Greek or Barbarian: Plutarch's Portrait of the Syracusan Demos in the Life of Dion

Abstract

This paper focuses on Plutarch’s representation of the demos of Syracuse in the Life of Dion, seen against the corrective lens offered by Diodorus’ narrative. If at first sight it might appear that Plutarch is associating the mob’s behaviour with ‘barbarian’ habits, making us think that that is something peculiar to the Life od Dion, a closer examination shows that in Diodorus the topic of luxury and fickleness is a feature which characterises the Syracusan demos as well as other Sicilians of all classes. Irrationality is a consequence of the masses’ lack of political experience rather than of barbarism, and when, occasionally, they are asked to fulfil political duties, they are found to be totally unprepared. A certain degree of reality is to be glimpsed behind Plutarch’s depiction of the Syracusan masses, for it was indeed their complex ethnic make-up that caused the forming of class divisions within the city and determined their lack of political insight.