Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/482

 1GO HISTORY OF GREECE. could be properly (ailed a citizen under his despotism. Even the recently enfranchised slaves became new citizens and proprie- tors as well as the rest. 1 Respecting this sweeping change of property, it is mortifying to have no farther information than is contained in two or three brief sentences of Diodorus. As a basis for entire redivision of lands, Dionysius would find himself already possessed of the pro- perty of those Syracusan Horsemen or Knights whom he had recently put down or banished. As a matter of course, the'ir property would be confiscated, and would fall into his possession for reassignment. It would doubtless be considerable, inasmuch as these Horsemen were for the most part wealthy men. From this basis, Dionysius enlarged his scheme to the more comprehen- sive idea of a general spoliation and reappropriation, for the bene- fit of his partisans and his mercenary soldiers. The number of these last we do not know ; but on an occasion not very long after- wards, the mercenaries under him are mentioned as amounting to about ten thousand. 2 To ensure landed properties to each of these men, together with the monopoly of residence in Ortygia, nothing less than a sweeping confiscation would suffice. How far the equality of share, set forth in principle, was or could be ad- hered to in practice, we cannot say. The maxim of allowing residence in Ortygia to none but friends and partisans, passed from Dionysius into a traditional observance for future anti-popu- lar governments of Syracuse. The Roman consul Marcellus, when he subdued the city near two centuries afterwards, prescribed the rule of admitting into the islet none but Romans, and of ex- cluding all native Syracusan residents. 3 1 Diodor. xiv, 7. T^f 6e %upas rqv [lev apiarijv tfe^Oftevof idupqaa-o roZf re QiXoif Kal Tolf 1$' qyeftovtac Tera-y/^evoif TTJV 6 y u^TiTjv ifiepiaev re Kal Tro/ltr;;, avfiirepihapuv T<J riJv Tro/lirdiv ovo/ian oiKiag roif ox'Aoic, n?^v TUV h Ty N^cru Tairaf (5e rotf <r&o<p6pois kduprjaaTO. 'Ejrei 6e rit Kara TIJV rvpavviSa vai, etc. So also, after the death of the elder Dionysius, Plutarch speaks of his military force as having been papfiupuv fivpiavdpov $v?^aKi)v (Plutarch, Dion. c. 10). These expressions however have little pretence to numerical accuracy. 3 Cicero in Verrem, v. 32, 84 ; 38, 98.
 * Diodor. xiv, 78.