Dion of Syracuse - Dionysius The Younger

Dionysius The Younger

The elder despot had dreaded that anyone might depose him treacherously. He had therefore cloistered his own heir so he grew up inside the Syracusan acropolis, neither acquiring the minimal formation nor developing any personal fibre. Besides, the younger Dionysius was given to libertine practices. Furthermore, when he succeeded, his entire court was formed by licentious youngsters, who were completely disengaged from their political duties. The Syracusan institutions thus began to collapse. Instead, with both his large experience and his moderate life, Dion was the same correct functionary. Soon, the people deemed that he was the only one who might save Sicily. In the court, Dion proposed the Carthaginian war. Dion offered either to travel to northern Africa (to end the situation diplomatically) or to furnish Sicily with 50 new triremes (for war) with his own money. Although Dionysius the Younger was delighted by this, his courtiers began resenting Dion's interventions (who didn't join their revelry). Particularly, (jealously) they suggested to Dionysus that Dion was trying to oust him, in favour of the line of his sister Aristomache.