Situated on Capo Schisò, a promontory formed by a great lava flow, Naxos was founded in 735 BC by the Chalcidian Greeks. From the 5C BC, the town became a prime objective for empire-builders, notably Hippocrates of Gela and Hieron of Syracuse who, in 475, evicted the inhabitants of Naxos and deported them to Lentini. Dionysius the Great razed the town to the ground in 403, after which the exiled survivors founded Tauromenion, the present Taormina.