At his point the supporters of Dionysius were defeated and demoralized, but they had not surrendered, but continued to oppose the free city of Syracuse under the leadership of Apollocrates son of Dionysius. With the immediate danger neutralized, Heraclides pursued his political program. He proposed giving land to the people to please them and promote democracy. Dion, like his teacher Plato, was an aristocrat who distrusted democracy and believed in a more traditional form of government that gave power to the upper classes. Heraclides won the support of the people and quickly acted to elect a new slate of generals, removing Dion from power and denying pay to the Dion’s mercenaries, who had liberated the city.
The mercenaries felt cheated and urged Dion to attack the city. But true to his ideals, Dion refused to retaliate. Instead, he led his soldiers to the city of Leontini, birthplace of the great sophist Gorgias, some 50 kilometers away, where he had friends. The men of Syracuse sought to harass Dion’s troops while they were on route, but when they got close, the mercenaries turned on them and they scattered in panic. At Leontini, Dion was hailed as a hero and welcomed to the city with his men.[11]
Now the general Nypsius arrived in Ortygia with a squadron of ships, sent by Dionysius to bring food and money to the garrison, which was on the point of starvation. The Syracusans manned their ships and attacked while Nypsius was still unloading his ships, with the Syracusans getting the better of the tyrant’s men and capturing four ships. After the battle, however, the Syracusans indulged themselves in a drunken orgy in which everyone partied and no one kept guard. When the revelry was well under way, Nypsius ordered his troops to attack. They broke a hole in the siege wall and flooded into the city to attack and loot. As things went from bad to worse, some Syracusan leaders realized that their only chance to stop the disaster was to call in Dion and his mercenaries.
They sent nessengers on horseback to Leontini, to beg Dion to come at once and defend Syracuse. Though his troops were reluctant to help those who had betrayed them, Dion immediately rallied them to go to the rescue. When Dion’s troops arrived, they found the city in shambles, with bodies littering the streets and houses on fire. They attacked Nypsius’ men, who were busy looting rather than fighting, killed many, and drove the rest back to Ortygia. Dion ordered his men to prepare stakes and quickly reconstructed a palisade to replace the damaged siege wall.[12]
At this point the citizens could see that they needed a professional army with discipline to protect them from the depredations of the tyrant’s forces. However much the Syracusans wanted to enjoy their liberty, they were still at war as long as a hostile garrison occupied Ortygia. Most of the incompetent generals of Syracuse made themselves scarce, but Heraclides came to apologize and beg Dion’s forgiveness. Dion was magnanimous and appointed Heraclides again to be commander of the Syracusan naval forces. Here, perhaps, was his tragic flaw. For having been betrayed once by Heraclides, he failed to see that Heraclides never had been and never would be a loyal subordinate. Dion vetoed plans for distributing land to the have-nots of the city, and continued his program for instituting a conservative government. [13]
Dion had now liberated Syracuse twice, had demonstrated by his actions that he was not interested in glory or self-aggrandizement, but in establishing self-rule and good government for his native city. Like his mentor Plato, he did not trust democracy. When he first liberated the city, the citizens made him general with emergency powers; they then made Heraclides admiral without consulting him; he had then annulled the election of Heraclides and appointed him by his own authority; the citizens, at the insistence of Heraclides, soon dismissed Dion and exiled him; they then won a battle, got drunk, allowing the enemy to sack the city, sent to Dion to rescue them, and accepted him back as their leader. To be sure, the Syracusans had not had any opportunity to govern themselves during the half century of the tyranny of Dionysius I and II. Yet they evidently needed some better system of governance than all-or-nothing plebiscites in emotion-charged assemblies if they were not to become an object lesson in how not to conduct a democracy.
[11] Plutarch Dion 37.5-40; Diodorus 16.17.3-5.
[12] Plutarch Dion 41-46; 48.1-2; Diodorus 16.18-20.
[13] Plutarch Dion 48.4-8; Diodorus 20.5-6.