[1] After Dion had entered the city by the Temenitid gate, he stopped the noise of the people by a blast of the trumpet, and made proclamation that Dion and Megacles, who were come to overthrow the tyranny, declared the Syracusans and the rest of the Sicilians free from the tyrant.
[2] Then, wishing to harangue the people himself, he went up through the Achradina,
1
while on either side of the street the Syracusans set out tables and sacrificial meats and mixing-bowls, and all, as he came to them, pelted him with flowers, and addressed him with vows and prayers as if he were a god.
[3] Now, there stood below the acropolis and the Pentapyla a tall and conspicuous sun-dial, which Dionysius had set up. Mounted upon this, Dion harangued the citizens and exhorted them to assert their liberty.
[4] And they, in their joy and affection, made Dion and Megacles generals with absolute powers, and besides, at their wish and entreaty, chose twenty colleagues to hold office with them, half of whom were of those who had come back from exile with Dion.
[5] To the soothsayers, moreover, it seemed a most happy omen, that Dion, when he harangued the people, had put under his feet the ambitious monument of the tyrant; but because it was a sun-dial upon which he stood when he was elected general, they feared that his enterprise might undergo some speedy change of fortune.
[6] After this, Dion captured Epipolae and set free the citizens who were imprisoned there; then he walled off the acropolis.
[7] On the seventh day Dionysius put in with his fleet and entered the acropolis, and waggons brought Dion the armour and weapons which he had left with Synalus.
[8] These he distributed among the citizens as far as they would go, and all the rest equipped themselves as best they could and zealously offered their services as men-at-arms.
Dion. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1918.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by Tufts University.