any effect, gave him some uneasiness. He therefore thought it necessary to make sure of the amity of them both. He presented the inhabitants of Messina with a considerable quantity of land, which was situate in their neighbourhood, and lay very commodiously for them. To give the people of Rhegium an instance of his esteem and regard for them, he sent ambassadors to desire that they would give him one of their citizens in marriage. He had lost his first wife in the popular commotion, of which mention has already been made.

Dionysius, sensible that nothing establishes a throne more effectually than the prospect of a successor, who may enter into the same designs, have the same interests, pursue the same plan, and observe the same maxims of government, took the opportunity of the present tranquillity of his affairs to contract a double marriage, in order to have a successor, to whom he might transfer the sovereignty which had cost him so many toils and dangers to acquire.

The people of Rhegium, to whom Dionysius had first applied, having called a council to take his demand into consideration, after a long debate came to a resolution not to contract any alliance with a tyrant; and for their final answer returned, that they had only the hangman's daughter to give him. The raillery was keen, and cut deep. We shall see in the sequel how dear that city paid for their jest.

The Locrians, to whom Dionysius sent the same ambassadors, did not show themselves so difficult and delicate, but sent him for a wife Doris, the daughter of one of their most illustrious citizens. He caused her to be brought from Locris in a galley with five benches of rowers, of extraordinary magnificence, and glittering in every part with gold and silver. He married, at the same time, Aristomache, daughter of Hipparinus, the most considerable and powerful of the citizens of Syracuse, and sister of Dion, of whom much will be said hereafter. She was brought to his palace in a chariot drawn by four white horses, which was then a singular mark of distinction. The nuptials of both were celebrated the same day with universal rejoicings throughout the whole city, and attended with feasts and presents of incredible magnificence.

It was contrary to the manners and universal custom of the western nations, from the earliest times, that he espoused two wives at once; taking in this, as in every thing else, the liberty assumed by tyrants, of setting themselves above all laws.

Dionysius seemed to have an equal affection for the two wives. without giving the preference to either, to remove all cause of jea lousy and discord. The people of Syracuse reported that he preferred his own countrywoman to the foreigner; but the latter had the good fortune first to bring her husband a son, which supported him not a little against the cabals and intrigues of the Syracusans. Aristomache was a long time without any symptoms of pregnancy, though Dionysius desired so earnestly to have issue by her, that he

put the mother of his Locrian wife to death, accusing her of hinderig Aristomache from conceiving, by witchcraft and sorcery.

Aristomache's brother was the celebrated Dion, who was in great estimation with Dionysius. He was at first obliged for his credit to his sister's favour; but having afterwards given proofs of his great capacity in many instances, his own merit made him much beloved and regarded by the tyrant. Amongst the other marks which Dionysius gave him of his confidence, he ordered his treasurers to supply him, without farther orders, with whatever money he should demand, provided they informed him the very same day what they had given him.

Dion had naturally a great and noble soul. A happy accident had conduced to inspire and confirm in him the most elevated sentiments. A kind of chance, or rather, as Plutarch says, a peculiar providence, which laid at a distance the foundations of the liberty of Syracuse, brought Plato, the most celebrated of philosophers, to that city. Dion became his friend and disciple, and made great improvements from his lessons; for, though brought up in a luxurious and voluptuous court, where the supreme good vas made to consist in pleasure and magnificence, he had no sooner heard the precepts of his new master, and imbibed a taste of the philosophy that inculcates virtue, than his soul was inflamed with the love of it. Plato, in one of his letters, gives this glorious testimony of him; that he had never met with a young man upon whom his discourses made so great an impression, or who had comprehended his principles with so much quickness and vivacity.

As Dion was young and inexperienced, observing the facility with which Plato had changed his taste and inclinations, he imagined, with simplicity enough, that the same reasons would have the same effects upon the mind of Dionysius; and with this view could not rest till he had prevailed upon the tyrant to hear and converse with him. Dionysius consented: but the lust of tyrannic power had taken too deep a root in his heart to be ever eradicated from it. It was like an indelible dye,* that had penetrated his inmost soul, from whence it was impossible eyer to efface it.

Though the stay of Plato at the court made no alteration in Dionysius,f the latter still continued to give Dion the same marks of his esteem and confidence, and even to endure, without taking offence, the freedom with which he spoke to nim. Dionysius, ridiculing one day the government of Gelon, formerly king of Syracuse, and saying, in allusion to his name, that he had been the laughingstock of Sicily, the whole court greatly admired, and took no small

* Τὴν βαφὴν οὐκ ἀνίεντα τῆς τυραννίδος, ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ δευσοποιὲν οὖσαν καὶ δυσέκπλυτον. Δρομαίους δὲ ὄντας ἔτι δεῖ τῶν χρηστῶν ἀντιλαμβα λógov. Plut. in Moral. p. 779.

† Plut. p. 960.

trías significs laughing-stock.

pains to praise the quaintness and delicacy of the conceit, insipie and flat as it was, and, indeed, as puns and quibbles generally are. Dion took it in a serious sense, and was so bold as to represent to him that he was in the wrong to talk in that manner of a prince whose wise and equitable conduct had been the model of a perfect government, and given the Syracusans a favourable opinion of monarchical power. You reign, added he, and are trusted, for Gelon's sake; but for your sake, no man will ever be trusted after you. It was much that a tyrant should suffer himself to be talked to in such a manner with impunity.

SECTION III.

Dionysius declares war against the Carthaginians. Various success of it. Syracuse re duced to extremities, and soon after delivered. New commotions against Dionysius Defeat of Imilco, and afterwards of Mago. Unhappy fate of the city of Rhegium.

Dionysius seeing his great preparations were now complete, and that he was in a condit on to take the field, publicly opened his design to the Syracusans in order to interest them the more in the success of the enterprise, and told them that it was his intention to make war against the (arthaginians. He represented that people as the perpetual and inveterate enemy of the Greeks, and especially of those who inhabited Sicily; that the plague which had lately wasted Carthage, afforded a favourable opportunity, which ought not to be neglected; that the people in subjection to such severe masters, waited only the signal to declare against them; that it would be glorious for Syracuse to reinstate the Grecian cities in their liberty, after having so long groaned under the yoke of the barbarians; that, in declaring war at present against the Carthaginians, they only anticipated them by a short time; since as soon as they had retrieved their losses, they would not fail to attack Syracuse with all their forces.

The assembly were unanimous in opinion. Their ancient and natural hatred of the barbarians; their anger and resentment against them for having given Syracuse a master; and the hope that with arms in their hands they might find some occasion of recovering their liberty, united them in their suffrages. The war was resolved without any opposition, and it began that very instant. There were at Syracuse, as well in the city as the port, a great number of Carthaginians, who, relying upon the faith of treaties and the peace, exercised traffic, and thought themselves in security. The populace, by Dionysius's authority, upon the breaking up of the assembly, ran to their houses and ships, plundered their goods, and carried off their effects. They met with the same treatment throughout Sicily; and murders and massacres were added to this pillage, by way of reprisal for the many cruelties committed by the barbarians upon those they conquered, and to show them what they had to expect if they continued to make war with the same inhumanity

A. M. 3607.

After this bloody execution, Dionysius sent a letter Ant. J. C.397. by a herald to Carthage, in which he signified that the Syracusans declared war against the Carthaginians, if they did not withdraw their garrisons from all the Grecian cities held by them in Sicily. The reading of this letter, which took place first in the senate and afterwards in the assembly of the people, occasioned an uncommon alarm, as the pestilence had reduced the city to a deplorable condition. However, they were not dismayed, and prepared for a vigorous defence. They raised troops with the utmost diligence, and Imilco set out immediately to put himself at the head of the Carthaginian army in Sicily.

Dionysius, on his side, lost no time, and took the field with his army, which daily increased by the arrival of new troops, who came to join him from all parts. It amounted to 80,000 foot and 3000 horse. The fleet consisted of 200 galleys, and 500 barks laden with provisions and machines of war. He opened the campaign with the siege of Motya, a fortified town belonging to the Carthaginians near mount Eryx, in a little island something more than a quarter of a league from the continent,* to which it was joined by a small neck of land, which the besieged immediately cut through, to prevent the approaches of the enemy on that side.

Dionysius having left the care of the siege to Leptines, who commanded the fleet, went with his land forces to attack the places in alliance with the Carthaginians. Terrified by the approach of so numerous an army, they all surrendered except five; which were Ancyra, Solos, Palermo,† Segesta, and Entella. The last two places he besieged.

Imilco, however, to make a diversion, detached ten galleys of his fleet, with orders to attack and surprise in the night all the vessels which remained in the port of Syracuse. The commander of this expedition entered the port according to his orders, without meeting with resistance; and after having sunk a great part of the vessels which he found there, retired well satisfied with the success of his enterprise.

Dionysius, after having wasted the enemy's country, returned. and sat down with his whole army before Motya: and having employed a great number of hands in making causeways and moles, he restored the neck of land, and brought forward his engines on that side. The place was attacked with the utmost vigour, and equally well defended. After the besiegers had passed the breach and entered the city, the besieged persisted a great while in defending themselves with incredible valour; so that it was necessary to pursue and drive them from house to house. The soldiers, enraged at so obstinate a defence, put all before them to the sword; age, youth, women, children, nothing was spared, except those who had taken refuge in the temples. The town was abandoned to the

soldiers' discretion; Dionysius being pleased with an occasion of attaching the troops to his service by the allurement and hope of gain. The Carthaginians made an extraordinary effort the next year, and raised an army of 300,000 foot and 4000 horse. The fleet under Mago's command consisted of 400 galleys, and upwards of 600 vessels laden with provisions and engines of war. Imilco had given the captains of the fleet his orders sealed up, which were not to be opened till they were out at sea. He had taken this precaution, that his designs might be kept secret, and to prevent spies from sending information of them to Sicily. The rendezvous was at Palermo; where the fleet arrived without much loss in their passage. Imilco took Eryx by treachery, and soon after compelled Motya to surrender. Messina seemed to him a place of importance; because it might favour the landing of troops from Italy in Sicily, and bar the passage of those that should come from Peloponnesus. After a long and vigorous defence it fell into his hands, and some time after he entirely demolished it.

Dionysius, seeing his forces extremely inferior to the enemy, retired to Syracuse. Almost all the people of Sicily, who hated him from the beginning, and were only reconciled to him in appearance and out of fear, took this occasion to quit his party, and to join the Carthaginians. The tyrant levied new troops, and gave the slaves their liberty, that they might serve on board the fleet. His army amounted to 30,000 foot and 3000 horse, and his fleet to 180 galleys. With these forces he took the field, and removed about eight leagues from Syracuse. Imilco continued to advance with his land army, followed by his fleet, that kept near the coast. When he arrived at Naxos, he could not continue his march along the sea-side, and was obliged to take a long compass round mount Etna, which, by a new eruption, had set the country about it on fire, and covered it with ashes. He ordered his fleet to wait his coming up at Catana. Dionysius, apprised of this, thought the opportunity favourable for attacking it, whilst separated from the land forces, and whilst his own, drawn up in battle upon the shore, might be of service to animate and support his fleet. The scheme was wisely concerted, but the success not answerable to it. Leptines his admiral, having advanced inconsiderately with thirty galleys, contrary to the opinion of Dionysius, who had particularly recommended to him not to divide his forces, at first sank several of the enemy's ships, but, upon being surrounded by the greater number, was forced to fly. His whole fleet followed his example, and was warmly pursued by the Carthaginians. Mago despatched boats full of soldiers, with orders to kill all that endeavoured to save themselves by swimming to shore. The land army drawn up there, saw them perish miserably, without being able to give them any assistThe loss on the side of the Sicilians was very great, more than 100 galleys being either taken or sunk, and 20,000 men perishing either in the battle or the flight.

ance.