Dion

The tyrant also bore with his freedom of speech, and Dion was almost the only one who spoke his mind fearlessly, as, for example, when he rebuked Dionysius for what he said about Gelon. The tyrant was ridiculing the government of Gelon,[*](Gelon had been tyrant of Syracuse 485-478 B.C.) and when he said that Gelon himself, true to his name, became the laughing-stock (gelos) of Sicily, the rest of his hearers pretended to admire the joke, but Dion was disgusted and said: Indeed, thou art now tyrant because men trusted thee for Gelon’s sake; but no man hereafter will be trusted for thy sake.

For, as a matter of fact, Gelon seems to have made a city under absolute rule a very fair thing to look upon, but Dionysius a very shameful thing.

Dionysius had three children by his Locrian wife, and four by Aristomache, two of whom were daughters, Sophrosyne and Arete. Sophrosyne became the wife of his son Dionysius,[*](Cf. chapter iii. 3. ) and Arete of his brother Thearides, but after the death of Thearides, Arete became the wife of Dion, her uncle.