Dion

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.

At this proceeding, which seemed to men a cruel one, the women in the household of the tyrant put on mourning, but the citizens of Syracuse were cheered by the expectation of a revolution and a speedy change in the government, since Dion’s treatment caused such a commotion and the rest of the courtiers distrusted the tyrant.

Dionysius saw this and was afraid, and sought to console the friends of Dion and the women by saying that he had not sent Dion into exile, but upon a journey, in order that his wrath at the man’s self-will when at home might not drive him to do him some worse wrong.

He also handed over two ships to the kinsmen of Dion and bade them to put on board whatever property and servants of Dion’s they pleased and convey them to him in Peloponnesus.

Now, Dion had great riches and an almost princely splendour of appointment in his way of living, and this his friends got together and conveyed to him.

Besides, many other things were sent to him from the women of the court and from his adherents, so that, as far as wealth and riches went, he was a brilliant figure among the Greeks, to whom the affluence of the exile gave some idea of the power of the tyrant.