Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/256

 232 HISTORY OF GREECE. complied readily with the demand, rendering an account so exact and faithful, that the sons of Anaxilaus themselves entrec^ted him to remain and govern, — or more probably to lend his aid to their government. This request he tVas wise enough to refuse : he removed his own property and retired to Tegea in Arcadia. Hiero died shortly afterwards, of the complaint under which he had so long suffered, after a reign of ten years. ^ On the death of Hiero, the succession was disputed between his brother Thrasybulus, and his nephew, the youthful son of Gelo, so that the partisans of the family became thus divided. Thrasybulus, surrounding his nephew with temptations to luxuri- ous pleasure, contrived to put him indirectly aside, and thus to seize the government for himself.2 This family division, — a curse often resting upon the blood-relations of Grecian despots, and leading to the greatest atrocities,3 — coupled with the con- duct of Thrasybulus himself, caused the downfall of the mighty Gelonian dynasty. The bad qualities of Hiero were now seen greatly exaggerated, but without his energy, in Thrasybulus, — who put to deith many citizens, and banished still more, for the purpose of seizing their property, until at length he provoked among the Syracusans intense and universal hatred, shared even by many of the old Gelonian partisans. Though he tried to strengthen himself by increasing his mercenary force, he could ' Diodor. xi, 66. ^ Aristotel. Politic, t, 8, 19. Diodorus does not mention the son of Gelo. ]Ir. Fynes Clinton (Fasti Hellenici, App. chap. 10, p. 264, seq.) has dis- cussed all the main points connected with Syracusan and Sicilian chron- ology. '■' Xenophon, Hiero, iii, 8. El rolvvv i&Eleic KuravoElv, evpfjaeig fikv Toi)c idiurar vno tovtdv fiakiara (pilovfisvovc, Toi)c 6s rvpuvvovg TzoXkoic filv nalSa^ tavTuv aTTSKTovrjKOTac, 7ro?i,/loi)f 6' inzb TraiSiJv avrovg u7ro/l«?.6raf, TToTiAovc (5e udelfovQ tv Tvpavv'iGiv u?ATi?^o(p6vovc yeyevrjfievov^, 7ro/l/'.oi)f 61 koI VTrd yvvacKuv tC>v kavrijv rvpavvovg 6u(p-dap[iivov^, Koi vtto traipuv ye ruv jiuliara 6okovv-cjv <^Dmv elvai: compare Isokrates, De Pace, Orat. viii, p. 182, § 138. So also Tacitus (Hist, v, 9) respecting the native kings of Judaea, after the expulsion of the Syrian dynasty : " Sibi ipsi reges imposuere : qui, mobilitate vulgi expulsi, resumpta per arma dominatione, fugas civium, urbium eversiones, — fratrum, conjugum, parentum, neces, — aliaque solita reqibus misi," etc.