Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/131

 DIONYSIUS 123 an insect can hardly traverse it without touch- ing one of them, when the two sides suddenly close upon the prey, the fringe of the opposite sides interlacing, like the fingers of the two hands clasped together. The sensitiveness re- sides only in these hair-like processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched or pressed in any other part without effect. Soon the sides of the trap press down firmly upon the captive (when the fringe separates) ; the liquid is poured out, and finally absorbed, when the trap opens, and sometimes recovers its activity so as to capture a second insect. Ellis (and probably Bartram) noticed the glands and the fluid, but thought it was a lure for flies. Cur- tis showed that it appeared only after the cap- ture. Canby lately proved that it was secreted by the leaf, and taken in again ; also that bits of meat were similarly digested. Darwin had Dionsea muscipula. ascertained the same, also that this "gastric juice " had an acid reaction. He has also made the (still unpublished) discovery that either side of the trap may be paralyzed at will by a dexterous incision, indicating the existence in a plant of something corresponding to nerves. Burdon Sanderson has shown that in the clos- ing movement the same electrical currents are developed as in muscular contraction. DIONYSIUS, tyrants of Syracuse. I. The Elder, born in 431 or 430 B. 0., died in* 367. After completing his education he became a clerk in a public office, which he appears to have left at an early age to enter the army. In the political quarrels of the citizens he took the side of Hermocrates, and was severely wounded in aiding that party leader in his at- tempt to gain his restoration from exile. He afterward served with merit in the war against the Carthaginians. He availed himself of the general discontent with the conduct of the war to come forward in the popular assembly as the accuser of the unsuccessful Syracusan commanders, who had suffered Agrigentum and other important cities of Sicily to be taken. He displayed so much vigor, and the condition of Syracuse was so critical, that he obtained a decree for deposing the obnoxious generals, and for appointing others in their stead, and was himself elected among the new officers. He then brought false accusations against his associates, and the people in 405 appointed him sole general, with full powers, and allowed him a body guard. He now began those mea- sures which made him proverbial in antiquity as a tyrant. Concerning himself no longer for the deliverance of Sicily from the Carthagin- ians, he aimed only to subdue his native city. He induced the Syracusans to double the pay of the soldiers, appointed officers who were in his own interest, and by marrying the daughter of Hermocrates secured the support of the par- tisans of that leader. As commander-in-chief of the Sicilians, who had concentrated their forces at Gela, he offered battle to the Cartha- ginians in a manner so unskilful as to make it probable that he did not regret the defeat in which it resulted. He withdrew the inhabi- tants of Gela and Camarina to Leontini, and left the whole S. W. coast to the Cartha- ginians. This reverse enabled his enemies to raise a revolt in Syracuse, where he was now looked upon as a manifest traitor. They gained possession of the city, but their plans being disconcerted by the sudden return of Diony- sius, they were driven out, though not until his wife had fallen a victim to their cruelty. The Carthaginian generals now besieged Syra- cuse, but the plague having broken out in their camp, they were satisfied with the immense advantages offered them by Dionysius without storming the place. He was recognized as ruler of Syracuse, and of a district around the city, but was to resign all claim to dominion over the island. He availed himself of the peace to establish his tyranny more firmly; and having fortified the isle of Ortygia, and ex- cluded from it all but his immediate depen- dants, he built upon it a citadel which might serve as an impregnable asylum. The Cartha- ginians lost the advantages of the peace through negligence. Syracuse had in six years recov- ered her strength, and Dionysius undertook the, recapture of the cities he had surrendered. The immense preparations which he made form an epoch in ancient military history. His machinists invented engines for throwing mis- siles, and especially devised the catapult. He also constructed ships having four or five banks of rowers, instead of the old triremes. He gained at first great success, and conquered Motya, the ancient seat of the Carthaginian dominion (396). His flee*t, however, was de- feated by that of the Carthaginians, which rav- aged the northern coast of the island, over- powered Messana and Catana, and laid siege to Syracuse (395). But the plague, or some similar malady, again breaking out in the camp of the enemy, proved the safety of the city. Nearly the whole Carthaginian army was lost