Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/455

SPEECHES CF DIONYSIUS. 433 which even already he had displayed, both in the fight along with Hermokrates and in the battles against the Carthaginians. Hip- parinus, a Syracusan of rich family, who had ruined himself by dissolute expenses, was eager to renovate his fortunes by seconding the elevation of Dionysius to the despotism ; l Philistus (the subse- quent historian of Syracuse), rich, young, and able, threw himself ardently into the same cause ; and doubtless other leading persons, ancient Hermokrateans and others, stood forward as partisans in the conspiracy. But it either was, from the beginning, or speedily became, a movement organized for the purpose of putting the scep- tre into the hands of Dionysius, to whom all the rest, though seve- ral among them were of far greater wealth and importance, served but as satellites and auxiliaries. Amidst the silence and disquietude which reigned in the Syra- cusan assembly, Dionysius was the first who rose to address them. He enlarged upon a topic suitable alike to the temper of his au- ditors and to his own views. He vehemently denounced the gene- rals as having betrayed the security of Syracuse to the Cartha- ginians, and as the persons to whom the ruin of Agrigentum, together with the impending peril of every man around, was owing. He set forth their misdeeds, real or alleged, not merely with ful- ness and acrimony, but with a ferocious violence outstripping all the limits of admissible debate, and intended to bring upon them a lawless murder, like the death of the generals recently at Agri- gentum. " There they sit, the traitors ! Do not wait for legal trial or verdict ; but lay hands upon them at once, and inflict upon them summary justice." 2 Such a brutal exhortation, not unlike that of 1 Aristotel. Politic, v, 5, 6. Tivovrai 6s nsrapoXai 1% oXtyapxiae, KO.I brav uva?Mffu<Jt TU Idea, fwvref acre/lyuf /cat yap oi TOIOVTOI naivoTOueiv &TOVGI, not rj Tvpavvidi 7rm'$vreu avrol, ?} KaraaKEva^ovaiv Zrepov uatrep 'Imrapl- vof Aiovvoiov ev ZvpaKovcraic;. Hipparinas was the father of Dion, respecting whom more hereafter. Plato, in his warm sympathy for Dion, assigns to Hipparinus more of an equality of rank and importance with the elder Dionysius, than the subse- quent facts justify (Plato, Epistol. viii. D. 353 A. ; p. 355 F.). 2 Diodor. xiii, 91. 'A.nopovusvuv 6e TTJVTUV xapeh'&uv Aiovvaioe 6 'Ep/zo KpuTovf, TUV [2Kv ffTpar^ywv KaTTj-yuprjaev, ;!>? irpodidovruv TO. irpuy/ia.Ta roif Kapxrjdovioif TU 6e K'krf&ri napu^vvs Trpbf TT/V avruv nuupiav, Trapana kui> fj/fj trepifj.elvai rbv KO.TU Tovevo/4ov(; nhripov, d?.A' f/c #.jOf ev'&euf ixidel- Vdl TTjV 6'lKTJV. VOL. r. 19 28oc.