Dionysius II of Syracuse

Dionysius II was tyrant of Syracuse in the fourth century BC and son of Dionysius I. His unstable rule, conflict with Dion and relationship with Plato made his court a famous example of the tension between philosophy and autocracy.

Dionysius II of Syracuse was born in Syracuse and died in Ancient Corinth. Dionysius inherited the Syracusan tyranny from his father in 367 BCE but lacked the same political authority; repeated interventions by Dion and periods of exile eventually ended his rule and left Syracuse in prolonged instability.

In Diodorus Siculus’ The Library, Books 16-20, the settlement at Babylon, the Lamian War, the regencies of Perdiccas and Antipater, the campaigns of Eumenes and Antigonus, the struggles involving Olympias and Cassander, and the emergence of the Ptolemaic and other successor kingdoms unfold alongside Agathocles’s seizure of power at Syracuse and his extraordinary invasion of Carthaginian North Africa. In Mary Renault’s The Mask of Apollo, Nikeratos, an Athenian tragic actor, carries an old mask of Apollo as a professional talisman and moral guide. His career takes him through Greek theatres and brings him into contact with Plato and Dion, whose plans for Syracuse promise a rare alliance between philosophy and political power.