Dionysius II of Syracuse

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Dionysius II of Syracuse (* around 396 BC ; † after 337 BC ) was the successor of his father Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse from 367 BC. BC to 357 BC After heavy fighting he was expelled, but came back to power in 346. Finally, in 344 or 343, he had to give up his rule for good and went into exile.

Origin and youth

Dionysius I, who had introduced tyrannical rule in Syracuse in 405, pursued a marriage policy with the aim of securing his rule and establishing a dynasty. In 398 he married two distinguished women at the same time, Doris from Lokroi (today Locri in Calabria , southern Italy) and Aristomache , the daughter of Hipparinos, who had been one of his confidants even before he came to power. Such bigamy was unusual among the Greeks at the time.

The tyrant had several children from both marriages. Dionysios II, his eldest son, came from his marriage to Doris. Aristomache gave birth to two sons, Nysaios and Hipparinos , and two daughters, Arete and Sophrosyne. Arete was married by her father around 375 to Dion , the younger brother of Aristomache, who was thus an uncle of his wife on his mother's side. About five years earlier, Dionysius I had given Sophrosyne to his son from the other marriage, her half-brother Dionysius II. Sophrosyne was also Dion's niece through her mother Aristomache. So Dionysius I ensured with his marriage policy for the connection of the two branches of his descendants with each other and with Dion's family.

Like his father Hipparinos, Dion belonged to the closest circle of the suspicious tyrant who gave him important tasks. He gained political experience while Dionysius II was kept away from the affairs of state and not prepared for a future role as ruler. Dionysius I trusted his eldest son so little that he did not even exempt him from the rule that visitors were only admitted to the ruler after it had been verified that they were unarmed. When Dionysius I fell fatally ill in 367, Dion tried in vain to get his two nephews Hipparinos and Nysaios to participate in the rule; Dionysius II became his father's sole successor and was apparently able to take over power without any problems.

Rule under Dion's influence

Due to his marriage to the tyrant family, the extraordinarily wealthy Dion was one of the leading personalities at the court of the inexperienced, only around thirty-year-old Dionysius II. In order to consolidate his position, Dion got the tyrant to invite the philosopher Plato from Athens to become an advisor close. Dion had known Plato since his first trip to Sicily (around 388) and had made friends with him at that time. He convinced Plato of this plan by showing him the chance of winning Dionysius over to the Platonic philosophy of the state, according to whose principles the political situation could then be reshaped.

So came 366 BC BC Plato's second journey to Sicily comes about. Dionysius II received the philosopher with honor and showed an interest in Platonic philosophy. Plato was drawn into the court intrigues because of his close friendship with Dion, because there was a party that opposed Dion's endeavors and therefore stood in opposition to Plato. The leader of this opposing party was the general and historian Philistus . Philistus had fallen out of favor with Dionysius I and was therefore removed from the court and sent away from Syracuse. But he was a reliable supporter of the principle of tyranny and dynasty. Dionysius II brought him back, probably to counterbalance Dion's influence.

Even then, Dion intended to either bring Dionysius under his influence with Plato's help or to overthrow him. The opposing party tried to convince Dionysius that it was a trap; the aim was to use philosophy to distract him from politics and thus oust him from power.

At that time Syracuse was still in a war started by Dionysius I against the Carthaginians , the traditional enemies of the Syracusans. Dion wrote a letter to the Carthaginians recommending himself as a mediator for peace negotiations. This letter was intercepted and given to the tyrant. Following the advice of Philistus, Dionysius accused Dion of treason and banished him from his kingdom. In the late summer of 366 Dion arrived in Greece, where he was well received. His property in Sicily was left to him and he was allowed to draw the income from it. In the following year Plato left because he saw no more possibility of realizing his plan. Dionysius made peace with the Carthaginians.

Dion's revolt and overthrow of the tyrant

Syracuse in antiquity with the offshore island of Ortygia

In 361 Dionysius moved Plato to another trip to Syracuse. He wanted to win the philosopher over to himself, whereas Plato was primarily concerned with helping his friend Dion to obtain a pardon. The tyrant had promised Plato permission to return home for Dion, but withdrew from it at the latest when the information available to him indicated that Dion was working towards his overthrow together with students of Plato. Instead of pardoning Dion, Dionysius confiscated his possessions. In the following year Plato left because he no longer saw a basis for cooperation with Dionysius and was himself suspected of sympathizing with the opposition.

After Plato's failure at the latest, Dion, who had apparently already agitated against the tyrant, saw no more possibility of reconciliation. He recruited mercenaries for a campaign against Dionysius. Assuming that Dionysius was universally hated and therefore a revolution would break out, he thought a small force would be sufficient.

In the year 357 Dionysius drove his fleet to southern Italy, as he expected the attack from this direction. But Dion landed with only around 800 men on five ships in the west of the island on Carthaginian territory. The Carthaginians gave him support. As expected, there was a general uprising and Dion was able to take Syracuse with ease. Only the city fortress on the island of Ortygia , the center of power of the tyrant, remained in the hands of his mercenaries. Dionysius returned there and began negotiations, which were unsuccessful. When, after many battles, Philistus, the commander of the tyrant's fleet, lost a sea battle against the Syracusans and was killed in the process, Dionysius' situation became hopeless. He escaped with a few ships. Some of his mercenaries under the command of Dionysios' eldest son Apollokrates stayed on Ortygia, but had to capitulate in 355 against free withdrawal. Apollokrates went to his father on the mainland.

Way back to power and second reign

Southern Italy at the time of Dionysius II.

Dionysius withdrew to Lokroi , the hometown of his mother Doris, and from there endeavored to hold the rest of his former empire (some cities in southern Italy and Sicily). In Lokroi he was first willingly accepted, but then ruled there as a tyrant, whereby he committed brutal acts of violence according to claims of anti-tyrant sources. After Dion in 354 BC In the course of further turmoil, Dionysius' half-brother Hipparinos was able to take Syracuse and restore tyrannical rule. He was followed by his brother Nysaios, who is portrayed as a weak ruler. Dionysius used the power vacuum to retake Syracuse in 346.

In Lokroi, the inhabitants took advantage of the tyrant's absence to rise up against him. In heavy fighting they drove out his mercenaries there. His family, who remained in Lokroi, were murdered (except for Apollokrates, who took part in the attack on Syracuse). With that, Dionysius lost his dominion on the mainland besides his wife and children. In Sicily, his sphere of influence was henceforth limited to Syracuse; in the other cities it was mostly local rulers who came to power. One of them was Hiketas , who seized the city of Leontinoi (now Lentini ) and allied himself with the Carthaginians and the Syracusian enemies of Dionysius. Hiketas succeeded after changeable battles to take Syracuse, while Dionysius once more holed up on Ortygia.

Final disempowerment, exile and death

In the meantime a fleet under Timoleon had arrived in Italy from Corinth , the mother city of Syracuse , whose intervention the Syracusans had requested. Timoleon's goal was to both fight the Carthaginians and eliminate the tyrants. Dionysius then decided to capitulate to Timoleon; he could expect mild treatment from this opponent. He handed Ortygia over to Timoleon and was exiled to Corinth in 344 or 343. There he spent the rest of his life as a private citizen. The legendary tradition according to which he worked as a schoolmaster in exile is considered untrustworthy. The year of his death is unknown. Apparently he was still alive in 337; at that time he is said to have met King Philip II of Macedonia.

Judgment of posterity

The judgments of Dionysius II were generally negative in both antiquity and modern times, including modern research. The fact that Plato's judgment was not destructive, but critical, influenced the ancient world. In addition, according to Aristotle, Dionysius II did poorly in comparison with his father. Historians like Timaeus of Tauromenion described the events from a fundamentally anti-tyrant perspective. In addition, Dionysios' victorious opponents Dion and Timoleon were considered heroes (for example with Plutarch ). The famous story by Damon and Phintias also shows Dionysius in an unfavorable light. One of the vices he was accused of was a penchant for luxury and debauchery. The anecdote of the Damocles sword that Cicero told about Dionysius I was related to Dionysius II in the older version of Timaeus of Tauromenion.

Modern researchers like Helmut Berve and Jürgen Sprute show more understanding for Dionysios' behavior towards Dion and Plato than the tradition influenced by Plato's opinion. Nevertheless, they too share the conventional assessment that Dionysius II was far overwhelmed by the task that had been assigned to him.

Dionysios II is the character in Schiller's ballad Die Bürgschaft and in Hoffmann von Faller's parody Syracusaise .

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Plutarch, Dion 9.
  2. ^ Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A prosopography of Plato and other Socratics , Indianapolis 2002, pp. 239f.
  3. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, p. 33; Jürgen Sprute: Dion's Syracusan politics and the political ideals of Plato . In: Hermes 100, 1972, pp. 294-313, here: 299; Kurt von Fritz: Plato in Sicily and the problem of the rule of the philosophers , Berlin 1968, p. 68, note 110.
  4. ↑ Plato, Seventh Letter 329c; Plutarch, Dion 14f .; see Jürgen Sprute: Dion's Syracusan politics and the political ideals of Plato . In: Hermes 100, 1972, pp. 294-313, here: 299f .; Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, pp. 36-38.
  5. ↑ Jürgen Sprute: Dion's Syracusan politics and the political ideals of Plato . In: Hermes 100, 1972, pp. 294-313, here: 300.
  6. ↑ Helmut Berve: Dion , Mainz 1957, p. 65; Kurt von Fritz: Plato in Sicily and the problem of the rule of the philosophers , Berlin 1968, p. 72.
  7. ↑ Helmut Berve: Die Tyrannis bei den Greeks , Vol. 1, Munich 1967, p. 274f., Evidence on this, Vol. 2, Munich 1967, p. 662f.
  8. ↑ Helmut Berve: Die Tyrannis bei den Greeks , Vol. 1, Munich 1967, pp. 275f. and Vol. 2, Munich 1967, pp. 662f.
  9. ↑ Diodorus 16.70. For the course of events and the chronology, see Richard JA Talbert: Timoleon and the revival of Greek Sicily , London 1974, pp. 44–49, 97–110; Helmut Berve: The tyranny among the Greeks , vol. 1, Munich 1967, p. 276f.
  10. ↑ Balbina Bäbler : Hard-working Thracians and defensive Scythians , Stuttgart / Leipzig 1998, p. 43 note 199; Helmut Berve: Die Tyrannis bei den Greeks , Vol. 1, Munich 1967, p. 277, Vol. 2, Munich 1967, p. 664.
  11. ↑ Helmut Berve: Die Tyrannis bei den Greeks , Vol. 1, Munich 1967, p. 277, Vol. 2, Munich 1967, p. 664.
personal data
SURNAME Dionysius II of Syracuse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tyrant of Syracuse
DATE OF BIRTH around 396 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 337 BC Chr.