Quote Originally Posted by shifty157
I really dont think that Syrcause was its own independant city-state at that time. If anything it was probably just a small colony of some other greek faction.
According to Herodotos, Syracuse was in fact independent (although it had close connections with Sparte, connections the Athenians got to feel during their Sicilian adventure), and the polis was in fact the most powerfull of all of Sicily: she succesfully fought the Carthaginians. Syracuse was, still according to H, so powerfull that she claimed the command of either the land forces or the naval forces: due to reluctance of both Sparte and Athenai to accept this and the fact that the Carthaginians launched their attacks on Sicily Syracuse decided not to get involved in the Persian Wars.

So it's only fair to have Syracuse as an independent faction.