2. The second eruption occurred in 477 B.C. It is mentioned by Thucydides, and it must be the eruption to which Pindar and Æschylus allude. The former visited the tomb of Hiero I. of Syracuse in 473 B.C., and the latter was in Sicily in 471 B.C. On the occasion of this eruption, two heroic youths named Anapias and Amphinomus, performed a deed to which Seneca and other writers allude with enthusiasm. While the lava was rapidly overwhelming the city of Katana, they placed their aged parents on their shoulders, and, at the risk of their lives, bore them through the flaming streets, and succeeded in placing them in safety. It was said that the fiery stream of lava parted to make way for them. Statues were raised to the honour of the _Pii Fratres_, and their burial place was long known as the _Campus Piorum_. Even a temple was erected to commemorate the deed. Lucilius Junior devotes the concluding lines of his poem on Etna to the glory of the brothers: "The flames blushed to touch the filial youths, and wherever they plant their footsteps, they retire. That day is a day of fortune; harmless that land. On their right hand fierce dangers prevail; on their left are burning fires. Athwart the flames they pass in triumph, his brother and he, each safe beneath his filial burden. There the devouring fire flees backward, and checks itself round the twin pair. At length they issue forth unharmed, and bear with them their deities in safety. Songs of poets honour and admire them; them has Pluto placed apart beneath a glorious name, nor can the mean Fates reach the holy youths, but have truly granted them the homes and dominion of the blessed."[18] [18] Translated by L. E. Upcott, M.A. 3. The third eruption occurred in the year 426 B.C. It is mentioned by Thucydides as having commenced in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War. It destroyed a portion of the territory of the inhabitants of Katana. 4. An important eruption occurred in the year 396 B.C. It broke out from Monte di Mojo, the most northerly of the minor cones of Etna, and following the course of the river Acesines, (now the Alcantara) entered the sea at the site of the ancient Greek colony of Naxos. Himilco the Carthaginian general, was at this time on his way from Messana to Syracuse, and he was compelled to march his troops round the west side of the mountain in order to avoid the stream of lava. 5. We hear of no further eruption for 256 years, when in the year 140 B.C., in the consulship of C. Lælius Sapiens and Q. Servilius Cæpio, there was an outburst from the volcano which destroyed 40 people. 6. Six years later an eruption occurred according to Orosius and Julius Obsequens, in the consulship of Sergius Fulvius Flaccus, and Quintus Calpurnius Piso. We have no details concerning its nature or extent.