Aristomache, on the contrary, was
a long time barren, though the king was extremely de-
sirous of having children by her; and put to death the
mother of Doris, on a supposition that she had pre-
vented her conceptions by potions.
a long time barren, though the king was extremely de-
sirous of having children by her; and put to death the
mother of Doris, on a supposition that she had pre-
vented her conceptions by potions.
Plutarch - Lives - v7
'
Thus the unhappy queen bewailed her misfortunes;
and, after she had crowned the tomb with flowers, and
kissed it, she ordered her bath to be prepared. When
she had bathed, she sat down to a magnificent supper;
soon after which, a peasant came to the gate with a
small basket. The guards inquired what it contained;
and the man who brought it, putting by the leaves
PLUT. VOL. VII. F
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PLUTARCH.
which lay uppermost, showed them a parcel of figs.
As they admired their size and beauty, he smiled, and
bade them take some; but they refused, and, not sus-
pecting that the basket contained any thing else, it was
carried in. After supper Cleopatra sent a letter to
Cffisar, and, ordering every body out of the monu-
ment, except her two women, she made fast the door.
When Caesar opened the letter, the plaintive style in
which it was written, and the strong request that she
might be buried in the same tomb with Antony, made
him suspect her design. At first he was for hastening to
her himself, but he changed his mind, and despatched
others. Her death however was so sudden, that though
they who were sent ran the whole way, alarmed the
guards with their apprehensions, and immediately broke
open the doors, they found her quite dead, lying on
her golden bed, and dressed in all her royal ornaments.
Iras, one of her women, lay dead at her feet, and
Charmion, hardly able to support herself, was adjust-
ing her mistress's diadem. One of Caesar's messengers
said angrily, ' Charmion, was this well done? '--' Per-
fectly well,' said she, ' and worthy a descendant of the
kings of Egypt. ' She had no sooner said this than
she fell down dead.
It is related by some that an asp was brought in
amongst the figs, and hid under the leaves; and that
Cleopatra had ordered it so that she might be bit with-
out seeing it; that, however, on removing the leaves,
she perceived it, and said, ' This is what I wanted:' on
which she immediately held out her arm to it. Others
say that the asp was kept in a water-vessel, and that
she vexed and pricked it with a golden spindle till it
seized her arm. Nothing of this however could be
ascertained; for it was reported likewise that she car-
ried about with her a certain poison in a hollow bodkin
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? ANToNY,
8;?
that she wore in her hair; yet there was neither any
mark of poison on her body, nor was there any serpent
found in the monument, though the track of a reptile
was said to have been discovered on the sea-sands op-
posite to the windows of Cleopatra's apartment. Others,
again, have affirmed that she had two small punctures
on her arm, apparently occasioned by the sting of the
asp; and it is clear that Caesar gave credit to this; for
her effigy, which he carried in triumph, had an asp on
the arm. '
Such are the accounts we have of the death of Cleo-
patra; and though Caesar was much disappointed by
it, he admired her fortitude, and ordered her to be
buried in the tomb of Antony, with all the magnificence
due to her quality. Her women, too, were by his
orders interred with great funeral pomp. Cleopatra
died at the age of thirty-nine, after having reigned
twenty-two years, the fourteen last in conjunction with
Antony. Antony was fifty-three, some say fifty-six,
when he died. His statues were all demolished, but
Cleopatra's remained untouched; for Archibius, a
friend of hers, gave Caesar a thousand talents for their
redemption.
Antony left by his three wives seven children,8
whereof Antyllus, the eldest, only was put to death.
Octavia took the rest, and educated them with her
own. Cleopatra, his daughter by Cleopatra, was mar-
ried to Juba, one of the politest princes of his time1;
and Octavia made Antony, his son by Fulvia, so con-
1 This may be a matter of doubt. There would, of course,
be aa asp on the diadem of the effigy, because it was peculiar
to the kings of Egypt; and this might give rise to the report
of an asp being on the arm.
2 By Fulvia, he bad Antyllus and Antony; by Cleopatra, lie
had Cleopatra, Ptolemy, and Alexander; and by Octavia, An-
tonia, major and minor.
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PLUTARCH.
siderable with Caesar, that, after Agrippa and the sons
of Livia, he was generally allowed to hold the first
place in his favor. Octavia by her first husband Mar-
cellus had two daughters and a son named Marcellus.
One of these daughters she married to Agrippa; and
the son married a daughter of Caesar's. But as he died
soon after, and Octavia observing that her brother was
at a loss whom he should adopt in his place, she pre-
vailed on him to give his daughter Julia to Agrippa,
though her own daughter must necessarily be divorced
to make way for her. Caesar and Agrippa having
agreed on this point, she took back her daughter and
married her to Antony. Of the two daughters that
Octavia had by Antony, one was married to Domi-
tius jEnobarbus, and the other, Antonia, so much
celebrated for her beauty and virtue, married Drusus,
the son of Livia, and son-in-law to Caesar. Of this
line came Germanicus and Claudius. Claudius was
afterwards emperor; and so likewise was Caius the
son of Germanicus, who, after a short but infamous
reign, was put to death together with his wife and
daughter. Agrippina, who had Lucius Domitius by
jEnobarbus, was afterwards married to Claudius Cae-
sar. He adopted Domitius, whom he named Nero
Germanicus. This Nero, who was emperor in our
times, put his own mother to death, and, by the mad-
ness of his conduct, went near to ruin the Roman em-
pire. He was the fifth in descent from Antony.
DEMETRIUS AND ANTONY COMPARED.
As Demetrius and Antony both passed through a
variety of fortune, we shall consider, in the first place,
their respective power and celebrity. These were,
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? DEMETRIUS AND ANToNY CoMPARED. 85
hereditary to Demetrius; for Antigonus, the mQst
powerful of Alexander's successors, had reduced all
Asia during his son's minority. On the other hand,
the father of Antony was, indeed, a man of character,
but not of a military character; yet though he had no
public influence or reputation to bequeath to his son,
that son did not hesitate to aspire to the empire of Cae-
sar; and, without any title either from consanguinity
or alliance, he effectually invested himself with all that
he had acquired: at least, by his own peculiar weight,
after he had divided the world into two parts, he took
the better for himself. By his lieutenants he conquered
the Parthians, and drove back the barbarous nations
about Caucasus, as far as the Caspian sea. Even the
less reputable parts of his conduct are so many testi-
monies of his greatness. The father of Demetrius
thought it an honor to marry him to Phila the daughter
of Antipater, though there was a disparity in their
years; while Antony's connexion with Cleopatra was
considered as a degrading circumstance; though Cleo-
patra, in wealth and magnificence, was superior to all
the princes of her time, Arsaces excepted. Thus he
had raised himself to such a pitch of grandeur, that
the world in general thought him intitled even to more
than he wished.
In Demetrius' acquisition of empire there was no-
thing reprehensible. He extended it only to nations
inured to slavery, and desirous of being governed.
But the arbitrary power of Antony grew on the exe-
crable policy of a tyrant, who once more reduced to
slavery a people that had shaken off the yoke. Con-
sequently the greatest of his actions, his conquest of
Brutus and Cassius, is darkened with the inglorious
motive of wresting its liberty from Rome. Demetrius,
during his better fortunes, consulted the liberties of
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PLUTARCH.
Greece, and removed the garrisons from the cities;
while Antony made it his boast that he had destroyed
the assertors of his country's freedom in Macedonia.
Antony is praised for his liberality and munificence;
in which, however, Demetrius is so far his superior, that
he gave more to his enemies than the former did to his
friends. Antony was honored for allowing a magnifi-
cent funeral to Brutus; but Demetrius buried every
enemy he had slain, and sent back his prisoners to
Ptolemy, not only with their own property, but with
presents.
Both were insolent in prosperity, and fell with too
much ease into luxury and indulgence. But we never
find Demetrius neglecting his affairs for his pleasures.
In his hours of leisure, indeed, he had his Lamia;
whose office it was, like the fairy in the fable, to lull
him to sleep, or amuse him in his play. When he
went to war, his spear was not bound about with ivy;
his helmet did not smell of perfume; he did not come
in the foppery of dress out of the chambers of the wo-
men; the riots of Bacchus and his train were hushed;
and he became, as Euripides says, the minister of
Mars. In short, he never lost a battle through the
indulgence of luxury. This could not be said of An-
tony. As in the pictures of Hercules we see Omphale
stealing his club and his lion's skin, so Cleopatra fre-
quently disarmed Antony; and, while he should have
been prosecuting the most necessary expeditions, led
him to dancing and dalliance on the shores of Canopus
and Taphosiris. So, likewise, as Paris came from bat-
tle to the bosom of Helen, and even from the loss of
victory to her bed, Antony threw victory itself out of
his hands to follow Cleopatra.
Demetrius, being under no prohibition of the laws,
but following the examples of Philip and Alexander,
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? DEMETRIUS AND ANToNY CoMPARED. 87
Lysimachus and Ptolemy, married several wives, and
treated them all with the greatest honor. Antony,
though it was a thing unheard of amongst the Romans,
had two wives at the same time. Besides, he banished
her who was properly his wife, and a citizen, from his
house, to indulge a foreigner, with whom he could
have no legal connexion. From their marriages, of
course, one of them found no inconvenience; the other
suffered the greatest evils.
With regard to their behavior to their parents and
relations, that of Demetrius is irreproachable; but
Antony sacrificed his uncle to the sword of Caesar,
that he might be empowered in his turn to cut off
Cicero. A crime the latter was, which could never be
made pardonable, had Antony even saved, and not sa-
crificed an uncle by the means! They are both ac-
cused of perfidy; in that one of them threw Artabazus
into prison, and the other killed Alexander. Antony
however has some apology in this case; for he had
been abandoned and betrayed by Artabazus in Media.
But Demetrius was suspected of laying a false accusa-
tion against Alexander; and of punishing, not the of-
fender, but the injured.
There is this difference, too, in their military opera-
tions; that Demetrius gained every victory himself,
and many of Antony's laurels were won by his lieute-
nants.
Both lost their empire by their own fault, but by
different means. The former was abandoned by his
people; the latter deserted his, even whilst they were
fighting for him. The fault of Demetrius was, that
by his conduct he lost the affection of his army: the
fault of Antony, his desertion and neglect of that af-
fection. Neither of them can be approved in their
death; but Demetrius much less than Antony; for he
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? 88
PLUTARCH.
suffered himself to fall into the hands of the enemy,
and, with a spirit that was truly base, endured an im-
prisonment of three years. There was a deplorable
weakness, and many disgraceful circumstances attending
the death of Antony; but he effected it at last without
falling into the enemy's hands.
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? r
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? DION.
As we learn from Simonides, my dear Senecio, that
the Trojans were by no means offended at the Corin-
thians for joining the confederates in the Grecian war,
because the family of Glaucus, their own ally, was
originally of Corinth, so neither the Greeks nor the
Romans have reason to complain of the academy, which
has been equally favorable to both. This will appear
from the lives of Brutus and Dion; for, as one was
the scholar of Plato, and the other educated in his
principles, they came like wrestlers from the same
palaestra, to engage in the greatest conflicts. Both,
by their conduct, in which there was a great similarity,
confirmed that observation of their master, that 'power
and fortune most concur with prudence and justice to
effect any thing great in a political capacity:' but, as
Hippomachus the wrestler said, that he could distin-
guish his scholars at a distance, though they were only
carrying meat from the market; so the sentiments of
those who have had a polite education must have a
similar influence on their manners, and give a peculiar
grace and propriety to their conduct.
Accident, however, rather than design, gave a simi-
larity to the lives of these two great men; and both
were cut off by an untimely death, before they could
carry the purposes, which they had pursued with so
much labor, into execution. The most singular cir-
cumstance attending their death was, that both had a
divine warning of it, in the appearance of a frightful
spectre. There are those, indeed, who say, that no
man in his senses ever saw a spectre; that these are
the delusive visions of women and children; or of men
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PLUTARCH.
whose intellects are affected by some infirmity of the
body; and who believe that their absurd imaginations
are of divine inspiration. But if Dion and Brutus,
men of firm and philosophic minds, whose understand-
ings were not affected by any constitutional infirmity;
if such men could pay so much credit to the appear-
ance of spectres, as to give an account of them to their
friends, I see no reason why we should depart from
the opinion of the ancients, that men had their evil
genii, who disturbed them with fears, and distressed
their virtue, lest, by a steady and uniform pursuit of
it, they should hereafter obtain a happier allotment
than themselves. These things however I must refer
to another occasion; and in this twelfth book of pa-
rallel lives, of which Dion and Brutus are the subjects,
I shall begin with the more ancient.
After Dionysius the elder had seized the govern-
ment of Sicily he married the daughter of Hermo-
crates, a Syracusan. But as the monarchic power
was yet but ill established, she had the misfortune
to be so much abused by an outrageous faction, that
she put an end to her life. When Dionysius was
confirmed in his government he married two wives at
the same time. One was Doris, a native of Locris;
the other, Aristomache, the daughter of Hipparinus,
who was a principal person in Syracuse, and colleague
with Dionysius when he was first appointed general
of the Sicilian forces. It is said that he married these
wives on the same day. It is not certain which he
married first, but he was impartial in his kindness to
them; for both attended him at his table, and alter-
nately partook of his bed. As Doris had the disad-
vantage of being a foreigner, the Syracusans sought
every means of obtaining the preference for their coun-
trywoman; but it was more than equivalent to this
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? DIoN.
91
disadvantage that she had the honor of giving Diony-
sius his eldest son.
Aristomache, on the contrary, was
a long time barren, though the king was extremely de-
sirous of having children by her; and put to death the
mother of Doris, on a supposition that she had pre-
vented her conceptions by potions.
Dion, the brother of Aristomache, was well received
at court; not only on her account, but from the regard
which Dionysius had for his merit and abilities: and
that prince. gave his treasurer an order to supply him
with whatever money he wanted; but, at the same
time, to keep an account of what he received.
But whatever the talents and the virtues of Dion
might be originally, it is certain that they received the
happiest improvement under the auspices of Plato.
Surely the gods, in mercy to mankind, sent that divine
philosopher from Italy to Syracuse, that, through the
humane influence of his doctrine, the spirit of liberty
might once more revive, and the inhabitants of that
country be rescued from tyranny.
Dion soon became the most distinguished of his
scholars. To the fertility of his genius, and the excel-
lence of his disposition, Plato himself has given testi-
mony ; and he did the greatest honor to that testimony
in his life: for though he had been educated in servile
principles under a tyrant, though he had been famili-
arised to dependence on the one hand, and to the in-
dulgence of pomp and luxury, as the greatest happi-
ness, on the other, yet he was no sooner acquainted
with that philosophy which points out the road to vir-
tue, than his whole soul caught the enthusiasm, and,
with the simplicity of a young man who judges of the
dispositions of others by his own, he concluded that
Plato's lectures would have the same effect on Diony-
sius: for this reason he solicited, and at length per-
suaded the tyrant to hear him. When Plato was
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? PLUTARCH.
admitted, the discourse turned on virtue in general.
Afterwards they came to fortitude in particular; and
Plato made it appear that tyrants have, of all men,
the least pretence to that virtue. Justice was the next
topic: and when Plato asserted the happiness of the
just, and the wretched condition of the unjust, the
tyrant was stung; and being unable to answer his ar-
guments, he expressed his resentment against those
who seemed to listen to him with pleasure. At last he
was extremely exasperated, and asked the philosopher
what business he had in Sicily. Plato answered, 'that
he came to seek an honest man. '--' And so, then,' re-
plied the tyrant, 'it seems you have lost your labor. '
Dion was in hopes that his anger would have ended
here; but while Plato was hastening to be gone he
conveyed him aboard a galley, in which Pollis, the
Lacedaemonian, was returning to Greece. Dionysius
urged Pollis either to put Plato to death in his pas-
sage, or, at least, to sell him as a slave: 'for, accord-
ing to his own maxim,' said he, 'this man cannot be
unhappy; a just man, he says, must be happy in a
state of slavery, as well as in a state of freedom. '
Pollis therefore carried him to . /Egina, and sold him
there: for the people of that place, being at war with
the Athenians, had made a decree, that whatever Athe-
nian was taken on their coast he should be sold. Dion,
notwithstanding, retained his interest with Dionysius,
had considerable employments, and was sent ambassa-
dor to Carthage. Dionysius had a high esteem for
him, and he therefore permitted him to speak his sen-
timents with freedom. An instance of this we have in
the retort he made on the tyrant's ridiculing the go-
vernment of Gelo: ' Gelo,' said Dionysius, 'is [g-eZoi]
the laughing-stock of Sicily. ' While others admired
and applauded this witticism, Dion answered, 'You
obtained the crown by being trusted on Gelo's ac-
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? DIoN.
93
count, who reigned with great humanity ; but you have
reigned in such a manner, that, for your sake, no man
will be trusted hereafter. Gelo made monarchy ap-
pear the best of governments; but you have convinced
us that it is the worst. ' Dionysius had three children
by Doris, and four by Aristomacbe ; whereof two were
daughters, Sophrosyne and Arete. The former of these
was married to his eldest son Dionysius; the latter to
his brother Thearides; and, after his death, to her un-
cle Dion. In the last illness of Dionysius, Dion would
have applied to him in behalf of the children of Ari-
stomache, but the physicians were beforehand with
him. They wanted to ingratiate themselves with his
successor; and when he asked for a sleeping-dose,
Timaeus tells us, they gave him so effectual a one, that
he awaked no more.
When his son Dionysius came to the throne, in the
first council that he held, Dion spoke with so much
propriety on the present state of affairs, and on the
measures which ought to be taken, that the rest ap-
peared to be mere children in understanding. By the
freedom of his counsels he exposed, in a strong light,
the slavish principles of those who, through a timorous
disingenuity, advised such measures as they thought
would please their prince, rather than such as might
advance his interest. But what alarmed them most
was the steps he proposed to take with regard to the
impending war with Carthage; for he offered either to
go in person to Carthage, and settle an honorable
peace with the Carthaginians, or, if the king were
rather inclined for war, to fit out and maintain fifty
galleys at his own expense.
Dionysius was pleased with the magnificence of his
spirit; but the courtiers felt that it made them appear
little. They agreed that, at all events, Dion was to be
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PLUTARCH.
crushed, and they spared no calumny that malice could
suggest. They represented to the king that he cer-
tainly meant to make himself master by sea, and by
that means to obtain the kingdom for his sister's chil-
dren. There was, moreover, another and an obvious
cause of their hatred to him, in the reserve of his man-
ners, and of the sobriety of his life. They led the
young and ill-educated king through every species of
debauchery, the shameless panders to his wrong di-
rected passions. Yet while folly rioted, tyranny slept:
its rage was dissolved in the ardor of youthful indul-
gences, as iron is softened in the fire; and that lenity
which the Sicilians could not expect from the virtue
of their prince, they found in his weakness. Thus the
reins of that monarchy, which Dionysius vainly called
adamantine, fell gradually from the loose and disso-
lute hand that held them. This young prince, it is
said, would continue the scene of intoxication for
ninety days without intermission; during which time
no sober person was admitted to his court, where all
was drunkenness and buffoonery, revelry and riot.
Their enmity to Dion, who had no taste for these
enjoyments, was a thing of course: and, as he refused
to partake with them in their vices, they resolved to
strip him of his virtues. To these they gave-the names
of such vices as are supposed in some degree to re-
semble them. His gravity of manners they called
pride; his freedom of speech, insolence; his declining
to join in their licentiousness, contempt. It is true,
there was a natural haughtiness in bis deportment,
and an asperity that was unsociable and difficult of
access: so that it is not to be wondered if he found
no ready admission to the ears of a young king,
already spoiled by flattery. Many, even of his own
particular friends, who admired the integrity and gene-
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? DIoN.
rosity of his heart, could not but condemn those for-
bidding manners, which were so ill adapted to social
and political intercourse: and Plato himself, when he
wrote to him some time after, warned him, as it were
by the spirit of prophecy, 'To guard against that aus-
terity which is the companion of solitude. ' However,
the necessity of the times, and the feeble state of
the monarchy, rendered it necessary for the king,
though contrary to his inclination, to retain him in the
highest appointments; and this Dion himself very well
knew.
As he was willing to impute the irregularities of
Dionysius to ignorance and a bad education, he endea-
vored to engage him in a course of liberal studies, and
to give him a taste for those sciences which have a
tendency to moral improvement. By this means he
hoped that he should induce him to think of virtue
without disgust, and at length to embrace its precepts
with pleasure. The young Dionysius was not na-
turally the worst of princes; but his father being ap-
prehensive that if his mind were improved by science
and the conversation of wise and virtuous men, he
might some time or other think of depriving him of his
kingdom, kept him in close confinement; where,
through ignorance and want of other employment, he
amused himself with making little chariots, candle-
sticks, wooden chairs, and tables. His father, indeed,
was so suspicious of all mankind, and so wretchedly
timorous, that he would not suffer a barber to shave him;
but bad his hair singed off with a live coal by one of his
own attendants. Neither his brother nor his son were
admitted into his chamber in their own clothes, but were
first stripped and examined by the sentinels, and after
that were obliged to put on such clothes as were pro-
vided for them. When his brother Leptines was once
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PLUTARCH.
describing the situation of a place, he took a spear
from one of the guards to trace the plan; on which
Dionysius was extremely offended, and caused the sol-
dier who had given up his spear to be put to death.
He was afraid, he said, of the sense and sagacity of
his friends; because he knew they must think it more
eligible to govern than to obey. He slew Marsyas,
whom he had advanced to a considerable military com-
mand, merely because Marsyas dreamed that he killed
him; for he concluded that this dream by night was
occasioned by some similar suggestion of the day.
Yet even this timorous and suspicious wretch was
offended with Plato, because he would not allow him
to be the most valiant man in the world!
When Dion, as we have before observed, considered
that the irregularities of young Dionysius were chiefly
owing to his want of education, he exhorted him ear-
nestly to apply himself to study, and by all means to
send for Plato, the prince of philosophers, into Sicily.
'When he comes,' said he, 'apply to him without
loss of time. Conformed by his precepts to that divine
exemplar of beauty and perfection, which called the
universe from confusion into order, you will at once
secure your own happiness, and the happiness of your
people. The obedience they now render you through
fear, by your justice and moderation you will improve
to a principle of filial duty; and of a tyrant, you will
become a king. Fear and force, and fleets and armies,
are not, as your father called them, the adamantine
chains of government; but that attention, that affec-
tion, that respect, which justice and goodness for ever
draw after them. These are the milder but the stronger
bonds of empire. Besides, it is surely a disgrace for
a prince, who in all the circumstances of figure and
appearance is distinguished from the people, not to rise
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? DIoN.
97
above them at the same time, in the superiority of his
conversation, and the cultivation of his mind. '
As Dion frequently solicited the king on this subject,
and occasionally repeated some of Plato's arguments,
he conceived at length a violent inclination to hear him
discourse. He therefore sent several letters of invita-
tion to him at Athens, which were seconded by the
intreaties of Dion. The Pythagorean philosophers in
Italy requested at the same time that he would under-
take the direction of this young prince, whose mind
was misguided by power, and reclaim him by the solid
counsels of philosophy. Plato, as he owns himself,
was ashamed to be a philosopher in theory, and not
in practice; and flattering himself that if he could
rectify the mind of the prince, he might by the same
means remedy the disorders of the kingdom, he yielded
to their request.
The enemies of Dion, now fearing an alteration in
Dionysius, advised him to recall from exile one Phi-
listus, who was, indeed, a man of learning, but em-
ployed his talents in defence of the despotic policy;
and this man they intended to set in opposition to
Plato and his philosophy. Philistus, from the be-
ginning, had been a principal instrument in promoting
the monarchic government, and kept the citadel, of
which he was governor, a long time for that party. It
is said that he had an unlawful desire for the mother
of the elder Dionysius, and that the tyrant himself
was not ignorant of it. Be this as it may, Leptines,
who had two daughters by a married woman, whom he
had corrupted, gave one of them in marriage to Phi-
listus: but this being done without consulting Diony-
sius, he was offended; imprisoned Leptine's mistress,
and banished Philistus. The latter fled to his friends
at Adria, where, it is probable, he composed the great-
PLUT. VoL. VII. G
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? 98
PLUTARCH.
est part of his history; for he did not return to Sicily
during the reign of that Dionysius. After his death,
as we have observed, Dion's enemies occasioned him
to be recalled. His arbitrary principles were suitable
for their purpose, and he began to exercise them im-
mediately on his return.
At the same time calumnies and impeachments
against Dion were, as usual, brought to the king.
He was accused of holding a private correspondence
with Theodoses and Heraclides, for the subversion of
the monarchy; and indeed it is probable that he en-
tertained some hopes from the arrival of Plato, of
lessening the excessive power of Dionysius, or at least
of making him moderate and equitable in the use of it.
Besides, if he continued obstinate, and were not to
be reclaimed, he was determined to depose him, and
restore the commonwealth to the Syracusans; for he
preferred even the popular form of government to an
absolute monarchy, where a well regulated aristocracy
could not be procured.
Such was the state of affairs when Plato came into
Sicily. At first he was received with the greatest ap-
pearance of kindness, and he was conveyed from the
coast in one of the king's most splendid chariots. Even
Dionysius himself sacrificed to the gods in acknow-
legement of his safe arrival, and of the honor and hap-
piness they had by that means conferred on his king-
dom. The people had the greatest hopes of a speedy
reformation. They observed an unusual decorum in
the entertainments at court, and a sobriety in the con-
duct of the courtiers; while the king answered all to
whom he gave audience in a very obliging manner.
The desire of learning and the study of philosophy
were become general; and the several apartments of
the royal palace were like so many schools of geomu-
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? DION.
99
tricians, full of the dust in which the students describe
their mathematical figures. Not long after this, at a
solemn sacrifice in the citadel, when the herald prayed
as usual for the long continuance of the government,
Dionysius is said to have cried, ' how long will you
continue to curse me? ' This was an inexpressible morti-
fication to Pbilistus and his party: if Plato, said they,
has already made such a change in the king, his influ-
ence in time will be irresistible.
They now no longer made their attacks on Dion
separately, or in private. They united in exclaiming
against him, that he had fascinated the king with the
delusions of eloquence and philosophy, in order to ob-
tain the kingdom for his sister's children. They repre-
sented it as a matter of the greatest indignity, that
after the whole force of the Athenians had vainly in-
vaded Sicily, and were vanquished and destroyed,
without so much as being able to take Syracuse, they
should now, by means of one sophist, overturn the
empire of Dionysius. It was with indignation they be-
held the deluded monarch prevailed on by his insinua-
tions to part with his guard of ten thousand spearmen,
to give up a navy of four hundred galleys, to disband
an army of ten thousand horse, and many times that
number of foot, in order that he might pursue an ideal
happiness in the academy, and amuse himself with
theorems of geometry, while the substantial enjoyments
of wealth and power were left to Dion and the children
of Aristomache.
By means of these suggestions Dion first incurred
the suspicion, and soon after the open displeasure of
Dionysius. A letter of his was likewise intercepted,
and privately carried to the king. It was addressed to
the Carthaginian agents, and directed them not to have
their audience of the king concerning the conclusion
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PLUTARCH.
of the peace, unless he were present, and then every-
thing should be settled as they wished. Timaeus in-
forms us, that after Dionysius had showed this letter
to Philistus, and consulted him on it, he overreached
Dion by a pretence of reconciliation, and told him that
he was desirous their good understanding might be re-
newed. After this, as he was one day walking alone
with him by the wall of the castle, near the sea, he
showed him the letter, and accused him of conspiring
with the Carthaginians against him. When Dion at-
tempted to speak in his own defence, Dionysius refused
to hear him; and having forced him on board a vessel,
which lay there for the purpose, commanded the sailors
to set him ashore in Italy.
When this was publicly known, it was generally con-
demned as tyrannical and cruel. The court was in dis-
tress for the ladies of Dion's family; but the citizens
received fresh courage from the event; for they were
in hopes that the odium which it would bring on Dio-
nysius, and the general discontent that his government
occasioned, might contribute to bring about a revolu-
tion. Dionysius perceived this with some anxiety, and
thinking it necessary to pacify the women and the rest
of Dion's friends, he told them that he was not gone
into exile, but only sent out of the way for a time, that
his obstinacy might not draw on him a heavier punish-
ment. He also allowed his friends two ships, that they
might convey to him, in Peloponnesus, as much of his
treasure, and as many of his servants, as they should
think fit; for Dion was a man of considerable property,
and little inferior to the king in wealth or magnificence.
The most valuable part of his effects, together with pre-
sents from the ladies, and others of his acquaintance,
his friends conveyed to him; and the splendor of his
fortune gained him great respect among the Greeks.
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? DIoN.
101
At the same time they conceived a high idea of the
power of the tyrant, when an exile from his kingdom
could make such an appearance.
Dionysius now removed Plato into the citadel, under
color of kindness; but in reality to set a guard on him,
lest he should follow Dion, and proclaim to the world
how injuriously he had been treated.
As wild beasts become tame and tractable by use, so
the tyrant, by frequent conversation with the philoso-
pher, began at last to conceive an affection for him;
yet even that affection had something of the tyrant in
it; for he required of Plato, in return, that he should
exclusively confine his regard and admiration to him.
On condition that he would prefer his friendship to that
of Dion, he was willing to give up the whole adminis-
tration into his hands. This extravagant affection gave
Plato no small trouble; for it was accompanied with
petulance and jealousy, as the love which subsists be-
tween the different sexes has its quarrels and reconcili-
ations. He expressed the strongest desire to become
Plato's scholar, and to proceed in the study of philoso-
phy; but he expressed it with reluctance in the presence
of those who wanted to divert him from his purpose,
and seemed as if he was in pursuit of something he
ought to be ashamed of.
As a war broke out about this time, he found it ne-
cessary to dismiss Plato; but he promised him, before
his departure, to recall Dion the ensuing summer:
however, he did not keep his promise, but made the
war he was engaged in his apology, and remitted to
him the produce of his estate. At the same time he
desired Plato to acquiesce in his apology, assuring him
that he would send for Dion on the commencement of
the peace; and he intreated, in the mean while, that
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Thus the unhappy queen bewailed her misfortunes;
and, after she had crowned the tomb with flowers, and
kissed it, she ordered her bath to be prepared. When
she had bathed, she sat down to a magnificent supper;
soon after which, a peasant came to the gate with a
small basket. The guards inquired what it contained;
and the man who brought it, putting by the leaves
PLUT. VOL. VII. F
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? 82
PLUTARCH.
which lay uppermost, showed them a parcel of figs.
As they admired their size and beauty, he smiled, and
bade them take some; but they refused, and, not sus-
pecting that the basket contained any thing else, it was
carried in. After supper Cleopatra sent a letter to
Cffisar, and, ordering every body out of the monu-
ment, except her two women, she made fast the door.
When Caesar opened the letter, the plaintive style in
which it was written, and the strong request that she
might be buried in the same tomb with Antony, made
him suspect her design. At first he was for hastening to
her himself, but he changed his mind, and despatched
others. Her death however was so sudden, that though
they who were sent ran the whole way, alarmed the
guards with their apprehensions, and immediately broke
open the doors, they found her quite dead, lying on
her golden bed, and dressed in all her royal ornaments.
Iras, one of her women, lay dead at her feet, and
Charmion, hardly able to support herself, was adjust-
ing her mistress's diadem. One of Caesar's messengers
said angrily, ' Charmion, was this well done? '--' Per-
fectly well,' said she, ' and worthy a descendant of the
kings of Egypt. ' She had no sooner said this than
she fell down dead.
It is related by some that an asp was brought in
amongst the figs, and hid under the leaves; and that
Cleopatra had ordered it so that she might be bit with-
out seeing it; that, however, on removing the leaves,
she perceived it, and said, ' This is what I wanted:' on
which she immediately held out her arm to it. Others
say that the asp was kept in a water-vessel, and that
she vexed and pricked it with a golden spindle till it
seized her arm. Nothing of this however could be
ascertained; for it was reported likewise that she car-
ried about with her a certain poison in a hollow bodkin
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? ANToNY,
8;?
that she wore in her hair; yet there was neither any
mark of poison on her body, nor was there any serpent
found in the monument, though the track of a reptile
was said to have been discovered on the sea-sands op-
posite to the windows of Cleopatra's apartment. Others,
again, have affirmed that she had two small punctures
on her arm, apparently occasioned by the sting of the
asp; and it is clear that Caesar gave credit to this; for
her effigy, which he carried in triumph, had an asp on
the arm. '
Such are the accounts we have of the death of Cleo-
patra; and though Caesar was much disappointed by
it, he admired her fortitude, and ordered her to be
buried in the tomb of Antony, with all the magnificence
due to her quality. Her women, too, were by his
orders interred with great funeral pomp. Cleopatra
died at the age of thirty-nine, after having reigned
twenty-two years, the fourteen last in conjunction with
Antony. Antony was fifty-three, some say fifty-six,
when he died. His statues were all demolished, but
Cleopatra's remained untouched; for Archibius, a
friend of hers, gave Caesar a thousand talents for their
redemption.
Antony left by his three wives seven children,8
whereof Antyllus, the eldest, only was put to death.
Octavia took the rest, and educated them with her
own. Cleopatra, his daughter by Cleopatra, was mar-
ried to Juba, one of the politest princes of his time1;
and Octavia made Antony, his son by Fulvia, so con-
1 This may be a matter of doubt. There would, of course,
be aa asp on the diadem of the effigy, because it was peculiar
to the kings of Egypt; and this might give rise to the report
of an asp being on the arm.
2 By Fulvia, he bad Antyllus and Antony; by Cleopatra, lie
had Cleopatra, Ptolemy, and Alexander; and by Octavia, An-
tonia, major and minor.
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PLUTARCH.
siderable with Caesar, that, after Agrippa and the sons
of Livia, he was generally allowed to hold the first
place in his favor. Octavia by her first husband Mar-
cellus had two daughters and a son named Marcellus.
One of these daughters she married to Agrippa; and
the son married a daughter of Caesar's. But as he died
soon after, and Octavia observing that her brother was
at a loss whom he should adopt in his place, she pre-
vailed on him to give his daughter Julia to Agrippa,
though her own daughter must necessarily be divorced
to make way for her. Caesar and Agrippa having
agreed on this point, she took back her daughter and
married her to Antony. Of the two daughters that
Octavia had by Antony, one was married to Domi-
tius jEnobarbus, and the other, Antonia, so much
celebrated for her beauty and virtue, married Drusus,
the son of Livia, and son-in-law to Caesar. Of this
line came Germanicus and Claudius. Claudius was
afterwards emperor; and so likewise was Caius the
son of Germanicus, who, after a short but infamous
reign, was put to death together with his wife and
daughter. Agrippina, who had Lucius Domitius by
jEnobarbus, was afterwards married to Claudius Cae-
sar. He adopted Domitius, whom he named Nero
Germanicus. This Nero, who was emperor in our
times, put his own mother to death, and, by the mad-
ness of his conduct, went near to ruin the Roman em-
pire. He was the fifth in descent from Antony.
DEMETRIUS AND ANTONY COMPARED.
As Demetrius and Antony both passed through a
variety of fortune, we shall consider, in the first place,
their respective power and celebrity. These were,
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? DEMETRIUS AND ANToNY CoMPARED. 85
hereditary to Demetrius; for Antigonus, the mQst
powerful of Alexander's successors, had reduced all
Asia during his son's minority. On the other hand,
the father of Antony was, indeed, a man of character,
but not of a military character; yet though he had no
public influence or reputation to bequeath to his son,
that son did not hesitate to aspire to the empire of Cae-
sar; and, without any title either from consanguinity
or alliance, he effectually invested himself with all that
he had acquired: at least, by his own peculiar weight,
after he had divided the world into two parts, he took
the better for himself. By his lieutenants he conquered
the Parthians, and drove back the barbarous nations
about Caucasus, as far as the Caspian sea. Even the
less reputable parts of his conduct are so many testi-
monies of his greatness. The father of Demetrius
thought it an honor to marry him to Phila the daughter
of Antipater, though there was a disparity in their
years; while Antony's connexion with Cleopatra was
considered as a degrading circumstance; though Cleo-
patra, in wealth and magnificence, was superior to all
the princes of her time, Arsaces excepted. Thus he
had raised himself to such a pitch of grandeur, that
the world in general thought him intitled even to more
than he wished.
In Demetrius' acquisition of empire there was no-
thing reprehensible. He extended it only to nations
inured to slavery, and desirous of being governed.
But the arbitrary power of Antony grew on the exe-
crable policy of a tyrant, who once more reduced to
slavery a people that had shaken off the yoke. Con-
sequently the greatest of his actions, his conquest of
Brutus and Cassius, is darkened with the inglorious
motive of wresting its liberty from Rome. Demetrius,
during his better fortunes, consulted the liberties of
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? ISO
PLUTARCH.
Greece, and removed the garrisons from the cities;
while Antony made it his boast that he had destroyed
the assertors of his country's freedom in Macedonia.
Antony is praised for his liberality and munificence;
in which, however, Demetrius is so far his superior, that
he gave more to his enemies than the former did to his
friends. Antony was honored for allowing a magnifi-
cent funeral to Brutus; but Demetrius buried every
enemy he had slain, and sent back his prisoners to
Ptolemy, not only with their own property, but with
presents.
Both were insolent in prosperity, and fell with too
much ease into luxury and indulgence. But we never
find Demetrius neglecting his affairs for his pleasures.
In his hours of leisure, indeed, he had his Lamia;
whose office it was, like the fairy in the fable, to lull
him to sleep, or amuse him in his play. When he
went to war, his spear was not bound about with ivy;
his helmet did not smell of perfume; he did not come
in the foppery of dress out of the chambers of the wo-
men; the riots of Bacchus and his train were hushed;
and he became, as Euripides says, the minister of
Mars. In short, he never lost a battle through the
indulgence of luxury. This could not be said of An-
tony. As in the pictures of Hercules we see Omphale
stealing his club and his lion's skin, so Cleopatra fre-
quently disarmed Antony; and, while he should have
been prosecuting the most necessary expeditions, led
him to dancing and dalliance on the shores of Canopus
and Taphosiris. So, likewise, as Paris came from bat-
tle to the bosom of Helen, and even from the loss of
victory to her bed, Antony threw victory itself out of
his hands to follow Cleopatra.
Demetrius, being under no prohibition of the laws,
but following the examples of Philip and Alexander,
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? DEMETRIUS AND ANToNY CoMPARED. 87
Lysimachus and Ptolemy, married several wives, and
treated them all with the greatest honor. Antony,
though it was a thing unheard of amongst the Romans,
had two wives at the same time. Besides, he banished
her who was properly his wife, and a citizen, from his
house, to indulge a foreigner, with whom he could
have no legal connexion. From their marriages, of
course, one of them found no inconvenience; the other
suffered the greatest evils.
With regard to their behavior to their parents and
relations, that of Demetrius is irreproachable; but
Antony sacrificed his uncle to the sword of Caesar,
that he might be empowered in his turn to cut off
Cicero. A crime the latter was, which could never be
made pardonable, had Antony even saved, and not sa-
crificed an uncle by the means! They are both ac-
cused of perfidy; in that one of them threw Artabazus
into prison, and the other killed Alexander. Antony
however has some apology in this case; for he had
been abandoned and betrayed by Artabazus in Media.
But Demetrius was suspected of laying a false accusa-
tion against Alexander; and of punishing, not the of-
fender, but the injured.
There is this difference, too, in their military opera-
tions; that Demetrius gained every victory himself,
and many of Antony's laurels were won by his lieute-
nants.
Both lost their empire by their own fault, but by
different means. The former was abandoned by his
people; the latter deserted his, even whilst they were
fighting for him. The fault of Demetrius was, that
by his conduct he lost the affection of his army: the
fault of Antony, his desertion and neglect of that af-
fection. Neither of them can be approved in their
death; but Demetrius much less than Antony; for he
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? 88
PLUTARCH.
suffered himself to fall into the hands of the enemy,
and, with a spirit that was truly base, endured an im-
prisonment of three years. There was a deplorable
weakness, and many disgraceful circumstances attending
the death of Antony; but he effected it at last without
falling into the enemy's hands.
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? r
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? DION.
As we learn from Simonides, my dear Senecio, that
the Trojans were by no means offended at the Corin-
thians for joining the confederates in the Grecian war,
because the family of Glaucus, their own ally, was
originally of Corinth, so neither the Greeks nor the
Romans have reason to complain of the academy, which
has been equally favorable to both. This will appear
from the lives of Brutus and Dion; for, as one was
the scholar of Plato, and the other educated in his
principles, they came like wrestlers from the same
palaestra, to engage in the greatest conflicts. Both,
by their conduct, in which there was a great similarity,
confirmed that observation of their master, that 'power
and fortune most concur with prudence and justice to
effect any thing great in a political capacity:' but, as
Hippomachus the wrestler said, that he could distin-
guish his scholars at a distance, though they were only
carrying meat from the market; so the sentiments of
those who have had a polite education must have a
similar influence on their manners, and give a peculiar
grace and propriety to their conduct.
Accident, however, rather than design, gave a simi-
larity to the lives of these two great men; and both
were cut off by an untimely death, before they could
carry the purposes, which they had pursued with so
much labor, into execution. The most singular cir-
cumstance attending their death was, that both had a
divine warning of it, in the appearance of a frightful
spectre. There are those, indeed, who say, that no
man in his senses ever saw a spectre; that these are
the delusive visions of women and children; or of men
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? 90
PLUTARCH.
whose intellects are affected by some infirmity of the
body; and who believe that their absurd imaginations
are of divine inspiration. But if Dion and Brutus,
men of firm and philosophic minds, whose understand-
ings were not affected by any constitutional infirmity;
if such men could pay so much credit to the appear-
ance of spectres, as to give an account of them to their
friends, I see no reason why we should depart from
the opinion of the ancients, that men had their evil
genii, who disturbed them with fears, and distressed
their virtue, lest, by a steady and uniform pursuit of
it, they should hereafter obtain a happier allotment
than themselves. These things however I must refer
to another occasion; and in this twelfth book of pa-
rallel lives, of which Dion and Brutus are the subjects,
I shall begin with the more ancient.
After Dionysius the elder had seized the govern-
ment of Sicily he married the daughter of Hermo-
crates, a Syracusan. But as the monarchic power
was yet but ill established, she had the misfortune
to be so much abused by an outrageous faction, that
she put an end to her life. When Dionysius was
confirmed in his government he married two wives at
the same time. One was Doris, a native of Locris;
the other, Aristomache, the daughter of Hipparinus,
who was a principal person in Syracuse, and colleague
with Dionysius when he was first appointed general
of the Sicilian forces. It is said that he married these
wives on the same day. It is not certain which he
married first, but he was impartial in his kindness to
them; for both attended him at his table, and alter-
nately partook of his bed. As Doris had the disad-
vantage of being a foreigner, the Syracusans sought
every means of obtaining the preference for their coun-
trywoman; but it was more than equivalent to this
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? DIoN.
91
disadvantage that she had the honor of giving Diony-
sius his eldest son.
Aristomache, on the contrary, was
a long time barren, though the king was extremely de-
sirous of having children by her; and put to death the
mother of Doris, on a supposition that she had pre-
vented her conceptions by potions.
Dion, the brother of Aristomache, was well received
at court; not only on her account, but from the regard
which Dionysius had for his merit and abilities: and
that prince. gave his treasurer an order to supply him
with whatever money he wanted; but, at the same
time, to keep an account of what he received.
But whatever the talents and the virtues of Dion
might be originally, it is certain that they received the
happiest improvement under the auspices of Plato.
Surely the gods, in mercy to mankind, sent that divine
philosopher from Italy to Syracuse, that, through the
humane influence of his doctrine, the spirit of liberty
might once more revive, and the inhabitants of that
country be rescued from tyranny.
Dion soon became the most distinguished of his
scholars. To the fertility of his genius, and the excel-
lence of his disposition, Plato himself has given testi-
mony ; and he did the greatest honor to that testimony
in his life: for though he had been educated in servile
principles under a tyrant, though he had been famili-
arised to dependence on the one hand, and to the in-
dulgence of pomp and luxury, as the greatest happi-
ness, on the other, yet he was no sooner acquainted
with that philosophy which points out the road to vir-
tue, than his whole soul caught the enthusiasm, and,
with the simplicity of a young man who judges of the
dispositions of others by his own, he concluded that
Plato's lectures would have the same effect on Diony-
sius: for this reason he solicited, and at length per-
suaded the tyrant to hear him. When Plato was
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? PLUTARCH.
admitted, the discourse turned on virtue in general.
Afterwards they came to fortitude in particular; and
Plato made it appear that tyrants have, of all men,
the least pretence to that virtue. Justice was the next
topic: and when Plato asserted the happiness of the
just, and the wretched condition of the unjust, the
tyrant was stung; and being unable to answer his ar-
guments, he expressed his resentment against those
who seemed to listen to him with pleasure. At last he
was extremely exasperated, and asked the philosopher
what business he had in Sicily. Plato answered, 'that
he came to seek an honest man. '--' And so, then,' re-
plied the tyrant, 'it seems you have lost your labor. '
Dion was in hopes that his anger would have ended
here; but while Plato was hastening to be gone he
conveyed him aboard a galley, in which Pollis, the
Lacedaemonian, was returning to Greece. Dionysius
urged Pollis either to put Plato to death in his pas-
sage, or, at least, to sell him as a slave: 'for, accord-
ing to his own maxim,' said he, 'this man cannot be
unhappy; a just man, he says, must be happy in a
state of slavery, as well as in a state of freedom. '
Pollis therefore carried him to . /Egina, and sold him
there: for the people of that place, being at war with
the Athenians, had made a decree, that whatever Athe-
nian was taken on their coast he should be sold. Dion,
notwithstanding, retained his interest with Dionysius,
had considerable employments, and was sent ambassa-
dor to Carthage. Dionysius had a high esteem for
him, and he therefore permitted him to speak his sen-
timents with freedom. An instance of this we have in
the retort he made on the tyrant's ridiculing the go-
vernment of Gelo: ' Gelo,' said Dionysius, 'is [g-eZoi]
the laughing-stock of Sicily. ' While others admired
and applauded this witticism, Dion answered, 'You
obtained the crown by being trusted on Gelo's ac-
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? DIoN.
93
count, who reigned with great humanity ; but you have
reigned in such a manner, that, for your sake, no man
will be trusted hereafter. Gelo made monarchy ap-
pear the best of governments; but you have convinced
us that it is the worst. ' Dionysius had three children
by Doris, and four by Aristomacbe ; whereof two were
daughters, Sophrosyne and Arete. The former of these
was married to his eldest son Dionysius; the latter to
his brother Thearides; and, after his death, to her un-
cle Dion. In the last illness of Dionysius, Dion would
have applied to him in behalf of the children of Ari-
stomache, but the physicians were beforehand with
him. They wanted to ingratiate themselves with his
successor; and when he asked for a sleeping-dose,
Timaeus tells us, they gave him so effectual a one, that
he awaked no more.
When his son Dionysius came to the throne, in the
first council that he held, Dion spoke with so much
propriety on the present state of affairs, and on the
measures which ought to be taken, that the rest ap-
peared to be mere children in understanding. By the
freedom of his counsels he exposed, in a strong light,
the slavish principles of those who, through a timorous
disingenuity, advised such measures as they thought
would please their prince, rather than such as might
advance his interest. But what alarmed them most
was the steps he proposed to take with regard to the
impending war with Carthage; for he offered either to
go in person to Carthage, and settle an honorable
peace with the Carthaginians, or, if the king were
rather inclined for war, to fit out and maintain fifty
galleys at his own expense.
Dionysius was pleased with the magnificence of his
spirit; but the courtiers felt that it made them appear
little. They agreed that, at all events, Dion was to be
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PLUTARCH.
crushed, and they spared no calumny that malice could
suggest. They represented to the king that he cer-
tainly meant to make himself master by sea, and by
that means to obtain the kingdom for his sister's chil-
dren. There was, moreover, another and an obvious
cause of their hatred to him, in the reserve of his man-
ners, and of the sobriety of his life. They led the
young and ill-educated king through every species of
debauchery, the shameless panders to his wrong di-
rected passions. Yet while folly rioted, tyranny slept:
its rage was dissolved in the ardor of youthful indul-
gences, as iron is softened in the fire; and that lenity
which the Sicilians could not expect from the virtue
of their prince, they found in his weakness. Thus the
reins of that monarchy, which Dionysius vainly called
adamantine, fell gradually from the loose and disso-
lute hand that held them. This young prince, it is
said, would continue the scene of intoxication for
ninety days without intermission; during which time
no sober person was admitted to his court, where all
was drunkenness and buffoonery, revelry and riot.
Their enmity to Dion, who had no taste for these
enjoyments, was a thing of course: and, as he refused
to partake with them in their vices, they resolved to
strip him of his virtues. To these they gave-the names
of such vices as are supposed in some degree to re-
semble them. His gravity of manners they called
pride; his freedom of speech, insolence; his declining
to join in their licentiousness, contempt. It is true,
there was a natural haughtiness in bis deportment,
and an asperity that was unsociable and difficult of
access: so that it is not to be wondered if he found
no ready admission to the ears of a young king,
already spoiled by flattery. Many, even of his own
particular friends, who admired the integrity and gene-
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? DIoN.
rosity of his heart, could not but condemn those for-
bidding manners, which were so ill adapted to social
and political intercourse: and Plato himself, when he
wrote to him some time after, warned him, as it were
by the spirit of prophecy, 'To guard against that aus-
terity which is the companion of solitude. ' However,
the necessity of the times, and the feeble state of
the monarchy, rendered it necessary for the king,
though contrary to his inclination, to retain him in the
highest appointments; and this Dion himself very well
knew.
As he was willing to impute the irregularities of
Dionysius to ignorance and a bad education, he endea-
vored to engage him in a course of liberal studies, and
to give him a taste for those sciences which have a
tendency to moral improvement. By this means he
hoped that he should induce him to think of virtue
without disgust, and at length to embrace its precepts
with pleasure. The young Dionysius was not na-
turally the worst of princes; but his father being ap-
prehensive that if his mind were improved by science
and the conversation of wise and virtuous men, he
might some time or other think of depriving him of his
kingdom, kept him in close confinement; where,
through ignorance and want of other employment, he
amused himself with making little chariots, candle-
sticks, wooden chairs, and tables. His father, indeed,
was so suspicious of all mankind, and so wretchedly
timorous, that he would not suffer a barber to shave him;
but bad his hair singed off with a live coal by one of his
own attendants. Neither his brother nor his son were
admitted into his chamber in their own clothes, but were
first stripped and examined by the sentinels, and after
that were obliged to put on such clothes as were pro-
vided for them. When his brother Leptines was once
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? 96
PLUTARCH.
describing the situation of a place, he took a spear
from one of the guards to trace the plan; on which
Dionysius was extremely offended, and caused the sol-
dier who had given up his spear to be put to death.
He was afraid, he said, of the sense and sagacity of
his friends; because he knew they must think it more
eligible to govern than to obey. He slew Marsyas,
whom he had advanced to a considerable military com-
mand, merely because Marsyas dreamed that he killed
him; for he concluded that this dream by night was
occasioned by some similar suggestion of the day.
Yet even this timorous and suspicious wretch was
offended with Plato, because he would not allow him
to be the most valiant man in the world!
When Dion, as we have before observed, considered
that the irregularities of young Dionysius were chiefly
owing to his want of education, he exhorted him ear-
nestly to apply himself to study, and by all means to
send for Plato, the prince of philosophers, into Sicily.
'When he comes,' said he, 'apply to him without
loss of time. Conformed by his precepts to that divine
exemplar of beauty and perfection, which called the
universe from confusion into order, you will at once
secure your own happiness, and the happiness of your
people. The obedience they now render you through
fear, by your justice and moderation you will improve
to a principle of filial duty; and of a tyrant, you will
become a king. Fear and force, and fleets and armies,
are not, as your father called them, the adamantine
chains of government; but that attention, that affec-
tion, that respect, which justice and goodness for ever
draw after them. These are the milder but the stronger
bonds of empire. Besides, it is surely a disgrace for
a prince, who in all the circumstances of figure and
appearance is distinguished from the people, not to rise
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? DIoN.
97
above them at the same time, in the superiority of his
conversation, and the cultivation of his mind. '
As Dion frequently solicited the king on this subject,
and occasionally repeated some of Plato's arguments,
he conceived at length a violent inclination to hear him
discourse. He therefore sent several letters of invita-
tion to him at Athens, which were seconded by the
intreaties of Dion. The Pythagorean philosophers in
Italy requested at the same time that he would under-
take the direction of this young prince, whose mind
was misguided by power, and reclaim him by the solid
counsels of philosophy. Plato, as he owns himself,
was ashamed to be a philosopher in theory, and not
in practice; and flattering himself that if he could
rectify the mind of the prince, he might by the same
means remedy the disorders of the kingdom, he yielded
to their request.
The enemies of Dion, now fearing an alteration in
Dionysius, advised him to recall from exile one Phi-
listus, who was, indeed, a man of learning, but em-
ployed his talents in defence of the despotic policy;
and this man they intended to set in opposition to
Plato and his philosophy. Philistus, from the be-
ginning, had been a principal instrument in promoting
the monarchic government, and kept the citadel, of
which he was governor, a long time for that party. It
is said that he had an unlawful desire for the mother
of the elder Dionysius, and that the tyrant himself
was not ignorant of it. Be this as it may, Leptines,
who had two daughters by a married woman, whom he
had corrupted, gave one of them in marriage to Phi-
listus: but this being done without consulting Diony-
sius, he was offended; imprisoned Leptine's mistress,
and banished Philistus. The latter fled to his friends
at Adria, where, it is probable, he composed the great-
PLUT. VoL. VII. G
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? 98
PLUTARCH.
est part of his history; for he did not return to Sicily
during the reign of that Dionysius. After his death,
as we have observed, Dion's enemies occasioned him
to be recalled. His arbitrary principles were suitable
for their purpose, and he began to exercise them im-
mediately on his return.
At the same time calumnies and impeachments
against Dion were, as usual, brought to the king.
He was accused of holding a private correspondence
with Theodoses and Heraclides, for the subversion of
the monarchy; and indeed it is probable that he en-
tertained some hopes from the arrival of Plato, of
lessening the excessive power of Dionysius, or at least
of making him moderate and equitable in the use of it.
Besides, if he continued obstinate, and were not to
be reclaimed, he was determined to depose him, and
restore the commonwealth to the Syracusans; for he
preferred even the popular form of government to an
absolute monarchy, where a well regulated aristocracy
could not be procured.
Such was the state of affairs when Plato came into
Sicily. At first he was received with the greatest ap-
pearance of kindness, and he was conveyed from the
coast in one of the king's most splendid chariots. Even
Dionysius himself sacrificed to the gods in acknow-
legement of his safe arrival, and of the honor and hap-
piness they had by that means conferred on his king-
dom. The people had the greatest hopes of a speedy
reformation. They observed an unusual decorum in
the entertainments at court, and a sobriety in the con-
duct of the courtiers; while the king answered all to
whom he gave audience in a very obliging manner.
The desire of learning and the study of philosophy
were become general; and the several apartments of
the royal palace were like so many schools of geomu-
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? DION.
99
tricians, full of the dust in which the students describe
their mathematical figures. Not long after this, at a
solemn sacrifice in the citadel, when the herald prayed
as usual for the long continuance of the government,
Dionysius is said to have cried, ' how long will you
continue to curse me? ' This was an inexpressible morti-
fication to Pbilistus and his party: if Plato, said they,
has already made such a change in the king, his influ-
ence in time will be irresistible.
They now no longer made their attacks on Dion
separately, or in private. They united in exclaiming
against him, that he had fascinated the king with the
delusions of eloquence and philosophy, in order to ob-
tain the kingdom for his sister's children. They repre-
sented it as a matter of the greatest indignity, that
after the whole force of the Athenians had vainly in-
vaded Sicily, and were vanquished and destroyed,
without so much as being able to take Syracuse, they
should now, by means of one sophist, overturn the
empire of Dionysius. It was with indignation they be-
held the deluded monarch prevailed on by his insinua-
tions to part with his guard of ten thousand spearmen,
to give up a navy of four hundred galleys, to disband
an army of ten thousand horse, and many times that
number of foot, in order that he might pursue an ideal
happiness in the academy, and amuse himself with
theorems of geometry, while the substantial enjoyments
of wealth and power were left to Dion and the children
of Aristomache.
By means of these suggestions Dion first incurred
the suspicion, and soon after the open displeasure of
Dionysius. A letter of his was likewise intercepted,
and privately carried to the king. It was addressed to
the Carthaginian agents, and directed them not to have
their audience of the king concerning the conclusion
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PLUTARCH.
of the peace, unless he were present, and then every-
thing should be settled as they wished. Timaeus in-
forms us, that after Dionysius had showed this letter
to Philistus, and consulted him on it, he overreached
Dion by a pretence of reconciliation, and told him that
he was desirous their good understanding might be re-
newed. After this, as he was one day walking alone
with him by the wall of the castle, near the sea, he
showed him the letter, and accused him of conspiring
with the Carthaginians against him. When Dion at-
tempted to speak in his own defence, Dionysius refused
to hear him; and having forced him on board a vessel,
which lay there for the purpose, commanded the sailors
to set him ashore in Italy.
When this was publicly known, it was generally con-
demned as tyrannical and cruel. The court was in dis-
tress for the ladies of Dion's family; but the citizens
received fresh courage from the event; for they were
in hopes that the odium which it would bring on Dio-
nysius, and the general discontent that his government
occasioned, might contribute to bring about a revolu-
tion. Dionysius perceived this with some anxiety, and
thinking it necessary to pacify the women and the rest
of Dion's friends, he told them that he was not gone
into exile, but only sent out of the way for a time, that
his obstinacy might not draw on him a heavier punish-
ment. He also allowed his friends two ships, that they
might convey to him, in Peloponnesus, as much of his
treasure, and as many of his servants, as they should
think fit; for Dion was a man of considerable property,
and little inferior to the king in wealth or magnificence.
The most valuable part of his effects, together with pre-
sents from the ladies, and others of his acquaintance,
his friends conveyed to him; and the splendor of his
fortune gained him great respect among the Greeks.
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? DIoN.
101
At the same time they conceived a high idea of the
power of the tyrant, when an exile from his kingdom
could make such an appearance.
Dionysius now removed Plato into the citadel, under
color of kindness; but in reality to set a guard on him,
lest he should follow Dion, and proclaim to the world
how injuriously he had been treated.
As wild beasts become tame and tractable by use, so
the tyrant, by frequent conversation with the philoso-
pher, began at last to conceive an affection for him;
yet even that affection had something of the tyrant in
it; for he required of Plato, in return, that he should
exclusively confine his regard and admiration to him.
On condition that he would prefer his friendship to that
of Dion, he was willing to give up the whole adminis-
tration into his hands. This extravagant affection gave
Plato no small trouble; for it was accompanied with
petulance and jealousy, as the love which subsists be-
tween the different sexes has its quarrels and reconcili-
ations. He expressed the strongest desire to become
Plato's scholar, and to proceed in the study of philoso-
phy; but he expressed it with reluctance in the presence
of those who wanted to divert him from his purpose,
and seemed as if he was in pursuit of something he
ought to be ashamed of.
As a war broke out about this time, he found it ne-
cessary to dismiss Plato; but he promised him, before
his departure, to recall Dion the ensuing summer:
however, he did not keep his promise, but made the
war he was engaged in his apology, and remitted to
him the produce of his estate. At the same time he
desired Plato to acquiesce in his apology, assuring him
that he would send for Dion on the commencement of
the peace; and he intreated, in the mean while, that
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