Dion’s Triumphal Return to Syracuse
Plato’s visits to Syracuse in Sicily had played out as a series of disasters. Although Plato had converted one of the most powerful men in that great city, namely Dion son of Hipparinus, to his philosophical program, each visit to the city seemed to turn out worse than the previous one. On his first visit he won over Dion but offended his brother-in-law, the tyrant Dionysius. On this second visit, he hoped to put some of his political reforms into practice in the city with the ascension of Dionysius II to the throne of his late father; but he was thwarted by strong opposition from the old guard in the city. On his third visit, he was summoned back to Syracuse to reconcile Dionysius II with Dion; but he quickly learned that the former had no intention of being reconciled with his relative.
Dion remained in exile, residing alternately in the Peloponnesus and Athens, making connections and plotting for his own return. Finally he used his wealth and influence to organize an expedition to Sicily. He arranged for his forces to rendezvous on the island of Zacynthus, in 357 BCE. His little army consisted of fewer that eight hundred men, mostly mercenaries, and some loyal companions of Dion.[1] Dion performed a sacrifice to Apollo, then hosted a banquet in the stadium. He and his little band of brothers then set sail in their ships, consisting of two merchant vessels, one smaller transport, and two thirty-oared galleys. When they approached the island of Sicily, a great storm drove them southward to the shores of north Africa. They finally recovered and sailed north, landing at Heraclea Minoa, the port west of Acragas in the middle of the southern coast of Sicily.[2]
The port was under the rule of the Carthaginians, who were constantly at war with the Greeks in the central Mediterranean. The Carthaginian ruler, however, happened to be a friend of Dion, who was happy to assist his guest in discomfiting the tyrant of Syracuse, the main rival of Carthage. Dion received the happy news that Dionysius II had recently sailed out of Syracuse en route to Italy with eighty warships. This meant that Dion would have to face only a skeleton crew of defenders minus their leader. Dion was able to recruit cavalry from Acragas and infantry from the neighboring city of Gela, other soldiers from Camarina, and assorted Syracusans hostile to the tyranny, as well as Sicel and Sicanian natives of the island. Some of the troops guarding Syracuse hurried away to defend their home cities from attack, leaving Syracuse poorly defended. In the end Dion assembled an ad hoc army of five thousand men, according to one source, of fifty thousand, according to another, some of whom he supplied with shields and arms he had brought for such a purpose.[3] Scholars believe the number was somewhere between the extremes given in the historical reports.
Dion stopped near Syracuse to sacrifice to the gods, putting a wreath on his head for the ceremony. Many of his followers took their cue from him and also donned wreaths, giving the army the appearance of a religious procession. When this motley army reached Syracuse, they were met by the citizens, who eagerly threw open the city gates and gave Dion a hero’s welcome. Good riddance to the tyrant. Timocrates, to whom Dionysius II had given Dion’s wife when the tyrant had stripped the exile of his property and power, and who was acting as the tyrant’s deputy, fled on horseback from the city. He had already sent a messenger to Dionysius to warn him of the invasion. Dion immediately convened an assembly, declaring the city free from the tyrant Dionysius II. The city celebrated their new-found freedom, electing Dion and his brother Megacles generals with absolute power, and rounding up informers who had spied on them for the tyranny.[4]
When Dionysius heard of the invasion, he hurried back to Syracuse with a small force, arriving seven days after Dion’s entry. He occupied the impregnable fortress of Ortygia on the “island” or peninsula south of the city, where his mercenaries had held out against the invaders. Dionysius had sent word to his admiral (and historian) Philistus, to return immediately from the Adriatic Sea, where he was cruising, to support his master with the Syracusan fleet. The fox was back, and the real struggle was about to begin in earnest.
[1] Plutarch Dion 22.8.
[2]Historical sources include Diodorus of Sicily Library of History book XVI and Plutarch’s Dion.* On the perilous voyage to Sicily, see Plutarch Dion 25.
[3] Report of 5,000 soldiers: Plutarch Dion 27.5; 50,000: Diodorus 16.10.5.
[4] Plutarch Dion 28-29.