ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the hostile tradition that concerns Dionysius which reached fruition with the testimony of Timaeus of Tauromenium in the third century BC. In order to determine the validity of the material constituting the hostile tradition, the latter must initially be considered within the context of Dionysius' cultural aims. More important, it attempts to create an alliance between Dionysius and Athens; for it was from the reaction to the failure to conclude such an entente that the hostile tradition appears to have emerged. The validity assessment of the pre-Timaeus hostile tradition regarding Dionysius clearly regards it as the highly questionable in view of the nature of its origins and the subsequent development. Dionysius' emulation of Persian monarchy can be explained by a consideration of the importance with which Persia was viewed by Isocrates, Plato and Xenophon. The chapter explains the tendency to theorise neutral data and the Peripatetic biography of increased distortion, launched by Timaeus of Tauromenium.
