Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/76

 50 HISTORY OF GKKECE. pressing upon it, we are but little informed. We ki.ow however that his exactions from the Syracusans were exorbitant ;' that he did not hesitate to strip the holiest temples ; and that he left be- hind him a great reputation for ingenious tricks in extracting mon ey from his subjects. 2 Besides the large garrison of foreign mer cenaries by whom his orders were enforced, he maintained a reg ular body of spies, seemingly of both sexes, disseminated among the body of the citizens. 3 The vast quarry-prison of Syracuse was his work. 4 Both the vague general picture, and the fragmentary details which come before us, of his conduct towards the Syracu- sans, present to us nothing but an oppressive and extortionate ty rant, by whose fiat numberless victims perished ; more than ten thousand according to the general language of Plutarch. 5 He en- riched largely his younger brothers and auxiliaries ; among which latter, Hipparinus stood prominent, thus recovering a fortune equal to or larger than that which his profligacy had dissipated. 6 But we hear also of acts of Dionysius, indicating a jealous and cruel temper, even towards near relatives. And it appears cer- tain that he trusted no one, not even them ; 7 that though in the 1 Aristotel. Politic, v. 9, 5. 2 Pseudo-Aristotcl. (Economic, ii. c. 21,42; Cicero, De Nat. Dcorum, iii. 34, 83, 84; Valerius Maxim, i. 1. 3 Plutarch, Dion, c. 28 ; Plutarch, De Curiositate, p. 523 A ; Aristotel. Politic, v. 9, 3. The titles of these spies ai TrorayuyWcf Kahovfievai as we read in Aristotle ; or oi norayuyeie as we find in Plutarch may perhaps both be correct. 4 Cicero in Verrem, v. 55, 143. 8 Plutarch, De Fortuna Alcxandr. Magni, p. 338 B. What were thu crimes of Dionysius which Pausanias had read and describes by the gen- eral words Aiovvaiov TU uvoaiurara and which he accuses Philistus of having intentionally omitted in his history we cannot now tell (Pausan. i. 13, 2: compare Plutarch, Dion, c. 36). An author named Amyntianus, contemporary with Pausanias, and among those perused by Photius (Codex 131), had composed parallel lives of Dionysius and the Emperor Domitian. 6 Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 332 A; Aristol. Politic, v. 5, 6. 7 Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 332 D. Aioviiatof 6 elf /niav Tro/Uv udpoiaae iruaav 2tK/Uov i>7rd aoipiaf, TTLOTEVUV ovScvi, fio-ytf iaudri, et<% This brief, but significant expression of Plato, attests the excessive mis- trust which haunted Dionysius, as a general fact ; which is illustrated by the anecdotes of Cicero, Tuscul. Disput. v. 20, 23 ; and De Omeiis, ii. 7 ; Plutarch, Dion, c. 9 ; Diodor. xiv. 2. The well-known anecdote of Damokle?, and the sword which Dionysiiu