was the next prominent member of his family, and
possessed a fortune of one hundred talents--a man of great capacity,
ambitious, luxurious, but fond of literature and philosophy. He was,
however, so much influenced by Plato, whose Socratic talk and democratic
principles enchained and fascinated him, that his character became
essentially modified, and he learned to hate the despotism under which he
grew up, and formed large schemes for political reform. He aspired to
cleanse Syracuse of slavery, and clothe her in the dignity of freedom, by
establishing an improved constitutional polity, with laws which secured
individual rights. He exchanged his luxurious habits for the simple fare
of a philosopher. Never before had Plato met with a pupil who so
profoundly and earnestly profited from his instructions. The harsh
treatment which Plato received from the tyrant was a salutary warning to
Dion. He saw that patience was imperatively necessary, and he so conducted
as to maintain the favor of Dionysius.

(M683) Dionysius II. was twenty-five years old when his father died, and
though he possessed generous impulses, was both weak and vain, given to
caprice, and insatiate of praise. He had been kept from business from the
excessive jealousy of his father, and his life had been passed in idleness
and luxury at the palace of Ortygia. His father's taste for poetry had
introduced guests to his table whose conversation opened his mind to
generous sentiments, but the indecision of his character prevented his
profiting from any serious studies. Dion supported this feeble novice on
the throne of his father, and tried to gain influence over him, and
frankly suggested the measures to be adopted, and Dionysius listened at
first to his wise counsels. Dion wished to make Syracuse a free city, with
good laws, to expel the Carthaginians from Sicily, and replant the
semi-barbarian Hellenic cities. He also endeavored to reform the life of
Dionysius as well as Syracuse, and actually wrought a signal change in his
royal pupil, so that he desired to see and converse with the great sage
who had so completely changed the life of Dion, and inspired him with
patriotic enthusiasm. Accordingly, Plato was sent for, who reluctantly
consented to visit Syracuse. He had no great faith in the despot who
sought his wisdom, and he did not wish, at sixty-one, to leave his
favorite grove, with admiring disciples from every part of Greece, where
he reigned as monarch of