Calippus of Syracuse

Callippus (/kəˈlɪp.əs/; Greek: Κάλλιππος Συρακούσιος) was a tyrant of Syracuse who ruled briefly for thirteen months from 354 to 352 BC. He was a native Athenian, who traveled with Dion to Sicily to capture Syracuse, where Dion became the tyrant. Callippus then gained power by assassinating Dion, but ruled briefly before being ousted from power himself. Afterwards he commanded a band of mercenaries, who later killed him with the same sword that he used to kill Dion.

Callippus was an Athenian who became a student of Plato. As the future tyrant of Syracuse, Dion, who was also a student of Plato, recruited Callippus as a member of his army which successfully invaded Syracuse. The army marched into Syracuse with 800 mercenaries and took control of the city, disposing of the previous tyrant, Dion’s nephew Dionysius II.

In exile, Dionysius bribed Callippus to kill Dion, and Callippus accepted the offer. He was in a prime position to assassinate Dion, since most of Dion’s closest friends had been killed by Dionysius the Younger, and Callippus was his closest friend remaining.

Callippus used the money from Dionysius to bribe some of Dion’s troops to defect to him. He then won Dion’s trust by betraying some of the soldiers to Dion, who then enlisted Callippus’s as a secret agent to discover further plotters. In addition, whenever men told Dion that Callippus was maligning him, Dion simply thought that Callippus was acting as a spy.

Shortly afterwards, Dion’s only son fell from a window and died. Callippus spread a rumor saying that Dion had invited Dionysius’s son, Apollocrates to come to Syracuse as Dion’s successor. Dion’s wife, Arete, and sister, Aristomache, discovered the Callippus’s plot against Dion, but Dion was still paralyzed with remorse from his son’s death, and refused to take action.

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