Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/412

 390 HISTORY OF GREECE. its penalties were extremely severe, its determination of offences minute and special, and its language often obscure as well as brief. It was known by the name of the Laws of Diokles, the chief of the Committee who had prepared it. Though now adopted at Syracuse, it did not last long ; for we shall find in five or six years the despotism cf Dionysius extinguishing it, just as Peisi- stratus had put down the Solonian legislation at Athens. But it was again revived at the extinction of the Dionysian dynasty, after the lapse of more than sixty years ; with comments and modifications by a committee, among whose members were the Corinthians Kephalus and Timoleon. It is also said to have been copied in various other Sicilian cities, and to have remained in force until the absorption of all Sicily under the dominion of the Romans. 1 "We have the austere character of Diokles illustrated by a story (of more than dubious credit, 2 and of which the like is recounted respecting other Grecian legislators), that having inadvertently violated* one of his own enactments, he enforced the duty of obe- dience by falling on his own sword. But unfortunately we are not permitted to know the substance of his laws, which would, have thrown so much light on the sentiments and position of the Sicilian Greeks. Nor can we distinctly make out to what extent the political constitution of Syracuse was now changed. For though Diodorus tells us that the lot was now applied to the nom- ination of magistrates, yet he does not state whether it was applied to all magistrates, or under what reserves and exceptions such, for example, as those adopted at Athens. Aristotle too states that the Syracusan people, after the Athenian siege, changed their con- stitution from a partial democracy into an entire democracy. Yet he describes Dionysius, five or six years afterwards, as pushing himself up to the despotism, by the most violent demagcgic oppo sition ; and as having accused, disgraced, and overthrown certain rich leaders then in possession of the functions of government. 3 If the constitutional forms were rendered more democratical, it Would seem that the practice cannot have materially changed, and 1 Diodor. xii, 33-35. 1 AristoteL Politic v, 3, 6. Kal kv Zvpaxovaaii; 6 cS^uof. a<-iOf yevouevot.
 * Compare Diodor, xiii, 75 about the banishment of D okles.