78 HISTORY OF GREECE. Three important months thus passed away, during which those precious public inclinations, which Plato found instilled by Dion into the bosom of Dionysius, and which he might have fanned into life and action to liberalize the government of Syracuse, and to restore the other free Grecian cities disappeared never to return. In place of them, Dionysius imbibed an antipathy, more and more rancorous, against the friend and relative with whom these sentiments had originated. The charges against Dion, of conspiracy and dangerous designs, circulated by Philis- tus and his cabal, became more audacious than ever. At length in the fourth month, Dionysius resolved to get rid of him. The proceedings of Dion being watched, a letter was detected which he had written to the Carthaginian commanders in Sicily (with whom the war still subsisted, though seemingly not in great activity), inviting them, if they sent any proposition for peace to Syracuse, to send it through him, as he would take care that it should be properly discussed. I have already stated, that even in the reign of the elder Dionysius, Dion had been the person to whom the negotiations with Carthage were habitually intrusted. Such a letter from him, as far as we make out from the general description, implied nothing like a treasonable purpose. But Dionysius, after taking counsel with Philistus, resolved to make use of it as a final pretext. Inviting Dion into the acrop< Us, un- der color of seeking to heal their growing difference?, rind be- ginning to enter into an amicable conversation, he conducted him msuspectingly down to the adjacent harbor, where lay moored, ilose in shore, a boat with the rowers aboard, ready for starting. Dionysius then produced the intercepted letter, handed it to Dion, and accused him to his face of treason. The latter protested against the imputation, and eagerly sought to reply. But Diony- sius stopped him from proceeding, insisted on his going aboard the boat, and ordered the rowers to carry him off forthwith to Italy. 1 ' The story is found in Plutarch (Dion, c. 14). who refers to Timoeus as his authority. It is confirmed in the main hy Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 329 D. urfvl drj o%ddv lauf Terapry Aiuva A<ovi><nof, omu/ievof kirt^ov^eveiv 75 rvpavvldi, apiKpbv et'f irZolov Ififlifiuaas, ie(3a%n> uripuf. Diodorus (xvi. 6) states that Dionysius sought to put Dion to death, arid
- hat he only escaped by flight. But the version of Plato and Plutarch U
<o be preferred.
