The sun-dial was thus _under_ the acropolis, that is, in the low
ground immediately adjoining to Ortygia; near the place where the
elder Dionysius is stated to have placed his large porticos and
market-house (Diodor. xiv. 7), and where the younger Dionysius
erected the funeral monument to his father (xv. 74). In order to
arrive at the sun-dial, Dion must have descended from the height
of Achradina. Now Plutarch mentions that Dion _went up_ through
Achradina (ἀνῄει διὰ τῆς Ἀχραδινῆς). It is plain that he must
have come down again from Achradina, though Plutarch does not
specially mention it. And if he brought his men close under the
walls of the enemy’s garrison, this can hardly have been for any
other reason than that which I have assigned in the text.
Plutarch indicates the separate localities with tolerable
clearness, but he does not give a perspicuous description of
the whole march. Thus, he says that Dion, “wishing to harangue
the people himself, _went up_ through Achradina,” (Βουλόμενος
δὲ καὶ δι᾽ ἑαυτοῦ προσαγορεῦσαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἀνῄει διὰ τῆς
Ἀχραδινῆς), while the place from which Dion did harangue the
people, was _down under_ the acropolis of Ortygia.
Diodorus is still less clear about the localities, nor does
he say anything about the sun-dial or the exact spot from
whence Dion spoke, though he mentions the march of Dion through
Achradina.
It seems probable that what Plutarch calls τὰ πεντάπυλα are
the same as what Diodorus (xv. 74) indicates in the words ταῖς
βασιλικαῖς καλουμέναις πύλαις.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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