Dion

Also known as: the Syracusan · Family: Syracusan · Role: leader · First appears: Timoleon

Dion, the Syracusan leader, was extremely young when he became Plato’s quickest and aptest student, and Plato was his mentor. He was also friends with Socrates and Speusippus, and Plato supplied his expenses. At Syracuse, Dionysius the First first received him honorably because of his sister Aristomache, then drew him closer through Dion’s own worth; Dion was married to Arete, and their son was Hipparinus.

Dionysius later exiled Dion to Italy after accusing him of conspiring with the Carthaginians. Driven from his country, wronged in his wife, and deprived of his estate, Dion began a war against Dionysius; at Syracuse, he and Megacles declared Sicily free and were elected generals with plenary powers. With assistance from Timonides, Eudemus, Miltas, Alcimenes, Synalus, and others, Dion received the surrender of the castle from Apollocrates, ending Dionysius’s rule there. He nevertheless allowed Dionysius to escape, which his fellow-citizens criticized.

Dion’s friendship with Callippus became enmity; Callippus, who had served as a hired captain under him, betrayed him and became master of Syracuse after his murder. Dion also rivaled Heraclides for the government, later allowing conspirators to murder him in his own house. Conspirators then besieged Dion’s home and restrained his household before murdering Dion there; “when Dion was killed, none appeared to revenge his death.”