hen the last victory was secured.

In memory of Epaminondas, their greatest citizen and general, the
Thebans erected a monument on the battlefield, and engraved his name
upon it, with an image of the dragon from whose teeth his ancestors had
sprung.

The Thebans, remembering his dying wish, then proposed a peace, which
was gladly accepted by all the Greek states, for they were exhausted by
the almost constant warfare they had kept up during many years.

LXXXI. THE TYRANT OF SYRACUSE.

You have seen what a cruel man Alexander was. He was not the only tyrant
in those days, however; for the city of Syracuse in Sicily, which
Alcibiades had hoped to conquer, was ruled by a man as harsh and mean as
Alexander.

This tyrant, whose name was Di-o-nys'ius, had seized the power by force,
and kept his authority by exercising the greatest severity. He was
always surrounded by guards, who at a mere sign from him were ready to
put any one to death.

Dionysius was therefore feared and hated by the people whom he governed,
but who would have been very glad to get rid of him. No honest man cared
to come near such a bloodthirsty wretch, and there were soon none but
wicked men to be found in his court.

These men, hoping to win his favor and get rich gifts, used to flatter
him constantly. They never told him the truth, but only praised him, and
made believe to admire all he said and did.

Of course, even though they were wicked too, they could not really
admire him, but secretly hated and despised him. Their praise,
therefore, was as false as they, and their advice was always as bad as
bad could be.

Now, Dionysius was as conceited as he was cruel, and fancied that there
was nothing he could not do. Among other things, he thought he could
write beautiful poetry. Whenever he wrote a poem, therefore, he read it
aloud to all his courtiers, who went into raptures over it, although
they made great fun of it behind his back.

Dionysius was highly flattered by their praise, but thought he would
like to have it confirmed by the philosopher Phi-lox'e-nus, the most
learned man of Syracuse.

He therefore sent for Philoxenus, and bade him give his candid opinion
of the verse. Now, Philoxenus was far too noble a man to tell a lie: and
whenever he was consulted by Dionysius, he always boldly told the
truth, whether it was agreeable or not.

When the tyrant asked his opinion about the poems, therefore, he
unhesitatingly answered th