After working as a clerk in a public office, Dionysius distinguished himself fighting in the war with Carthage that broke out in Sicily in 409. He took advantage of a crisis in the war to make himself tyrant in 405. Over the next eight years he ruthlessly consolidated and expanded his power. He built a wall around Syracuse and fortified Epipolae. The Greek citizens of Naxos, Catana, and Leontini were removed from their cities; many of them were enslaved and their homes were given to Sicilian and Italian mercenaries.
Dionysius was then ready to lead his vast army against Carthage, which had occupied western and southern Sicily. His first war with Carthage (397396), during which the Greeks besieged Motya and the Carthaginians Syracuse, ended with a notable victory for Dionysius, who confined his enemy's power to an area of northwest Sicily. A second conflict ended in 392 with a treaty advantageous to Dionysius. After 390 he led an expedition against Rhegium and other Greek cities of southern Italy, and with the aid of the Lucanians he devastated the territories of Thurii, Croton, and Locri. By the time Rhegium fell (386), Dionysius had become the chief power in Greek Italy. He sent colonists to Illyria and possibly to northeast Italy. Although the Athenian writer Isocrates hailed him as a champion of Hellenism, the brutality of Dionysius' conquests made him unpopular in Greece, and his literary pretensions were deplored. When he sent a splendid embassy to the Olympic festival of 388, a crowd pillaged the tents of his envoys.
Dionysius' third war with Carthage (383c. 375) proved disastrous; he suffered a crushing defeat at Cronium and was forced to pay an indemnity of 1,000 talents and cede the territory west of the Halycus River. Nevertheless, he was engaged in yet another conflict with the Carthaginians at the time of his death. (Encyclopædia Britannica Online.)
Dionysius the Elder, a celebrated tyrant of Syracuse, raised to that high rank from the station of a simple citizen, was born in that city, B.C. 430. He was son-in-law to Hermocrates, who, having been banished by an adverse party, attempted to return by force of arms and was killed in the action. Dionysius was dangerously wounded, but he recovered and was afterwards recalled. In time he caused himself to be nominated one of the generals, and, under pretence of raising a force sufficient to resist the Carthaginians, obtained a decree for recalling all the exiles, to whom he gave arms. Being sent to the relief of Gela, then besieged by the Carthaginians, he effected nothing against the enemy, pretending that he was not seconded by the other commanders; and his friends suggested that, in order to save the State, the supreme power ought to be confided to one man, reminding the people of the times of Gelon, who had defeated the Carthaginians. The General Assembly therefore proclaimed Dionysius supreme chief of the Republic about B.C. 405, when he was twenty-five years of age.
He increased the pay of the soldiers, enlisted new ones, and, under pretence of a conspiracy against his person, formed a guard of mercenaries. He then proceeded to the relief of Gela, but failed in the attack on the Carthaginian camp; he, however, penetrated into the town, the inhabitants of which he advised to leave it quietly in the night under the escort of his troops. On his retreat he persuaded those of Camarina to do the same. This raised suspicion among his troops, and a party of horsemen, riding on before the rest, raised, on their arrival at Syracuse, an insurrection against Dionysius, plundered his house, and treated his wife so cruelly that she died in consequence. Dionysius, with a chosen body, followed close after, set fire to the gate of Acradina, forced his way into the city, put to death the leaders of the revolt, and remained undisputed possessor of the supreme power. The Carthaginians, being afflicted by a pestilence, made proposals of peace, which were accepted by Dionysius, and he then applied himself to fortifying Syracuse, and especially the island of Ortygia, which he made his stronghold, and which he peopled entirely with his trusty partisans and mercenaries, by the aid of whom he put down several revolts. After reducing the towns of Leontini, Catana, and Naxus, he engaged in a new war with Carthage, in which he met with the most brilliant success, making himself master of numerous towns in Sicily, and becoming eventually feared both in Italy and Sicily. In order to raise money, he allied himself with the Illyrians, and proposed to them the joint plunder of the temple of Delphi; the enterprise, however, failed. He then plundered several temples, such as that of Persephoné at Locri; and as he sailed back with the plunder, with a fair wind, he, being a humourist in his way, observed to his friends, "You see how the immortal gods favour sacrilege." Having carried off a golden mantle from a statue of Zeus, consecrated by Gelon out of the spoils of the Carthaginians, he replaced it by a woollen garment, saying that this was better suited to the vicissitudes of the seasons. He also took away a golden beard from Aesculapius, observing that it was not becoming for the son of a beardless father (Apollo) to make a display of his own beard. He likewise appropriated to himself the silver tables and golden vases and crowns in the temples, saying that he would make use of the bounty of the gods ( Cic. N. D.iii. 34). He made a descent with a fleet on the coast of Etruria, and plundered the temple at Caeré or Agylla of 1000 talents. With these resources he was preparing himself for a new expedition to Italy, when a fresh Carthaginian armament landed in Sicily, B.C. 383, and defeated Dionysius, whose brother Leptines fell in the battle. A peace followed, of which Carthage dictated the conditions.
This peace lasted fourteen years, during which Dionysius remained the undisturbed ruler of Syracuse and one half of Sicily, with part of southern Italy. He sent colonies to the coasts of the Adriatic, and his fleets navigated both seas. Twice he sent assistance to his old ally, Sparta: once against the Athenians, B.C. 374, and again in 369 after the battle of Leuctra, when the Spartans were hard pressed by Epaminondas. Meantime the court of Dionysius was frequented by many distinguished men, philosophers and poets. Plato is said to have been among the former, being invited by Dion (q.v.), the brother-in-law of Dionysius; but the philosopher's declamations against tyranny led to his being sent away from Syracuse. The poets fared little better, as Dionysius himself aspired to poetical fame, for which, however, he was not so well qualified as for political success. Those who did not praise his verses were in danger of being led to prison. Dionysius twice sent some of his poems to be recited at the Olympic Games, but they were hissed by the assembly. He was more successful at Athens. A tragedy of his obtained the prize, and the news of his success almost turned his brain. He had just concluded a fresh truce with the Carthaginians, after having made an unsuccessful attack on Lilybaeum, at the expiration of the fourteen years' peace; and he now gave himself up to rejoicings and feastings for his poetical triumph. In a debauch with his friends he ate and drank so intemperately that he fell senseless, and soon after died, B.C. 367, in the sixty-third year of his age, having been tyrant of Syracuse for thirtyeight years. Dionysius, his elder son by Doris, succeeded him in the sovereignty.
Dionysius was a clever statesman and generally successful in his undertakings. He did much to strengthen and extend the power of Syracuse, and it was probably owing to him that all Sicily did not fall into the hands of the Carthaginians. He was unscrupulous, rapacious, and vindictive; but several of the stories related of his cruelty and suspicious temper appear improbable, or at least exaggerated. An account of the famous prison, or "Ear of Dionysius," will be found under the title Lautumiae. (Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898)
Tyrant of Syracuse from 405 who, by his conquests in Sicily and southern Italy, made Syracuse the most powerful Greek city west of mainland Greece. Although he saved Greek Sicily from conquest by Carthage, his brutal military despotism harmed the cause of Hellenism.