Sileraioi The Sileraioi ( ) were a group of ancient mercenaries most likely employed by the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse , though it is unknown at what time during Dionysus ' reign and to what capacity the Sileraioi were employed . They began to issue coinage between the years 357 and 336 BC , and this coinage provides the bulk of evidence we have of their existence , since no ancient authors wrote about them by name and the location of any " city " of the Sileraioi has not been conclusively determined . However , much can be inferred about the ruthless character of the Sileraioi based on what ancient authors wrote about Dionysus ' mercenaries in general . Origin of Name . There are a few possible explanations for the origin of the name “ Sileraioi ” . Some believe that they were named after the area of the Sila Mountains , in ancient Bruttium , and only left that area to come to Sicily when employed by Dionysus I of Syracuse . Others believe the group originated around the river Sele in Campania , and were therefore Campanian mercenaries , who also would have been employed by Dionysos I . A third and more recent theory places the origin of the Sileraioi in Lucania . However , the word Sileraioi is related to the paleo - mediterranean word " sila " , which means “ channel in which water flows ” and is the root of hundreds of names in Magna Graecia , and therefore the original location of the Sileraioi cannot be said to be Bruttium , Campania or Lucania definitively , without further archaeological evidence , although at this point modern scholarship points to Lucania as the most likely . Location . Some scholars believed that the Sileraioi had a city somewhere between Agrigento and Caltanissetta . The Sileraioi would have been hired by Dionysus I and when their service finished , remained in Sicily , either taking over some municipality by force or simply integrating into the local population . Dionysus I of Syracuse often granted citizenship to his mercenaries and was known for allotting land to them as well , and the Sileraioi were most likely entitled to the same benefits . More recent scholarship , however , supports the notion that there was never a city of the Sileraioi at all , but instead they were located on a natural hilltop stronghold now called Cozzo Mususino , which is between Alimena and Resuttano . The latter is supported by the amount of Sileraioi coins found at that location . Coinage . Eventually , the group organized themselves enough to mint coinage , as we see bronze coinage from Sicily with the inscription ΣΙΛΕΡΑIΩΝ ( it appears retrograde in the image ) . These coins were always over - struck on other coins of the area , usually bronze litras of Dionysus I . Some scholars believe that the entire series consists of two basic types . It is unclear what the Α - ΛIΣ inscription on the coins ' reverses refers to . If in retrograde as with the opposite side , it could be a reference to SILA , as mentioned above . Mercenaries and Autocracy . Mercenaries such as the Sileraioi were essential to Tyrants , in particular Dionysus I of Syracuse . Dionysius the Elder ’ s victory over the democratic Syracuse represents both the very worst and the very best of the mercenary - leader . Dionysius ’ career as a despot occurred after he was given six hundred personal mercenaries to guard his person after faking an attack on his own life . He was able to increase this guard to one thousand and gradually consolidated his power and established himself as a tyrant . He imposed his mercenaries on all parts of the polis community . Such an act would have truly wiped out any suggestion that democracy was still in force . His rule was “ unconstitutional and illegitimate and could not fail to provoke rebellions among the partisans of democratic government ” . It is not known at which point during his rule Dionysus employed the Sileraioi . The demise of a prominent democratic polis in the classical world and the subsequent tenure of Dionysius represented what would become a recurring norm in fourth century Greece , thanks to the prevalence of mercenaries . The mercenary and the tyrant went hand - in - hand ; Polybius for example noted how “ the security of despots rests entirely on the loyalty and power of mercenaries ” . Aristotle wrote how some form of ‘ guard ’ ( viz . a personal army ) is needed for absolute kingship , and for an elected tyrant a very particular number of professional soldiers should be employed ; too few undermines the tyrant ' s power and too many threatens the polis itself . The philosopher notes how based on this observation , the people of Syracuse were warned to not let Dionysius conscript too many ‘ guards ’ during his reign .