t46 HISTORY OF GKEECK. In order that the voting of any public assembly shall be really available as a protection to the people, its votes must not only be preceded by full and free discussion, but must also be open from time 1 J time to rediscussion and correction. That error will from time to time be committed, as well by the collective people as by particular fractions of the people, is certain ; opportunity for amendment is essential. A vote which is understood to be final, urd never afterwards to be corrigible, is one which can hardly turn to the benefit of the people themselves, though it may often, as in the case of Dionysius, promote the sinister purposes of some designing protector. CHAPTER LXXXII. SICILY DURING THE DESPOTISM OF THE ELDER DIONYSIUS AT SYRACUSE. THE proceedings, recounted at the close of my last chapter, whereby Dionysius erected his despotism, can hardly have occu- pied less than three months ; coinciding nearly with the first months of 405 B. c., inasmuch as Agrigentum was taken about the winter solstice of 406 B. c. 1 He was not molested during this 1 Xen. Hellen. ii, 2, 24. 'O eviavrb? ehrj-yev, tv 9 [teaovvri Aioviiaiof irv- lawyers, etc. The year meant here is an Olympic year, from Midsummer to Midsum- mer ; so that the middle months of it would fall in the first quarter of the Julian year. If we compare however Xen. Hellen. i, 5, 21 with ii, 2, 24, we shall see that the indications of time cannot both he correct ; for the acquisition of the despotism hy Dionysius followed immediately, and as a consequence directly brought about, upon the capture of Agrigentum by the Carthagi- nians. It seems to me that the mark of time is not quite accurate in either one passage or the other. The capture of Agrigentum took place at the close of B. c. 406 ; the acquisition of the despotism by Dionysius, in the earlj
