INFLUENCE OF DION. C7 wbject was not the end for which Dion laboi'ed. He r either wished to serve a despot, nor to become a despot himself. The moment was favorable for resuming that project which he had formerly imbibed from Plato, and which, in spite of contemptu- ous disparagement by his former master, had ever since clung to him as the dream of his heart and life. To make Syracuse a free city, under a government, not of will, but of good laws, with him- self as lawgiver in substance, if not in name to enfranchise and re-plant the semi-barbarised Hellenic cities in Sicily and to ex- pel the Carthaginians were schemes to which he now again de- voted himself with unabated enthusiasm. But he did not look to any other means of achieving them than the consent and initia- tive of Dionysius himself. The man who had been sanguine enough to think of working upon the iron soul of the father, was not likely to despair of shaping anew the more malleable metal of which the son was composed. Accordingly, while lending to Dio- nysius his best service as minister, he also took up the Platonic pro- fession, and tried to persuade him to reform both himself and his government. He endeavored to awaken in him a relish for a better and nobler private conduct than that which prevailed among the luxurious companions around him. He dwelt with enthusiasm on the scientific and soul-stirring conversation of Plato ; speci- mens l of which he either read aloud or repeated, exalting the hearer not only to a higher intellectual range, but also to the full majesty of mind requisite for ruling others with honor and im- provement. He pointed out the unrivalled glory which Diony- sius would acquire in the eyes of Greece, by consenting to em- ploy his vast power, not as a despot working on the fears of sub- jects, but as a king enforcing temperance and justice, by his own paternal example as well as by good laws. He tried to show that Dionysius, after having liberated Syracuse, and enrolled himself as a king limited and responsible amidst grateful citizens, would have far more real force against the barbarians than at present. 9 Such were the new convictions which Dion tried to work into the mind of the young Dionysius, as a living faith and sentiment. 1 Plutarch, Dion, c. 11. Tavra 7ro/l/la/ctf TOW Aiuvof Trapaivovrrot;, na) tuv /loyuv TUV nAurcJVOf eariv o&OTivof virooTreipovrot;, etc.
- Plutarch, Dion, c. 10, 11 j Plato, Epist. vii. p. 327 C.
