Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/281

 DION. 273 Dion entered by the Menitid gate,* and, having by sound of trumpet quieted the noise of the people, he caused prochimatiou to be made, that Dion and Megacles, who were come to overthrow the tyrannical govern- ment, did declare the S;)Tacusans and all other Sicihana to be free from the tyrant. But, being desirous to ha- rangue the people himself, he went up through the Achradina. The citizens on each side the way brought victims for sacrifice, set out their tables and goblets, and as he passed by each door threw flowers and ornaments upon him, with vows and acclamations, honoring him as a god. There was under the castle and the Pentapylaf a lofty and conspicuous sundial, which Dionysius had set up. Getting up upon the top of that, he made an oration to the people, caUing upon them to maintain and defend their liberty ; who, with great expressions of joy and acknowledgment, created Dion and Megacles gen- erals, with plenary powers, joining in commission with them, at their desire and entreaty, twenty colleagues, of whom half were of those that had returned with them out of banishment It seemed also to the diviners a most happy omen, that Dion, when he made his address to the people, had imder his feet the stately monument which Dionysius had been at such pains to erect; but because it was a sundial on which he stood when he was made general, they expressed some fears that the great actions he had performed might be subject to change, and admit some rajDid turn and declination of fortune. After this, Dion, taking the Epipolte, released the citi- zens who were imprisoned there, and then raised a wall to invest the cdstle. Seven days after, Dionysius arrived but more probably the Temfnitid ground. gates, near the statue of Apol- t The Five Gates, the entrance to lo, called Temenites, who had the citadel or acropolis in Ortygia. VOL. v. 18
 * Menitid in the manuscripts, here his (emenos, or sacred lot of