With these thoughts in my mind I came to Italy and Sicily on myfirst visit. My first impressions on arrival were those of strongdisapproval-disapproval of the kind of life which was there called thelife of happiness, stuffed full as it was with the banquets of theItalian Greeks and Syracusans, who ate to repletion twice every day,and were never without a partner for the night; and disapproval of thehabits which this manner of life produces. For with these habitsformed early in life, no man under heaven could possibly attain towisdom-human nature is not capable of such an extraordinarycombination. Temperance also is out of the question for such a man;and the same applies to virtue generally. No city could remain in astate of tranquillity under any laws whatsoever, when men think itright to squander all their property in extravagant, and consider it aduty to be idle in everything else except eating and drinking andthe laborious prosecution of debauchery. It follows necessarily thatthe constitutions of such cities must be constantly changing,tyrannies, oligarchies and democracies succeeding one another, whilethose who hold the power cannot so much as endure the name of any formof government which maintains justice and equality of rights.
With a mind full of these thoughts, on the top of my previousconvictions, I crossed over to Syracuse-led there perhaps bychance-but it really looks as if some higher power was even thenplanning to lay a foundation for all that has now come to pass withregard to Dion and Syracuse-and for further troubles too, I fear,unless you listen to the advice which is now for the second timeoffered by me. What do I mean by saying that my arrival in Sicily atthat movement proved to be the foundation on which all the sequelrests? I was brought into close intercourse with Dion who was then ayoung man, and explained to him my views as to the ideals at which menshould aim, advising him to carry them out in practice. In doingthis I seem to have been unaware that I was, in a fashion, withoutknowing it, contriving the overthrow of the tyranny which;subsequently took place. For Dion, who rapidly assimilated my teachingas he did all forms of knowledge, listened to me with an eagernesswhich I had never seen equalled in any young man, and resolved to livefor the future in a better way than the majority of Italian andSicilian Greeks, having set his affection on virtue in preference topleasure and self-indulgence. The result was that until the death ofDionysios he lived in a way which rendered him somewhat unpopularamong those whose manner of life was that which is usual in the courtsof despots.
After that event he came to the conclusion that this conviction,which he himself had gained under the influence of good teaching,was not likely to be confined to himself. Indeed, he saw it beingactually implanted in other minds-not many perhaps, but certainly insome; and he thought that with the aid of the Gods, Dionysios mightperhaps become one of these, and that, if such a thing did come topass, the result would be a life of unspeakable happiness both forhimself and for the rest of the Syracusans. Further, he thought itessential that I should come to Syracuse by all manner of means andwith the utmost possible speed to be his partner in these plans,remembering in his own case how readily intercourse with me hadproduced in him a longing for the noblest and best life. And if itshould produce a similar effect on Dionysios, as his aim was that itshould, he had great hope that, without bloodshed, loss of life, andthose disastrous events which have now taken place, he would be ableto introduce the true life of happiness throughout the wholeterritory.
Holding these sound views, Dion persuaded Dionysios to send forme; he also wrote himself entreating me to come by all manner of meansand with the utmost possible speed, before certain other personscoming in contact with Dionysios should turn him aside into some wayof life other than the best. What he said, though perhaps it is ratherlong to repeat, was as follows: "What opportunities," he said,"shall we wait for, greater than those now offered to us byProvidence?" And he described the Syracusan empire in Italy andSicily, his own influential position in it, and the youth of Dionysiosand how strongly his desire was directed towards philosophy andeducation. His own nephews and relatives, he said, would be readilyattracted towards the principles and manner of life described by me,and would be most influential in attracting Dionysios in the samedirection, so that, now if ever, we should see the accomplishment ofevery hope that the same persons might actually become bothphilosophers and the rulers of great States. These were the appealsaddressed to me and much more to the same effect.
My own opinion, so far as the young men were concerned, and theprobable line which their conduct would take, was full ofapprehension-for young men are quick in forming desires, which oftentake directions conflicting with one another. But I knew that thecharacter of Dion's mind was naturally a stable one and had also theadvantage of somewhat advanced years.
Therefore, I pondered the matter and was in two minds as towhether I ought to listen to entreaties and go, or how I ought to act;and finally the scale turned in favour of the view that, if everanyone was to try to carry out in practice my ideas about laws andconstitutions, now was the time for making the attempt; for if onlyI could fully convince one man, I should have secured thereby theaccomplishment of all good things.
