Dion

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 388 sections

17.3.1
who was his most intimate friend at Athens. For Plato desired that Dion’s disposition should be tempered and sweetened by association with men of charming presence who indulged seasonably in graceful pleasantries.
17.4.1
And such a man was Speusippus; wherefore Timon, in his Silli, spoke of him as good at a jest.
17.5.1
And when Plato himself was called upon to furnish a chorus of boys, Dion had the chorus trained and defrayed all the expense of its maintenance, and Plato encouraged in him such an ambition to please the Athenians, on the ground that it would procure goodwill for Dion rather than fame for himself.
17.6.1
Dion used to visit the other cities also, where he shared the leisure and festal enjoyments of the noblest and most statesmanlike men, manifesting in his conduct with them nothing that was rude or arrogant or effeminate, but rather great moderation, virtue, and manliness, and a becoming devotion to letters and philosophy.
17.7.1
This procured him the emulous goodwill of all men, and decrees of public honours from the cities.
17.8.1
The Lacedaemonians even made him a citizen of Sparta, without any regard for the anger of Dionysius, although at that time the tyrant was their zealous ally against the Thebans.
17.9.1
And it is related that Dion once went to pay a visit to Ptoeodorus the Megarian, upon his invitation. Now Ptoeodorus, it would seem, was one of the wealthy and influential men of the city;
17.10.1
and when, therefore, Dion saw a crowd of people at his door, and a press of business, which made him difficult of access and hard to come at, he turned to his friends, who were vexed and indignant at it, and said: Why should we blame this man? For we ourselves used to do just so in Syracuse.
18.1.1
But as time went on, Dionysius became jealous of Dion and afraid of his popularity among the Greeks. He therefore stopped sending him his revenues, and handed his estate over to his own private stewards.
18.2.1
However, with a desire to make head against the bad repute which he had also won among the philosophers on Plato’s account, he assembled at his court many men with a reputation for learning.
18.3.1
But he was ambitious to surpass them all in discussion, and was therefore driven to use inaptly what he had imperfectly learned from Plato.
18.4.1
So he yearned once more for that philosopher, and reproached himself for not having utilized his presence to learn all that he should have learned.
18.5.1
And since, like a tyrant, he was always extravagant in his desires and headstrong in all that he undertook, he set out at once to secure Plato, and, leaving no stone unturned, persuaded Archytas and his fellow Pythagoreans to become sureties for his agreements, and to summon Plato; for it was through Plato, in the first place, that he had entered into friendly relations with these philosophers.
18.6.1
So they sent Archedemus to Plato, and Dionysius also sent a trireme for him, and friends to entreat his return.
18.7.1
He also wrote to him himself in clear and express terms, saying that no mercy should be shown to Dion unless Plato were persuaded to come to Sicily; but if he were persuaded, every mercy.
18.8.1
Dion also received many injunctions from his wife and sister, that he should beg Plato to listen to Dionysius and not afford him an excuse for further severity.
18.9.1
Thus it was, then, that Plato, as he himself says, came for the third time to the straits of Scylla, That he might once more measure back his way to fell Charybdis.
19.1.1
His arrival filled Dionysius with great joy, and the Sicilians again with great hope; they all prayed and laboured zealously that Plato might triumph over Philistus, and philosophy over tyranny.
19.2.1
The women also were very earnest in his behalf,
19.3.1
and Dionysius gave him a special token of his trust, which no one else had, in the privilege of coming into his presence without being searched. The tyrant offered him, too, presents of money, much money and many times, but Plato would not accept them. Whereupon Aristippus of Cyrene, who was present on one of these occasions, said that Dionysius was safely munificent; for he offered little to men like him, who wanted more, but much to Plato, who would take nothing.
19.4.1
After the first acts of kindness, however, Plato introduced the subject of Dion,
19.5.1
and then there were postponements at first on the part of Dionysius, and afterwards faultfindings and disagreements. These were unnoticed by outsiders, since Dionysius tried to conceal them, and sought by the rest of his kind attentions and honourable treatment to draw Plato away from his goodwill towards Dion. And even Plato himself did not at first reveal the tyrant’s perfidy and falsehood, but bore with it and dissembled his resentment.
19.6.1
But while matters stood thus between them, and no one knew of it, as they supposed, Helicon of Cyzicus, one of Plato’s intimates, predicted an eclipse of the sun. This took place as he had predicted, in consequence of which he was admired by the tyrant and presented with a talent of silver.
19.7.1
Thereupon Aristippus, jesting with the rest of the philosophers, said that he himself also could predict something strange. And when they besought him to tell what it was, Well, then, said he, I predict that ere long Plato and Dionysius will become enemies.
19.8.1
At last Dionysius sold the estate of Dion and appropriated the money, and removing Plato from his lodging in the palace garden, put him in charge of his mercenaries, who had long hated the philosopher and sought to kill him, on the ground that he was trying to persuade Dionysius to renounce the tyranny and live without a bodyguard.
20.1.1
Now when Archytas and his fellow Pythagoreans learned that Plato was in such peril, they quickly sent a galley with an embassy, demanding him from Dionysius and declaring that Plato had taken them for sureties of his safety when he sailed to Syracuse.
20.2.1
Dionysius sought to disprove his enmity to Plato by giving banquets in his honour and making kind provisions for his journey, and went so far as to say something like this to him: I suppose, Plato, thou wilt bring many dire accusations against me to the ears of your fellow philosophers.
20.3.1
To this Plato answered with a smile: Heaven forbid that there should be such a dearth of topics for discussion in the Academy that any one mention thee.
20.4.1
Such, they say, was the dismissal of Plato; Plato’s own words, however, do not entirely agree with this account.
21.1.1
But Dion was vexed by all this, and shortly afterwards became altogether hostile when he learned how his wife had been treated, on which matter Plato also spoke covertly in a letter to Dionysius. The case was as follows.
21.2.1
After the expulsion of Dion and when Dionysius was sending Plato back, he bade him learn from Dion confidentially whether he would oppose his wife’s marrying another man;
21.3.1
for there was a report, whether true or concocted by Dion’s enemies, that his marriage had not proved agreeable to him, and that he did not live harmoniously with his wife.
21.4.1
Accordingly, after Plato came to Athens and had conferred with Dion about everything, he wrote a letter to the tyrant which spoke of other matters in a way that was clear to anybody, but of this particular matter in language that could be understood by Dionysius alone, saying that he had talked with Dion about that business, and that Dion would evidently be exceedingly angry if Dionysius should carry it through.
21.5.1
Now, as long as there were many hopes of a reconciliation, the tyrant took no violent measures with his sister, but suffered her to continue living with Dion’s young son;
21.6.1
when, however, the estrangement was complete, and Plato, who had come to Sicily a second time, had been sent away in enmity, then he gave Arete in marriage, against her will, to Timocrates, one of his friends. And in this action, at least, he did not imitate the reasonableness of his father.
21.7.1
For the elder tyrant also, as it would appear, had a sister, Theste, whose husband, Polyxenus, had become his enemy. When, therefore, Polyxenus was moved by fear to run away and go into exile from Sicily, the tyrant sent for his sister and upbraided her because she had been privy to her husband’s flight and had not told her brother about it.
21.8.1
But she, without consternation, and, indeed, without fear, replied: Dost thou think me, Dionysius, such a mean and cowardly wife that, had I known beforehand of my husband’s flight, I would not have sailed off with him and shared his fortunes? Indeed, I did not know about it; since it would have been well for me to be called the wife of Polyxenus the exile, rather than the sister of Dionysius the tyrant.
21.9.1
The tyrant is said to have admired Theste for this bold speech. And the Syracusans also admired the virtue of the woman, so that even after the dissolution of the tyranny she retained the honours and services paid to royalty, and when she died, the citizens, by public consent, attended her funeral. This is a digression, it is true, but not a useless one.
22.1.1
From this time on Dion turned his thoughts to war. With this Plato himself would have nothing to do, out of respect for his tie of hospitality with Dionysius, and because of his age. But Speusippus and the rest of his companions co-operated with Dion and besought him to free Sicily, which stretched out her arms to him and eagerly awaited his coming.
22.2.1
For when Plato was tarrying in Syracuse, Speusippus, as it would appear, mingled more with its people and learned to know their sentiments;
22.3.1
and though at first they were afraid of his boldness of speech, thinking it a trap set for them by the tyrant, yet in time they came to trust him. For all now spoke in the same strain, begging and exhorting Dion to come without ships men-at-arms, or horses; he was simply to come himself in a small boat, and lend the Sicilians his person and his name against Dionysius.
22.4.1
Encouraged by this information from Speusippus, Dion collected mercenaries secretly and by the agency of others, concealing his purpose.
22.5.1
He was assisted also by many statesmen and philosophers, such as Eudemus the Cyprian, on whose death Aristotle wrote his dialogue On the Soul, and Timonides the Leucadian.
22.6.1
Furthermore, they enlisted on his side Miltas the Thessalian also, who was a seer and had studied in the Academy.
22.7.1
But of those who had been banished by the tyrant, and there were not less than a thousand of them, only twenty-five took part in the expedition; the rest played the coward and abandoned it.
22.8.1
The rendezvous was the island of Zacynthus, and here the soldiers were assembled. They numbered fewer than eight hundred, but they were all well known in consequence of many great campaigns, their bodies were exceptionally well trained, while in experience and daring they had no equals in the world, and were capable of inciting and inflaming to share their prowess all the host which Dion expected to have in Sicily.
23.1.1
At first, indeed, when these men heard that their expedition was directed against Dionysius and Sicily, they were full of consternation and denounced the enterprise, declaring that Dion, in a mad frenzy of anger, or in despair, was plunging into desperate undertakings; they were also enraged at their own leaders and recruiting officers for not having told them at the very outset about the war.
23.2.1
But when Dion addressed them, setting forth in detail the unsound condition of the tyranny, and declaring that he was taking them, not as soldiers, but as commanders of the Syracusans and the rest of the Sicilians, who had long been ready for a revolt; and when, after Dion, Alcimenes, who was an Achaean of the highest birth and reputation and a member of time expedition, had argued with them, they were persuaded.
23.3.1
It was now midsummer, the Etesian winds prevailed at sea, and the moon was at the full. Dion had prepared a magnificent sacrifice to Apollo, and marched in solemn procession to the temple with his soldiers, who were arrayed in full armour.
23.4.1
After the sacrifice, he gave them a banquet in the stadium of the Zacynthians, where, as they reclined on their couches, they wondered at the splendour of the gold and silver beakers, and of the tables, for it passed the limits set by a private man’s fortune; they reasoned, too, that a man who was already past his prime and was master of such great affluence, would not engage in hazardous enterprises unless he had solid hopes of success, and friends over there who offered him unbounded resources.
24.1.1
But after the libations and the customary prayers, the moon was eclipsed. Now, to Dion this was nothing astonishing, for he knew that eclipses recurred at regular intervals, and that the shadow projected on the moon was caused by the interposition of the earth between her and the sun.
24.2.1
But since the soldiers, who were greatly disturbed, needed some encouragement, Miltas the seer stood up amongst them and bade them be of good cheer, and expect the best results; for the divine powers indicated an eclipse of something that was now resplendent;
24.3.1
but nothing was more resplendent than the tyranny of Dionysius, and it was the radiance of this which they would extinguish as soon as they reached Sicily.
24.4.1
This interpretation, then, Miltas made public for all to know; but that of the bees, which were seen settling in swarms upon the sterns of Dion’s transports, he told privately to him and his friends, expressing a fear that his undertakings would thrive at the outset, but after a short season of flowering would wither away.
24.5.1
It is said that Dionysius also had many portentous signs from Heaven.
24.6.1
An eagle snatched a lance from one of his body-guards, carried it aloft, and then let it drop into the sea.
24.7.1
Furthermore, the water of the sea which washed the base of the acropolis was sweet and potable for a whole day, as all who tasted it could see.
24.8.1
Again, pigs were littered for him which were perfect in their other parts, but had no ears.
24.9.1
This the seers declared to be a sign of disobedience and rebellion, since, as they said, the citizens would no longer listen to the commands of the tyrant; the sweetness of the sea-water indicated for the Syracusans a change from grievous and oppressive times to comfortable circumstances;
24.10.1
an eagle, moreover, was servant of Zeus, and a spear, an emblem of authority and power, wherefore this prodigy showed that the greatest of the gods desired the utter dissolution of the tyranny. Such, at all events, is the account which Theopompus has given.
25.1.1
The soldiers of Dion filled two merchant-ships, and a third transport of small size, together with two thirty-oared galleys, accompanied these.
25.2.1
Moreover, besides the arms which his soldiers had, Dion carried two thousand shields, missiles and spears in great numbers, and a boundless store of provisions, that they might suffer no lack as they traversed the high sea. For they put themselves entirely at the mercy of winds and sea during their voyage, because they were afraid of the coast, and learned that Philistus was watching for them with a fleet at Iapygia.
25.3.1
After sailing with a light and gentle breeze for twelve days, on the thirteenth they reached Pachynus, a headland of Sicily.
25.4.1
Here Protus their pilot urged them to disembark with all speed, since, if they should be forced away from the shore, and should relinquish the headland which they had gained, they would be tossed about on the high sea for many days and nights, awaiting a south wind in the summer season.
25.5.1
But Dion, fearing to disembark near the enemy, and wishing to land farther along the coast, sailed past Pachynus.
25.6.1
Thereupon a boisterous wind from the north rushed down upon them, raised a great sea, and drove the ships away from Sicily, while flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, now that Arcturus was just rising, conspired to pour down from the heavens a great storm of furious rain.
25.7.1
The sailors were confounded by this and driven from their course, until on a sudden they saw that their ships were driving with the sea upon Cercina, off the coast of Africa, at a point where the island presented the roughest and most precipitous shore for their approach.
25.8.1
Accordingly, after a narrow escape from being cast ashore and dashed to pieces on the rocks, they plied their punting-poles and forced their way along with great difficulty, until the storm abated, when they learned from a vessel which they spoke that they were at what were called the Heads of the Great Syrtis.
25.9.1
And now they were disheartened by the calm in which they found themselves, and were drifting up and down, when a gentle southerly breeze was wafted to them from the land, although they were by no means expecting a south wind and could not believe in the change.
25.10.1
Little by little, however, the wind freshened and grew strong, so that they spread all the sail they had, and praying to the gods, fled over the sea from Africa towards Sicily.
25.11.1
For five days they ran swiftly on, and came to anchor at Minoa, a little town in that part of Sicily which the Carthaginians controlled.
25.12.1
Now, it chanced that Synalus, the Carthaginian commander, was in the place, and he was a guest-friend of Dion’s. But not knowing of Dion’s presence or of his expedition, he tried to prevent his soldiers from landing.
25.13.1
These, however, rushed on shore with their arms, and although they killed no one, since Dion had forbidden it because of his friendship with the Carthaginian, they put their opponents to flight, dashed into the place with the fugitives, and captured it.
25.14.1
But as soon as the two commanders had met and greeted one another, Dion restored the city to Synalus, without doing it any harm, and Synalus entertained the soldiers and supplied Dion with what he wanted.
26.1.1
But what most of all encouraged them was the accidental absence of Dionysius from Syracuse; for it chanced that he had recently sailed with eighty ships to Italy.
26.2.1
Therefore, even though Dion urged his soldiers to recruit themselves here after their long hardships on the sea, they would not consent to it, so eager were they of themselves to seize their opportunity, but urged him to lead them towards Syracuse.
26.3.1
Accordingly, he deposited his superfluous arms and baggage there, asked Synalus to send them to him as opportunity offered, and marched against Syracuse.
26.4.1
As he was on his way thither, first he was joined by two hundred horsemen belonging to the Agrigentines who dwelt about Ecnomum, and then by men of Gela.
26.5.1
But the report of his doings quickly flew to Syracuse, where Timocrates, who had married Dion’s wife, the sister of Dionysius, and who stood at the head of the tyrant’s friends now left in the city, speedily sent off a messenger to Dionysius with letters announcing the arrival of Dion.
26.6.1
He himself, moreover, took steps to prevent any disturbances or tumults in the city, where all were greatly excited, but as yet kept quiet owing to their distrust and fear.
26.7.1
But a strange misfortune befell the man who had been sent with the letters. After he had crossed to Italy and passed through the territory of Rhegium, and as he was hastening on to Dionysius at Caulonia, he met one of his acquaintances who was carrying an animal that had been recently sacrificed, and after accepting from him a portion of the flesh, went on his way with all speed.
26.8.1
But after travelling part of the night, he was compelled by weariness to take a little sleep, and lay down, just as he was, in a wood by the side of the road.
26.9.1
Then a wolf came to the spot, attracted by the scent, and seizing the flesh which had been fastened to the wallet in which the man had his letters, went off with it and the wallet too.
26.10.1
When the man awoke and perceived what had happened, he wandered about a long time in search of what he had lost, but could not find it, and therefore determined not to go to the tyrant without the letters, but to run away and disappear.
27.1.1
Dionysius, therefore, was destined to learn of the war in Sicily late and from other sources; but meanwhile, as Dion proceeded on his march, he was joined by the Camarinaeans, and no small multitude of the rural Syracusans revolted and swelled his ranks.
27.2.1
Moreover, the Leontines and Campanians who were guarding Epipolae with Timocrates, in consequence of a false report which Dion sent to them that he would attack their cities first, deserted Timocrates and went off to assist their own peoples.
27.3.1
When news of this was brought to Dion as he lay encamped near Acrae, he roused up his soldiers while it was still night and came to the river Anapus, which is ten furlongs distant from the city.
27.4.1
There he halted and sacrificed by the river, addressing his prayers to the rising sun, and on the instant the soothsayers declared that the gods promised him victory. When, too, the audience beheld Dion with a wreath on his head for the sacrifice, with one impulse they all crowned themselves with wreaths.
27.5.1
No fewer than five thousand men had joined him on the march, and though they were wretchedly armed with such weapons as came to hand, their enthusiasm made up for their lack of equipment, so that when Dion gave the word they advanced on the run, exhorting one another with joyful shouts to win their liberty.
28.1.1
As for the Syracusans in the city, the men of note and cultivation, in fresh apparel, went to meet them at the gates, while the multitude set upon the tyrant’s friends and seized those called tale-bearers, wicked men whom the gods hated, who went up and down in the city busily mingling with the Syracusans and reporting to the tyrant the sentiments and utterances of every one.
28.2.1
These, then, were the first to suffer retribution, being beaten to death by those who came upon them; but Timocrates, unable to join the garrison of the acropolis, took horse and dashed out of the city, and as he fled, filled everything with fear and confusion, exaggerating the strength of Dion, that he might not be thought to have abandoned the city through fear of any trivial danger.
28.3.1
Meanwhile Dion drew near the city and was presently seen, leading the way himself in brilliant armour, with his brother Megacles on one side of him, and on the other, Callippus the Athenian, both crowned with garlands.
28.4.1
A hundred of his mercenaries followed Dion as a body-guard, and his officers led the rest in good order, the Syracusans looking on and welcoming as it were a sacred religious procession for the return of liberty and democracy into the city, after an absence of forty-eight years.
29.1.1
After Dion had entered the city by the Temenitid gate, he stopped the noise of the people by a blast of the trumpet, and made proclamation that Dion and Megacles, who were come to overthrow the tyranny, declared the Syracusans and the rest of the Sicilians free from the tyrant.
29.2.1
Then, wishing to harangue the people himself, he went up through the Achradina, while on either side of the street the Syracusans set out tables and sacrificial meats and mixing-bowls, and all, as he came to them, pelted him with flowers, and addressed him with vows and prayers as if he were a god.
29.3.1
Now, there stood below the acropolis and the Pentapyla a tall and conspicuous sun-dial, which Dionysius had set up. Mounted upon this, Dion harangued the citizens and exhorted them to assert their liberty.
29.4.1
And they, in their joy and affection, made Dion and Megacles generals with absolute powers, and besides, at their wish and entreaty, chose twenty colleagues to hold office with them, half of whom were of those who had come back from exile with Dion.
29.5.1
To the soothsayers, moreover, it seemed a most happy omen, that Dion, when he harangued the people, had put under his feet the ambitious monument of the tyrant; but because it was a sun-dial upon which he stood when he was elected general, they feared that his enterprise might undergo some speedy change of fortune.
29.6.1
After this, Dion captured Epipolae and set free the citizens who were imprisoned there; then he walled off the acropolis.
29.7.1
On the seventh day Dionysius put in with his fleet and entered the acropolis, and waggons brought Dion the armour and weapons which he had left with Synalus.

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