XII. So thinking that the Corinthian would be no better than these men, and that the same plausible and specious baits would be held out to lure them with hopes and pleasant promises under the yoke of a new master, they all viewed the proposals of the Corinthians with suspicion and shrank back from them except the Adranites. These were the inhabitants of a small city, sacred to Adranus, a god whose worship extends especially throughout Sicily. They were at feud with one another, as one party invited Hiketes and the Carthaginians, while the other sent for Timoleon to help them. And by some chance it happened that as each party strove to get there first, they both arrived at the same time; Hiketes with five thousand soldiers, whereas Timoleon altogether had no more than twelve hundred.
Starting with these men from Tauromenium, which is forty–two miles from Adranum, he made but a short march on the first day, and then encamped. On the next day he marched steadily forward, passed some difficult country, and late in the day heard that Hiketas had just reached the little fortress and was encamping before it. On this the officers halted the van of the army, thinking that the men would be fresher after taking food and rest; but Timoleon went to them and begged them not to do so, but to lead them on as fast as they could, and fall upon the enemy while they were in disorder, as it was probable they would be, having just come off their march, and being busy about pitching their tents, and cooking their supper. Saying this he seized his shield,[33] and led the way himself as to an assured victory; and the rest, reassured, followed him confidently. They were distant only about thirty furlongs. These were soon passed, and they fell headlong upon the enemy, who were in confusion, and fled as soon as they discovered their attack. For this reason no more than three hundred of them were slain, but twice as many were taken prisoners, and their camp was captured. The people of Adranum now opened their gates, and made their submission to Timoleon, relating with awe and wonder how, at the outset of the battle, the sacred doors of the temple flew open of their own accord, and the spear of the god was seen to quiver at the point, while his face was covered with a thick sweat.
XIII. These portents, it seems, did not merely presage the victory, but also the subsequent events, of which this was the prosperous beginning. Immediately several cities sent ambassadors and joined Timoleon, as did also Mamercus the despot of Katana, a man of warlike tastes and great wealth, who made an alliance with him. But the most important thing of all was that Dionysius himself, who had now lost all hope of success, and was on the point of being starved out, despising Hiketes for being so shamefully beaten, but admiring Timoleon, sent to him and offered to deliver up both himself and the citadel to the Corinthians.
Timoleon, accepting this unexpected piece of good fortune, sent Eukleides and Telemachus, Corinthian officers, into the citadel, and four hundred men besides, not all together nor openly, for that was impossible in the face of the enemy, who were blockading it, but by stealth, and in small bodies. So these soldiers took possession of the citadel, and the palace with all its furniture, and all the military stores. There were a good many horses, and every species of artillery and missile weapon. Also there were arms and armour for seventy thousand men, which had been stored up there for a long time, and Dionysius also had two thousand soldiers, all of whom he handed over to Timoleon with the rest of the fortress, and then, with his money and a few of his friends, he put to sea, and passed unnoticed through Hiketes's cruisers. He proceeded to the camp of Timoleon, appearing for the first time as a private person in great humility, and was sent to Corinth in one ship, and with a small allowance of money. He had been born and bred in the most splendid and greatest of empires, and had reigned over it for ten years, but for twelve more, since the time that Dion attacked him, he had constantly been in troubles and wars, during which all the cruelties which he had exercised on others, were more than avenged upon himself, by the miserable death of his wife and family, which are more particularly dwelt upon in the life of Dion.
XIV. Now when Dionysius reached Corinth, there was no one in Greece who did not wish to see him and speak to him. Some, who rejoiced in his misfortunes, came to see him out of hatred, in order to trample on him now that he was down, while others sympathised with him in his change of fortune, reflecting on the inscrutable ways of the gods, and the uncertainty of human affairs. For that age produced nothing in nature or art so remarkable as that change of fortune which showed the man, who not long before had been supreme ruler of Sicily, now dining at Corinth at the cook's shop, lounging at the perfumer's, drinking at the taverns, instructing female singers, and carefully arguing with them about their songs in the theatre, and about the laws of music. Some thought that Dionysius acted thus from folly, and indolent love of pleasure, but others considered that it was in order that he might be looked down upon, and not be an object of terror or suspicion to the Corinthians, as he would have been if they thought that he ill brooked his reverse of fortune, and still nourished ambitious designs, and that his foolish and licentious mode of life was thus to be accounted for.
XV. But for all that, certain of his sayings are remembered, which sufficiently prove that he showed real greatness of mind in adapting himself to his altered circumstances. When he arrived at Leukas, which, like Syracuse, was a Corinthian colony, he said that he was like a young man who has got into disgrace. They associate gaily with their brothers, but are ashamed to meet their fathers, and avoid them: and so he was ashamed to go to the parent city, but would gladly live there with them. Another time in Corinth, when some stranger coarsely jeered at the philosophic studies in which he used to delight when in power, and at last asked him what good he had obtained from the wisdom of Plato, "Do you think," answered he, "that I have gained nothing from Plato, when I bear my reverse of fortune as I do." When Aristoxenus, the musician, and some others asked him what fault he had found with Plato, and why, he answered that absolute power, amongst its many evils, was especially unfortunate in this, that none of a despot's so–called friends dare to speak their mind openly. And he himself, he said, had been by such men deprived of the friendship of Plato. A man, who thought himself witty, once tried to make a joke of Dionysius by shaking out his cloak, when he came into his presence, as is the custom before despots, to show that one has no concealed weapons; but he repaid the jest by begging him to do it when he left him, that he might be sure that he had not stolen any of his property.
Philip of Macedon once, when they were drinking together, made some sneering remark about the poetry and tragedies which Dionysius the elder had written, pretending to be at a loss to know how he found time for such pursuits; but Dionysius cleverly answered, "He wrote them during the time which you and I, and all who are thought such lucky fellows, spend over our wine."
Plato never saw Dionysius at Corinth, for he was dead at that time; but Diogenes of Sinope, when he first met him, said, "How unworthily you live, Dionysius." Dionysius answered him, "Thank you, Diogenes, for sympathising with my misfortunes." "Why," said Diogenes; "do you suppose that I sympathise with you, and am not rather grieved that a slave like you, a man fit, like your father, to grow old and die on a miserable throne, should be living in luxury and enjoyment amongst us?" So, when I compare with these sayings of his the lamentations which Philistius pours forth over the daughters of Leptines, that they had fallen from the glories of sovereign power into a humble station, they seem to me like the complainings of a woman who has lost her perfumes, her purple dresses, or her jewels.