Later, a segment of Act I, scene iii was abstracted for its patriotic message and distributed as a broadside prior to the expected invasion of Napoleon.
Massinger's primary source for his plot was the treatment of Timoleon in the Parallel Lives of Plutarch, though he also drew upon works by Herodotus, Justin, and Seneca the Elder.
Critics have debated whether and to what degree Massinger's play was a commentary on the political climate of his own era, and its possible status as an intended work of propaganda.
Cleon, a rich citizen, is a selfish glutton; the mature women are sexually rapacious, one even attempting to seduce her own stepson; and the city's slaves are badly abused.
The forces under Timoleon are victorious over the Carthaginians; but when they march home in triumph, they find the slaves in charge of the city and the gates closed against them.
Once they retake the city, the Syracusans round up the rebellious slaves, including Pisander/Marullo, but Cleora causes a scandal by taking his part, against the vocal opposition of Leosthenes and Timagoras.
In the play's denouement, Pisander and Cleora and Leosthenes and Statilia are united as couples, and the rebel slaves are re-absorbed into a more humanely ordered Syracusan society.