Timoleon

Upon this, Dionysius stopped and said: It is good of thee, O Diogenes, to sympathize with me in my misfortunes. How is that? said Diogenes; Dost thou suppose that I am sympathizing with thee? Nay, I am indignant that such a slave as thou, and one so worthy to have grown old and died in the tyrant’s estate, just as thy father did, should be living here with us in mirth and luxury.

Wherefore, when I compare with these words the mournful utterances of Philistus about the daughters of Leptines, how from the great blessings of the tyranny they fell to a lowly life, they seem the lamentations of a woman who pines for her alabaster caskets and purple gowns and golden trinkets.

These details, then, will not seem foreign to my biography, I think, nor without usefulness, to readers who are not in haste, and are not occupied with other matters.

But though the misfortune of Dionysius seemed extraordinary, none the less did the good fortune of Timoleon have something marvellous about it.

For within fifty days after his landing in Sicily the acropolis of Syracuse was surrendered to him and Dionysius was sent off to Peloponnesus.

Stimulated by this success, the Corinthians sent him two thousand men-at-arms and two hundred horsemen. These got as far as Thurii, but seeing that their passage thence was impracticable, since the sea was beset with many Carthaginian ships, they were compelled to remain there quietly and await their opportunity, and therefore turned their leisure to advantage in a most noble action.

When the Thurians, namely, went on an expedition against the Bruttians, the Corinthians received their city in charge, and guarded it honestly and faithfully to the end, as though it were their own.