256 DION. 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 i-estore the commonwealth to the Syracusans ; not that he approved a democratic government, but thought it altogether prefer- able 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 wonder- ful 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 him- self sacrificed to the gods in thankful acknowledgment for the great happiness which had befallen his govern- ment. The citizens, also, began to entertain marvellous hopes of a speedy reformation, when they observed the modesty which now ruled in the banquets, and the general decorum which prevailed in all the court, their tyrant himself also behaving with gentleness and human- ity in all their matters of business that came before him. There was a general passion for reasoning and philoso- phy, insomuch that the very palace, it is reported, was filled with dust by the concourse of the students in mathe- matics who were working their problems there.f Some few days after, it was the time of one of the Syracusan sacrifices, and when the priest, as he was wont, prayed for the long and safe continuance of the tyranny, Diony- sius, it is said, as he stood by, cried out, " Leave off pray- ing for evil upon us." This sensibly vexed Philistus and his party, who conjectured, that if Plato, upon such brief
- The word aristocracy is used f The floors being spread with
in its proper Platonic sense, which sand, in which the geometrical fig- in the modern use it has lost, name- ures, according to the common ly, a government by the best (the Greek habit, would be drawn, most wise and virtuous) citizens.
