Apollocrates was the son of
Dionysius II of SyracuseDionysius the Younger or Dionysius II ruled Syracuse, Sicily from 367 BC to 357 BC and again from 346 BC to 344 BC....
.
Two years after
DionDion , tyrant of Syracuse in Sicily, was the son of Hipparinus, and brother-in-law of Dionysius I of Syracuse.-Family:Dion was the son of the Syracusan statesman Hipparinus, who had assisted the despot Dionysius I, in the Syracusan army. Hipparinus' other children were Megacles and Aristomache...
and
HeraclidesHeraclides , Heracleides or Herakleides may refer to:* Heracleides of Cyme , a little-attested historian* Heraclides of Aenus, one of Plato's students...
conquered Syracuse in
357 BCYear 357 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rutilus and Imperiosus...
, Dion maintained control of the fortress of
OrtygiaOrtygia is a little island and it is the historical centre of the city of Syracuse, Sicily. The island, also known as Città Vecchia , contains many historical landmarks...
. As supplies ran out, Apollocrates capitulated to Dion, who allowed him and his mother
Doris- Geography :* Doris , region of Asia Minor inhabited by Dorians* Doris , region in central Greece in which the Dorians had their traditional homeland* Doris, Iowa, USA- People :* Doris, mother of Antipater...
to sail to join his father in Italy.
According to
TheopompusTheopompus was a Greek historian and rhetorician- Biography :Theopompus was born on Chios. In early youth he seems to have spent some time at Athens, along with his father, who had been exiled on account of his Laconian sympathies...
, Book 39, F185: "Apollocrates the son of the tyrant Dionysius was undisciplined and an alcoholic."