Dion   

great navy and standing army of ten thousand hired barbarians are not,
as his father had said, the adamantine chains which secure the regal
power, but the love, zeal, and affection inspired by clemency and
justice; which, though they seem more pliant than the stiff and hard
bonds of severity, are nevertheless the strongest and most durable
ties to sustain a lasting government. Moreover, it is mean and
dishonourable that a ruler, while careful to be splendid in his dress,
and luxurious and magnificent in his habitation, should, in reason and
power of speech, make no better show than the commonest of his
subjects, nor have the princely palace of his mind adorned according
to his royal dignity.
Dion frequently entertaining the king upon this subject, and, as
occasion offered, repeating some of the philosopher's sayings,
Dionysius grew impatiently desirous to have Plato's company, and to
hear him discourse. Forthwith, therefore, he sent letter upon letter
to him to Athens, to which Dion added his entreaties; also several
philosophers of the Pythagorean sect from Italy sent their
recommendations, urging him to come and obtain a hold upon this
pliant, youthful soul, which his solid and weighty reasonings might
steady, as it were, upon the seas of absolute power and authority.
Plato, as he tells us himself, out of shame more than any other
feeling, lest it should seem that he was all mere theory, and that
of his own good-will he would never venture into action, hoping
withal, that if he could work a cure upon one man, the head and
guide of the rest, he might remedy the distempers of the whole
island of Sicily, yielded to their requests.
But Dion's enemies, fearing an alteration in Dionysius, persuaded
him to recall from banishment Philistus, a man of learned education,
and at the same time of great experience in the ways of tyrants, and
who might serve as a counterpoise to Plato and his philosophy. For
Philistus from the beginning had been a great instrument in
establishing the tyranny, and for a long time had held the office of
captain of the citadel. There was a report that he had been intimate
with the mother of Dionysius the first, and not without his privity.
And when Leptines, having two daughters by a married woman who he
had debauched, gave one of them in marriage to Philistus, without
acquainting Dionysius, he, in great anger, put Leptines's mistress
in prison, and banished Philistus from Sicily. Whereupon, he fled to
some of his friends on the Adriatic coast, in which retirement and
leisure it is probable he wrote the greatest part of his history;
for he returned not into his country during the reign of that
Dionysius.
But after his death, as is just related, Dion's enemies occasioned
him to be recalled home, as fitted for their purpose, and a firm
friend to the arbitrary government. And this, indeed, immediately upon
his return he set himself to maintain; and at the same time various
calumnies and accusations against Dion were by others brought to the
king: as that he held correspondence with Theodotes and Heraclides, to
subvert the government; as, doubtless, it is likely enough, that
Dion had entertained hopes, by the coming of Plato, to mitigate the
rigid and despotic severity of the tyranny, and to give Dionysius
the character of a fair and lawful governor; and had determined, if he
should continue averse to that, and were not to be reclaimed, to
depose him, and restore the commonwealth to the Syracusans; not that
he approved a democratic government, but thought it altogether
preferable to a tyranny, when a sound and good aristocracy could not
be procured.
This was the state of affairs when Plato came into Sicily, who, at
his first arrival, was received with wonderful demonstration of
kindness and respect. For one of the royal chariots, richly
ornamented, was in attendance to receive him when he came on shore;
Dionysius himself sacrificed to the gods in thankful acknowledgment
for the great happiness which had befallen his government. The
citizens, also, began to entertain marvellous hopes of a speedy