PROGRESS OF TIMOLEON. 153 though with a very long interval, comes our despot of Syracuse.* What had become of Polyarchus, we do not know; but Aristox- enus lived to see the envied Dionysius under the altered phase of his life at Corinth, and probably to witness the ruin of the Persian Kings also. On being asked, what had been the cause of his dis- pleasure against Plato, Dionysius replied, in language widely dif- fering from that of his former envoy Polyarchus, that amidst the many evils which surrounded a despot, none was so mischievous as the unwillingness of his so-called friends to tell him the truth Such false friends had poisoned the good feeling between him and Plato. 2 This anecdote bears greater mark of being genuine, than others which we read more witty and pungent. The Cynic phi- losopher Diogenes treated Dionysius with haughty scorn for sub- mitting to live in a private station after having enjoyed so over- ruling an ascendency. Such was more or less the sentiment of every visitor who saw him ; but the matter to be lamented is, that he had not been in a private station from the beginning. He was by nature unfit to tread, even with profit to himself, the perilous and thorny path of a Grecian despot. The reinforcements decreed by the Corinthians, though equip- ped without delay and forwarded to Thurii in Italy, were prevent- ed from proceeding farther on shipboard by the Carthaginian squadron at the strait, and were condemned to wait for a favora- ble opportunity. 3 But the greatest of all reinforcements to Tiino- leon was, the acquisition of Ortygia. It contained not merely a garrison of two thousand soldiers who passed (probably much to their own satisfaction-) from the declining cause of Dionysius to the victorious banner of Timoleon but also every species of military stores. There were horses, engines for siege and batte- 1 Aristoxenus, Fragm. 15, ed. Didot. ap. Athenaeum, p. 545. devrepcv de, tjir/ai, rov rinircpov rvpavvov fieir] TI<; uv, naiirep iroTiV ZetTrdfj.evov. One sees that the word rvpavvo^ was used even by those who intended no unfriendly sense applied by an admiring envoy to his master.
- Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 15. Aristoxenus heard from Dionysius al
Corinth the remarkable anecdote about the faithful attachment of the two Pythagorean friends, Damon and Phintias. Dionysius had been strongly impressed with the incident, and was fond of relating it -rrohhuKif jjpii dnjyelro, Aristoxen. Fragm. 9, ed. Didot ; apud Jamblichum Vit. Pythag s. 233). Plutarch, 7imoleon, c. 16.
