In doing
this I seem to have been unaware that I was, in a fashion, without
knowing it, contriving the overthrow of the tyranny which;
subsequently took place. For Dion, who rapidly assimilated my teaching
as he did all forms of knowledge, listened to me with an eagerness
which I had never seen equalled in any young man, and resolved to live
for the future in a better way than the majority of Italian and
Sicilian Greeks, having set his affection on virtue in preference to
pleasure and self-indulgence. The result was that until the death of
Dionysios he lived in a way which rendered him somewhat unpopular
among those whose manner of life was that which is usual in the courts
of despots.
After that event he came to the conclusion that this conviction,
which he himself had gained under the influence of good teaching,
was not likely to be confined to himself. Indeed, he saw it being
actually implanted in other minds-not many perhaps, but certainly in
some; and he thought that with the aid of the Gods, Dionysios might
perhaps become one of these, and that, if such a thing did come to
pass, the result would be a life of unspeakable happiness both for
himself and for the rest of the Syracusans. Further, he thought it
essential that I should come to Syracuse by all manner of means and
with the utmost possible speed to be his partner in these plans,
remembering in his own case how readily intercourse with me had
produced in him a longing for the noblest and best life. And if it
should produce a similar effect on Dionysios, as his aim was that it
should, he had great hope that, without bloodshed, loss of life, and
those disastrous events which have now taken place, he would be able
to introduce the true life of happiness throughout the whole
territory.
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