Denys de Syracuse

Greek tyrant of Syracuse (c. 432 – 367 BC) · 430–367 BC

Appears in 7 videos · 7 passages, 3 of them in depth.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani mentions Dionysius of Syracuse only in connection with Plato, as his example of the philosopher's failure with political power. He comes back to this same episode several times between 2015 and 2022, in varied settings: a session on Michel Clouscard, "Hegel Plage", the workshop "D'Ulysse à Dédale", a session devoted to Thomas Mann, and the lecture "De Platon à la révolution mondiale". The story stays much the same: the tyrant brings Plato to Sicily as an adviser, then, angered or embarrassed by his advice, has him sold as a slave1 2 3. He sometimes tells the episode more briefly, as Plato's plain failure in Sicily4, or as the philosopher's visit to advise the tyrant5. One version differs: in it, Plato is sentenced to the latomies, the quarries of Syracuse, for criticising Dionysius's political conduct6. In these passages, he says nothing about Dionysius himself apart from this relationship with Plato.

Summary produced automatically from 7 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Who is this?

Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder (c. 432 – 367 BC) was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse, Sicily. He conquered several cities on Sicily and southern Italy, opposed Carthage's influence on Sicily and made Syracuse the most powerful of the western Greek colonies. He was regarded by the ancients as the worst kind of despot: cruel, suspicious, and vindictive.

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Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Portrait: Giuseppe Emanuele Ortolani, Public domain