Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/144

iiS HISTORY OF GREECE. pulsion of the greatest despot in Greece, even from an impregna ble stronghold. He had combated danger and difficulty with con spicuous resolution, and had displayed almost chivalrous magna nimity. Had he " breathed out his soul " ] at the instant of trium phant entry in Ortygia, the Academy would have been glorified by a pupil of first-rate and unsullied merit. But that cup of prosperity, which poisoned so many other eminent Greeks, had now the fatal effect of exaggerating all the worst of Dion's qualities, and damping all the best. Plutarch indeed boasts, and we may perfectly believe, that he maintained the simplicity of his table, his raiment, and his habits of life, completely unchanged now that he had become master of Syracuse, and an object of admiration to all Greece. In thin respect, Plato and the Academy had reason to be proud of their pupil.' 2 But the public mistakes, now to be recounted, were not the less mischievous to his countrymen as well as to himself. From the first moment of his entry into Syracuse from Pelo- ponnesus, Dion had been suspected and accused of aiming at the expulsion of Dionysius, only in order to transfer the despotism to himself. His haughty and repulsive manners, raising against him personal antipathies everywhere, were cited as confirming the charge. Even at moments when Dion was laboring for the gen- uine good of the Syracusans, this suspicion had always more or less crossed his path ; robbing him of well-merited gratitude and at the same time discrediting his opponents, and the peo- ple of Syracuse, as guilty of mean jealousy towards a bene- factor. The time had now come when Dion was obliged to act in such a manner as either to confirm, or to belie, such unfavorable augu- ries. Unfortunately both his words and his deeds confirmed them '- the strongest manner. The proud and repulsive external de- meanor, for which he had always been notorious, was rather 1 Juvenal, Satir. x. 381. " Quid illo cive (Marius) tulissct Imperium in tcrris, quid Roma bcatius unquam. Si circumducto captivoram agmine, et omni Bellorum pompfi, animam exhalasset opimam, Cum de Teatonico vellet descendere curru ? " Plutarch, Dion, c. 52.