Dionysius I of Syracuse
Dionysius I ruled Syracuse from 405 to 367 BC and built the most powerful state in the Greek world outside the mainland. Born around 432 BC, he was a clerk of modest origins who rose through the assembly during the crisis caused by Carthaginian invasion of Sicily. He used the fall of Akragas in 406 BC to attack the generals for incompetence and treachery, had himself elected general with full powers, and then obtained a bodyguard — the standard route to tyranny, which Aristotle later cited as the model case. He fought four wars against Carthage across four decades, losing and regaining territory, and at one point holding almost the whole island before plague destroyed his army besieging Motya. He extended Syracusan power into southern Italy, destroying Rhegium in 387 BC after a long siege, and raided the Etruscan coast. He fortified Syracuse on an enormous scale, walling the Epipolae plateau and building the Euryalus fortress, and he assembled arms in a state-directed programme that gathered engineers from across the Greek world. The catapult was developed at Syracuse under his patronage around 399 BC — the first artillery — and he built quinqueremes, larger warships than any then in use. He ruled by mercenaries, garrisons, mass deportations and the resettlement of populations, and his name became the standard Greek example of tyranny. The stories of the sword suspended over Damocles and of the ear-shaped cave used to eavesdrop on prisoners attach to him. He wrote tragedies and finally won the prize at the Athenian Lenaea in 367 BC. He died shortly afterwards, reportedly during the celebrations.
- Lived: 432 BCE – 367 BCE
- Nationality: Greek (Syracusan)
- Roles: tyrant
