Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/52

 26 HISTOBi OF GREECE. Becond or third, and that one of his compositions gained even the lirst pri/e at the Lenaean festival at Athens, 1 in 368-367 B. c. the favorable judgment of an Athenian audience affords good reason for presuming that his poetical talents were considerable. During the years immediately succeeding 387 B. c., however, Dionysius the poet was not likely to receive an impartial hearing anywhere. For while on the one hand his own circle would ap- plaud every word on the other hand, a large proportion of in- dependent Greeks would be biassed against what they heard by their fear and hatred of the author. If we believed the anecdotes recounted by Diodorus, we should conclude not merely that the tragedies were contemptible compositions, but that the irritability of Dionysius in regard to criticism was exaggerated even to silly weakness. The dithyrambic poet Philoxenus, a resident or visitor at Syracuse, after hearing one of these tragedies privately recited, was asked his opinion. He gave an unfavorable opinion, for which he was sent to prison : 2 on the next day the intercession of friends procured his release, and he contrived afterwards, by deli- cate wit and double-meaning phrases, to express an inoffensive sentiment without openly compromising truth. At the Olympic festival of 388 B. c., Dionysius had sent some of his compositions to Olympia, together with the best actors and chorists to recite them. But so contemptible were the poems (we are told), that in spite of every advantage of recitation, they were disgracefully hissed and ridiculed ; moreover the actors in coming back to Sy- racuse were shipwrecked, and the crew of the ship ascribed all the suffering of their voyage to the badness of the poems en- trusted to them. The flatterers of Dionysius, however (it is said), still continued to extol his genius, and to assure him that his ulti mate success as a poet, though for a time interrupted by envy, was infallible ; which Dionysius believed, and continued to com- pose tragedies without being disheartened. 3 Amidst such malicious jests, circulated by witty men at the ex- pense of the princely poet, we may trace some important matter 1 Diodor. xv. 74. See Mr. Fynes Clinton, Fast. He lien, ad ann.3G7 B.C. '* See a different version of the story about Pliiloxenus in Plutarch, I)e Foitun. Alexand. Magni, p. 334 C
 * J)iodor. xiv. 109; xv. G.