Geography of the Odyssey from historical inquiries that Hesiod had made. The 2nd century BC poet-historian Apollodorus of Athens sympathises with Eratosthenes, believing that Homer imagined the wanderings as having taken place in a kind of fairyland in the Atlantic; he actively criticises the standard identifications in and around Sicily, and refuses to offer any identifications of his own. The 2nd century BC historian Polybius discusses the wanderings in book 34 of his history. He refutes Apollodorus' idea that the wanderings were in the Atlantic on the basis of "Odyssey" 9.82, where Odysseus says that he sailed for nine days from Cape Malea in
Siege of Segesta (397 BC) 405 BC and the establishment of Carthaginian control over most of Sicily and the confirmation of Dionysius as tyrant of Syracuse in 405 BC as a condition of peace. The Elmians became dependent allies of Carthage, paying for any Punic garrisons in their territory, and giving up their independent foreign policy but retaining control of internal affairs. Between 405 BC and 397 BC, Dionysius took steps to increase the power of Syracuse, dealt with attempts to overthrow him and made Syracuse the best defended city in the whole Greek world. To counter Carthaginian expertise in siege warfare, Dionysius built a