This man was a tyrant.
Some of the historians who wrote about his overthrow have described exhaustively the terrible things that occurred in connection with his overthrow, saying, for instance, that no tyrant, not Phalaris, not Apollodorus,[1] not any other, was more harsh than he. He acquired power while still a child, then, after living no more than three or twelve months,[2] departed this life. It is possible that at that time one or two people were tortured and even some of his friends and other Syracusans killed, but it is not likely that there was a overarching excess of lawlessness or surpassing impiety. And it must be said that in his behavior he became especially erratic and abnormal, but not so as to make it worthwhile to compare him with any of the aforementioned tyrants. But it seems to me that those who write history in small bits, or when they take on strictly limited and narrow subjects, are compelled by the poverty of their material to make small things large and to compose a lot of verbiage about things that are unworthy of mention. Some even fall into traps very similar to these through sheer lack of discernment. How much more judicious it would be to divert someone who was filling out his scrolls and planning out the course of his narrative on these matters toward Hieron and Gelon,[3] and to leave Hieronymos out of it. For this is more pleasant for serious listeners and more useful in every respect for serious students.