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They say that DionysiusThe Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse (431-367 B.C.). used to write tragedy in a very feeble and ridiculous style, so that PhiloxenusA contemporary poet, was often thrown into the quarries on account of it, not being able to control his laughter. Well, when he discovered that he was being laughed at, he took great pains to procure the wax-tablets on which Aeschylus used to write, thinking that he too would be inspired and possessed with divine frenzy in virtue of the tablets. But for all that, what he wrote on those very tablets was far more ridiculous than what he had written before: for example, Doris, the wife of Dionysius, Is dead— and again, Alackaday, a right good wife I’ve lost! —for that came from the tablet; and so did this: 'Tis of themselves alone that fools make sport.The few extant fragments of Dionysius’ plays are given by Nauck, rag. Graec. Fragm. pp. 793-796. Tzetzes (Chil. 5, 180) says that he repeatedly took second and third place in the competitions at Athens, and first with the ansom of Hector. Amusing examples of his frigidity are given by Athenaeus (iii. p. 98 D). The last line Dionysius might have addressed to you with especial fitness, and those tablets of his should have been gilded for it.
