The present Volume is already extended to an unusual number of pages; yet I have been compelled to close it at an inconvenient moment, mid-way in the reign of the Syracusan despot Dionysius. To carry that reign to its close, one more chapter will be required, which must be reserved for the succeeding volume.

The history of the Sicilian and Italian Greeks, forming as it does a stream essentially distinct from that of the Peloponnesians, Athenians, &c, is peculiarly interesting during the interval between 409 b.c. (the date of the second Carthaginian invasion) and the death of Timoleon in 336 b.c. It is moreover reported to us by authors (Diodorus and Plutarch), who, though not themselves very judicious as selectors, had before them good contemporary witnesses. And it includes some of the most prominent and impressive characters of the Hellenic world–Dionysius I., Dion with Plato as instructor, and Timoleon.

I thought it indispensable to give adequate development to this important period of Grecian history, even at the cost of that inconvenient break which terminates my tenth volume. At one time I had hoped to comprise in that volume not only the full history of Dionysius I., but also that of Dionysius II. and Dion–and that of Timoleon besides. Three new chapters, including all this additional matter, are already composed and ready.