Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/496

 474 HISTORY OF GREECE. organization, but were also disarmed. For these mercenaries either pay was to be provided from the contributions of the citi- zens, or lands from their properties ; for them, and for other par tisans also, Dionysius had enforced spoliations and tansfers of land and house-property by wholesale. 1 Now, while the despot him- self was inflicting tyrannical sentences for his own purposes, we may be sure that these men, the indispensable instruments of his tyranny, would neither of themselves be disposed to respect the tranquillity of the other citizens, nor be easily constrained to do so. It was not, therefore, merely from the systematic misrule of the chief that the Syracusans had to suffer, but also from the inso- lence and unruly appetites of the subordinates. And accordingly they would be doubly gainers, when Dionysius, from anxiety to attack the Carthaginians, thought it prudent to soften the rigor of his own proceedings ; since his example, and in case of need his interference, would restrict the license of his own partisans. The desire for foreign conquest made it now his interest to conciliate some measure of good-will from the Syracusans ; or at least tc silence antipathies which might become embarrassing if they broke out in the midst of a war. And he had in this case the advantage of resting on another antipathy, powerful and genuine in their minds. Hating as well as fearing Carthage, the Syracu- sans cordially sympathized in the aggressive schemes of Diony- sius against her; which held out a prospect of relief from the tyranny under which they groaned, and some chance of procuring a restoration of the arms snatched from them. 2 Towards the Sicilian Greeks, also, the conduct of Dionysiua was mainly influenced by his anti-Carthaginian projects, which made him eager to put aside, or at least to defer, all possibilities of war in other quarters. The inhabitants of Rhegium, on the Italian side of the Strait of Messina, had recently manifested a disposition to attack him. They were of common Chalkidic ori- gin with Naxos and Katana, the two cities which Dionysius had recently conquered and enslaved. Sixteen years before, when the powerful Athenian armament visited Sicily with the ostensible view of protecting the Chalkidic cities against Syracuse, the Rhe- gines in spite of their fellowship of race, had refused the invita- tion of Nikias 3 to lend assistance, being then afraid of Athena 1 Piodor. xiv, 7. 2 Biodor. xiv, 45. 3 Thucyd. vi, 46