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 124 DIONYSIUS by the pestilence, and the remainder pur- chased from Dionysius the privilege of a free departure. In the treaty which followed, the restrictions which had been imposed by the last treaty upon the government of Syracuse were removed. Dionysius carried on also a third and fourth war with Carthage, the re- sults of which seem to have been only to rees- tablish the terms of the former peace. The intervals between these wars were harassed by the revolts of his subjects, which he avenged with cruelties. The frequent attempts upon his life made him suspicious. He durst not trust even his relatives, and his body guard was formed of foreigners. His palace was sur- rounded by a ditch, crossed by a drawbridge, and when he harangued the people it was from the top of a lofty tower. He built the terrible prison of the lautumice, cut deep into the solid rock ; another of his prisons was so arranged that every word spoken within it was reechoed into his chamber, and he is said to have passed entire days listening to the complaints of his victims. But tradition, in making of Dionysius the type of cruelty, has doubtless transmitted many unauthenticated stories concerning him. Dionysius was long engaged in ambitious pro- jects against the Greek cities of southern Italy. He formed an alliance with the Lo- crians, and after suffering some reverses be- sieged and conquered Rhegium (387). Italy was now open to him, and he sought by estab- lishing colonies upon the Adriatic to secure for himself a way into Greece. Already his name was known in the Peloponnesus, where he had contracted an alliance with the Lace- daemonians. He was now the recognized mas- ter of southern Italy, interfered in the affairs of the Illyrians, sent an army into Epirus, and received an offer of friendship from the Gauls, who had burned Rome. His settlements upon the Adriatic increased his wealth and strength- ened his power, but they were his last great undertakings, and henceforth he disappears from history. His reign, which lasted 38 years, became milder toward its close. He left an immense military force and a powerful empire ; and though he had governed as a tyrant, the old republican forms remained. Dionysius had a passion for literature, and wrote lyrics and tragedies, none of which have been preserved. II. The Younger, son and successor of the pre- ceding, born early in the 4th century B. 0. On his accession to power in 367 he was en- tirely unused to public affairs, and devoted to pleasure. He hastened to conclude a peace wilh the Carthaginians, abandoned his father's projects of foreign settlements and power, and gave himself up to luxury and sensuality. His brother-in-law Dion undertook to excite him to a noble career. He conversed with him upon the doctrines of Plato, and through his influence that philosopher was invited to re- visit the court of Syracuse, at which under the elder Dionysius he had met with very unfavor- able treatment. Plato proposed an amendment to the constitution, changing the government from nominal democracy and real despotism to a limited popular authority, in which all the members of the ruling family should form a col- lege of princes; but the monarch rejected this proposal. Soon afterward he took up his resi- dence in Locri, and gained some advantages against the Lucanians; but the wild orgies to which he surrendered himself drew upon him the contempt both of his subjects and of for- eigners. With a small band of exiles, and with two vessels laden with arms, Dion landed in Sicily in 357, and was joined by thousands as he marched toward Syracuse. Dionysius, hear- ing of his coming, instantly returned from Lo- cri, but his troops were defeated, and he was obliged to retreat to the citadel ; and finding it impossible to retain his power, he collected his most valuable property and fled to Italy, leav- ing the citadel in possession of his son and friends. He returned to Locri, where he was kindly received ; but he took advantage of the good will of the people to make himself tyrant of their city, and treat them with the greatest cruelty. He held Locri thus for several years ; but in 846 he availed himself of internal dis- sensions in Syracuse to recover his power in his old capital, and continued to reign there durh the next three years. The former Syracuse empire was now, however, in fragments ; am even the garrison which defended the tyrant in the citadel was rebellious. Timoleon, th< Corinthian, landed in Sicily, and march* against Syracuse, and Dionysius consented an arrangement, by which he was allowed depart in safety to Corinth (343). He passe< the remainder of his life with low associates, supporting himself, according to various tradi- tions, as schoolmaster, actor, and mendicant priest of Cybele. DIOMSIUS, or Denis (Port. DINIZ), king of Portugal, born in Lisbon, Oct. 9, 1261, died at Santarem, Jan. 7, 1325. He was the son of Alfonso III., whom he succeeded Feb. 16, 1279. He associated with himself in the government his mother Beatrix de Guzman, but soon quar- relled with her because slie favored the cause of his younger brother Alfonso, who aspired to the throne. Beatrix retired to the court of her father, Alfonso X. of Castile and Leon, and Dionysius strengthened his power by mar- rying in 1283 Elizabeth of Aragon, afterward canonized as St. Elizabeth. He at once set about making reforms in his kingdom. lie re- stricted the power of the clergy, reformed the administration of civil and criminal justice, restrained the arrogance of the nobles, pro- moted industry and commerce, and augment- ed the public revenues by a wise administra- tion. He visited all the provinces that had been laid waste by the wars of his predeces- sors, built and fortified over 40 cities and towns, planted the forest of Leiria, which two centuries after furnished the timber for the ships which gave Portugal her maritime as- cendancy, opened and worked the mines in his