Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/132

106 HISTORY OF GREECE. applied to those soldiers who had come with Herakleides ; more- over the new generals sent private messages to the Dionian sol- diers, inviting them to desert their leader and join the Syracu- sans, in which case the grant of citizenship was promised to them. 1 Had the soldiers complied, it is obvious, that either the pay due, or some equivalent, must have been assigned to satisfy them. But one and all of them scorned the invitation, adhering to Dion with unshaken fidelity. The purpose of Herakleides was, to ex- pel him alone. This however was prevented by the temper of the soldiers ; who, indignant at the treacherous ingratitude of the Syracusans, instigated Dion to take a legitimate revenge upon them, and demanded only to be led to the assault. Refusing to employ force, Dion calmed their excitement, and put himself at their head to conduct them out of the city ; not without remon- strances addressed to the generals and the people of Syracuse upon their proceedings, imprudent as well as wicked, while the enemy were still masters of Ortygia. Nevertheless, the new generals, chosen as the most violent enemies of Dion, not only turned a deaf ear to his appeal, but inflamed the antipathies of the people, and spurred them on to attack the soldiers on their march out of Syracuse. Their attack, though repeated more than once, was vigorously repulsed by the soldiers excellent troops, three thousand in number ; while Dion, anxious to ensure their safety, and to avoid bloodshed on both sides, confined himself strictly to the defensive. He forbade all pursuit, giving up the prisoners vithout ransom as well as the bodies of the slain for burial. 2 In this guise Dion arrived at Leontini, where he found the warmest sympathy towards himself, with indignant disgust at the behavior of the Syracusans. Allied with the newly-enfranchis- ed Syracuse against the Dionysian dynasty, the Leontines not only received the soldiers of Dion into their citizenship, and voted to them a positive remuneration, but sent an embassy to Syracuse insisting that justice should be done to them. The Syracusans, on their side, sent envoys to Leontini, to accuse Dion before au assembly of all the allies there convoked. Who these allies were, aur defective information does not enable us to say. Their sen- 1 Plutarch, Dion, c. 38. ? Plutarch, Dion, c. 39 ; Diodor. xvi. 17