Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
temper, yet blamed his manner, and thought he treated those with
whom he had to do, less courteously and affably than became a
man engaged in civil business. Of which Plato also afterwards
wrote to him; and, as it were, prophetically advised him
carefully to avoid an arbitrary temper, whose proper helpmate
was a solitary life. And, indeed, at this very time, though
circumstances made him so important, and, in the danger of the
tottering government, he was recognized as the only or the
ablest support of it, yet he well understood that he owed not
his high position to any good-will or kindness, but to the mere
necessities of the usurper.
And, supposing the cause of this to be ignorance and want of
education, he endeavored to induce the young man into a course
of liberal studies, and to give him some knowledge of moral
truths and reasonings, hoping he might thus lose his fear of
virtuous living, and learn to take pleasure in laudable actions.
Dionysius, in his own nature, was not one of the worst kind of
tyrants, but his father, fearing that if he should come to
understand himself better, and converse with wise and reasonable
men, he might enter into some design against him, and dispossess
him of his power, kept him closely shut up at home; where, for
want of other company, and ignorant how to spend his time
better, he busied himself in making little chariots,
candlesticks, stools, tables, and other things of wood. For the
elder Dionysius was so diffident and suspicious, and so
continually on his guard against all men, that he would not so
much as let his hair be trimmed with any barber's or
hair-cutter's instruments, but made one of his artificers singe
him with a live coal. Neither were his brother or his son
allowed to come into his apartment in the dress they wore, but
they, as all others, were stripped to their skins by some of the
guard, and, after being seen naked, put on other clothes before
they were admitted into the presence. When his brother Leptines
was once describing the situation of a place, and took a javelin
from one of the guard to draw the plan of it, he was extremely
angry with him, and had the soldier who gave him the weapon put
to death. He declared, the more judicious his friends were, the
more he suspected them; because he knew, that were it in their
choice, they would rather be tyrants themselves than the
subjects of a tyrant. He slew Marsyas, one of his captains whom
he had preferred to a considerable command, for dreaming that he
killed him: without some previous waking thought and purpose of
the kind, he could not, he supposed, have had that fancy in
his sleep. So timorous was he, and so miserable a slave to his
fears, yet very angry with Plato, because he would not allow him
to be the valiantest man alive.
Dion, as we said before, seeing the son thus deformed and spoilt
in character for want of teaching, exhorted him to study, and to
use all his entreaties to persuade Plato, the first of
philosophers, to visit him in Sicily, and; when he came, to
submit himself to his direction and advice: by whose
instructions he might conform his nature to the truths of
virtue, and, living after the likeness of the Divine and
glorious Model of Being, out of obedience to whose control the
general confusion is changed into the beautiful order of the
universe, so he in like manner might be the cause of great
happiness to himself and to all his subjects, who, obliged by
his justice and moderation, would then willingly pay him
obedience as their father, which now grudgingly, and upon
necessity, they are forced to yield him as their master. Their
usurping tyrant he would then no longer be, but their lawful
king. For fear and force, a great navy and standing army of ten
thousand hired barbarians are not, as his father had said, the
adamantine chains which secure the regal power, but the love,
zeal, and affection inspired by clemency and justice; which,
though they seem more pliant than the stiff and hard bonds of
severity, are nevertheless the strongest and most durable ties
to sustain a lasting government. Moreover, it is mean and
dishonorable that a ruler, while careful to be splendid in his
dress, and luxurious and magnificent in his habitation, should,
in reason and power of speech, make no better show than the
commonest of his subjects, nor have the princely palace of his
mind adorned according to his royal dignity.
Dion frequently entertaining the king upon this subject, and, as
occasion offered, repeating some of the philosopher's sayings,
Dionysius grew impatiently desirous to have Plato's company, and
to hear him discourse. Forthwith, therefore, he sent letter
upon letter to him to Athens, to which Dion added his
entreaties; also several philosophers of the Pythagorean sect
from Italy sent their recommendations, urging him to come and
obtain a hold upon this pliant, youthful soul, which his solid
and weighty reasonings might steady, as it were, upon the seas
of absolute power and authority. Plato, as he tells us himself,
out of shame more than any other feeling, lest it should seem
that he was all mere theory, and that of his own good-will he
would never venture into action, hoping withal, that if he could
work a cure upon one man, the head and guide of the rest, he
might remedy the distempers of the whole island of Sicily,
yielded to their requests.
But Dion's enemies, fearing an alteration in Dionysius,
persuaded him to recall from banishment Philistus, a man of
learned education, and at the same time of great experience in
the ways of tyrants, and who might serve as a counterpoise to
Plato and his philosophy. For Philistus from the beginning had
been a great instrument in establishing the tyranny, and for a
long time had held the office of captain of the citadel. There
was a report, that he had been intimate with the mother of
Dionysius the first, and not without his privity. And when
Leptines, having two daughters by a married woman whom he had
debauched, gave one of them in marriage to Philistus, without
acquainting Dionysius, he, in great anger, put Leptines's
mistress in prison, and banished Philistus from Sicily.
Whereupon, he fled to some of his friends on the Adriatic coast,
in which retirement and leisure it is probable he wrote the
greatest part of his history; for he returned not into his
country during the reign of that Dionysius.
But after his death, as is just related, Dion's enemies
occasioned him to be recalled home, as fitter for their purpose,
and a firm friend to the arbitrary government. And this,
indeed, immediately upon his return he set himself to maintain;
and at the same time various calumnies and accusations against
Dion were by others brought to the king: as that he held
correspondence with Theodotes and Heraclides, to subvert the
government; as, doubtless, it is likely enough, that Dion had
entertained hopes, by the coming of Plato, to mitigate the rigid
and despotic severity of the tyranny, and to give Dionysius the
character of a fair and lawful governor; and had determined, if
he should continue averse to that, and were not to be reclaimed,
to depose him, and restore the commonwealth to the Syracusans;
not that he approved a democratic government, but thought it
altogether preferable to a tyranny, when a sound and good
aristocracy could not be procured.
This was the state of affairs when Plato came into Sicily, who,
at his first arrival, was received with wonderful demonstration
of kindness and respect. For one of the royal chariots, richly
ornamented, was in attendance to receive him when he came on
shore; Dionysius himself sacrificed to the gods in thankful
acknowledgment for the great happiness which had befallen his
government. The citizens, also, began to entertain marvelous
hopes of a speedy reformation, when they observed the modesty
which now ruled in the banquets, and the general decorum which
prevailed in all the court, their tyrant himself also behaving
with gentleness and humanity in all their matters of business
that came before him. There was a general passion for
reasoning: and philosophy, insomuch that the very palace, it is
reported, was filled with dust by the concourse of the students
in mathematics who were working their problems there. Some few
days after, it was the time of one of the Syracusan sacrifices,
and when the priest, as he was wont, prayed for the long and
safe continuance of the tyranny, Dionysius, it is said, as he
stood by, cried out, "Leave off praying for evil upon us." This
sensibly vexed Philistus and his party, who conjectured, that if
Plato, upon such brief acquaintance, had so far transformed and
altered the young man's mind, longer converse and greater
intimacy would give him such influence and authority, that it
would he impossible to withstand him.
Therefore, no longer privately and apart, but jointly and in
public, all of them, they began to slander Dion, noising it
about that he had charmed and bewitched Dionysius by Plato's
sophistry, to the end that when he was persuaded voluntarily to
part with his power, and lay down his authority, Dion might take
it up, and settle it upon his sister Aristomache's children.
Others professed to be indignant that the Athenians, who
formerly had come to Sicily with a great fleet and a numerous
land-army, and perished miserably without being able to take the
city of Syracuse, should now, by means of one sophister,
overturn the sovereignty of Dionysius; inveigling him to
cashier his guard of ten thousand lances, dismiss a navy of four
hundred galleys, disband an army of ten thousand horse and many
times over that number of foot, and go seek in the schools an
unknown and imaginary bliss, and learn by the mathematics how to
be happy; while, in the meantime, the substantial enjoyments of
absolute power, riches, and pleasure would be handed over to
Dion and his sister's children.
By these means, Dion began to incur at first suspicion, and by
degrees more apparent displeasure and hostility. A letter,
also, was intercepted and brought to the young prince, which
Dion had written to the Carthaginian agents, advising them,
that, when they treated with Dionysius concerning the peace,
they should not come to their audience without communicating
with him: they would not fail to obtain by this means all that
they wanted. When Dionysius had shown this to Philistus, and
consulted with him, as Timaeus relates, about it, he overreached
Dion by a feigned reconciliation, professing, after some fair
and reasonable expression of his feelings, that he was at
friends with him, and thus, leading him alone to the sea-side,
under the castle wall, he showed him the letter, and taxed him
with conspiring with the Carthaginians against him. And when
Dion essayed to speak in his own defense, Dionysius suffered him
not; but immediately forced him aboard a boat, which lay there
for that purpose, and commanded the sailors to set him ashore on
the coast of Italy.
When this was publicly known, and was thought very hard usage,
there was much lamentation in the tyrant's own household on
account of the women, but the citizens of Syracuse encouraged
themselves, expecting that for his sake some disturbance would
ensue; which, together with the mistrust others would now feel,
might occasion a general change and revolution in the state.
Dionysius, seeing this, took alarm, and endeavored to pacify the
women and others of Dion's kindred and friends; assuring them
that he had not banished, but only sent him out of the way for a
time, for fear of his own passion, which might be provoked some
day by Dion's self-will into some act which he should be sorry
for. He gave also two ships to his relations, with liberty to