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DIONYSIUS (c. 432–367 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 284 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIONYSIUS (c. 432–367 B.C.) , See also:tyrant of See also:Syracuse, began See also:life as a clerk in a public See also:office, but by courage and See also:diplomacy succeeded in making himself supreme (see SYRACUSE). He carried on See also:war with See also:Carthage with varying success; his attempts to drive the Carthaginians entirely out of the See also:island failed, and at his See also: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 See also:campaign, in which he was joined by the Lucanians, he devastated the territories of See also:Thurii, Croton and See also:Locri. After a protracted See also:siege he took Rhegium (386), and sold the inhabitants as slaves. He joined the Illyrians in an See also:attempt to See also:plunder the See also:temple of See also:Delphi, pillaged the temple of See also:Caere on the See also:Etruscan See also:coast, and founded several military colonies on the Adriatic. In the Peloponnesian War he espoused the See also:side of the Spartans, and assisted them with mercenaries. He also posed as an author and See also:patron of literature; his poems, severely criticized by See also:Philoxenus, were hissed at the Olympic See also:games; but having gained a See also:prize for a tragedy on the See also:Ransom of See also:Hector at the Lenaea at See also: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 See also:Philistus, but the See also:work is not extant. Dionysius was regarded by the ancients as a type of the worst See also:kind of despot—cruel, suspicious and vindictive.

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Peisistratus, he was fond of having distinguished See also:literary men about him, such as the historian Philistus, the poet Philoxenus, and the philosopher See also:Plato, but treated them in a most arbitrary manner. See Diod. Sic. xiii., xiv., xv.; J. See also:Bass, Dionysius I. von Syrakus (See also: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 See also:kingdom by See also:Dion (356) and fled to Locri; but during the commotions which followed Dion's assassination, he managed to make himself See also:master of Syracuse. On the arrival of See also:Timoleon he was compelled to surrender and retire to See also:Corinth (343), where he spent the See also:rest of his days in poverty (Diodorus Siculus xvi.; See also:Plutarch, Timoleon). See SYRACUSE and TIMoLEox; and, on both the Dionysii, articles by B. Niese in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, v. pt. i (1905).

End of Article: DIONYSIUS (c. 432–367 B.C.)

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