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CHAP. II.

ZENO * * * § of Elea, who is considered as the inventor oflogic, was seized in the very act of planning the destructionof the tyranny of N earchusf the Mysian. When put to therack, he, far from discovering his accomplices, named all thetyrant’s most intimate friends as guilty, who were all putto death: in this way he liberated Mysia, by ingeniouslycontriving to supplant tyranny by its own weapons.PlatoJ declares he entered into the design of restoringliberty to the Syracusans , by acting as an accomplicewith Dion, who was at the head of it. Phyton§ whenforced to quit Rhegium , fled to Dionysius the tyrant ofSicily , by whom he was admitted to a greater share ofhis confidence than an exile ought, by which he becameacquainted with the tyrant’s secrets, and having learnt thathe designed to make himself master of Rhegium , he gaveinformation of it to the citizens by letters, and was dis-covered. When taken, the tyrant had him fastenedalive to one of his machines, which he ordered to be ad-vanced to the walls, presuming that the Rhegians wouldnot attack it with offensive weapons, out of regard toPhyton. The moment he understood it, he cried out,“ Spare me not, for I am the signal of your liberty.”

* Zeno of Elea, or Velia, in Italy , the disciple and adopted son ofParmenides , and the supposed inventor of dialectic. He lived 466years before Christ.

t Nearchus was a Mysian, and tyrant of the Eleates .

$ See life of Plato in Diogenes Laertius .

§ There is some disagreement between Philostratus and Diodorus ,concerning Phyton—the latter says he was general of the people ofRhegium against Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily , that he was taken bythe enemy, and tortured; and his son thrown into the sea.—A.before Christ.