LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Academy · Biography & Mythology

Nysaeus

Νυσαῖος

(Νυσαῖος), son of the elder Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, by his wife Aristomache, the daughter of Hipparinus. (Diod. 16.6.) We know nothing of the steps by which he rose to the supreme power at Syracuse; but it seems probable that he succeeded his brother Hipparinus in the sovereignty, which he held until B. C. 346, when he was expelled by his half-brother, the younger Dionysius. (Plut. Tim. 1.) He was chiefly remarkable for his love of drinking and his immoderate addiction to gross sensual indulgences. (Theopomp. apud Alten. x. pp. 435, 436; Aelian, Ael. VH 2.41.)

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.