Affairs of the GRECIAN Settlements in SICILY and ITALY; from the ATHENIAN Invasion, to the Settlement of the SYRACUSAN Government under DIONYSIUS and HIPPARINUS

SECTION I

Authorities for the Sequel of Grecian History. Sicilian Affairs following the Athenian Invasion. Administration and Legislation of Diocles at Syracuse

Whoever may ingage in the investigation of Grecian history among the original authors, whether writing for others, or only reading for himself, cannot but feel, at the period where we are now arrived, the loss of regular guidance from those cotemporary with the events, citizens of the republics they describe, conversant with the politics and warfare of the time, eyewitnesses, or generally acquainted with eyewitnesses of the facts they relate. After the death of Epameinondas, with which Xenophon's narrative ends, the only account of Grecian affairs, aiming at connection, is that of the Sicilian Diodorus, who lived above three hundred years after, in the time of Augustus Cæsar. In this long interval, the establishment, first of the Macedonian, and afterward of the Roman empire, had so altered and overwhelmed the former politics of the civilized world, that they were no more to be gathered but from books, in the age of Diodorus, than at this day.

Many valuable works of elder writers were indeed extant, of which a few sentences only, preserved in quotations, are now known to exist. Very interesting portions of Sicilian history were published by men of eminent abilities, whose means of information were not inferior to those of Xenophon and Thucydides, but whose interests and passions, according to remaining report, more tinged their narratives.