A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DION.
and during the whole period of the command of Alcibiades were probably in active service. When
after the battle of Notium, B. c. 407, he was disgraced, they were among the ten generals appointed
in his room. Diomedon in this command was
employed at a distance from the main fleet; and
when Callicratidas chased Conon into Mytilene, on
the information, perhaps, of the galley which made
its escape to the Hellespont, he sailed for Lesbos,
and lost 10 out of 12 ships in attempting to
join his besieged colleague. In the subsequent
glorious victory of Arginusae, he was among the
commanders. So was he also among those unhappy
six who returned to Athens and fell victims to the
mysterious intrigues of the oligarchical party and
the wild credulity of the people. It was in his
behalf and that of Pericles, that his friend Euryptolemus made the attempt, so nearly successful, to
put off the trial. According to the account given
in his speech, Diomedon, after the engagement,
when the commanders met, had given the advice
to form in single file and pick up the castaways;
and after Theramenes and Thrasybulus had been
prevented by the storm from effecting their commission to the same purpose, he with Pericles had
dissuaded his colleagues from naming those officers
and this commission in their despatch, for fear of
their incurring the displeasure which thus in the
end fell on the generals themselves. (Xenoph.
Hell. i. 5. ~ 16, 6. ~~ 22, 29, 7. ~~ 1, 16, 17,
29.) Diodorus, who hitherto had not mentioned
his name, here relates that Diomedon, a man of
great military skill, and distinguished for justice
and other virtues, when sentence had been passed
and he and the rest were now to be led to execution, came forward and bade the people be mindful
to perform, as he and his colleagues could not, the
vows which before the engagement they had made
to the gods. (Diod. xiii. 102.) [A. H. C.]
DIO'MILUS (Al6OiXor), an Andrian refugee,
probably of military reputation, placed by the Syracusans at the head of a force of 600 picked men
in the spring of B. c. 414. He fell in the first exercise of his command, when the Athenians made
their landing at Epipolae, in endeavouring to dislodge them from Euryelus. (Thuc. vi. 96.) [A. H. C.]
DI'OMUS (AIolos), a son of Colyttus, a favourite and attendant of Heracles, from whom the
Attic demos of Diomeia was believed to have derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. vv. Kvv6rap-yes,
AILoesia.) [L. S.]
DI'OMUS (Aloaos-), a Sicilian shepherd, who
is said to have invented bucolic poetry, and was
mentioned as such in two poems of Epicharmus.
(Athen. xiv. p. 619.) [L. S.]
DION, a king in Laconia and husband of Iphitea, the daughter of Prognaus. Apollo, who had
been kindly received by Iphitea, rewarded her by
conferring upon her three daughters, Orphe, Lyco,
and Carya, the gift of prophecy, on condition, however, that they should not betray the gods nor
search after forbidden things. Afterwards Dionysus also came to the house of Dion; he was not
only well received, like Apollo, but won the love
of Carya, and therefore soon paid Dion a second
visit, under the pretext of consecrating a temple,
which the king had erected to him. Orphe and
Lyco, however, guarded their sister, and when
Dionysus had reminded them, in vain, of the command of Apollo, they were seized with raging madness, and having gone to the heights of Taygetus,

DION. 1027
they were metamorphosed into rocks. Carya, the
beloved of Dionysus, was changed into a nut tree,
and the Lacedaemonians, on being informed of it by
Artemis, dedicated a temple to Artemis Caryatis.
(Serv. ad Virg. Eel. viii. 30; CARYATIS.) [L. S.]
DION (Aflwv), a Syracusan, son of Hipparinus.
His father had been from the first a constant
friend and supporter of the elder Dionysius, who
had subsequently married his daughter Aristomache. These circumstances naturally brought
Dion into friendly relations with Dionysius, and
the latter having conceived a high opinion of his
character and abilities, treated him with the
greatest distinction, and employed him in many
services of the utmost trust and confidence. Among
others he sent him on an embassy to the Carthaginians, by whom he was received with the greatest
distinction. (Plut. Dion, 3-5; Corn. Nep. Dion,
1.) Dion also married, during the lifetime of her
father, Arete, the daughter of Dionysius by Aristomache. Of this close connexion and favour with
the tyrant he seems to have availed himself to
amass great wealth, so that on the death of Dionysius he offered to equip and maintain 50 triremes
at his own cost to assist in the war against Carthage. (Plut. Dion, 6.) He made no opposition
to the succession of the younger Dionysius to all
his father's power, but his near relationship to the
sons of the latter by his wife Aristomache, as well
as his dangerous pre-eminence in wealth and influence, rendered him an object of suspicion and
jealousy to the youthful tyrant, to whom he also
made himself personally disagreeable by the
austerity of his manners. Dion appears to have
been naturally a man of a proud and stern character, and having become an ardent disciple of Plato
when that philosopher visited Syracuse in the reign
of the elder Dionysius, he carried to excess the
austerity of a philosopher, and viewed with undisguised contempt the debaucheries and dissolute
pleasures of his nephew. From these he endeavoured to withdraw him by persuading him to
invite Plato a second time to Syracuse; but the
philosopher, though received at first with the utmost distinction, failed in obtaining a permanent
hold on the mind of Dionysius; and the intrigues
of the opposite party, headed by Philistus, were
successful in procuring the banishment of Dion.
(Plut. Dion, 7-14; Corn. Nep. Dion, 3, 4; Diod.
xvi. 6.) The circumstances attending this are
variously reported, but it seems to have been at
first merely an honourable exile, and he was
allowed to receive the produce of his vast wealth.
According to Plutarch, he retired to Athens, where
he lived in habitual intercourse with Plato and his
disciples, at times also visiting the other cities of
Greece, and displaying his magnificence on all
public occasions. But Plato having failed in procuring his recall (for which purpose he had a third
time visited Syracuse), and Dionysius having at
length confiscated his property and compelled his
wife to marry another person, he finally determined
on attempting the expulsion of the tyrant by force.
(Plut. Dion, 15-21; Pseud.-Plat. Epist. 6; but
compare Diod. xvi. 6.)
His knowledge of the general unpopularity of
Dionysius and the disaffection of his subjects
encouraged him to undertake this with forces
apparently very insufficient. Very few of the
numerous Syracusan exiles then in Greece could
be induced to join him, and he sailed from Zacyn3u 2