the Athenian lines; but they were foiled in this project too: the Athenians attacked
their counterwork, and destroyed it, while they themselves were repulsed in all their attacks
upon the Athenian lines. Dispirited by their ill success, they laid the blame upon their
generals, whom they deposed, and appointed three others in their stead. (Thuc. 6.96-103.) The arrival of Gylippus soon after
superseded the new generals, and gave a fresh turn to affairs; but Hermocrates, though now in
a private situation, was not less active in the service of his country: we hear of his heading
a chosen band of warriors in resisting the great night attack on the Epipolae, immediately
after the arrival of Demosthenes (Diod. 13.11): he is also
mentioned as joining with Gylippus in urging the Syracusans to try their fortune again by sea,
as well as by land: and when, after the final defeat and destruction of their fleets, the
Athenian generals were preparing to retreat by land, it was Hermocrates who anticipated their
purpose, and finding it impossible to induce his countrymen to march forth at once and occupy
the passes, nevertheless succeeded, by an ingenious stratagem, in causing the
Athenians themselves to defer their departure for two days, a delay which proved fatal to the
whole army. (Thuc. 7.21, 73; Diod. 13.18; Plut. Nic. 26.) Thucydides
makes no mention of the part taken by Hermocrates in regard to the Athenian prisoners, but
both Diodorus and Plutarch represent him as exerting all his influence with his countrymen,
though unsuccessfully, to save the lives of Nicias and Demosthenes. According to a statement
of Timaeus, preserved by the latter author, when he found all his efforts fruitless, he gave a
private intimation to the two generals that they might anticipate the ignominy of a public
execution by a voluntary death. (Diod. 13.19; Plut. Nic. 28.)
After the destruction of the Athenian armament in Sicily, Hermocrates employed all his
influence with his countrymen to induce them to support with vigour their allies the
Lacedaemonians in the war in Greece itself. But he only succeeded in prevailing upon them to
send a squadron of twenty triremes (to which the Selinuntians added two more); and with this
small force he himself, with two colleagues in the command, joined the Lacedaemonian fleet
under Astyochus, before the close of the summer of 412. (Thuc.
8.26; Diodorus, however, raises the number of the ships to thirty-five, 13.34.) But,
trifling as this succour appears, the Syracusan squadron bore an important part in many of the
subsequent operations, and particularly in the action off Cynossema, in which it formed the
right wing of the Lacedaemonian fleet; and though unable to prevent the defeat of its allies,
escaped with the loss of only one ship. (Thuc. 8.104-106; Diod. 13.39.) It is probably of this
action that Polybius was thinking, when he states (Frag. Vat. 12.23) that
Hermocrates was present at the battle of Aegos Potamoi, which is clearly erroneous. During
these services Hermocrates, we are told, conciliated in the highest degree the favour both of
the allies and of his own troops; and acquired such popularity with the latter, that when (in
409 B. C.) news arrived that he as well as his colleagues had been sentenced to banishment by
a decree of the Syracusan people, and new commanders appointed to replace them, the officers
and crews of the squadron not only insisted on their retaining the command until the actual
arrival of their successors, but many of them offered their services to Hermocrates to effect
his restoration to his country. He however urged the duty of obedience to the laws; and, after
handing over the squadron to the new generals, repaired to Lacedaemon to counteract the
intrigues of Tissaphernes, to whom he had given personal offence. From thence he returned to
Asia, to the court of Pharnabazus, who furnished him with money to build ships and raise
mercenary troops, for the purpose of effecting his return to Syracuse. (Xen. Hell. 1.1.27_31; Thuc. 8.85; Diod. 13.63.) With a force of
five triremes and 1000 soldiers, he sailed to Messana, and from thence in conjunction with the
refugees from Himera, and, with the co-operation of his own party in Syracuse, attempted to
bring about a revolution in that city. But failing in that scheme, he hastened to Selinus, at
this time still in ruins, after its destruction by the Carthaginians, rebuilt a part of the
city, and collected thither its refugees from all parts of Sicily. He thus converted it into a
stroughold, from whence he carried on hostilities against the Carthaginian allies, laid waste
the territories of Motya and Panormus, and defeated the Panormitans in a battle. By these
means he acquired great fame and popularity, which were still increased when in the following
year (B. C. 407) he repaired to Himera, and finding that the bones
of the Syracusans who had been slain in battle against the Carthaginians two years before
still lay there unburied, caused them to be gathered up, and removed with all due funeral
honours to Syracuse. But, though the revulsion of feeling thus excited led to the banishment
of Diocles, and other leaders of the opposite party yet the sentence of exile against
Hermocrates still remained unreversed. Not long afterwards he appreached Syracuse with a
considerable force, and was admitted by some of his friends into the city ; but was followed
in the first instance only by a band, which the Syracusans no sooner discovered than they took
up arms, and attacked and slew him, together with the greater part of his followers, before
his troops could come to their assistance. (Diod. 13.63, 75.) The character of Hermocrates is one of the brightest and purest
in the history of Syracuse; and the ancient republics present few more striking instances of
moderation and wisdom, combined with the most steady patriotism; while his abilities, both as
a statesman and a warrior, were such as to earn for him the praise of being ranked in after
ages as on a level in these respects with Timoleon and Pyrrhus. (Polyb. Frag.
Vat. 12.22.) We do not learn that Hermocrates left a son; his daughter was married,
after his death, to the tyrant Dionysius. (Diod. 13.96; Plut. Dion. 3.)