274 HISTORICAL TALES.

of Greece, like Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, was still
a city of much importance, its situation on. the isth-
mus between the Peloponnesus and northern Greece
being excellent for commerce and maritime enter-
prise. Many years before it had sent out a colony
which founded the city of Syracuse, in Sicily. It
was in aid of this city of Syracuse that Timoleon
was called upon to act.

We have already told how Athens sought to cap-
ture this city and ruined herself in the enterprise.
After that time of triumph Syracuse passed through
several decades of terror and woe. Tyrants set
their feet on her fair neck, and almost crushed her
into the earth. One of these, Dionysius by name,
had made his power felt by far-off Greece and nearer
Carthage, and for years ruled over Sicily with a rod
of iron. His successor, Dion, a friend and pupil of
the philosopher Plato, became an oppressor when he
came into power. Then another Dionysius gained
the throne, a cowardly and drunken wretch, who
repeated the acts of his tyrannical father.

Such was the state of affairs in Sicily when Timo-
leon was dwelling quietly at home in Corinth, a man
of fifty, with no ambitious thought and no ruling
desire except to reach the end of his sorrow-laden
life. So odious now had the tyranny of Dionysius
become that the despairing Syracusans sent a pa-
thetic appeal to Corinth, their mother city, pray-
ing for aid against this brutal despot and the Car-
thaginians, who had invaded the island of Sicily in
force,

Corinth just then, fortunately, had no war on