When his father died in 367 BC, Dionysius, who was at the time under thirty years old, and completely inexperienced in public affairs,[1] inherited the supreme power and began ruling under the supervision of his uncle, Dion, whose disapproval of the young Dionysius's lavishly dissolute lifestyle compelled him to invite his teacher Plato to visit Syracuse.
However, under the influence of opponents of Dion's reforms, Dionysius conspired with the historian Philistus and banished his uncle, taking complete power in 366 BC.
Before this, Dion's Syracusan estates had financed his peaceful and comfortable life overseas in Athens, but Dionysius's last offence spurred him into action.
While in exile, Dionysius took advantage of the friendly citizens of Locri and became the city's tyrant, treating the locals with great cruelty.
Soon after he left Locri, the locals drove out the remaining troops and took their revenge [clarification needed] on Dionysius's wife and daughters.
Dionysius, out of respect for Timoleon and aware he no longer had a chance of victory, arranged the surrender of the citadel and was given safe passage to Corinth.
[2] In the Seventh Letter Dionysius II is central to the detailed description of Plato's epistemological digression, known as doctrine of illumination in secondary literature.
Those possessing a divine quality would accept the challenge, while pseudo-philosophers would find the tasks so daunting they would abandon the pursuit of wisdom.
[8] The Renaissance alchemist Michael Maier relates a legend about Dionysius II in his book Atalanta Fugiens (1617), where he was shipwrecked at the Gulf of Corinth, and without his swimming skills he could have never reached the shore.