Hipparinus

• the name of the father of Dion, Nep. Dion. 1, 1.

(Ἱππαρῖνος).

1. A Syracusan, father of Dion. He is mentioned by Aristotle (Aristot. Pol. 5.6) as a man of large fortune, and one of the chief citizens of Syracuse, who, having squandered his own property in luxury and extravagance, lent his support to Dionysius in obtaining the sovereignty of his native city. According to Plutarch (Plut. Dio 3), he was associated with Dionysius in the command as general autocrator, a statement which is understood by Mitford (Hist. of Greece, ch. xxix. sect. 5), as referring to the time when Dionysius obtained the virtual sovereignty under that title, in the spring of B. C. 405. It is more probable that it relates to the appointment of the ten generals in the preceding year, and that Hipparinus, as well as Dionysius, was one of these. [Dionysius, p. 1033a.] We hear no more of him from this time, but from the tyrant having married his daughter Aristomache, as well as from the position assumed by his son Dion, it is clear that he must have continued to hold a high place in the favour of Dionysius as long as he lived.

2. A son of Dion, and grandson of the preceding, who fell into the power of the younger Dionysius, together with the wife and sister of Dion, when the latter quitted Sicily. He was still in the hands of the tyrant when he was shut up and besieged by Dion in the island citadel (B. C. 356), a circumstance of which Dionysius took advantage to endeavour to open secret negotiations with his adversary, but without effect. (Plut. Dio 31.) While in the power of the tyrant, Hipparinus had been purposely accustomed by him to dissolute and luxurious habits; of which Dion, as soon as he had become completely master of Syracuse, endeavoured to cure him by restraint and severity, but the boy, unable to endure the sudden change, threw himself from the roof of a house, and was killed on the spot. (Plut. Dio 55; Corn. Nep. Dion, 4, 6; Ael. VH 3.4.) According to Timacus (apud Plut. l.c.), his name was Aretaeus.

3. A son of the elder Dionysius by Aristomache, daughter of No. 1, who succeeded Callippus in the government or tyranny of Syracuse, B. C. 352. According to Diodorus, he attacked the city with a fleet and army, and having defeated Callippus, compelled him to fly from Syracuse, of which he immediately took possession (Diod. 16.36). The account given by Polyaenus is somewhat different: according to his version, Hipparinus was at Leontini (at this time the head-quarters of the disaffected and exiled Syracusans), when he learnt that Callippus had quitted Syracuse with the great body of his forces on an expedition elsewhere, and contrived to surprise the gates and make himself master of the city before his return. (Polyaen. 5.4.) This statement is also in part confirmed by Plutarch (Plut. Dio 58), who relates that Callippus lost Syracuse while attempting to make himself master of Catana, though he does not mention Hipparinus. He held the supreme power for only two years, during which he appears to have excited the contempt of his subjects by his drunkenness, as well as their hatred by his tyranny, and he fell a victim to assassination. (Diod. 16.36; Theopompus, apud Athen. x. p. 436a.; Ael. VH 2.41.) [E.H.B]