Diocles of Syracuse () was a legislator, orator, and political and military leader in the Greek city-state of Syracuse toward the end of the 5th century BC. Only a few years of his life have an historical account, from 413 to 408 BC. Orator The historian Diodorus Siculus presents Diocles as a famous and respected orator, when he proposed, on the day following the victory over the Athenians in 413 BC, a punishment of the greatest severity against the vanquished: execution of Demosthenes and Nicias, the two Athenian generals, condemnation to slavery in the stone quarries for the Athenian soldiers, and the fate of being sold into slavery for the soldiers of the allies of Athens. Reinforced by the speech of Gylippus, that emphasized that a fate so cruel was intended for the Syracusans in case of Athenian victory, the suggestion was adopted against the opinion of those favoring clemency backed by the strategist Hermocrates. (According to Plutarch and Thucydides, Gylippus wanted to take the two Athenian generals back to Sparta as proof of his own military success.) Democratic legislator After the victory of 413 BC, the Syracusans that actively participated in the defense of the city were in a position to demand democratic reforms, following the example of the favor given to political democracy in Athens following the Battle of Salamis that was won by an Athenian navy principally composed from the common people. Diocles first put into practice two measures: The term limit for the exit of the magistrates This limitation by designation method, already practiced to Athens, is for Aristotle a characteristic of the democracies. The nomination of a group of experts in charge of composing laws Then, having been named in this group of experts, Diocles there takes a preponderant role, so well that the laws created carry his name. The justice and accuracy of his system of penalties and of rewards won him the admiration of its fellow countrymen, and beyond the city-state of Syracuse, with numerous Greek cities of Sicily that adopted and preserved the laws down to the time of the domination of Roman laws. Legal changes In 412 BC, a committee, led by Diocles, erected a law which (among other things) forbade the people to bear weapons in the agora under pain of the death penalty. This law was met with popularity, as it began to be adopted outside of Syracuse in