A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Δουκέτιος), a chief of the Sicelians, or Sicels, the native tribes in the interior of Sicily. He is styled king of the Sicelians by Diodorus (11.78), and is said to have been of illustrious descent. After the expulsion of the family of Gelon from Syracuse (B. C. 466), Ducetius succeeded in uniting all the Sicelians of the interior into one nation, and in order to give them a common centre founded the city of Palice in the plain below Menaenum. (Diod. 11.88.) He had previously made war on the Catanaeans, and expelled from that city the new colonists who had been sent there by Hiero, who thereupon took possession of Inessa, the name of which they changed to Aetna; but Ducetius subsequently reduced this city also. (Diod. 11.76, 91.) An attack upon a small place in the territory of Agrigentum involved him in hostilities not only with the Agrigentines, but the Syracusans also, who defeated him in a great battle. The consequence of this was that he was deserted by all his followers, and fearing to be betrayed into the hands of the enemy, he took the daring resolution of repairing at once to Syracuse as a suppliant, and placing himself at their mercy. The Syracusans spared his life, but sent him into an honourable exile at Corinth. (Diod. 11.91, 92.) Here however he did not remain long, but having assembled a considerable band of colonists, returned to Sicily, and founded the city of Calacte on the north coast of the island. He was designing again to assert his supremacy over all the Sicelian tribes when his projects were interrupted by his death, about 440, B. C. (Diod. 12.8, 29; Wesseling, ad loc.)

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