้had a strong hold over me Dion had joined me at the Academy and he longed to go home and be restored to his family Dionysius promised that if'd come and sserve as his mentor again Dion's affairs would be arranged as we wished
how did you get on the second time around
worse even than I'd imagined This time I did follow my own advice I told Dionysius that it was really necessary that he prepare himself for rule by acquiring an education We began as I''d always recommended. with rigorous exercises in mathematics Needless to say we hadn't got very far before his impaatience grew into annoyance
In the end theoutcome of his second effort was favorble neither to me nor to Dion Dion's exile was continued and he lost even the income from his property I was help as prisoner,and was in considerable of being killed by Dionysius's enemies who supposed that since I was his guest I was also his ally.After some very unpleasant confrontations some Italian friends sent a ship to Syracuse with an urgent plea that I be allowed to go home Dionysius agreed and I was allowed to make my escape
And what did you learn from all of this
That question is more than a little impertinent None of what happened was a surprise to me I knew from the beginning that the odds against success were long I might learned something if things had worked out differently from the way that I expected There's no easy road to the ideal state and I knew that all along