About the book: year / Syracuse tyrant Dionysius the Elder came from the lower class. The Agrigentans, who fled to Syracuse after the Carthaginian victory, believed that the reason for the capture of their city by the Carthaginians (406 BC) was the inability of the Syracusan commanders sent to them. Dionysius accused the latter before the people of treason and ensured that the people elected other commanders, including himself. Dionysius soon managed to bring suspicion upon his comrades and was appointed commander-in-chief. With the help of a bribed army and the people themselves, he obtained tyranny. Having pacified two uprisings, Dionysius made peace with the Carthaginians, conquered several cities in Sicily and entered into an alliance with the Spartans, after which he began to prepare for a great war with the Carthaginians. Military happiness soon abandoned him, and in 396 BC. he himself was besieged in Syracuse. When a pestilence began to rage in the enemy camp, Dionysius attacked, in 395 BC, the Carthaginians, weakened by the pestilence, and won a complete victory, which was followed, after a new defeat of the Carthaginians, by a profitable peace in 392. From 390 Mr. Dionysius made several campaigns in Lower Italy, took Regium and Croton. Since then, his influence has long been maintained in the Greek cities of Lower Italy and his fleet dominated the seas surrounding Italy. In 383 BC. he again fought with the Carthaginians, this time with the intention of expelling them from Sicily forever, but died without fulfilling his intention in 367 BC. Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890—1907.