Sicily, Syracuse. Dionysius I (Circa 400-390 BC)

Æ22 (7.48g)

Obverse: Head of Athena left, wearing Corinthian helmet.

Reverse: Hippocamp to left

Calciati 34. SNG ANS 434.

Dionysius began his working life as a clerk in a public office. Because of his achievements in the war against Carthage that began in 409 BC, he was elected supreme military commander in 406 BC. In the following year he seized total power and became tyrant.

Dionysius, who styled himself a poet, was fond of having literary men about him, such as the historian Philistus, the poet Philoxenus, and the philosopher Plato. Diodorus Siculus humorously relates in his Bibliotheca historica that Dionysius once had Philoxenus arrested and sent to the quarries for voicing a bad opinion about his poetry. The next day, he released Philoxenus because of his friends' requests, and brought the poet before him for another poetry reading. Dionysius read his own work and the audience applauded. When he asked Philoxenus how he liked it, the poet turned to the guards and said "take me back to the quarries."