..; and, in the second place, that,
after starting in this way, he should make friends of others among his
connections who were of the same age and were in sympathy with his
pursuit of virtue, but above all that he should be in harmony with
himself; for this it was of which he was remarkably in need. This we
did not say in plain words, for that would not have been safe; but
in covert language we maintained that every man in this way would save
both himself and those whom he was leading, and if he did not follow
this path, he would do just the opposite of this. And after proceeding
on the course which we described, and making himself a wise and
temperate man, if he were then to found again the cities of Sicily
which had been laid waste, and bind them together by laws and
constitutions, so as to be loyal to him and to one another in their
resistance to the attacks of the barbarians, he would, we told him,
make his father's empire not merely double what it was but many
times greater. For, if these things were done, his way would be
clear to a more complete subjugation of the Carthaginians than that
which befell them in Gelon's time, whereas in our own day his father
had followed the opposite course of levying attribute for the
barbarians. This was the language and these the exhortations given
by us, the conspirators against Dionysios according to the charges
circulated from various sources-charges which, prevailing as they
did with Dionysios, caused the expulsion of Dion and reduced me to a
state of apprehension.
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