to have surrendered the city through fear to a small force.
Meanwhile Dion could already be seen plainly, as he marched first of all his men, clad in splendid armour. On one side of him was his brother Megakles, and on the other the Athenian Kallippus, both crowned with garlands. Next marched a hundred of the mercenary soldiers, as a bodyguard for Dion, while the rest of the men were led on by their officers in battle array. The entire procession was looked upon and welcomed as though it were sacred by the citizens of Syracuse, who, after forty-two years of tyranny, saw liberty and a popular constitution restored to their city.
XXIX. When Dion had entered by the Temenitid[489] gate, he caused his trumpet to sound to obtain silence; and then a herald made proclamation that Dion and Megakles were come to put down the monarchy, and that they set free from the despot both the Syracusans and the other Sicilian Greeks.
As Dion wished to address the people in person, he proceeded through Achradina, while the Syracusans placed animals for sacrifice, tables and bowls of wine on each side of the street,[490] and each, as Dion passed them, strewed flowers in his path and addressed prayers to him as if to a god. In front of the citadel, with its Pentapyla, or Five Gates, stood a sundial, a conspicuous and lofty work, erected by Dionysius. Dion mounted upon this, and addressed the citizens, encouraging them to hold fast the freedom which they had obtained. The people, in joy and gratitude to them, elected them both generals, with unlimited powers, and at their earnest request chose twenty more as their colleagues, half of whom were taken from the exiles who had returned with Dion. The prophets considered it to be an excellent omen that Dion, while addressing the people, should have trodden under his feet the building which the despot had reared in his pride; but they augured ill from his having been chosen general while standing upon a sundial, lest his fortunes should soon experience some revolution. After this he captured Epipolæ, released the citizens who were imprisoned there and cut off the citadel by a palisade.[491] On the seventh day after this, Dionysius returned to the citadel by sea, and waggons arrived bringing to Dion the arms and armour which he had left with Synalus. These he distributed among the citizens, and of the others, each man equipped himself as well as he was able, and eagerly offered his services as a soldier.
XXX. Dionysius at first sent ambassadors privately to Dion to endeavour to corrupt him. Afterwards, as Dion bade him speak openly to the people of Syracuse, who were now free, Dionysius through his ambassadors made them attractive offers of moderate taxation and moderate military service, subject to their own vote of consent.[492] These proposals were scornfully rejected by the Syracusans. Dion told the ambassadors that he and his party could have no dealings with Dionysius unless he abdicated; but that if he did so, he himself, remembering their relationship, would answer for his personal safety, and obtain as good terms for him as could be reasonably expected. These conditions were approved by Dionysius, who again sent ambassadors to demand that some of the Syracusans should come to the citadel and arrange the terms of the surrender upon a basis of mutual concessions. Commissioners, chosen by Dion, were at once sent to him, and a report spread from the citadel that Dionysius intended to abdicate and to make himself more popular even than Dion. However, the negotiations were all a trick of the despot to take the Syracusans at a disadvantage. He imprisoned the commissioners, and at daybreak, having excited his mercenary troops with wine, sent them at a run to attack the Syracusan wall across the isthmus. This attack was unexpected, and the foreign troops boldly and with loud shouts began to destroy the works and to attack the Syracusans. No one could withstand their onset except the mercenaries of Dion, who were the first to hear the noise of the conflict and to rush to the spot. But not even these men could perceive what was to be done or obey their orders, mixed up as they were with noisy crowds of panic-stricken Syracusan fugitives, before Dion, finding that no one heeded his words, and wishing to show by his actions what ought to be done, was the first man to attack the foreigners. Round him a fierce and terrible battle took place, as he was recognised as well by the enemy as by his friends, and all ran towards him with shouts. He was, indeed, somewhat advanced in years to engage in such a furious combat, but yet stoutly and bravely withstood and repulsed all who attacked him. He received a wound in the hand from a spear, and had to rely upon his breastplate for protection against showers of darts and blows in close combat, for his shield was pierced through by many spears and lances.
When these were broken he fell to the ground, but was snatched away by his soldiers. He appointed Timonides to take his place, and himself rode through the city on horseback, rallied the Syracusan fugitives, brought out the garrison of mercenaries from Achradina, and led these fresh and confident troops against the wearied foreigners, who had already begun to despair of victory. They had imagined that by their first attack they would be able to overrun the whole city, but having unexpectedly fallen in with men who could deal hard blows they began to retire towards the citadel. As they gave way the Greeks pressed upon them still more, until at length they were driven in confusion into the citadel, after killing seventy-four of Dion's party, and losing many of their own men.
XXXI. After this glorious victory the Syracusans presented the mercenaries with a hundred minæ, and the mercenaries presented Dion with a golden crown. Heralds from Dionysius now came from the citadel bringing letters to Dion from his female relatives. One of these bore the superscription "From Hipparinus to his father;" for this was the name of Dion's son, although Timæus says that he was named Aretæus after his mother Arete. But I imagine we ought rather to believe Timonides in such matters as these, since he was a friend and comrade of Dion. The other letters, those from the women, which were full of piteous supplications, were read aloud to the Syracusans, but they were unwilling that the letter from the child should be opened before them.
In spite of their opposition, Dion opened it and read it aloud. It was from Dionysius himself, addressed nominally to Dion, but really to the people of Syracuse, and though in it Dionysius seemed to appeal to Dion and to plead his own cause with him, yet in truth it was concocted with a view to rendering him suspected by the people; for it contained allusions to his former zeal on behalf of the monarchy, and also threatened him through the persons of those dearest to him, his sister, his child and his wife. There were in the letter also pitiful entreaties, and what especially moved him to anger, supplications to him not to destroy the monarchy and set free a people which hated him and would turn and rend him, but to become despot himself, and thus to save his relatives and friends.
XXXII. When these letters were read to them, the Syracusans, instead of admiring Dion for his magnanimity in adhering to the cause of honour and right, in spite of such touching appeals as these, they rather began to suspect him and to fear him, because he had such powerful reasons for sparing the despot, and they began to look around them for some other leader. They became particularly excited on hearing that Herakleides sailed into the harbour. This Herakleides was a Syracusan exile, a military man who had gained a great reputation by the commands which he had held in the service of Dionysius and his father, but of an unsettled disposition, fickle and least of all to be relied upon when associated with a colleague in any command of dignity and honour. This man had quarrelled with Dion in Peloponnesus, and determined to make an expedition of his own to attack Dionysius. He now arrived at Syracuse with seven triremes and three other vessels,[493] and found Dionysius blockaded in his citadel and the people of Syracuse in an excited condition. He at once received the popular favour, being naturally plausible and well able to impose upon a people who were fond of flattery. He was the more easily enabled to do this, as the Syracusans were already disgusted with the haughty demeanour of Dion, which they considered to be offensive and unfit for a statesman, being themselves grown insubordinate and insolent after their victory and requiring a demagogue even before they had become a democracy.
XXXIII. Their first act was to assemble of their own accord and elect Herakleides as admiral. When, however, Dion came forward and complained that the appointment of Herakleides was a revocation of the powers granted to himself, since he would no longer be general with unlimited powers, if another commanded by sea, the Syracusans, much against their will, annulled the election. After this Dion sent for Herakleides privately and, after bitterly reproaching him with his want of honour and right feeling in raising disputes about precedence during so momentous and dangerous a crisis, again assembled the people, appointed Herakleides admiral and prevailed upon the citizens to grant him a bodyguard such as that by which he himself was attended. Herakleides now in words and in manner acknowledged Dion as his superior, obeyed his orders with humility, and owned that he owed him a debt of gratitude; but in secret he encouraged the people to revolt against him, stirred up tumults and brought Dion into a most difficult position; for if he were to permit Dionysius to retire from the citadel under a flag of truce, he feared that he should be reproached with sparing the despot and saving him from the fate he deserved, while, if he did not push the siege through a wish not to drive him to extremities, he would appear to be purposely protracting the war in order that he might the longer remain in power and have the people under his orders.
XXXIV. There was one Sosis, a man who by villainy and audacity had gained a certain reputation at Syracuse, where the citizens thought that his licence in speech must be prompted by an excessive love of freedom.
This man began to intrigue against Dion, and first of all rose in the assembly and violently abused the Syracusans for not perceiving that they had got a sober and vigilant despot instead of a drunken and imbecile one. After this, having avowed himself Dion's open enemy, he withdrew from the market-place and next day was seen running naked through the city with his face and head covered with blood, as though he were fleeing from some pursuers. Rushing into the market-place in this condition, he said that his life had been attempted by Dion's mercenaries, and showed his wounded head to the people. He at once gained an audience of sympathisers, who became furious with Dion, and declared that he was acting shamefully and despotically in restraining the freedom of speech of the citizens by threats and murders. However, though a disorderly assembly took place, Dion was able to speak in his own defence, pointing out that a brother of Sosis was one of the guards of Dionysius, and that this man must have persuaded him to rebel and throw the city into confusion, since Dionysius could have no hope of safety except in the dissensions of the besiegers. At the same time the physicians examined the wound of Sosis, and found that it was the result of a superficial scratch rather than of a downward cut; for wounds by swordstrokes are deepest in the middle, because of the weight of the blow, while this wound of Sosis was shallow throughout all its length and had several beginnings, as probably he had been forced by the pain to leave off cutting his head and then had begun again. Some of the more respectable citizens also came to the assembly with a razor, and said that while they were walking they met Sosis covered with blood, saying that he was fleeing from Dion's mercenaries and had just been wounded by them. They at once proceeded to look for them, and found no man, but saw the razor hidden under a hollow stone at the place from which Sosis had been seen coming out.
XXXV. Matters now began to look ill for Sosis; and when his slaves, after torture, declared that he left the house while it was yet night carrying a razor, Dion's accusers withdrew their charges against him, and the people became reconciled with Dion and condemned Sosis to death.
Nevertheless, they viewed the mercenaries with suspicion, especially after the great battles which took place at sea, when Philistus came from Iapygia with many triremes to rescue Dionysius, upon which they imagined that the mercenaries, being heavy-infantry soldiers, would be of no further use in the war, and would soon become their enemies, as they were all seafaring people, whose strength lay in their ships. They were further excited by their success in a sea-fight, in which they defeated Philistus, and treated him with the utmost barbarity. Ephorus states that Philistus killed himself as soon as his ship was captured, but Timonides, who was present with Dion throughout the whole of these events, in a letter which he wrote to the philospher, Speusippus, informs him that Philistus was taken alive from his ship which ran ashore; and that the Syracusans first stripped him of his corslet and displayed him naked, jeering at him, he being then an old man; and that after this they cut off his head and gave up the body to the boys of the town, bidding them drag it through Achradina, and cast it into the stone quarries. Timæus declares that Philistus was treated with even greater indignity, his dead body being dragged by the boys through the city by the lame leg amidst the insults of all the people of Syracuse, who were pleased to see this treatment inflicted on the man who had told Dionysius that far from requiring a swift horse to escape from his throne, he ought to remain until he was dragged from it by the leg.
Philistus, however, gave this advice to Dionysius, not as having been said by himself, but by some one else.
XXXVI. Philistus doubtless laid himself open to blame by his zealous adherence to the cause of the monarchy, but Timæus takes advantage of this to satisfy his own spite by abusing him. It might, perhaps, be pardoned if those who had been wronged by him were so transported by rage as even to insult his senseless corpse; but a historian, writing an account of his actions in a later age, without having been in any way personally injured by him, ought to be restrained by feelings of honour and decency from taunting him with his misfortunes, which, indeed, might equally have befallen the best of men. Neither does Ephorus show a sound judgment in praising Philistus, for, in spite of his skill in inventing good motives for evil conduct and actions, and the care with which his words are chosen, he cannot, with all his art, gloss over the fact that Philistus was devotedly attached to the cause of despotism, and that he, more than any one else, was dazzled and attracted by wealth, power, luxury and marriages with the daughters of absolute princes. A historian would show better taste than either of these by neither praising Philistus for his conduct nor reproaching him with his misfortunes.
XXXVII. After the death of Philistus, Dionysius sent to Dion offering to deliver up to him the citadel, the arms which it contained, the mercenary troops and five months pay for them, and demanding to be allowed to retire unmolested to Italy and live there, and also to receive the revenues of a large and fertile tract belonging to Syracuse called Gyarta, which extended from the sea-side to the interior of the island. Dion would not receive the embassy, but bade Dionysius address himself to the people of Syracuse; and they, hoping to take Dionysius alive, drove away his ambassadors. Dionysius now handed over the citadel to Apollokrates, his eldest son, and himself placed what persons and property he chiefly valued on board ship, waited for a fair wind, and then sailed away, eluding the vigilance of the admiral Herakleides.
Herakleides was fiercely reproached by the citizens for his neglect, but suborned one of the popular speakers to make proposals to the people for a division of lands, pointing out that equality is the source of freedom, and that poverty reduces men to slavery. Herakleides spoke on the same side, openly opposed Dion, who led the opposite faction, and prevailed upon the Syracusans to agree to this proposal, and further to refuse to pay the mercenary troops and to rid themselves of the haughty arrogance of Dion by electing new generals. Thus, like a man who attempts to rise and walk when weakened by a long illness, the Syracusans, after ridding themselves of their despotism, at once tried to adopt the institutions of free peoples, and both failed in their undertakings and disliked Dion, because he, like a careful physician, wished to impose a strict and temperate regimen upon them.
XXXVIII. When they assembled to choose their new commanders the time was about midsummer, and ominous thunderstorms and portents took place for fifteen days in succession, dispersing the people and preventing their election of any other generals. When the popular leaders, by waiting and watching, had obtained a fair still day for the election of chief magistrates, a draught ox, who was quite tame and accustomed to crowds, but who was enraged with his driver, broke from his yoke and ran towards the theatre. He scattered the people in the greatest confusion and panic, and ran on prancing and causing disorder through all that part of the city which afterwards fell into the hands of the enemy.
Nevertheless, the Syracusans disregarded this omen, and elected five-and-twenty generals, one of whom was Herakleides. They also made secret overtures to Dion's mercenaries, inviting them to desert, and offering them equal rights with the other citizens. They, however, would not listen to these proposals, but faithfully and promptly got under arms, formed column with Dion in their midst, and began to march out of the city, without harming any one, but bitterly reproaching all whom they met with their ingratitude and wickedness. But the Syracusans, who despised them for their small numbers and for not having been the first to attack, had now collected in crowds, far outnumbering the mercenaries, and set upon them, expecting that in a street-fight they would easily be able to overpower them and to kill them all.
XXXIX. In this terrible dilemma, as he was forced either to fight against his fellow-countrymen or to perish with his mercenaries, Dion stretched out his hands towards the Syracusans and implored them to desist, and pointed to the citadel, full of armed enemies, who were watching them from the battlements. As, however, the excited mob could not be turned from its purpose, for the speeches of the demagogues stirred up the people as the wind stirs up the waves of the sea, Dion ordered his troops not to charge them, but to march forward with a shout and martial clash of arms. At this none of the Syracusans stood their ground, but ran away along the streets unpursued; for Dion at once wheeled round his troops and marched away to Leontini. The new chiefs of the Syracusans, ridiculed by the women, and wishing to wipe out their disgrace, now again got the citizens under arms and pursued Dion. They came up with him as he was crossing a stream, and rode up to his troops in skirmishing order. When, however, they perceived that Dion was no longer willing to deal gently and paternally with their follies, but that he angrily formed his troops in line and ordered them to attack, they fled more disgracefully than before back to their city, without losing many of their number.
XL. The people of Leontini received Dion with especial honours, provided his troops with pay, and made them free of the city. They also sent ambassadors to the Syracusans, calling upon them to do the soldiers justice; to which they replied by sending ambassadors to prefer charges against Dion. When, however, all the allies held a meeting at Leontini and discussed the matter, the Syracusans were held to be in fault. But the Syracusans refused to accept this decision, as they were now full of insolent importance, having no one to rule them, but being led by generals who were the merest slaves of the people.
XLI. After this a fleet of triremes sent by Dionysius arrived at the city, under the command of Nypsius, a Neapolitan, with supplies of corn and money for the besieged. In a sea-fight which took place the Syracusans were victorious, and took four of the ships, but were so elated by their victory, and, having none to rule them, celebrated their success with such reckless excesses of drinking and feasting, that while they imagined they had taken the citadel they really lost the city as well; for Nypsius, observing that discipline was everywhere at an end, as the populace were engaged in drinking to the sound of music from daylight until late at night, and that the generals were delighted at the festivity and were unwilling to summon the drunken men to their duty, seized his opportunity and attacked the Syracusan wall of investment. His attack succeeded; he broke through the works, and at once let loose his foreign mercenaries, bidding them deal as they pleased with all whom they met. The Syracusans, though they soon learned their misfortune, yet were slow to assemble, being taken by surprise; for the city was being sacked, the men slaughtered, the walls thrown down and the women and children being forced weeping into the citadel, while the generals gave up all for lost, and could make no use of the citizens, who were everywhere confusedly mixed up with the enemy.
XLII. While the city was in this condition, and the danger began to menace Achradina also, all men thought of him who was their last and only hope, but no one spoke of Dion, as they were all ashamed of the folly and ingratitude with which they had treated him. Sheer necessity, however, forced some of the auxiliary troops and the knights[494] to cry out that they must send for Dion and his Peloponnesians from Leontini.
As soon as any were found bold enough to raise this cry, the Syracusans shouted aloud, and rejoiced with tears, for they prayed that Dion would come, they longed to see him, and they remembered his courage and strength in time of danger, in which he not only remained calm and unmoved, but gave them confidence by his demeanour and caused them fearlessly and bravely to attack their enemies. They therefore at once sent off to him Archonides and Telesides, as representatives of the allies, and Hellanikus, with four others, of the knights. These men rode at full gallop to Leontini, arriving there late in the afternoon. When they dismounted, the first person they met was Dion, and with tears in their eyes they told him of the misfortunes which had befallen the Syracusans. Soon some of the citizens of Leontini fell in with them, and many of the Peloponnesians gathered round Dion, suspecting from the earnest and supplicatory tones and gestures of the ambassadors that something important had happened. Dion at once led the way to the public assembly, where all the people soon met together. Archonides and Hellanikus in a few words informed them of the great misfortune which had befallen the Syracusans, and besought the stranger mercenaries to help them and not to bear malice for the treatment which they had received, since the Syracusans had been more terribly punished for their misconduct than even the soldiers could have wished them to be.
XLIII. After they had ceased speaking, there was a great silence; and when Dion rose and began to speak, tears choked his utterance. The Peloponnesians encouraged him, and showed sympathy with him, and at length he mastered his emotion and said: "Men of Peloponnesus and Allies, I have assembled you here to deliberate about your own affairs.
As for myself, I cannot with honour deliberate while Syracuse is being destroyed, but if I cannot save my country, I will share her ruin and make her flames my own funeral pyre. As for you, if you can bring yourselves even now, after all that has passed, to help us, the most ill-advised and the most ill-fated of men, restore again by your own means alone the city of Syracuse. But if you hate the Syracusans and reject their appeal, then may you be rewarded by heaven for your former brave conduct and loyalty to me, and may you remember Dion, who would not desert you when you were wronged, and would not afterwards desert his fellow-countrymen when they were in trouble." While Dion was still speaking, the Peloponnesians leaped up with a shout, bidding him lead them as quickly as possible to the rescue, and the ambassadors from Syracuse embraced him, calling upon heaven to bless both him and the troops. When order was restored, Dion immediately began to prepare for the march, and ordered his men to go and eat their dinners at once, and then to assemble under arms in that very place; for he intended to march to Syracuse by night.
XLIV. Meanwhile at Syracuse the generals of Dionysius worked great ruin in the city while it was day, but when darkness came on retired into the citadel, having lost but few men. The popular leaders now took courage, and, expecting that the enemy would attempt nothing further, again called upon the people to have nothing to do with Dion, and, if he came with his foreign troops, not to admit him into the city and own themselves inferior to his men in courage, but to reconquer their city and their liberty by their own exertions. More embassies were now sent to Dion, from the generals dissuading him from coming, and from the knights and leading citizens entreating him to come quickly. This caused him to march more slowly, yet with greater determination. When day broke, the party opposed to Dion occupied the gates, in order to shut him out of the city, while Nypsius a second time led out the mercenaries from the citadel, in greater numbers and far more confident than before.
He at once levelled to the ground the whole of the works by which the citadel was cut off from the main land, and overran and pillaged the city. No longer men alone, but even women and children were slaughtered, and property of every kind mercilessly destroyed; for Dionysius, who now despaired of ultimate success, and bitterly hated the Syracusans, wished only, as it were, to bury the monarchy in the ruins of the city. In order to effect their purpose before Dion could come to the rescue, the soldiers destroyed the houses in the quickest way by setting them on fire, using torches for those near at hand, and shooting fiery arrows to those at a distance. As the Syracusans fled from their burning dwellings, some were caught and butchered in the streets, while others who took refuge in the houses perished in the flames, as now a large number of houses were burning, and kept falling upon the passers by.
XLV. This misfortune more than anything else caused all to be unanimous in opening the gates to Dion. He had been marching slowly, as he heard that the enemy were shut up in the citadel; but as the day went on, at first some of the knights rode up to him and told him of the second occupation of the city; and afterwards some even of the opposite faction arrived and begged him to hasten his march. As the danger became more pressing, Herakleides sent first his brother, and afterwards his uncle Theodotus, to beseech Dion to assist them, and to tell him that no one any longer could offer any resistance, that Herakleides himself was wounded, and that the whole city was within a little of being totally ruined and burned. When these messages reached Dion he was still sixty stadia distant from the gates of Syracuse. He explained to his troops the danger the city was in, spoke some words of encouragement to them, and then led them on, no longer at a walk, but at a run, while messenger after messenger continued to meet them and urge them to haste. At the head of his mercenaries, who displayed extraordinary speed and spirit, Dion made his way through the gates of Syracuse to the place called Hekatompedon. He at once sent his light-armed troops to attack the enemy, and to encourage the Syracusans by their presence, while he himself formed his own heavy infantry, and those of the citizens who rallied round him in separate columns under several commanders, in order to create greater terror by attacking the enemy at many points at once.
XLVI. When, after making these preparations, and offering prayer to the gods, he was beheld leading his troops through the city to attack the enemy, the Syracusans raised a shout of joy, with a confused murmur of prayers, entreaties and congratulations, addressing Dion as their saviour and their tutelary god, and calling the foreign soldiers their brethren and fellow-citizens. All of them, even the most selfish and cowardly, now appeared to hold Dion's life dearer than his own or that of his fellow-citizens, as they saw him lead the way to danger through blood and fire, and over the corpses which lay in heaps in the streets.
The enemy, too, presented a formidable appearance, for they were exasperated to fury, and had established themselves in a strong position, hard even to approach, amidst the ruins of the rampart by which the citadel had been cut off from the town; while the progress of the mercenary troops was rendered difficult and dangerous by the flames of the burning houses by which they were surrounded. They were forced to leap over heaps of blazing beams, and to run from under great masses of falling ruins, struggling forwards through thick smoke and choking dust, and yet striving to keep their ranks unbroken. When at length they reached the enemy, only a few could fight on either side, because of the narrowness of the path, but the Syracusans, pushing confidently forward with loud shouts, forced the troops of Nypsius to give way. Most of them escaped into the citadel, which was close at hand: but all the stragglers who were left outside, were pursued and put to death by the Peloponnesians. The Syracusans could not spare any time to enjoy their victory and to congratulate one another after such great successes, but betook themselves at once to extinguishing their burning houses, and with great exertions put out the fire during the night.
XLVII. As soon as day broke, all the popular leaders, conscious of their guilt, left the city, with the exception of Herakleides and Theodotus, who went of their own accord and delivered themselves up to Dion, admitting that they had done wrong, and begging that he would treat them better than they had treated him. They pointed out, also, how much he would enhance the lustre of his other incomparable virtues by showing himself superior even in the matter of temper to those by whom he had been wronged, who now came before him admitting that in their rivalry with him they had been overcome by his virtue. When Herakleides and his companion thus threw themselves upon the mercy of Dion, his friends advised him not to spare such envious and malignant wretches, but to deliver up Herakleides to his soldiers, and thus to put an end to mob rule, an evil quite as pestilent as despotism itself. Dion, however, calmed their anger, observing that other generals spent most of their time in practising war and the use of arms; but that he, during his long sojourn in the Academy, had learned to subdue his passions, and to show himself superior to jealousy of his rivals. True greatness of mind, he said, could be better shown by forgiving those by whom one has been wronged, than by doing good to one's friends and benefactors; and he desired not so much to excel Herakleides in power and generalship, as in clemency and justice, the only qualities which are truly good: for our successes in war, even if won by ourselves alone, yet can only be won by the aid of Fortune. "If," he continued, "Herakleides be jealous, treacherous and base, that is no reason for Dion to stain his glory by yielding to his anger; for though to revenge a wrong is held to be less culpable than to commit one, yet both alike spring from the weakness of human nature: while even though a man be wicked, yet he is seldom so hopelessly depraved as not to be touched by one who repeatedly returns good for evil."
XLVIII. After expressing himself thus, Dion released Herakleides. He next turned his attention to the fortification by which the citadel was cut off, and ordered each Syracusan to cut a stake and bring it to the spot. He allowed the citizens to rest during the night, but kept his mercenary soldiers at work, and by the next morning had completed the palisade, so that both the enemy and his own countrymen were astonished at the speed with which he had accomplished so great a work. He now buried the corpses of those citizens who had fallen in the battle, ransomed the prisoners, who amounted to no less than two thousand, and summoned an assembly, in which Herakleides proposed that Dion should be appointed absolute commander by land and by sea. All the better citizens approved of this, and wished it to be put to the vote, but it was thrown out by the interference of the mob of sailors and people of the lower classes, who were sorry that Herakleides had lost his post as admiral, and who thought that, although he might be worthless in all other respects, he was at any rate more of a friend to the people than Dion, and more easily managed by them. Dion conceded so much to them as to give Herakleides command of the fleet, but vexed them much by opposing their plans for a redistribution of land and houses, and by declaring void all that they had decided upon this subject. In consequence of this Herakleides, who at once entered upon his office of admiral, sailed to Messenia, and there by his harangues excited the sailors and soldiers under his command to mutiny against Dion, who, he declared, intended to make himself despot of Syracuse; while he, in the meanwhile, entered upon negotiations with Dionysius by means of the Spartan Pharax. When this was discovered by the Syracusan nobility, a violent quarrel arose in his camp, which led to the people of Syracuse being reduced to great want and scarcity, so that Dion was at his wit's end, and was bitterly reproached by his friends for having placed such an unmanageable and villainous rival as Herakleides in possession of power which he used against his benefactor.
XLIX. Pharax was now encamped at Neapolis, in the territory of Agrigentum, and Dion, who led out the Syracusans to oppose him, wished to defer an engagement; but Herakleides and the sailors overwhelmed him with their clamour, saying that he did not wish to bring the war to an