Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/485

DKSfAlK OF DIONYSIUS. * D 3 partisans and mercenaries. If he even continued master of Ach- radina, he must have been prevented from easy communication with it. The assailants extended themselves under the walls of Or- tygia, from Epipolae to the Greater as well as the Lesser Harbor. 1 A considerable naval force was sent to their aid from Messene and Rhegium, giving to them the means of blocking him up on the sea side ; while the Corinthians, though they could grant no farther assistance, testified their sympathy by sending Nikoteles as adviser. 2 The leaders of the movement proclaimed Syracuse again a free city, offered large rewards for the head of Dionysius, and promised equal citizenship to all the mercenaries who should desert him. Several of the mercenaries, attracted by such offers, as well as intimidated by that appearance of irresistible force which charac- terizes the first burst of a popular movement, actually came over and were well received. Everything seemed to promise success to the insurgents, who, not content with the slow process of blockade, brought up battering-machines, and vehemently assaulted the walls of Ortygia. Nothing now saved Dionysius except those elaborate for- tifications which he had so recently erected, defying all attack. And even though sheltered by them, his position appeared to be so des- perate, that desertion from Ortygia every day increased. He himself began to abandon the hope of maintaining his dominion ; discussing with his intimate friends the alternative, between death under a valiant but hopeless resistance, and safety purchased by a dishonorable flight. There remained but one means of rescue : to purchase the immediate aid of a body of twelve hundred mer- cenary Campanian cavalry, now in the Carthaginian service, and stationed probably at Gela or Agrigentum. His brother-in-law Polyxenus advised him to mount his swiftest horse, to visit in per- son the Campanians, and bring them to the relief of Ortygia. But this counsel was strenuously resisted by two intimate friends, Heloris and Megakles, who both impressed upon him, that the roval robe was the only honorable funeral garment, and that, in- stead of quitting his post at full speed, he ought to cling to it until he was dragged away by the leg. 3 Accordingly, Dionysius deter- mined to hold out, without quitting Ortygia ; sending private en- 1 Diodor. xiv, 8. 2 Diodor. xiv, 10. 3 Diodor. xiv, 8 ; xx, 78. Isokrates, Or. vi, (Archidamtis) sect. 49. It appears that Tirrasus the historian ascribed this last observation t