Diŏnȳsias, a fountain. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 36.
Diŏnysides, a tragic poet of Tarsus.
Diŏnȳsiodōrus, a famous geometer. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 109.——A Bœotian historian. Diodorus, bk. 15.——A Tarentine, who obtained a prize at Olympia in the 100th Olympiad.
Dionȳsion, a temple of Bacchus in Attica. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43.
Dionȳsipŏlis, a town of Thrace. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.
Dionȳsius I., or the elder, was son of Hermocrates. He signalized himself in the wars which the Syracusans carried on against the Carthaginians, and, taking advantage of the power lodged in his hands, he made himself absolute at Syracuse. To strengthen himself in his usurpation, and acquire popularity, he increased the pay of the soldiers, and recalled those that had been banished. He vowed eternal enmity against Carthage, and experienced various success in his wars against that republic. He was ambitious of being thought a poet, and his brother Theodorus was commissioned to go to Olympia, and repeat there some verses in his name, with other competitors, for the poetical prizes. His expectations were frustrated, and his poetry was received with groans and hisses. He was not, however, so unsuccessful at Athens, where a poetical prize was publicly adjudged to one of his compositions. This victory gave him more pleasure than all the victories he had ever obtained in the field of battle. His tyranny and cruelty at home rendered him odious in the eyes of his subjects, and he became so suspicious that he never admitted his wife or children to his private apartment without a previous examination of their garments. He never trusted his head to a barber, but always burnt his beard. He made a subterraneous cave in a rock, said to be still extant, in the form of a human ear, which measured 80 feet in height and 250 in length. It was called the ear of Dionysius. The sounds of this subterraneous cave were all necessarily directed to one common tympanum, which had a communication with an adjoining room, where Dionysius spent the greatest part of his time to hear whatever was said by those whom his suspicion and cruelty had confined in the apartments above. The artists that had been employed in making this cave were all put to death by order of the tyrant, for fear of their revealing to what purposes a work of such uncommon construction was to be appropriated. His impiety and sacrilege were as conspicuous as his suspicious credulity. He took a golden mantle from the statue of Jupiter, observing that the son of Saturn had a covering too warm for the summer, and too cold for the winter, and he placed one of wool instead. He also robbed Æsculapius of his golden beard, and plundered the temple of Proserpine. He died of an indigestion in the 63rd year of his age, B.C. 368, after a reign of 38 years. Authors, however, are divided about the manner of his death, and some are of opinion that he died a violent death. Some suppose that the tyrant invented the catapulta, an engine which proved of infinite service for the discharging of showers of darts and stones in the time of a siege. Diodorus, bks. 13, 15, &c.—Justin, bk. 20, ch. 1, &c.—Xenophon, Hellenica.—Cornelius Nepos, Timoleon.—Plutarch, Diodorus.——The second of that name, surnamed the younger, was son of Dionysius I. by Doris. He succeeded his father as tyrant of Sicily, and by the advice of Dion his brother-in-law, he invited the philosopher Plato to his court, under whom he studied for a while. The philosopher advised him to lay aside the supreme power, and in his admonitions he was warmly seconded by Dion. Dionysius refused to consent, and soon after Plato was seized and publicly sold as a slave. Dion likewise, on account of his great popularity, was severely abused and insulted in his family, and his wife given in marriage to another. Such a violent behaviour was highly resented; Dion, who was banished, collected some forces in Greece, and in three days rendered himself master of Syracuse, and expelled the tyrant B.C. 357. See: [Dion]. Dionysius retired to Locri, where he behaved with the greatest oppression, and was ejected by the citizens. He recovered Syracuse 10 years after his expulsion, but his triumph was short, and the Corinthians, under conduct of Timoleon, obliged him to abandon the city. He fled to Corinth, where to support himself he kept a school, as Cicero observes, that he might still continue to be tyrant; and as he could not command over men, that he might still exercise his power over boys. It is said that he died from excess of joy, when he heard that a tragedy of his own composition had been rewarded with a poetical prize. Dionysius was as cruel as his father, but he did not, like him, possess the art of restraining his power. This was seen and remarked by the old man, who, when he saw his son attempting to debauch the wives of some of his old subjects, asked him, with the greatest indignation, whether he had ever heard of his having acted so brutal a part in his younger days? “No,” answered the son, “because you were not the son of a king.” “Well, my son,” replied the old man, “never shalt thou be the father of a king.” Justin, bk. 21, chs. 1, 2, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 15, &c.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 9, ch. 8.—Quintilian, bk. 8, ch. 6.—Cornelius Nepos, Dion.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 2.——An historian of Halicarnassus, who left his country and came to reside at Rome, that he might carefully study all the Greek and Latin writers, whose compositions treated of the Roman history. He formed an acquaintance with all the learned of the age, and derived much information from their company and conversation. After an unremitted application, during 24 years, he gave to the world his Roman antiquities in 20 books, of which only the 11 first are now extant, nearly containing the account of 312 years. His composition has been greatly valued by the ancients as well as the moderns for the easiness of his style, the fidelity of his chronology, and the judiciousness of his remarks and criticism. Like a faithful historian, he never mentioned anything but what was authenticated, and he totally disregarded the fabulous traditions which fill and disgrace the pages of both his predecessors and followers. To the merits of the elegant historian, Dionysius, as may be seen in his treatises, has also added the equally respectable character of the eloquent orator, the critic, and the politician. He lived during the Augustan age, and came to Rome about 80 years before the christian era. The best editions of his works are that of Oxford, 2 vols., folio, 1704, and that of Reiske, 6 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1774.——A tyrant of Heraclea in Pontus, in the age of Alexander the Great. After the death of the conqueror and of Perdiccas, he married Amestris the niece of king Darius, and assumed the title of king. He was of such an uncommon corpulence that he never exposed his person in public, and when he gave audience to foreign ambassadors, he always placed himself in a chair which was conveniently made to hide his face and person from the eyes of the spectators. When he was asleep, it was impossible to awake him without boring his flesh with pins. He died in the 55th year of his age. As his reign was remarkable for mildness and popularity, his death was severely lamented by his subjects. He left two sons and a daughter, and appointed his widow queen-regent.——A surname of Bacchus.——A disciple of Chæremon.——A native of Chalcis, who wrote a book entitled κτισεις, or the origin of cities.——A commander of the Ionian fleet against the Persians, who went to plunder Phœnicia. Herodotus, bk. 6, ch. 17.——A general of Antiochus Hierax.——A philosopher of Heraclea, disciple to Zeno. He starved himself to death, B.C. 279, in the 81st year of his age. Diogenes Laërtius.——An epic poet of Mitylene.——A sophist of Pergamus. Strabo, bk. 13.——A writer in the Augustan age, called Periegetes. He wrote a very valuable geographical treatise in Greek hexameters, still extant. The best edition of his treatise is that of Henry Stephens, 4to, 1577, with the scholia, and that of Hill, 8vo, London, 1688.——A christian writer, A.D. 492, called Areopagita. The best edition of his works is that of Antwerp, 2 vols., folio, 1634.——The music master of Epaminondas. Cornelius Nepos.——A celebrated critic. See: [Longinus].——A rhetorician of Magnesia.——A Messenian madman, &c. Plutarch, Alexander.——A native of Thrace, generally called the Rhodian, because he lived there. He wrote some grammatical treatises and commentaries, B.C. 64. Strabo, bk. 14.——A painter of Colophon.
Diŏphănes, a man who joined Peloponnesus to the Achæan league. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 30.——A rhetorician intimate with Tiberias Gracchus. Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus.
Diŏphantus, an Athenian general of the Greek mercenary troops in the service of Nectanebus king of Egypt. Diodorus, bk. 16.——A Greek orator of Mitylene, preceptor to Tiberius Gracchus. Cicero, Brutus.——A native of Alexandria in the fourth century. He wrote 13 books of arithmetical questions, of which six are still extant, the best edition of which is that in folio, Tolosæ, 1670. He died in his 84th year, but the age in which he lived is uncertain. Some place him in the reign of Augustus, others under Nero and Antonines.
Diopœnus, a noble sculptor of Crete. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 4.
Diopŏlis, a name given to Cabira, a town of Paphlagonia, by Pompey. Strabo, bk. 12.