Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/151

DION IS SLAIN. 125 m Syracuse were confided beforehand to his principal adherents while his brother Philostrates 1 kept a trireme manned in the har- bor ready for flight in case the scheme should miscarry. While Dion, taking no part in the festival, remained at home, KaUipptrs caused his house to be surrounded by confidential soldiers, and then sent into it a select company of Zakynthians, unarmed, as if for the purpose of addressing Dion on business. These men, young and of distinguished muscular strength, being admitted in- to the house, put aside or intimidated the slaves, none of whom manifested any zeal or attachment. They then made their way up to Dion's apartment, and attempted to throw him down and strangle him. So strenuously did he resit, however, that they found it impossible to kill him without arms ; which they wer>i perplexed how to procure, being afraid to open the doors, lest aid might be introduced against them. At length one of their num- ber descended to a back-door, and procured from a Syracusan without, named Lykon, a short sword ; of the Laconian sort, and of peculiar workmanship. With this weapon they put Dion tc death. 2 They then seized Aristomache and Arete, the sister and wife of Dion. These unfortunate women were cast into prison, where they were long detained, and where the latter was delivered of a posthumous son. Thus perished Dion, having lived only about a year after his expulsion of the Dionysian dynasty from Syracuse but a year too long for his own fame. Notwithstanding the events of those last months, there is no doubt that he was a man essentially dif fering from the class of Grecian despots : a man, not of aspirations purely personal, nor thirsting merely for multitudes of submissive subjects and a victorious army but with large public-minded pur- poses attached as coordinate to his own ambitious views. He wished to perpetuate his name as the founder of a polity, cast in something of the general features of Sparta ; which, while it did 1 Plato alludes to the two brothers whom Dion made his friends at Athens, and who ultimately slew him ; but without mentioning the name of either (Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 333 F.). The third Athenian whose fidelity he emphatically contrasts with the falsehood of these two appears to mean, himself Plato. Compare pp 333 and 334. Plutarch, Dion, c. 57 ; Cornelius Nepos, Dion ; c. 9; Diodor. xvi. 31. 11*