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[5] When he landed at Corinth, he besought the Corinthians1 to collaborate with him in setting free the Syracusans, and he himself began to gather mercenary troops and to collect suits of armour.2 Soon many gave ear to his pleas and he gradually accumulated large supplies of armour and many mercenaries,3 then, hiring two merchantmen, he loaded on board arms and men, while he himself with these transports sailed from Zacynthus, which is near Cephallenia, to Sicily, but he left Heracleides behind to bring up later some triremes as well as merchantmen to Syracuse.

1 Corinth was probably selected, not only because of its favourable location, but because it was the mother-city of Syracuse and very possibly favoured the oligarchy Dion planned to set up (see Plut. Dion 53).

2 Dion spent about ten years in Greece, 366-357 (Hackforth, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.275), in close touch with the Academy. For preparations see Nepos Dion 5.

3 Diodorus says 1000 (chap. 9.5), to which if 1500 under Heracleides (chap. 16.2) are added the number 3000 is approximated (chap. 17.3 and Anaximenes De Rhetorica ad Alexandrum 8.3.1429b). For other details of the expedition see Plut. Dion 22-24. For a critical account see Beloch, Griechische Geschichte (2), 3.1.257 and note 3, followed by Hackforth, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.277.

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