[7,0] ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΑΛΙΚΑΡΝΑΣΕΩΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΚΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΒΔΟΜΟΣ.

[7,0] BOOK VII.

[7,1] Τίτου δὲ Γεγανίου Μακερίνου καὶ Ποπλίου Μηνυκίου τὴν ὕπατον ἐξουσίαν παραλαβόντων σίτου σπάνις ἰσχυρὰ τὴν Ῥώμην κατέσχεν ἐκ τῆς ἀποστάσεως λαβοῦσα τὴν ἀρχήν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ δῆμος ἀπέστη τῶν πατρικίων μετὰ τὴν μετοπωρινὴν ἰσημερίαν ὑπ´ αὐτὴν μάλιστα τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ σπόρου· ἐξέλιπον δὲ τὴν χώραν οἱ γεωργοῦντες ἅμα τῇ κινήσει καὶ διέστησαν οἱ μὲν εὐχερέστεροι πρὸς τοὺς πατρικίους, τὸ δὲ θητικὸν μέρος ὡς τοὺς δημοτικούς· καὶ διέμειναν ἐξ ἐκείνου χωρὶς ἀλλήλων ὄντες, ἕως οὗ κατέστη καὶ συνῆλθεν ἡ πόλις εἰς ἑαυτὴν οὐ πολλῷ πρότερον διαλλαγεῖσα τῆς χειμερινῆς τροπῆς. τὸν δὲ μεταξὺ χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ ὁ πᾶς ἐπιτελεῖται σπόρος ὡραῖος, ἔρημος ἡ χώρα τῶν ἐπιμελησομένων ἦν καὶ ἐπὶ πολὺν χρόνον διετέλεσεν, ὥστε μηδὲ κατελθοῦσι τοῖς γεωργοῖς ἀναλαβεῖν αὐτὴν ἔτι ῥᾴδιον εἶναι δούλων τ´ ἀποστάσει καὶ κτηνῶν ὀλέθρῳ, μεθ´ ὧν αὐτὴν ἔμελλον ἐργάζεσθαι κεκακωμένην, ἀφορμῆς τ´ οὐ πολλοῖς εἰς τὸν ἐπιόντα ἐνιαυτὸν ὑπαρχούσης οὔτε σπερμάτων οὔτε τροφῆς. ταῦθ´ ἡ βουλὴ μαθοῦσα πρέσβεις διεπέμπετο πρὸς Τυρρηνοὺς καὶ Καμπανοὺς καὶ τὸ καλούμενον Πωμεντῖνον πεδίον σῖτον ὅσον ἂν δύναιντο πλεῖστον ὠνησομένους· Πόπλιος δὲ Οὐαλέριος καὶ Λεύκιος Γεγάνιος εἰς Σικελίαν ἀπεστάλησαν, Οὐαλέριος μὲν υἱὸς ὢν Ποπλικόλα, Γεγάνιος δὲ θατέρου τῶν ὑπάτων ἀδελφός. τύραννοι δὲ τότε κατὰ πόλεις μὲν ἦσαν, ἐπιφανέστατος δὲ Γέλων ὁ Δεινομένους νεωστὶ τὴν Ἱπποκράτους {τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ} τυραννίδα παρειληφώς, οὐχὶ Διονύσιος ὁ Συρακούσιος, ὡς Λικίννιος γέγραφε καὶ Γέλλιος καὶ ἄλλοι συχνοὶ τῶν Ῥωμαίων συγγραφέων οὐθὲν ἐξητακότες τῶν περὶ τοὺς χρόνους ἀκριβῶς, ὡς αὐτὸ δηλοῖ τοὖργον, ἀλλ´ εἰκῆ τὸ προστυχὸν ἀποφαινόμενοι. ἡ μὲν γὰρ εἰς Σικελίαν ἀποδειχθεῖσα πρεσβεία κατὰ τὸν δεύτερον ἐνιαυτὸν τῆς ἑβδομηκοστῆς καὶ δευτέρας ὀλυμπιάδος ἐξέπλευσεν ἄρχοντος Ἀθήνησιν Ὑβριλίδου, ἑπτακαίδεκα διελθόντων ἐτῶν μετὰ τὴν ἐκβολὴν τῶν βασιλέων, ὡς οὗτοί τε καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι σχεδὸν ἅπαντες συγγραφεῖς ὁμολογοῦσι· Διονύσιος δ´ ὁ πρεσβύτερος ὀγδοηκοστῷ καὶ πέμπτῳ μετὰ ταῦτ´ ἔτει Συρακουσίοις ἐπαναστὰς κατέσχε τὴν τυραννίδα κατὰ τὸν τρίτον ἐνιαυτὸν τῆς ἐνενηκοστῆς καὶ τρίτης ὀλυμπιάδος ἄρχοντος Ἀθήνησι Καλλίου τοῦ μετ´ Ἀντιγένη. ὀλίγοις μὲν οὖν ἔτεσι διαμαρτεῖν τῶν χρόνων δοίη τις ἂν ἱστορικοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἀρχαίας καὶ πολυετεῖς συνταττομένοις πραγματείας, γενεαῖς δὲ δυσὶν ἢ τρισὶν ὅλαις ἀποπλανηθῆναι τῆς ἀληθείας οὐκ ἂν ἐπιτρέψειεν. ἀλλ´ ἔοικεν ὁ πρῶτος ἐν ταῖς ὡρογραφίαις τοῦτο καταχωρίσας, ᾧ πάντες ἠκολούθησαν οἱ λοιποί, τοσοῦτο μόνον ἐν ταῖς ἀρχαίαις εὑρὼν ἀναγραφαῖς, ὅτι πρέσβεις ἀπεστάλησαν ἐπὶ τούτων τῶν ὑπάτων εἰς Σικελίαν σῖτον ὠνησόμενοι καὶ παρῆσαν ἐκεῖθεν ἄγοντες ἣν ὁ τύραννος ἔδωκε δωρεάν, οὐκέτι μὴν παρὰ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν ἐξετάσαι συγγραφέων, ὅστις ἦν τύραννος τότε Σικελίας, ἀβασανίστως δέ πως καὶ κατὰ τὸ προστυχὸν θεῖναι τὸν Διονύσιον.

[7,1] After Titus Geganius Macerinus and Publius Minucius had entered upon their consulship, Rome suffered from a great scarcity of corn, which had its origin in the secession. For the populace seceded from the patricians after the autumnal equinox, just about the beginning of seed-time, and the husbandmen left their farms at the time of this uprising and divided, the more prosperous joining the patricians, while the labourers went over to the plebeians; and from that time the two classes remained aloof from each other till the commonwealth was composed and reunited, the reconciliation being effected not long before the winter solstice. During that interval, which is the season in which all pointing of corn is best done, the land was destitute of people to cultivate it, and remained so for a long time. So that even when the husbandmen returned, it was no (p147) longer easy for them to bring it back under cultivation, inasmuch as it had suffered both from the desertion of slaves and the loss of animals with which they were to cultivate it, and as few of the husbandmen had any store of grain on hand for the next year for either seed or food. The senate, being informed of this, sent ambassadors to the Tyrrhenians and to the Campanians and also to the Pomptine plain, as it is called, to buy up all the corn they could, while Publius Valerius and Lucius Geganius were sent to Sicily; Valerius was a son of Publicola, and Geganius was brother to one of the consuls. Tyrants ruled in the various cities at that time, and the most illustrious was Gelon, the son of Deinomenes, who had lately succeeded to the tyranny of Hippocrates, — not Dionysius of Syracuse, as Licinius and Gellius and many others of the Roman historians have stated, without having made any careful investigation of the dates involved, as the facts show of themselves, but rashly relating the first account that offered itself. For the embassy appointed to go to Sicily set sail in the second year of the seventy-second Olympiad, when Hybrilides was archon at Athens, seventeen years after the expulsion of the kings, as these and almost all the other historians agree; whereas Dionysius the Elder, having made an uprising against the Syracusans in the eighty- fifth year after this, possessed himself of the tyranny in the third year of the ninety- third Olympiad, (p149) Callias, the successor of Antigenes, being then archon at Athens. Now an error of a few years in their dates might be allowed to historians who are composing works dealing with ancient events extending over many years, but a deviation from the truth by two or three generations would not be permissible. But it is probable that the first writer to record this event in his annals — whom all the rest then followed — finding in the ancient records only this, that ambassadors were sent under these consuls to Sicily to buy corn and returned from thence with the present of corn which the tyrant had given them, did not proceed further to discover from the Greek historians who was tyrant of Sicily at that time, but without examination and at random set down Dionysius.