Callias: A Tale of the Fall of Athens

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XX.

  DIONYSIUS.

  It was with no common emotion that the young Athenian entered the greatharbor of Syracuse. It was here that the really fatal blow had beenstruck from which his country had never recovered. She had struggledgallantly on for nearly ten years after she had lost the mostmagnificent armament that she had ever sent forth, but the wound hadbeen mortal. Thenceforward she had been as a man of whose life-blood ahalf had been drained away. Callias had read, shortly before leavingAthens for the last time, the magnificent passage, then recentlypublished, in which the great historian of Athens had described thedecisive battle in the harbor.[59] The sight of the place now enabledhim to realize it to himself in the most vivid way. He seemed to see thehostile fleets crowded together in a way for which there was noprecedent, two hundred war galleys in a space so narrow that manoeuvrewas impossible, and nothing availed but sheer fighting and hard blows;while the shores seemed alive again as they had been on that eventfulday with a crowd of eager spectators, the armies of the two contendingpowers, who looked on with passionate cries and gestures at such aspectacle as human eyes had scarcely witnessed before, a mightywar-game in which their own liberties and lives were the stake. Theheights that ran above the harbor were scarcely less significant. There,its remains still visible, had been the Athenian line of investment. Ifonly a few yards more had been completed, the young man thought tohimself, the whole course of history might have been changed.[60] Notfar away was the spot where the sturdy infantry of Thebes had withstoodthe fiery shock of his own countrymen, and so, not for the first time,wrested from them the empire that seemed almost within their grasp.[61]And somewhere--no one knew where--his own father had fallen, one of thethousands of noble victims who had been sacrificed to the greed andambition of a restless democracy.

  The noble house of which Callias was the representative had, of course,its hereditary guest-friend at Syracuse. Naturally there had been verylittle intercourse between citizens of the two states in late years; butthe old tie remained unbroken, and Medon, for that was the Syracusan'sname, was as ready to give a hospitable welcome to the young Athenian,as if he had been a citizen of one of his country's allies, a merchantprince of Corinth, or a scion of one of the two royal houses of Sparta.He insisted upon his guest taking up his quarters in his house, andexerted himself to the utmost to supply and even anticipate every want.

  "Now you have seen something of the outside of our city," said Medon tohis friend as they sat together after the evening meal on the third dayafter his arrival, "you should know something of its politics. But firstlet me make sure that we are alone."

  The dining chamber in which the two were sitting had an ante-room. Thedoor of this the Syracusan proceeded to bolt.

  "Now," he said, "we shall have no eavesdroppers. Any inquisitive friendmay listen at that other door, with all this space between us and him,without getting much idea of what we are talking about. All the otherwalls are outer walls, as you know, and unless a certain great personagehas the birds of the air in his pay, we may talk without reserve. Youlook surprised. Well, you will understand things a little better whenyou have heard what I have to tell you. You know something, I suppose,of what has been happening here of late years. The fact is we have beengoing through an awful time. No sooner were we free of the danger thatyou put us in--you must pardon me for alluding to it--than we wereconfronted with another which was every whit as formidable. Anotherwretched quarrel between two towns in the island--curiously enough thevery same two that were concerned in your expedition againstus[62]--brought in a foreign invader. This time it was theCarthaginians. They had had settlements in the island for many years,had always coveted the dominion of the whole, and more than once hadbeen very near getting it. They were not far from success this time.First they took Selinus and massacred every creature in it; then theytook Acragas;[63] then they utterly destroyed Himera. Something madethem hold their hands, and we had a short breathing space. Four yearsafterwards they came back in greater force than ever. Acragas wasbesieged; it held out bravely, but at last the population had to leaveit; only Syracuse was left. Again when in the full tide of victory, theCarthaginians held their hand. Do you ask me why? I cannot tell you. Butlisten to the fourth article of the treaty of peace." In spite of theprecautions that he had taken against being overheard, Medon, at thispoint lowered his voice. "Syracuse is to be under the rule of Dionysius.Yes; the secret is there; it was he that made it worth their while togo; and you may be sure that it was worth his while to buy them off. Imust allow that he was the only man who showed a grain of sense orcourage in the whole matter; the other generals as they were called werehopelessly imbecile. Well, they went, and Dionysius became, shall wecall it, 'commander-in-chief,' or perhaps as we are quite alone,'tyrant?' He had not an easy time of it at first; I don't suppose thathe will ever have an easy time, tyrants seldom do. The nobles and theheads of the democratic party leagued together against him, and drovehim out. That did not last long. Of course the conquerors used theirvictory most brutally. They were furious that Dionysius had slipped outof their hands, and wreaked their vengeance on his poor wife. I can'ttell you the horrible way in which they killed her. She was thedaughter, too, of Hermocrates, one of the very best and noblest menthat Syracuse ever had. Equally of course they quarrelled over thespoils. Naturally, before long they had nothing left to quarrel over.Dionysius hired a force of Campanian mercenaries, the hardest hitters,by the way, that I ever saw, and drove them out of the city. Now, Ifancy, he is pretty firmly seated. The people like him; they were neveras fit, you must know, for popular government as yours are. He givesthem plenty of employment and amusements, wrings the money out of uswith a tight hand, and scatters it among them with an open one. Ofcourse a dagger may reach him, and there are not a few that are keptready sharpened for the chance. Barring that, he is likely to be masterhere as long as he lives. And to tell you the truth, though personally Ihate the idea, as any noble must--it is the nobles that always hate atyrant most--yet I do not see that anything could be better forSyracuse. The Carthaginian danger is not over yet, and Dionysius is thevery ablest soldier and administrator that we have. Of course the pinchwill come later. A ruler of this sort always becomes harder, more cruel,more suspicious as he grows older. And if he has a son, brought up inthe bad atmosphere of tyranny, the country has a terrible time of it.Happily the son is generally a fool, and brings the whole thing downwith a crash. But all this is far off. Dionysius is still a young man,not more than twenty-six years old, I fancy. However, you shall seehim--we are very good friends in public--and judge for yourself."

  Callias, who had the hereditary abhorrence of his race for anythinglike tyranny,[64] demurred at the proposed introduction to the despot.Medon was very urgent in overruling his objection. "Don't mistake Sicilyfor Greece," he said; "we are half barbarous, and what would bemonstrous with you is quite in its right place here. I grant you that anhonest man should have no dealings with a tyrant who should set himselfup at Thebes, or Corinth, or Argos. But it is different here. I am surethat the man governs us better than we should be governed by the people,or, for the matter of that, by the nobles either."

  At last the Athenian consented. "Very good," cried Medon, "you will go.Then we will lose no time about it. Depend upon it, Dionysius knows allabout you; and if you do not pay your respects to him without loss oftime he will be suspicious. Suspicion is the bane of his situation.Servant, friend, wife; he trusts nobody."

  The next day Medon and his guest presented themselves at the palace. TheAthenian had half turned back when he found that he must be searched. Noone was admitted into the presence until that precaution had been taken,and his freeman's pride revolted. Medon simply shrugged his shoulders."He is quite right," he whispered to his indignant friend, "he would notlive a month if he did not do it."

  Dionysius was, or pretended to be, busy with his studies, when the twovisitors were announced. A slave was reading to him from a roll, and hewas taking notes on a wax tablet. He welco
med the newcomers with muchcordiality.

  "So, Medon, you have brought your Athenian friend at last. I hope thatyou have not been slandering me to him."

  "My lord," answered Medon with a courtly bow, "I have told him thehistory of the last five years, and have taken him to see Syracuse. Thatis not the way to slander you."

  "Good," said Dionysius, "I shall have you a courtier yet."

  He then turned to the Athenian, asked him a few questions, all with thenicest tact, about his movements, and finally named a time when heshould be at leisure to have some real conversation with him.

  "Believe me," he said, "I honor the Athenians more than any other peoplein Greece; a strange thing you may think for a Syracusan to say, but itis true."

  Certainly when Callias presented himself at the appointed time,everything that his royal host had said seemed to bear out thisassurance. "After to-day," he said, "politics shall be banished from ourtalk. Don't suppose for a moment that if I had been a citizen of Athens,I should have attempted, that I should even have wished, to be what I amhere. But Syracuse is not capable of being what Athens is. Even you findliberty a little hard to manage sometimes. Here it is a farce, only avery bloody farce. Listen to what happened to my father-in-law,Hermocrates. There never was an abler man in the country. If it had notbeen for him, I verily believe that you would have conquered us. Hesaved the city; and then, a little time afterwards, because he did notdo what ten years before no one would have dreamt of doing, that is,conquer you Athenians in a sea-fight, they banished him. Can you imaginesuch ingratitude, such folly? Well; he was not disposed to put up withit; he saw what I see, that the Syracusans are not fit to governthemselves, and if it had not been for an accident, perhaps I oughtrather to say his own reckless courage, he would have been in my placenow.[65] What he intended to do I have done. I saved Syracuse as hesaved her from Athens; and I dare say that in a year or two my gratefulcountrymen would have banished me as they banished him. Only I have beenbeforehand with them. So much for politics; now let us talk of somethingmore pleasant and more profitable."

  "Tell me now, do you know one Socrates in your city, a very wise manthey tell me?"

  "Yes, I know him well."

  "And he is wise?"

  "Yes, indeed; there is no one like him; and so the god thought, for thePythia declared him to be the wisest of men."

  "I should dearly like to see him. Do you think it likely that he wouldcome here, if I were to invite him? I would make it worth his while."

  "I fear there is no chance of it. He never leaves Athens; never has leftit except when he served abroad with the army, and as for money, he isquite careless about it."

  "But he takes a fee for his teaching, I suppose."

  "Not a drachma."

  "Well, that astonishes me. Why, Georgias would not teach anyone for lessthan half a talent, and has got together, I suppose, a pretty heap ofmoney by this time. But, perhaps, if I could not get the great manhimself, I might get one of his disciples. Whom do men reckon to be thefirst among them?"

  "I think that one Plato is the most famous. He was a poet when he wasquite young, indeed he is young now, and had a great reputation; but hehas given up poetry for philosophy."

  "That seems a pity. I don't see why a man should not be both poet andphilosopher. I am a little of both myself. Can you remember anythingthat he has written?"

  "Yes; there was an epigram which everyone was repeating when I leftAthens. It was written for the tomb of one of his fellow disciples."

  "Let me hear it."

  Callias repeated,

  "In life like Morning star thy shining head; And now the star of Evening 'mid the dead."

  "Very pretty indeed. I have something very like it of my own. Would youlike to hear it?"

  Callias of course politely assented and expressed as much admiration ashis conscience permitted, possibly a little more, for the compositionwas vapid and clumsy.

  But though Dionysius was an indifferent composer, he had really a verystrong interest in literary matters. Personal vanity had something to dowith it, for he was fully convinced of his own abilities in this way;but he had a genuine pleasure in talking on the subject. This wasindeed the first of many conversations which the young Athenian hadwith him. Politics were never mentioned again, but poetry, the drama,indeed every kind of literary work, supplied topics of unfailinginterest. The drama was, perhaps, the despot's favorite topic. He hadreceived not long before Callias' arrival, a copy of the play which wasdescribed in my first chapter, and was never tired of asking questionsabout various points of interest in it. It soon became evident that hisspecial ambition lay in this direction.

  "So, now that your two great men are gone," he said to the youngAthenian, "you have no man of really the first rank among yourdramatists?"

  "I should say not," replied Callias. "Some think well of Iophon, who isthe son of Sophocles. Others say that he would be nothing without hisfather. They declare that the old man helped him when he was alive, andthat what he has brought out since his father's death is really not hisown."

  "Well," said Dionysius, "the stock will be exhausted before long. Andthere is no one, you say, besides him?"

  "No one, certainly of any reputation."

  "Then there would be a chance for an outsider? But would a dramatistthat was not an Athenian be allowed to exhibit?"

  "I know nothing to the contrary. But I do not know that there has everbeen a case. Anyhow it would be easy to exhibit in the name of acitizen."

  "An excellent idea! I shall certainly manage it somehow. The firstprize at your festival would be almost as well worth having as thetyranny itself."[66]

  It is not surprising that a ruler who cherished such tastes should havereckoned a library among the ornaments which were to make Syracuse themost splendid among Greek cities. In his Athenian guest he believedhimself to have found a competent agent for carrying this purpose intoeffect; and Callias was in truth a well educated person who knew whatbooks were worth buying. He was well acquainted with the literature ofhis own country and had a fairly competent knowledge of what had beenproduced elsewhere in Greece. For the next three years it was hisemployment, and one, on the whole not uncongenial to his tastes, tocollect volumes for Dionysius. In Sicily there was little culture, butthe Greek cities of Italy furnished a more fertile field. There was notindeed much in the way of _belles-lettres_. Works of this kind had to beimported for the most part, either from Athens, or from Lesbos, wherethe traditions of the school of Sappho and Alcaeus were not extinct, butbooks on philosophy and science, could be secured in considerablenumbers. At Crotona, for instance, Callias was fortunate enough tosecure a valuable scientific library which had been for some years inthe family of Democedes, while at Tarentum he purchased a handsomecollection of treatises by teachers of the school of Pythagoras.

  This occupation was varied in the second year of his residence by aninteresting mission to Rome. That city, the rising greatness of which sokeen an observer as Dionysius was able to discern, was at this timesorely distressed by a visitation of famine, and had applied far andwide for help. The harvests of Sicily had been remarkably abundant, andDionysius sent a magnificent present of a hundred thousand bushels ofwheat, putting Callias in charge of the mission.

  In spite of these honorable and not distasteful employments the youngAthenian did not greatly like his position. It would indeed have beenscarcely endurable to a soul that had been reared in an atmosphere ofliberty, but for the fact that his work took him much away fromSyracuse. Dionysius was all courtesy and generosity in his dealings withhim; but he was a tyrant; there was iron under his velvet glove. It wastherefore with a considerable feeling of relief that in the early springof the third (or according to classical reckoning) the fourth year afterthe fall of Athens, he received a missive from Xenophon couched in thefollowing terms.[67]

  "Meet me at Tarsus with all the speed you can. Great things lie beforeus, of which you will hear more at the proper time. Farewell."

  Lea
ve of absence was obtained with some difficulty, and towards the endof June, Callias found himself at the appointed place.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [59] See Thucydides, VII. 71.

  [60] A very small space yet remained to be erected when Gylippus and hisLacedaemonians broke through, relieved Syracuse, and practically decidedthe issue of the campaign.

  [61] Coronea (447) and Delium (424) had been defeats inflicted by theBoeotians on the Athenian army at very critical periods when thevictory of the latter must have had very far reaching results.

  [62] The two were Selinus and Egesta.

  [63] Commonly known by its Latinized name of Agrigentum.

  [64] Tyranny, in its Greek sense, it may be explained, is theunconstitutional rule of a single person. It does not necessarilyconnote, as in English, cruelty or oppression. Except in Sparta, wherethe kings, indeed, were only hereditary commanders-in-chief, there wasno king in any Greek state. Wherever an individual ruled, he was, ofnecessity, a tyrant.

  [65] Hermocrates, resenting the decree of banishment that had beenpassed against him, attempted to make himself master of the city. Hemarched with the force that he had raised from Selinus, where he wasencamped, and made such haste that he found himself with only a fewcompanions far in advance, and close to the gates of Syracuse. While hehalted to allow the army to come up, the leaders within the wallssallied out, overpowered the little party, and killed their leader.There is very little doubt but that he had resolved to seize absolutepower.

  [66] Dionysius did actually compete many times. He is said to havegained the second and third prizes more than once; and finally in thelast year of his life won the first honors for a play entitled "TheRansoming of Hector." One of the various accounts of his deathattributes it to the excessive feasting in which he indulged on hearingof his victory.

  [67] Athens capitulated in March, 404; Callias is supposed to havereceived the letter about August, 401.