XX. Strabo also calls Ancona a Syracusan colony 37, but CHAP. ascribes its foundation to some exiles who fled from the tyranny of Dionysius. That there was a Greek population there, and that the Greek language was prevalent, is proved by its coins; yet, on the other hand, Scylax, though he names Ancona, does not call it a Greek city, a circumstance which he rarely or never omits, when he is speaking of Greek cities built on a foreign coast. The probability is, that the death of Dionysius and the subsequent decline of his power, left these remote colonies to themselves; that their communication with Greece and Sicily was greatly checked by the growing piracies of the Illyrians, and that they admitted, either willingly or by necessity, an intermixture of barbarian citizens from the surrounding nations, which destroyed or greatly impaired their Greek character. But it marks the power of Dionysius, that at one and the same time he should have been founding colonies on the coast of the Adriatic, and that on the other side of Italy he should have been master of the sea without opposition, insomuch that, under pretence of restraining the piracies of the Etruscans, he appeared with a fleet of sixty triremes on the coast of Etruria, passed the mouth of the Tiber almost within sight of Rome, landed on the territory of Cære, defeated the inhabitants who came out to resist him, sacked their sea-port of Pyrgi, and carried off from the plunder of the temple of Leucothea 39 , or Mater Matuta, a sum computed at no less than a thousand talents. 38 The mention of this eminent man leads me naturally to Sicily, to take some notice of the heart and root of that mighty dominion which spread out its arms so 37 V. 4, § 2, p. 241. 38 Diodorus, XV. 14. PseudoAristotle, Econom. II. p. 1349. Ed. Bekker. 39 Ελαβεν ἐκ τοῦ τῆς Λευκοθέας XX. CHAP. widely and so vigorously. Besides, the Roman history has hitherto presented us with nothing but general pictures, or sketches rather, of the state of the Commonwealth as a whole: individuals have been as little prominent as the figures in a landscape: they have been too subordinate, and occupied too small a space in the picture, to enable us to form any distinct notion of their several features. But Dionysius out-topped by his personal renown the greatness of the events in which he was an actor; he stood far above all his contemporaries, as the most remarkable man in the western part of the civilized world. We may be allowed then to overstep the limits of Italy, and to consider the fortunes and character of a man who was the ruler of Syracuse and of Sicily during a period of nearly forty years in the middle of the fourth century of Rome. CHAPTER XXI. DIONYSIUS THE ELDER, TYRANT OF SYRACUSE. Πόπλιον Σκιπίωνά φασι ἐρωτηθέντα, τίνας ὑπολαμβάνει πραγματικωτάτους ἄνδρας γεγονέναι καὶ σὺν νῷ τολμηροτάτους, εἰπεῖν, τοὺς περὶ ̓Αγαθοκλέα καὶ Διονύσιον τοὺς Σικελιώτας.—Καὶ περὶ μὲν τῶν τοιούτων ἀνδρῶν εἰς ἐπίστασιν ἄγειν τοὺς ἀναγινώσκοντας . . . καὶ καθόλου προστιθέναι τὸν ἐπεκδιδάσκοντα λόγον—ἁρμόζει.—POLYBIUS, XV. 35. XXI. State of before the THE history of colonies seldom offers the noblest CHAP. specimens of national character. The Syracusan people, made up in the course of a long alternation of Syracuse tyrannies and factions, out of the most various ele- tyranny of Dionysius. ments, had been bound together by no comprehensive code of laws, and from their very circumstances they could not find a substitute for such a code in the authority of ancient and inherited rites of religion, and of the manners and customs of their fathers. crates and The richer citizens, who often possessed very large Hermofortunes, were always suspected, and probably not Diocles. without reason, of aiming at making themselves tyrants; whilst the people possessing actual power, yet feeling that its tenure was precarious, were disposed to be suspicious even beyond measure, and were prone to violence and cruelty. The Athenian invasion, by obliging the Syracusans to fit out a great naval force, had increased, as usual, the power of the poorer classes', who always formed the great mass of 1 Aristotle, Politic. V. 4. XXI. CHAP. the seamen in the Greek commonwealths: while on the other hand, although Hermocrates, one of the most eminent of the aristocratical leaders, had personally displayed great courage and ability, and although the cavalry in which the richest citizens served had always acquitted itself well, yet the heavy-armed infantry, which contained the greatest proportion of the upper classes, had gained little credit; and the victory over the invaders had been won by the seamen of Syracuse far more than by its soldiers. Thus the popular party became greatly strengthened by the issue of the invasion: Hermocrates and some of his friends were banished2, while Diocles, the head of the popular party, a man somewhat resembling the tribune Rienzi, a sincere and stern reformer, but whose zealous imagination conceived schemes beyond his power to compass, endeavoured at once to give to his countrymen a pure democracy, and to establish it on its only sure foundation, by building it upon a comprehensive system of national law. Code of 3 Of the details of this code we know nothing. Diodorus ascribes to it the high merits of conciseness and precision, and while he speaks of it as severe, he praises it for its discrimination in proportioning its punishments to the magnitude of the crime. But its best praise is, that it continued to enjoy the respect, not only of the Syracusans, but of other Sicilian states also, till the Roman law superseded it. This was the law of Syracuse, and Diocles was the lawgiver; while others, who in the time of Timoleon, and again in the reign of Hiero, either added to it or modified it, were called by no other title than expounders of the law1 ; as if the only allowed object for succeeding legislators 2 Xenoph. Hellenic. I. i. § 27. Thucydides, VIII. 85. 3 Diodorus, XIII. 34, 35. 4 Εξηγητὴν τοῦ νομοθέτου. Diodor. XIII. 35. was to ascertain the real meaning of the code of CHAP. Diocles, and not to alter it. XXI. the aristo party But democracy and law, when first introduced Efforts of amongst a corrupt and turbulent people, require to be cratical fostered under the shelter of profound peace. Un- against it. luckily for Diocles, his new constitution was born to stormy times; its promulgation was coincident with the renewal of the Carthaginian invasions of Sicily, after an interval of nearly a century. "War," says Thucydides, “makes men's tempers as hard as their circumstances." The Syracusan government was engaged in an arduous struggle; the power of its enemy was overwhelming, while every failure in military operations bred an increase of suspicion and disaffection at home. Then the aristocratical party began, as they are wont to do, to use popular language, in order to excite the passions of the multitude, and thus make them the instruments of their own ruin. They encouraged the cry of treason and corruption against the generals of the Commonwealth; and personal profligacy was united with party zeal. Hipparinus was a member of the aristocratical party; he was also a desperate man, because he had ruined himself by his extravagance; both these causes united made him anxious to overthrow the popular government; and looking about for a fit instrument to accomplish his purpose, he found and brought forward Dionysius. character of There must have been no ordinary promise of cha- Early racter in Dionysius to lead to such a choice. He was Dionysius. a young man under five-and-twenty', not distinguished either for his birth or fortune, and his personal condition was humble; he was a clerk in some one of the departments of the public business. But he had been 8 7 Cicero, Tusculan. Disputat. V. 8 Demosthenes, Leptines, prope finem. |