DIONYSIUS (c. 432367 B.C.)

This article appears in Volume V08, Page 284 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DIO-DRO

DIONYSIUS (c. 432367 B.C.) , tyrant of Syracuse, began life as a clerk in a public office, but by courage and diplomacy succeeded in making himself supreme (see SYRACUSE). He carried on war with Carthage with varying success; his attempts to drive the Carthaginians entirely out of the

island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

failed, and at his death they were masters of at least a third of it. He also carried on an expedition against Rhegium and its allied cities in Magna Graecia. In one campaign, in which he was joined by the Lucanians, he devastated the territories of Thurii, Croton and

Locri

LOCRI

. After a protracted siege he took Rhegium (386), and sold the inhabitants as slaves. He joined the Illyrians in an attempt to plunder the temple of Delphi, pillaged the temple of Caere on the

Etruscan

ETRUSCAN

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

, and founded several military colonies on the Adriatic. In the Peloponnesian War he espoused the side of the Spartans, and assisted them with mercenaries. He also posed as an author and patron of literature; his poems, severely criticized by Philoxenus, were hissed at the Olympic games; but having gained a prize for a tragedy on the

Ransom

RANSOM (from Lat. redemptio, through Fr. rancon)

of Hector at the Lenaea at Athens, he was so elated that he el:gaged in a debauch which proved fatal. According to others, he' was poisoned by his physicians at the instigation of his son. His life was written by Philistus, but the

work

WORK

is not extant.

Dionysius

DIONYSIUS
DIONYSIUS (c. 432–367 B.C.)

was regarded by the ancients as a type of the worst kind of despotcruel, suspicious and vindictive. Like

Peisistratus

PEISISTRATUS, (605?–527 B.c.)

, he was fond of having distinguished literary men about him, such as the historian Philistus, the poet Philoxenus, and the philosopher Plato, but treated them in a most arbitrary manner.
See Diod. Sic. xiii., xiv., xv.; J.

Bass

Dionysius

DIONYSIUS
DIONYSIUS (c. 432–367 B.C.)

I. von Syrakus (Vienna, 1881), with full references to authorities in footnotes; articles SIc1LY and SYRACUSE.
His son DIoNysrus, known as " the Younger," succeeded in 367 B.C. He was driven from the kingdom by

Dion

DION

(356) and fled to

Locri

LOCRI

; but during the commotions which followed

Dion

DION

's assassination, he managed to make himself master of Syracuse. On the arrival of Timoleon he was compelled to surrender and retire to Corinth (343), where he spent the rest of his days in poverty (Diodorus Siculus xvi.; Plutarch, Timoleon).
See SYRACUSE and TIMoLEox; and, on both the Dionysii, articles by B. Niese in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, v. pt. i (1905).

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