Dionysius the Elder 431-367BC
Tyrant of Syracuse

He made himself absolute ruler of his native city in 405BC. After ferociously suppressing several insurrections and conquering some of the Greek towns of Sicily, he warred with the Carthaginians (397-392), when he concluded an advantageous peace. In 387 he captured Rhegium, gaining influence over the Greek cities of Lower Italy, while his fleets swept the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. From 383 until his death he tried to drive the Carthaginians from Sicily. He was a poet, and patron of poets and philosophers, but a hostile tradition depicts him as the destroyer of Greek liberties.