DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER
DIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER said that he maintained many
Sophists; not that he admired them, but that he might be
admired for their sake. When Polyxenus the logician told
him he had baffled him; Yes, said he, in words, but I have
caught you in deeds; for you, leaving your own fortune,
[p. 193]
attend me and mine. When he was deposed from his government, and one asked him what he got by Plato and
philosophy, he answered, That I may bear so great a
change of fortune patiently. Being asked how it came to
pass that his father, a private and poor man, obtained the
government of Syracuse, and he already possessed of it,
and the son of a tyrant, lost it,—My father, said he, entered upon affairs when the democracy was hated, but I,
when tyranny was become odious. To another that asked
him the same question, he replied: My father bequeathed
to me his government, but not his fortune.