DION, a Syracusan, son of Hipparchus, famous for his power and abilities. He was related to Dionysius, and often, along with the philosopher Plato, who had come to reside at the tyrant's court, advised him to lay aside the supreme power. But his great popularity rendered him odious in the eyes of the tyrant, who banished him to Greece. There, however, he collected a numerous force, and resolved to free his country from tyranny; an achievement which he easily effected, on account of his uncommon popularity. He entered the port of Syracuse with only two ships, and in three days reduced under his power an empire which had already subsisted for fifty years, and which was guarded by five hundred ships of war, and above a hundred thousand troops. The tyrant fled to Corinth, and Dion kept the power in his own hands, fearful of the aspiring ambition of some of the friends of Dionysius; but he was shamefully betrayed and murdered by one of his familiar friends, called Callicrates or Callippus, 354 years before the Christian era.