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Contents of the Sixteenth Book of Diodorus
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 71chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95
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1When Agathocles was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus
Fabius and Gaius Poplius. During their term of office, Dion son of Hipparinus sailed to Sicily
intending to overthrow the tyranny of Dionysius, and with slenderer resources than those of any
conqueror before his time he succeeded contrary to all expectation in overthrowing the greatest
realm in all Europe.
[2]
Who, indeed, would have believed that,
putting ashore with two2 merchantmen, he could actually have overcome
the despot who had at his disposal four hundred ships3 of war, infantry numbering nearly one
hundred thousand, ten thousand horse, and as great a store of arms, food, and money as one in
all probability possessed who had to maintain lavishly the aforesaid forces; and, apart from
all we have mentioned, had a city which was the largest of the cities of Hellas, and harbours
and docks and fortified citadels4 that were impregnable, and, besides, a great number of powerful allies?
[3]
The cause for Dion's successes was, above all others, his own
nobility of spirit, his courage, and the willing support of those who were to be liberated, but
still more important than all these were the pusillanimity of the tyrant and his subjects'
hatred of him; for when all these characteristics merged at a single critical moment, they
unexpectedly brought to a successful close deeds which were considered impossible.
[4]
But we must forgo these reflections and
turn to the detailed narrative of the events as they severally occurred. Dion, having sailed
from Zacynthos, which lies by Cephallenia, with two merchantmen, put in at the harbour of
Acragas named Minoa. This had been founded of olden time by Minos, king of the Cretans, on the
occasion when, in his search for Daedalus, he had been entertained by Cocalus, king of the
Sicanians,5 but in the period with which we are concerned
this city was subject to the Carthaginians, and its governor, named Paralus,6 who was a friend of Dion, received
him enthusiastically.
[5]
Dion, having unloaded from the
merchantmen five thousand suits of armour, handed them over to Paralus and requested him to
transport them on wagons to Syracuse, while he himself, taking along the mercenaries7 numbering a thousand, led them against Syracuse. On the march he
persuaded the peoples of Acragas, Gela, and some of the Sicanians and Sicels who dwelt in the
interior, also the people of Camarina, to join in the liberation of the Syracusans, and then
advanced to overthrow the tyrant.
[6]
Since many men with their
arms streamed in from all sides, soon more than twenty thousand soldiers were gathered.
Likewise many also of the Greeks from Italy and of the Messenians were summoned, and all came
in haste with great enthusiasm.8
1 357/6 B.C.
2 Confirmed by Plut. Dion 25.1. The port was Heracleia Minoa, halfway between Acragas and Selinus (see below, sect. 4).
3 Confirmed by chap. 70.3; Plut. Dion 14.2; Aelian Varia Historia 6.12. Nepos Dion 5.3 gives "quingentis longis navibus."
4 Of Ortygia and Epipolae, the work of Dionysius I. See Book 14.7.1-3, 5; and Book 14.18 for these and other constructions.
5 For this myth see Book 4.77-79. There is no mention of "founding" Minoa in chap. 79.
6 Plut. Dion 25-26.3, gives a more detailed account of Dion's voyage and his landing at Minoa. Synalus (Plut. Dion 25.5) is there the name given to the Carthaginian commander, Dion's friend. It is very possible that Carthage favoured Dion's project since it gave every indication of weakening the military power of Syracuse (see Beloch, Griechische Geschichte （2）, 3.1.258).
7 These seem to be the mercenaries he had brought, not new ones (see chap. 6.5).
8 See the account in Plut. Dion 26-27 and Hackforth, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.278.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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References (13 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(6):
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AGRIGENTUM
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), HERACLEIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MESSA´NA
- Smith's Bio, Dion
- Smith's Bio, Libo, Poete'lius
- Smith's Bio, Pa'ralus
- Cross-references in notes from this page (7):
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