Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
how much it would become him who was master of so many excellent
accomplishments, to moderate his anger and be generously
compassionate to ungrateful men, who were here before him,
making their confession, that, in all the matter of their former
enmity and rivalry against him, they were now absolutely
overcome by his virtue. Though they thus humbly addressed him,
his friends advised him not to pardon these turbulent and
ill-conditioned men, but to yield them to the desires of his
soldiers, and utterly root out of the commonwealth the ambitious
affectation of popularity, a disease as pestilent and pernicious
as the passion for tyranny itself. Dion endeavored to satisfy
them, telling them that other generals exercised and trained
themselves for the most part in the practices of war and arms;
but that he had long studied in the Academy how to conquer
anger, and not let emulation and envy conquer him; that to do
this it is not sufficient that a man be obliging and kind to his
friends, and those that have deserved well of him, but rather,
gentle and ready to forgive in the case of those who do wrong;
that he wished to let the world see that he valued not himself
so much upon excelling Heraclides in ability and conduct, as he
did in outdoing him in justice and clemency; herein to have the
advantage is to excel indeed; whereas the honor of success in
war is never entire; fortune will be sure to dispute it, though
no man should pretend to have a claim. What if Heraclides be
perfidious, malicious, and base, must Dion therefore sully or
injure his virtue by passionate concern for it? For, though the
laws determine it juster to revenge an injury than to do an
injury, yet it is evident that both, in the nature of things,
originally proceed from the same deficiency and weakness. The
malicious humor of men, though perverse and refractory, is not
so savage and invincible but it may be wrought upon by kindness,
and altered by repeated obligations. Dion, making use of these
arguments, pardoned and dismissed Heraclides and Theodotes.
And now, resolving to repair the blockade about the castle, he
commanded all the Syracusans to cut each man a stake and bring
it to the works; and then, dismissing them to refresh
themselves, and take their rest, he employed his own men all
night, and by morning had finished his line of palisade; so that
both the enemy and the citizens wondered, when day returned, to
see the work so far advanced in so short a time. Burying
therefore the dead, and redeeming the prisoners, who were near
two thousand, he called a public assembly, where Heraclides made
a motion that Dion should be declared general with full powers
at land and sea. The better citizens approved well of it, and
called on the people to vote it so. But the mob of sailors and
handicraftsmen would not yield that Heraclides should lose his
command of the navy; believing him, if otherwise an ill man, at
any rate to be more citizenlike than Dion, and readier to comply
with the people. Dion therefore submitted to them in this, and
consented Heraclides should continue admiral. But when they
began to press the project of the redistribution of lands and
houses, he not only opposed it, but repealed all the votes they
had formerly made upon that account, which sensibly vexed them.
Heraclides, therefore, took a new advantage of him, and, being
at Messene, harangued the soldiers and ships' crews that sailed
with him, accusing Dion that he had a design to make himself
absolute. And yet at the same time he held private
correspondence for a treaty with Dionysius by means of Pharax
the Spartan. Which when the noble citizens of Syracuse had
intimation of, there arose a sedition in the army, and the city
was in great distress and want of provisions; and Dion now knew
not what course to take, being also blamed by all his friends
for having thus fortified against himself such a perverse and
jealous and utterly corrupted man as Heraclides was.
Pharax at this time lay encamped at Neapolis, in the territory
of Agrigentum. Dion, therefore, led out the Syracusans, but
with an intent not to engage him till he saw a fit opportunity.
But Heraclides and his seamen exclaimed against him, that he
delayed fighting on purpose that he might the longer continue
his command; so that, much against his will, he was forced to an
engagement and was beaten, his loss however being
inconsiderable, and that occasioned chiefly by the dissension
that was in the army. He rallied his men, and, having put them
in good order and encouraged them to redeem their credit,
resolved upon a second battle. But, in the evening, he received
advice that Heraclides with his fleet was on his way to
Syracuse, with the purpose to possess himself of the city and
keep him and his army out. Instantly, therefore, taking with
him some of the strongest and most active of his men, he rode
off in the dark, and about nine the next morning was at the
gates, having ridden seven hundred furlongs that night.
Heraclides, though he strove to make all the speed he could,
yet, coming too late, tacked and stood out again to sea; and,
being unresolved what course to steer, accidentally he met
Gaesylus the Spartan, who told him he was come from Lacedaemon
to head the Sicilians, as Gylippus had formerly done.
Heraclides was only too glad to get hold of him, and fastening
him as it might be a sort of amulet to himself, he showed him to
the confederates, and sent a herald to Syracuse to summon them
to accept the Spartan general. Dion returned answer that they
had generals enough, and, if they wanted a Spartan to command
them, he could supply that office, being himself a citizen of
Sparta. When Gaesylus saw this, he gave up all pretensions, and
sailed in to Dion, and reconciled Heraclides to him, making
Heraclides swear the most solemn oaths to perform what he
engaged, Gaesylus himself also undertaking to maintain Dion's
right, and inflict chastisement on Heraclides if he broke his
faith.
The Syracusans then laid up their navy, which was at present a
great charge and of little use to them, but an occasion of
differences and dissensions among the generals, and pressed on
the siege, finishing the wall of blockade with which they
invested the castle. The besieged, seeing no hopes of succors
and their provisions failing, began to mutiny; so that the son
of Dionysius, in despair of holding out longer for his father,
capitulated, and articled with Dion to deliver up the castle
with all the garrison soldiers and ammunition; and so, taking
his mother and sisters and manning five galleys, he set out to
go to his father, Dion seeing him safely out, and scarce a man
in all the city not being there to behold the sight, as indeed
they called even on those that were not present, out of pity
that they could not be there, to see this happy day and the sun
shining on a free Syracuse. And as this expulsion of Dionysius
is even now always cited as one of the greatest and most
remarkable examples of fortune's vicissitudes, how extraordinary
may we imagine their joy to have been, and how entire their
satisfaction, who had totally subverted the most potent tyranny
that ever was by very slight and inconsiderable means!
When Apollocrates was gone, and Dion coming to take possession
of the castle, the women could not stay while he made his entry,
but ran to meet him at the gate. Aristomache led Dion's son,
and Arete followed after weeping, fearful and dubious how to
salute or address her husband, after living with another man.
Dion first embraced his sister, then his son; when Aristomache
bringing Arete to him, "O Dion," said she, "your banishment made
us all equally miserable; your return and victory has canceled
all sorrows, excepting this poor sufferer's, whom I, unhappy,
saw compelled to be another's, while you were yet alive.
Fortune has now given you the sole disposal of us; how will you
determine concerning her hard fate? In what relation must she
salute you as her uncle, or as her husband?" This speech of
Aristomache's brought tears from Dion, who with great affection
embraced his wife, gave her his son, and desired her to retire
to his own house, where he continued to reside when he had
delivered up the castle to the Syracusans.
For though all things had now succeeded to his wish, yet he
desired not to enjoy any present advantage of his good fortune,
except to gratify his friends, reward his allies, and bestow
upon his companions of former time in Athens and the soldiers
that had served him some special mark of kindness and honor,
striving herein to outdo his very means in his generosity. As
for himself, he was content with a very frugal and moderate
competency, and was indeed the wonder of all men, that when not
only Sicily and Carthage, but all Greece looked to him as in the
height of prosperity, and no man living greater than he, no
general more renowned for valor and success, yet in his garb,
his attendance, his table, he seemed as if he rather commoned
with Plato in the Academy than lived among hired captains and
paid soldiers, whose solace of their toils and dangers it is to
eat and drink their fill, and enjoy themselves plentifully every
day. Plato indeed wrote to him that the eyes of all the world
were now upon him; but it is evident that he himself had fixed
his eye upon one place in one city, the Academy, and considered
that the spectators and judges there regarded not great actions,
courage, or fortune, but watched to see how temperately and
wisely he could use his prosperity, how evenly he could behave
himself in the high condition he now was in. Neither did he
remit anything of his wonted stateliness in conversation or
serious carriage to the people; he made it rather a point to
maintain it, notwithstanding that a little condescension and
obliging civility were very necessary for his present affairs;
and Plato, as we said before, rebuked him, and wrote to tell him
that self-will keeps house with solitude. But certainly his
natural temperament was one that could not bend to complaisance;
and, besides, he wished to work the Syracusans back the other
way, out of their present excess of license and caprice.
Heraclides began again to set up against him, and, being invited
by Dion to make one of the Council, refused to come, saying he
would give his opinion as a private citizen in the public
assembly. Next he complained of Dion because he had not
demolished the citadel, and because he had hindered the people
from throwing down Dionysius's tomb and doing despite to the
dead; moreover he accused him for sending to Corinth for
counselors and assistants in the government, thereby neglecting
and slighting his fellow-citizens. And indeed he had sent
messages for some Corinthians to come to him, hoping by their
means and presence the better to settle that constitution he
intended; for he designed to suppress the unlimited democratic
government, which indeed is not a government, but, as Plato
calls it, a marketplace of governments, and to introduce and
establish a mixed polity, on the Spartan and Cretan model,
between a commonwealth and a monarchy, wherein an aristocratic
body should preside, and determine all matters of greatest
consequence; for he saw also that the Corinthians were chiefly
governed by something like an oligarchy, and the people but
little concerned in public business.
Now knowing that Heraclides would be his most considerable
adversary, and that in all ways he was a turbulent, fickle, and
factious man, he gave way to some whom formerly he hindered when
they designed to kill him, who, breaking in, murdered Heraclides
in his own house. His death was much resented by the citizens.
Nevertheless, when Dion made him a splendid funeral, followed