The presentVolume is already extended to an unusual number of pages; yet I havebeen compelled to close it at an inconvenient moment, midway in thereign of the Syracusan despot Dionysius. To carry that reign to itsclose, one more chapter will be required, which must be reserved forthe succeeding volume.

The history of the Sicilian and Italian Greeks,forming as it does a stream essentially distinct from that of thePeloponnesians, Athenians, etc., is peculiarly interesting duringthe interval between 409 B.C. (the date of thesecond Carthaginian invasion) and the death of Timoleon in 336B.C. It is, moreover, reported to us by authors(Diodorus and Plutarch), who, though not themselves very judiciousas selectors, had before them good contemporary witnesses. And itincludes some of the most prominent and impressive characters of theHellenic world,—Dionysius I., Dion with Plato as instructor, andTimoleon.

[p. iv]

I thought it indispensable to give adequatedevelopment to this important period of Grecian history, even at thecost of that inconvenient break which terminates my tenth volume. Atone time I had hoped to comprise in that volume not only the fullhistory of Dionysius I., but also that of Dionysius II. and Dion—andthat of Timoleon besides. Three new chapters, including all thisadditional matter, are already composed and ready. But the bulk ofthe present volume compels me to reserve them for the commencementof my next, which will carry Grecian history down to the battle ofChæroneia and the death of Philip of Macedon—and which will, I trust,appear without any long interval of time.

G. G.

London, Feb. 15, 1852.

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