130 HISTORY OF GREECE. gan to conceive hopes of recovering their dominion. He had gone forth from Syracuse on an expedition against Katana ; of which absence Hipparinus took advantage to effect his entry into Syracuse, at the head of a force sufficient, combined with popular discoi.t3nt, to shut him out of the city. Kallippus speedily re- turned, but was defeated by Hipparinus, and compelled to content himself with the unprofitable exchange of Katana in place of Syracuse. 1 Hipparinus and Nysaeus were the two sons of Dionysius the elder, by Aristomache, and were therefore nephews of Dion. Though Ilipparinus probably became master of Ortygia, the strongest portion of Syracuse, yet it would appear that in the other portions of Syracuse there were opposing parties who contested his rule ; first, the partisans of Dionysius the younger, and of his family next, the mass who desired to get rid of both the fami- lies, and to establish a free popular constitution. Such is the state of facts which we gather from the letters of Plato. 2 But we are too destitute of memorials to make out anything distinct respect- ing the condition of Syracuse or of Sicily between 353 B. c. and 344 B. c. from the death of Dion to the invitation sent to Co- rinth, which brought about the mission of Timoleon. We are as- sured generally that it was a period of intolerable conflicts, disorders, and suffering ; that even the temples and tombs were neglected; 3 that the people were everywhere trampled down by despots and foreign mercenaries ; that the despots were frequently overthrown by violence or treachery, yet only to be succeeded by others as bad or worse ; that the multiplication of foreign soldiers, seldom regularly paid, spread pillage and violence everywhere. 4 The philosopher Plato in a letter written about a year or more after the death of Dion (seemingly after the expulsion of Kallip- pus) and addressed to the surviving relatives and friends of the latter draws a lamentable picture of the state both of Syracuse nnd Sicily. He goes so far as to say, that under the distraction 1 This seems to result from Plutarch, Dion, c. 58, compared with Diodor xvi. 36.
- PUto, Epistol. viii. p. 353, 355, 356.
3 Plato, Epist. viii. 356 B. ifativ tie Karpida Kal lepuv adepa-rtiaiu KO! rd(fov{, etc. Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 1.
