Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/121

DION IN SYRACUbt. 95 sans around, exhorting them to strenuous efforts in defence of their newly acquired rights and liberties, and inviting them to elect generals for the command, in order to accomplish the total expul- sion of the Dionysian garrison. The Syracusans, with unanimous acclamations, named Dion and his brother Megakles generals with full powers. But both the brothers insisted that colleagues should be elected along with them. Accordingly twenty other persons were chosen besides, ten of them being from that small band of Syracusan exiles who had joined at Zakynthus. Such was the entry of Dion into Syracuse, on the third day ' after his landing in Sicily ; and such the first' public act of re- newed Syracusan freedom ; the first after that fatal vote which, forty-eight years before, had elected the elder Dionysius general plenipotentiary, and placed in his hands the sword of state, with- out foresight of the consequences. In the hands of Dion, that sword was vigorously employed against the common enemy. He immediately attacked Epipolae ; and such was the consternation of the garrison left in it by the fugitive Timokrates, that they al- lowed him to acquire possession of it, together with the strong tort of Euryalus, which a little courage and devotion might long have defended. This acquisition, made suddenly in the tide of success on one side and discouragement on the other, was of su- preme importance, and went far to determine the ultimate contest. ] t not only reduced the partisans of Dionysius within the limits of Ortygia, but also enabled Dion to set free many state prison- ers, 2 who became ardent partisans of the revolution. Following up his success, he lost no time in taking measures against Orty- gia. To shut it up completely on the land-side, he commenced he does not give a perspicuous description of the whole march. Thus, he says that Dion, "wishing to harangue the people himself, went up through Achradina," (Bot>/l6/!ifj>of 6e nal 6C iavrov Trpoaayopsvaai roiif uvdpuTrovf, tivrjti diu rijf 'Axpadivr/f), while the place from which Dion did harangue the people, was down under the acropolis of Ortygia. Diodorus is still less clear about the localities, nor does he say anything about the sun-dial or the exact spot from whence Dion spoke, though ha mentions the march of Dion through Achradina. It seems probable that what Plutarch calls TO. TreiTurt a are the same ai what Diodorus xv. 74) indicates in the words rat? /3a<7;Aka<f Cornelius Nepos. Dion, <. 5. * P.'utanh, Dion, c. 29