DIONYSIUS TILE ELDER (B.C. 431-307), Ty rant of Syracuse. Ile Was born in a private :Ail tion, and hegan life as a clerk in a public office. IIe fought vwith dist inetbm against the Ca rt Might ians, mull whom the Syracusans hail been at war since n.c. 41o. After the loss of Agrigentum through the failure of the Syfacusan generals to relieve the town. he eame forward as the of the commanders. and succeeded in securing the appointment of other officers, of whom lie was himself one. Ile soon, however, supplanted his colleagues, and made himself tyrant of the city. This was in me. 400. Ile had already• provided himself with a bodyguard of 1000 m, and he now strengthened his position by marrying the daughter of Ilermocrates, the leader of the aris tocratic party. The titre from this latter event to uses 397, when the next war with Carthage began, he employed in still further strengthening and extending his power in Sicily. In the new war With Carthage he was at first successful in his operations, Lilt whin. in me, 390, fresh troops were sent to the islaml, he found himself blockaded in Syracuse and in serious danger of being deprived of his power. lint, a pestilence breaking out in the Carthaginian fleet. the tyrant seized the opportunity to surprise the enemy's fleet and army. Ile was shrewd enough, how ever, not to push his advantage too far, and turned his attention next to those I:reeks, espe cially the Greeks in lower Italy, who were still independent. In It.c. 392 he Was interrupted in his plans by a renewal of hostilities on the part of the Carthaginians. but this struggle was soon
terminated by a perlee, in which Carthage recog nized the tyrant as ruler of a large part of eastern Sicily. Ile now once more turned to lower Italy, and in wc, 3S7, after a siege of eleven months, captured Ithegium. Thus the whole southern corner of Italy• came under his rule. In n.c. and again in n.e. 379, he fond hint-elf in his last conflict with the Carthaginians. who on both occasbms tried to attack him by way of lower Italy. From this time till his death in n.c. 307, he ruled without opposition. Ilk influence was groat throughout the G•eeian world. In i.e.! 373 he assisted the Spartan- against the Athenians, in uses 369 he supported the who were then invading the Peloponnesus, and in 11.c. 3e0: his trumps took part in the Tearless Battle on the side of Sparta. .As a ruler, Dionysitts was eruct and unserupu Ions. Ile did minh, however, for the material prosperity of Syracuse, which tinder his rule be e:me the most brilliant of Grecian cities, Ile sent deputiesto the Olympic. games, and him self contended for the prize of tragedy at 'et lions, reeeiving in ti.e. 307 the first prize for a tragedy called 7'11( It( t ',soot of Hector. lie aimed also to have a literary court. and attracted thereto at different times the lyric poet Fhiloxenus, the philosopher Aristippus, and Plato. Consult: l 1 (dm, Sirilirris. vol. ii. (Idpzig.
1ST (1rote. 1 1 (Rion, of v xi London, 1~.12-531: and Freeman, History of Sic Hy iii. iy., Oxford. is91-94).