438 HISTORY OF GREECE. or worthless and incompetent men, easy for him to set aside. At any rate, his calumnies, thjugh received with great repugnance by the leading and more intelligent citizens, found favor with the bulk of the assembly, predisposed at that moment from the terrors of the situation to suspect every one. The new Board of generals being thus discredited, Dionysius alone was listened to as an adviser. His first and most strenuous recommendation was, that a vote should be passed for restoring the exiles ; men (he affirmed) at- tached to their country, and burning to serve her, having already refused the offers of her enemies ; men who had been thrown into banishment by previous political dispute, but who, if now gene- rously recalled, would manifest their gratitude by devoted patriot- ism, and serve Syracuse far more warmly than the allies invoked from Italy and Peloponnesus. His discredited colleagues either could not, or would not, oppose the proposition ; which, being warmly pressed by Dionysius and all his party, was at length adopted by the assembly. The exiles accordingly returned, com- prising all the most violent men who had been in arms with Her- mokrates when he was slain. They returned glowing with party- antipathy and revenge, prepared to retaliate upon others the con- fiscation under which themselves had suffered, and looking to the despotism of Dionysius as their only means of success. 1 The second step of the despot's progress was now accomplished. Dionysius had filled up the ranks of the Hermokratean party, and obtained an energetic band of satellites, whose hopes and interests were thoroughly identified with his own. Meanwhile letters ar- rived from Gela, entreating reinforcements, as Imilkon was under- stood to be about to march thither. Dionysius being empowered to march thither a body of two thousand hoplites, with four hun- dred horsemen, turned the occasion to profitable account. A regi- ment of mercenaries, under the Lacedaemonian Dexippus, was in garrison at Gela ; while the government of the town is said to have been oligarchical, in the hands of the rich, though with a strong and discontented popular opposition. On reaching Gela, Dionysius immediately took part with the latter ; originating the most violent propositions against the governing rich, as he had done at Syra- cuse. Accusing them of treason in the public assembly, he obtained 1 Diodor. xiii. 93.
