Dion

But what most of all encouraged them was the accidental absence of Dionysius from Syracuse; for it chanced that he had recently sailed with eighty ships to Italy.

Therefore, even though Dion urged his soldiers to recruit themselves here after their long hardships on the sea, they would not consent to it, so eager were they of themselves to seize their opportunity, but urged him to lead them towards Syracuse.

Accordingly, he deposited his superfluous arms and baggage there, asked Synalus to send them to him as opportunity offered, and marched against Syracuse.

As he was on his way thither, first he was joined by two hundred horsemen belonging to the Agrigentines who dwelt about Ecnomum, and then by men of Gela.

But the report of his doings quickly flew to Syracuse, where Timocrates, who had married Dion’s wife, the sister of Dionysius, and who stood at the head of the tyrant’s friends now left in the city, speedily sent off a messenger to Dionysius with letters announcing the arrival of Dion.