{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_1175/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_1175","id":"gutenberg_1175","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1175","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Classical literature","Despotism -- Early works to 1800","Dialogues, Greek -- Translations into English","Hieron I, Tyrant of Syracuse, -467 B.C. or 466 B.C.","Simonides, approximately 556 B.C.-467 B.C.","Syracuse (Italy) -- Politics and government -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"Produced by John Bickers\n\n\n\n\n\nHIERO\n\nBy Xenophon\n\nTranslation by H. G. Dakyns\n\n\n     Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a\n     pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,\n     and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land\n     and property in Scillus, where he lived for many\n     years before having to move once more, to settle\n     in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.\n\n\n\n\nPREPARER'S NOTE\n\nThis was typed from Dakyns' series, \"The Works of Xenophon,\" a\nfour-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though there is\ndoubt about some of these) is:\n\n     Work                                   Number of books\n\n     The Anabasis                                         7\n     The Hellenica                                        7\n     The Cyropaedia                                       8\n     The Memorabilia                                      4\n     The Symposium                                        1\n     The Economist                                        1\n     On Horsemanship                                      1\n     The Sportsman                                        1\n     The Cavalry General                                  1\n     The Apology                                          1\n     On Revenues                                          1\n     The Hiero                                            1\n     The Agesilaus                                        1\n     The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians   2\n\nText in brackets \"{}\" is my transliteration of Greek text into English\nusing an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical marks\nhave been lost.\n\n\nHIERO\n\nThe Hiero is an imaginary dialogue, c. 474 B.C., between Simonides of\nCeos, the poet; and Hieron, of Syracuse and Gela, the despot.\n\n\n\n\nHIERO, or \"THE TYRANT\"\n\nA Discourse on Despotic Rule\n\n\nI\n\nOnce upon a time Simonides the poet paid a visit to Hiero the \"tyrant,\"\n(1) and when both obtained the leisure requisite, Simonides began this\nconversation:\n\n (1) Or, \"came to the court of the despotic monarch Hiero.\" For the\n    \"dramatis personae\" see Dr. Holden's Introduction to the \"Hieron\"\n    of Xenophon.\n\nWould you be pleased to give me information, Hiero, upon certain\nmatters, as to which it is likely you have greater knowledge than\nmyself? (2)\n\n (2) Or, \"would you oblige me by explaining certain matters, as to\n    which your knowledge naturally transcends my own?\"\n\nAnd pray, what sort of things may those be (answered Hiero), of which I\ncan have greater knowledge than yourself, who are so wise a man?\n\nI know (replied the poet) that you were once a private person, (3) and\nare now a monarch. It is but likely, therefore, that having tested both\nconditions, (4) you should know better than myself, wherein the life of\nthe despotic ruler differs from the life of any ordinary person, looking\nto the sum of joys and sorrows to which flesh is heir.\n\n (3) Or, \"a common citizen,\" \"an ordinary mortal,\" \"a private\n    individual.\"\n\n (4) Or, \"having experienced both lots in life, both forms of\n    existence.\"\n\nWould it not be simpler (Hiero replied) if you, on your side, (5) who\nare still to-day a private person, would refresh my memory by recalling\nthe various circumstances of an ordinary mortal's life? With these\nbefore me, (6) I should be better able to describe the points of\ndifference which exist between the one life and the other.\n\n (5) Simonides is still in the chrysalis or grub condition of private\n    citizenship; he has not broken the shell as yet of ordinary\n    manhood.\n\n (6) Lit. \"in that case, I think I should best be able to point out the\n    'differentia' of either.\"\n\nThus it was that Simonides spoke first: Well then, as to private\npersons, for my part I observe, (7) or seem to have observed, that\nwe are liable to various pains and pleasures, in the shape of sights,\nsounds, odours, meats, and drinks, which are conveyed through certain\navenues of sense--to wit, the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth. And there\nare other pleasures, those named of Aphrodite, of which the channels are\nwell known. While as to degree of heat and cold, things hard and\nsoft, things light and heavy, the sense appealed to here, I venture\nto believe, is that of the whole body; (8) whereby we discern these\nopposites, and derive from them now pain, now pleasure. But with regard\nto things named good and evil, (9) it appears to me that sometimes the\nmind (or soul) itself is the sole instrument by which we register our\npains and pleasures; whilst at other times such pains and pleasures\nare derived conjointly through both soul and body. (10) There are some\npleasures, further, if I may trust my own sensations, which are conveyed\nin sleep, though how and by what means and when precisely, are matters\nas to which I am still more conscious of my ignorance. Nor is it to\nbe wondered at perhaps, if the perceptions of waking life in some way\nstrike more clearly on our senses than do those of sleep. (11)\n\n (7) Or, \"if I may trust my powers of observation I would say that\n    common men are capable of pains and pleasures conveyed through\n    certain avenues of sense, as sight through our eyes, sounds\n    through our ears, smells through our noses, and meats and drinks\n    through our mouths.\"\n\n (8) Cf. Cic. \"de N. D.\" ii. 56, S. 141.\n\n (9) Reading {edesthai te kai lupeisthai...} or if with Breit\n    reading {ote d' au lupeisthai}, transl. \"then as to good and evil\n    we are affected pleasurably or painfully, as the case may be:\n    sometimes, if I am right in my conclusion, through the mind itself\n    alone; at other times...\"\n\n (10) Or, \"they are mental partly, partly physical.\"\n\n (11) Lit. \"the incidents of waking life present sensations of a more\n    vivid character.\"\n\nTo this statement Hiero made answer: And I, for my part, O Simonides,\nwould find it hard to state, outside the list of things which you have\nnamed yourself, in what respect the despot can have other channels of\nperception. (12) So that up to this point I do not see that the despotic\nlife differs in any way at all from that of common people.\n\n (12) i.e. \"being like constituted, the autocratic person has no other\n    sources of perception: he has no claim to a wider gamut of\n    sensation, and consequently thus far there is not a pin to choose\n    between the life of the despot and that of a private person.\"\n\nThen Simonides: Only in this respect it surely differs, in that the\npleasures which the \"tyrant\" enjoys through all these several avenues\nof sense are many times more numerous, and the pains he suffers are far\nfewer.\n\nTo which Hiero: Nay, that is not so, Simonides, take my word for it; the\nfact is rather that the pleasures of the despot are far fewer than\nthose of people in a humbler condition, and his pains not only far more\nnumerous, but more intense.\n\nThat sounds incredible (exclaimed Simonides); if it were really so, how\ndo you explain the passionate desire commonly displayed to wield the\ntyrant's sceptre, and that too on the part of persons reputed to be the\nablest of men? Why should all men envy the despotic monarch?\n\nFor the all-sufficient reason (he replied) that they form conclusions on\nthe matter without experience of the two conditions. And I will try\nto prove to you the truth of what I say, beginning with the faculty of\nvision, which, unless my memory betrays me, was your starting-point.\n\nWell then, when I come to reason (13) on the matter, first of all I find\nthat, as regards the class of objects of which these orbs of vision are\nthe channel, (14) the despot has the disadvantage. Every region of\nthe world, each country on this fair earth, presents objects worthy of\ncontemplation, in quest of which the ordinary citizen will visit, as the\nhumour takes him, now some city (for the sake of spectacles), (15) or\nagain, the great national assemblies, (16) where sights most fitted to\nentrance the gaze of multitudes would seem to be collected. (17) But the\ndespot has neither part nor lot in these high festivals, (18) seeing it\nis not safe for him to go where he will find himself at the mercy of the\nassembled crowds; (19) nor are his home affairs in such security that he\ncan leave them to the guardianship of others, whilst he visits foreign\nparts. A twofold apprehension haunts him: (20) he will be robbed of\nhis throne, and at the same time be powerless to take vengeance on his\nwrongdoer. (21)\n\n (13) {logizomenos}, \"to apply my moral algebra.\"\n\n (14) {en tois dia tes opseos theamasi}. See Hartman, \"An. Xen. Nova,\"\n    p. 246. {theamasi} = \"spectacular effects,\" is perhaps a gloss on\n    \"all objects apprehensible through vision.\" Holden (crit. app.)\n    would rather omit {dia tes opseos} with Schneid.\n\n (15) The words are perhaps a gloss.\n\n (16) e.g. the games at Olympia, or the great Dionysia at Athens, etc.\n\n (17) Omitting {einai}, or if with Breit. {dokei einai...\n    sunageiresthai}, transl. \"in which it is recognised that sights\n    are to be seen best fitted to enchain the eyes and congregate vast\n    masses.\" For other emendations see Holden, crit. app.; Hartm. op.\n    cit. p. 258.\n\n (18) \"Religious embassies\"; it. \"Theories.\" See Thuc. vi. 16; \"Mem.\"\n    IV. viii. 2.\n\n (19) Lit. \"not stronger than those present.\"\n\n (20) Or, \"The dread oppresses him, he may be deprived of his empire\n    and yet be powerless.\"\n\n (21) Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\" ix. 579 B: \"His soul is dainty and greedy; and\n    yet he only of all men is never allowed to go on a journey, or to\n    see things which other free men desire to see; but he lives in his\n    hole like a woman hidden in the house, and is jealous of any other\n    citizen who goes into foreign parts and sees things of interest\"\n    (Jowett).\n\nPerhaps you will retort: \"Why should he trouble to go abroad to seek for\nsuch things? They are sure to come to him, although he stops at home.\"\nYes, Simonides, that is so far true; a small percentage of them no\ndoubt will, and this scant moiety will be sold at so high a price to\nthe despotic monarch, that the exhibitor of the merest trifle looks\nto receive from the imperial pocket, within the briefest interval, ten\ntimes more than he can hope to win from all the rest of mankind in a\nlifetime; and then he will be off. (22)\n\n (22) Lit. \"to get from the tyrant all in a moment many times more than\n    he will earn from all the rest of mankind in a whole lifetime, and\n    depart.\"\n\nTo which Simonides: Well, granted you have the worst of it in sights and\nsightseeing; yet, you must admit you are large gainers through the sense\nof hearing; you who are never stinted of that sweetest of all sounds,\n(23) the voice of praise, since all around you are for ever praising\neverything you do and everything you say. Whilst, conversely, to that\nmost harsh and grating of all sounds, the language of abuse, your ears\nare sealed, since no one cares to speak evil against a monarch to his\nface.\n\n (23) Cf. Cic. \"pro Arch.\" 20, \"Themistoclem illum dixisse aiunt cum ex\n    eo quaereretur, 'quod acroama aut cujus vocem libentissime\n    audiret': 'ejus, a quo sua virtus optime praedicaretur.'\"\n\nThen Hiero: And what pleasure do you suppose mere abstinence from evil\nwords implies, when it is an open secret that those silent persons are\ncherishing all evil thoughts against the tyrant? (24) What mirth, do you\nimagine, is to be extracted from their panegyrics who are suspected of\nbestowing praise out of mere flattery?\n\n (24) \"One knows plainly that these dumb attendants stand there like\n    mutes, but harbour every evil thought against their autocratic\n    lord.\"\n\nSimonides made answer: Yes, I must indeed admit, I do concede to you,\nthat praise alone is sweetest which is breathed from lips of free men\nabsolutely free. But, look you, here is a point: you will find it hard\nto persuade another, that you despots, within the limits of those things\nwhereby we one and all sustain our bodies, in respect, that is, of meats\nand drinks, have not a far wider range of pleasures.\n\nYes, Simonides (he answered), and what is more, I know the explanation\nof the common verdict. The majority have come to the conclusion that we\nmonarchs eat and drink with greater pleasure than do ordinary people,\nbecause they have got the notion, they themselves would make a better\ndinner off the viands served at our tables than their own. And doubtless\nsome break in the monotony gives a fillip of pleasure. And that explains\nwhy folk in general look forward with pleasure to high days and holy\ndays--mankind at large, but not the despot; his well-stocked table\ngroaning from day to day under its weight of viands admits of no state\noccasions. So that, as far as this particular pleasure, to begin with,\ngoes, the pleasure of anticipation, the monarch is at disadvantage\ncompared with private people.\n\nAnd in the next place (he continued), I am sure your own experience will\nbear me out so far: the more viands set before a man at table (beyond\nwhat are sufficient), (25) the more quickly will satiety of eating\novertake him. So that in actual duration of the pleasure, he with his\nmany dishes has less to boast of than the moderate liver.\n\n (25) {ta peritta ton ikanon}. These words Hartm. op. cit. p. 254,\n    regards as an excrescence.\n\nYes, but good gracious! surely (broke in Simonides), during the actual\ntime, (26) before the appetite is cloyed, the gastronomic pleasure\nderived from the costlier bill of fare far exceeds that of the cheaper\ndinner-table.\n\n (26) Lit. \"so long as the soul (i.e. the appetite) accepts with\n    pleasure the viands\"; i.e. there's an interval, at any rate,\n    during which \"such as my soul delights in\" can still apply and for\n    so long.\n\nBut, as a matter of plain logic (Hiero retorted), should you not\nsay, the greater the pleasure a man feels in any business, the more\nenthusiastic his devotion to it?\n\nThat is quite true (he answered).\n\nHiero. Then have you ever noticed that crowned heads display more\npleasure in attacking the bill of fare provided them, than private\npersons theirs?\n\nNo, rather the reverse (the poet answered); if anything, they show a\nless degree of gusto, (27) unless they are vastly libelled.\n\n (27) \"No, not more pleasure, but exceptional fastidiousness, if what\n    people say is true.\" {agleukesteron}, said ap. Suid. to be a\n    Sicilian word = \"more sourly.\"\n\nWell (Hiero continued), and all these wonderfully-made dishes which\nare set before the tyrant, or nine-tenths of them, perhaps you have\nobserved, are combinations of things acid to the taste, or pungent, or\nastringent, or akin to these? (28)\n\n (28) Lit. \"and their congeners,\" \"their analogues,\" e.g. \"curries,\n    pickles, bitters, peppery condiments.\"\n\nTo be sure they are (he answered), unnatural viands, one and all, in my\nopinion, most alien to ordinary palates. (29)\n\n (29) Or, \"unsuited to man's taste,\" \"'caviare to the general' I name\n    them.\"\n\nHiero. In fact, these condiments can only be regarded as the cravings\n(30) of a stomach weakened by luxurious living; since I am quite sure\nthat keen appetites (and you, I fancy, know it well too) have not the\nslightest need for all these delicate made things.\n\n (30) Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 687 C; \"Hipp.\" ii. 44. Lit. \"can you in fact\n    regard these condiments as other than...\" See Holden ad loc.\n    (ed. 1888); Hartm. op. cit. p. 259, suggests {enthumemata},\n    \"inventions.\"\n\nIt is true, at any rate (observed Simonides), about those costly\nperfumes, with which your persons are anointed, that your neighbours\nrather than yourselves extract enjoyment from them; just as the\nunpleasant odour of some meats is not so obvious to the eater as to\nthose who come in contact with him.\n\nHiero. Good, and on this principle we say of meats, that he who is\nprovided with all sorts on all occasions brings no appetite to any of\nthem. He rather to whom these things are rarities, that is the man who,\nwhen some unfamiliar thing is put before him, will take his fill of it\nwith pleasure. (31)\n\n (31) {meta kharas}. Cf. Aesch. Fr. 237, {stomatos en prote khara}, of\n    a hungry man; \"Od.\" xvii. 603.\n\nIt looks very much (interposed Simonides) as if the sole pleasure left\nyou to explain the vulgar ambition to wear a crown, must be that named\nafter Aphrodite. For in this field it is your privilege to consort with\nwhatever fairest fair your eyes may light on.\n\nHiero. Nay, now you have named that one thing of all others, take my\nword for it, in which we princes are worse off than lesser people. (32)\n\n (32) Reading {saph' isthi}, or if as Cobet conj. {saphestata}, transl.\n    \"are at a disadvantage most clearly by comparison with ordinary\n    folk.\"\n\nTo name marriage first. I presume a marriage (33) which is contracted\nwith some great family, superior in wealth and influence, bears away\nthe palm, since it confers upon the bridegroom not pleasure only but\ndistinction. (34) Next comes the marriage made with equals; and last,\nwedlock with inferiors, which is apt to be regarded as degrading and\ndisserviceable.\n\n (33) Cf. \"Hunting,\" i. 9. Holden cf. Eur. \"Rhes.\" 168; \"Androm.\" 1255.\n\n (34) Cf. Dem. \"in Lept.\" S. 69, p. 499. See Plat. \"Rep.\" 553 C.\n\nNow for the application: a despotic monarch, unless he weds some foreign\nbride, is forced to choose a wife from those beneath him, so that the\nheight of satisfaction is denied him. (35)\n\n (35) Al. \"supreme content, the quintessential bliss, is quite unknown\n    to him.\"\n\nThe tender service of the proudest-souled of women, wifely rendered, how\nsuperlatively charming! (36) and by contrast, how little welcome is\nsuch ministration where the wife is but a slave--when present, barely\nnoticed; or if lacking, what fell pains and passions will it not\nengender!\n\n (36) Or, \"the gentle ministrations of loftiest-thoughted women and\n    fair wives possess a charm past telling, but from slaves, if\n    tendered, the reverse of welcome, or if not forthcoming...\"\n\nAnd if we come to masculine attachments, still more than in those\nwhose end is procreation, the tyrant finds himself defrauded of such\nmirthfulness, (37) poor monarch! Since all of us are well aware, I\nfancy, that for highest satisfaction, (38) amorous deeds need love's\nstrong passion. (39)\n\n (37) \"Joys sacred to that goddess fair and free in Heaven yclept\n    Euphrosyne.\"\n\n (38) For {polu diapherontos} cf. Browning (\"Abt Vogler\"), not indeed\n    of Aphrodisia conjoined with Eros, but of the musician's gift:\n\n        That out of three sounds he frame not a fourth sound, but a\n        star.\n\n (39) i.e. \"Eros, the Lord of Passion, must lend his hand.\" \"But,\" he\n    proceeds, \"the god is coy; he has little liking for the breasts of\n    kings. He is more likely to be found in the cottage of the peasant\n    than the king's palace.\"\n\nBut least of all is true love's passion wont to lodge in the hearts of\nmonarchs, for love delights not to swoop on ready prey; he needs the\nlure of expectation. (40)\n\n (40) Or, \"even on the heels of hoped-for bliss he follows.\"\n\nWell then, just as a man who has never tasted thirst can hardly be said\nto know the joy of drinking, (41) so he who has never tasted Passion is\nignorant of Aphrodite's sweetest sweets.\n\n (41) Reading with Holden (after H. Steph.) {osper oun an tis...} or\n    with Hartm. (op. cit. p. 259) {osper ouk an tis...}\n\nSo Hiero ended.\n\nSimonides answered laughingly: How say you, Hiero? What is that? Love's\nstrong passion for his soul's beloved incapable of springing up in any\nmonarch's heart? What of your own passion for Dailochus, surnamed of men\n\"most beautiful\"?\n\nHiero. That is easily explained, Simonides. What I most desire of him is\nno ready spoil, as men might reckon it, but rather what it is least of\nall the privilege of a tyrant to obtain. (42) I say it truly, I--the\nlove I bear Dailochus is of this high sort. All that the constitution of\nour souls and bodies possibly compels a man to ask for at the hands of\nbeauty, that my fantasy desires of him; but what my fantasy demands, I\ndo most earnestly desire to obtain from willing hands and under seal of\ntrue affection. To clutch it forcibly were as far from my desire as to\ndo myself some mortal mischief.\n\n (42) Lit. \"of tyrant to achieve,\" a met. from the chase. Cf.\n    \"Hunting,\" xii. 22.\n\nWere he my enemy, to wrest some spoil from his unwilling hands would\nbe an exquisite pleasure, to my thinking. But of all sweet favours the\nsweetest to my notion is the free-will offering of a man's beloved. For\ninstance, how sweet the responsive glance of love for love; how sweet\nthe questions and the answers; (43) and, most sweet of all, most\nlove-enkindling, the battles and the strifes of faithful lovers. (44)\nBut to enjoy (45) one's love perforce (he added) resembles more an act\nof robbery, in my judgment, than love's pastime. And, indeed, the robber\nderives some satisfaction from the spoils he wins and from the pain he\ncauses to the man he hates. But to seek pleasure in the pain of one\nwe love devoutly, to kiss and to be hated, to touch (46) and to be\nloathed--can one conceive a state of things more odious or more pitiful?\nFor, it is a certainty, the ordinary person may accept at once each\nservice rendered by the object of his love as a sign and token of\nkindliness inspired by affection, since he knows such ministry is free\nfrom all compulsion. Whilst to the tyrant, the confidence that he is\nloved is quite foreclosed. On the contrary, (47) we know for certain\nthat service rendered through terror will stimulate as far as possible\nthe ministrations of affection. And it is a fact, that plots and\nconspiracies against despotic rulers are oftenest hatched by those who\nmost of all pretend to love them. (48)\n\n (43) \"The 'innere Unterhaltung'\"; the {oarismos}. Cf. Milton, \"P. L.\":\n\n        With thee conversing, I forget all time.\n\n (44) Cf. Ter. \"Andr.\" iii. 3. 23, \"amantium irae amoris\n    intergratiost.\"\n\n (45) \"To make booty of.\"\n\n (46) For {aptesthai} L. & S. cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 840 A; Aristot. \"H. A.\"\n    v. 14. 27; Ep. 1 Cor. vii. 1.\n\n (47) Reading {au}. \"If we do know anything it is this, that,\" etc.\n\n (48) Or, \"do oftenest issue from treacherous make-believe of warmest\n    friendship.\" Cf. Grote, \"H. G.\" xi. 288; \"Hell.\" VI. iv. 36.\n\n\n\nII\n\nTo these arguments Simonides replied: Yes, but the topics you have named\nare to my thinking trifles; drops, as it were, in the wide ocean. How\nmany men, I wonder, have I seen myself, men in the deepest sense, (1)\ntrue men, who choose to fare but ill in respect of meats and drinks and\ndelicacies; ay, and what is more, they voluntarily abstain from sexual\npleasures. No! it is in quite a different sphere, which I will name at\nonce, that you so far transcend us private citizens. (2) It is in your\nvast designs, your swift achievements; it is in the overflowing wealth\nof your possessions; your horses, excellent for breed and mettle; the\nchoice beauty of your arms; the exquisite finery of your wives; the\ngorgeous palaces in which you dwell, and these, too, furnished with\nthe costliest works of art; add to which the throng of your retainers,\ncourtiers, followers, not in number only but accomplishments a most\nprincely retinue; and lastly, but not least of all, in your supreme\nability at once to afflict your foes and benefit your friends.\n\n (1) Lit. \"many among those reputed to be men.\" Cf. \"Cyrop.\" V. v. 33;\n    \"Hell.\" i. 24, \"their hero\"; and below, viii. 3. Aristoph. \"Ach.\"\n    78, {oi barbaroi gar andras egountai monous} | {tous pleista\n    dunamenous phagein te kai piein}: \"To the Barbarians 'tis the test\n    of manhood: there the great drinkers are the greatest men\"\n    (Frere); id. \"Knights,\" 179; \"Clouds,\" 823; so Latin \"vir.\" See\n    Holden ad loc.\n\n (2) \"Us lesser mortals.\"\n\nTo all which Hiero made answer: That the majority of men, Simonides,\nshould be deluded by the glamour of a despotism in no respect astonishes\nme, since it is the very essence of the crowd, if I am not mistaken,\nto rush wildly to conjecture touching the happiness or wretchedness of\npeople at first sight.\n\nNow the nature of a tyrrany is such: it presents, nay flaunts, a show\nof costliest possessions unfolded to the general gaze, which rivets the\nattention; (3) but the real troubles in the souls of monarchs it keeps\nconcealed in those hid chambers where lie stowed away the happiness and\nthe unhappiness of mankind.\n\n (3) There is some redundancy in the phraseology.\n\nI repeat then, I little marvel that the multitude should be blinded in\nthis matter. But that you others also, you who are held to see with\nthe mind's eye more clearly than with the eye of sense the mass of\ncircumstances, (4) should share its ignorance, does indeed excite my\nwonderment. Now, I know it all too plainly from my own experience,\nSimonides, and I assure you, the tyrant is one who has the smallest\nshare of life's blessings, whilst of its greater miseries he possesses\nmost.\n\n (4) Lit. \"the majority of things\"; al. \"the thousand details of a\n    thing.\"\n\nFor instance, if peace is held to be a mighty blessing to mankind, then\nof peace despotic monarchs are scant sharers. Or is war a curse? If so,\nof this particular pest your monarch shares the largest moiety. For,\nlook you, the private citizen, unless his city-state should chance to be\nengaged in some common war, (5) is free to travel wheresoe'er he chooses\nwithout fear of being done to death, whereas the tyrant cannot stir\nwithout setting his foot on hostile territory. At any rate, nothing will\npersuade him but he must go through life armed, and on all occasions\ndrag about with him armed satellites. In the next place, the private\ncitizen, even during an expedition into hostile territory, (6) can\ncomfort himself in the reflection that as soon as he gets back home he\nwill be safe from further peril. Whereas the tyrant knows precisely the\nreverse; as soon as he arrives in his own city, he will find himself\nin the centre of hostility at once. Or let us suppose that an invading\narmy, superior in force, is marching against a city: however much the\nweaker population, whilst they are still outside their walls, may feel\nthe stress of danger, yet once within their trenches one and all expect\nto find themselves in absolute security. But the tyrant is not out of\ndanger, even when he has passed the portals of his palace. Nay! there\nof all places most, he feels, he must maintain the strictist watch. (7)\nAgain, to the private citizen there will come eventually, either through\ntruce or terms of peace, respite from war; but for the tyrant, the day\nof peace will never dawn. What peace can he have with those over whom\nhe exercises his despotic sway? (8) Nor have the terms of truce been yet\ndevised, on which the despotic ruler may rely with confidence. (9)\n\n (5) {koinon}, i.e. making demands upon the energies of all the\n    citizens in common, as opposed to the personal character of war as\n    conducted by a despot = \"public,\" \"patriotic,\" \"national\" war. Al.\n    borne by the particular {polis} as member of a league, whether of\n    states united for the time being in a {summakhia}, or permanently\n    in a confederacy = a \"federal\" war.\n\n (6) \"Even if serving on a campaign in the enemy's country.\"\n\n (7) Or, \"he has to exercise the utmost vigilance.\"\n\n (8) \"With those who are 'absolutely governed,' not to say tyrannically\n    ruled.\"\n\n (9) Or, \"which the tyrant may accept in faith and go his way\n    rejoicing.\"\n\nWars doubtless there are, (10) wars waged by states and wars waged by\nautocratic monarchs against those whom they have forcibly enslaved, and\nin respect of these wars there is no hardship which any member of the\nstates at war (11) can suffer but the tyrant will feel it also. That\nis to say, both must alike be under arms, keep guard, run risks; and\nwhatever the pains of defeat may be, they are equally sustained by both.\nUp to this point there is no distinction. The \"bitters\" are equal. But\nwhen we come to estimate the \"sweets\" derivable from warfare between\nstates, (12) the parallel ceases. The tyrant, if he shared the pains\nbefore, no longer shares the pleasures now. What happens when a state\nhas gained the mastery in battle over her antagonist? It would be hard\n(I take it) to describe the joy of that occurrence: joy in the rout,\njoy in the pursuit, joy in the slaughter of their enemies; and in what\nlanguage shall I describe the exultation of these warriors at their\nfeats of arms? With what assumption they bind on their brows\nthe glittering wreath of glory; (13) with what mirth and jollity\ncongratulate themselves on having raised their city to newer heights\nof fame. Each several citizen claims to have shared in the plan of the\ncampaign, (14) and to have slain the largest number. Indeed it would\nbe hard to find where false embellishment will not creep in, (15) the\nnumber stated to be the slain exceeding that of those that actually\nperished. So truly glorious a thing it seems to them to have won a great\nvictory. (16)\n\n (10) Lit. \"and further, wars there are, waged against\n     forcibly-subjected populations whether by free states\"--e.g.\n     of Olynthus, \"Hell.\" V. ii. 23, or Athens against her\n     \"subject allies\" during the Pel. war--\"or by despotic\n     rules\"--Jason of Pherae (\"Hell.\" VI.) Al. \"wars waged by\n     free states against free states, and wars waged by tyrants\n     against enslaved peoples.\"\n\n (11) Does {o en tais polesi} = \"the citizen\"? So some commentators; or\n    (sub. {polemos}) = \"the war among states\" (see Hartman, op. cit.\n    p. 248)? in which case transl. \"all the hardships involved in\n    international war come home to the tyrant also.\" The same\n    obscurity attaches to {oi en tais polesi} below (the commonly\n    adopted emend. of the MS. {oi sunontes polesi}) = \"the citizens,\"\n    or else = \"international wars.\"\n\n (12) \"The pleasures incidental to warfare between states\"; al. \"the\n    sweets which citizens engaged in warfare as against rival states\n    can count upon.\"\n\n (13) Reading {analambanousin}, or, if after Cobet, etc.,\n    {lambanousin}, transl. \"what brilliant honour, what bright credit\n    they assume.\"\n\n (14) \"To have played his part in counsel.\" See \"Anab.\" passim, and M.\n    Taine, \"Essais de Critique,\" \"Xenophon,\" p. 128.\n\n (15) Lit. \"they do not indulge in false additions, pretending to have\n    put more enemies to death than actually fell.\"\n\n (16) Cf. \"Hipparch,\" viii. 11; \"Cyrop.\" VIII. iii. 25; \"Thuc.\" i. 49.\n\nBut the tyrant, when he forebodes, or possibly perceives in actual fact,\nsome opposition brewing, and puts the suspects (17) to the sword, knows\nhe will not thereby promote the welfare of the state collectively. The\ncold clear fact is, he will have fewer subjects to rule over. (18) How\ncan he show a cheerful countenance? (19) how magnify himself on his\nachievement? On the contrary, his desire is to lessen the proportions\nof what has taken place, as far as may be. He will apologise for what\nhe does, even in the doing of it, letting it appear that what he has\nwrought at least was innocent; (20) so little does his conduct seem\nnoble even to himself. And when those he dreaded are safely in their\ngraves, he is not one whit more confident of spirit, but still more on\nhis guard than heretofore. That is the kind of war with which the tyrant\nis beset from day to day continually, as I do prove. (21)\n\n (17) See Hold. (crit. app.); Hartman, op. cit. p. 260.\n\n (18) Cf. \"Mem.\" I. ii. 38.\n\n (19) Cf. \"Anab.\" II. vi. 11; \"Hell.\" VI. iv. 16.\n\n (20) \"Not of malice prepense.\"\n\n (21) Or, \"Such then, as I describe it, is the type of war,\" etc.\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTurn now and contemplate the sort of friendship whereof it is given to\ntyrants to partake. And first, let us examine with ourselves and see if\nfriendship is truly a great boon to mortal man.\n\nHow fares it with the man who is beloved of friends? See with what\ngladness his friends and lovers hail his advent! delight to do him\nkindness! long for him when he is absent from them! (1) and welcome him\nmost gladly on his return! (2) In any good which shall betide him they\nrejoice together; or if they see him overtaken by misfortune, they rush\nto his assistance as one man. (3)\n\n (1) Reading {an ate}, or if {an apie}, transl. \"have yearning hearts\n    when he must leave them.\"\n\n (2) See Anton Rubinstein, \"Die Musik and ihre Meister,\" p. 8, \"Some\n    Remarks on Beethoven's Sonata Op. 81.\"\n\n (3) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" I. vi. 24 for a repetition of the sentiment and\n    phraseology.\n\nNay! it has not escaped the observation of states and governments that\nfriendship is the greatest boon, the sweetest happiness which men may\ntaste. At any rate, the custom holds (4) in many states \"to slay the\nadulterer\" alone of all \"with impunity,\" (5) for this reason clearly\nthat such miscreants are held to be destroyers of that friendship (6)\nwhich binds the woman to the husband. Since where by some untoward\nchance a woman suffers violation of her chastity, (7) husbands do not\nthe less honour them, as far as that goes, provided true affection still\nappear unsullied. (8)\n\n (4) Lit. \"many of the states have a law and custom to,\" etc. Cf. \"Pol.\n    Lac.\" ii. 4.\n\n (5) Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 874 C, \"if a man find his wife suffering\n    violence he may kill the violator and be guiltless in the eye of\n    the law.\" Dem. \"in Aristocr.\" 53, {ean tis apokteine en athlois\n    akon... e epi damarti, k.t.l.... touton eneka me pheugein\n    kteinanta}.\n\n (6) See Lys. \"de caed Eratosth.\" S. 32 f., {outos, o andres, tous\n    biazomenous elattonos zemias axious egesato einai e tous\n    peithontas. ton men gar thanaton kategno, tois de diplen epoiese\n    ten blaben, egoumenos tous men diaprattomenous bia upo ton\n    biasthenton miseisthai, tous de peisantas outos aution tas psukhas\n    diaphtheirein ost' oikeioteras autois poiein tas allotrias\n    gunaikas e tois andrasi kai pasan ep' ekeinois ten oikian\n    gegonenai kai tous paidas adelous einai opoteron tugkhanousin\n    ontes, ton andron e ton moikhon. anth' on o ton nomon titheis\n    thanaton autois epoiese ten zemian}. Cf. \"Cyrop.\" III. i. 39;\n    \"Symp.\" viii. 20; Plut. \"Sol.\" xxiii., {olos de pleisten ekhein\n    atopian oi peri ton gunaikon nomoi to Soloni dokousi. moikhon men\n    gar anelein tio labonti dedoken, ean d' arpase tis eleutheran\n    gunaika kai biasetai zemian ekaton drakhmas etaxe' kan proagogeue\n    drakhmas aikosi, plen osai pephasmenos polountai, legon de tas\n    etairas. autai gar emphanos phoitosi pros tous didontas}, \"Solon's\n    laws in general about women are his strangest, for he permitted\n    any one to kill an adulterer that found him in the act; but if any\n    one forced a free woman, a hundred drachmas was the fine; if he\n    enticed her, twenty;--except those that sell themselves openly,\n    that is, harlots, who go openly to those that hire them\" (Clough,\n    i. p. 190).\n\n (7) Or, \"fall a victim to passion through some calamity,\" \"commit a\n    breach of chastity.\" Cf. Aristot. \"H. A.\" VII. i. 9.\n\n (8) Or, \"if true affection still retain its virgin purity.\" As to this\n    extraordinary passage, see Hartman, op. cit. p. 242 foll.\n\nSo sovereign a good do I, for my part, esteem it to be loved, that I do\nverily believe spontaneous blessings are outpoured from gods and men on\none so favoured.\n\nThis is that choice possession which, beyond all others, the monarch is\ndeprived of.\n\nBut if you require further evidence that what I say is true, look at the\nmatter thus: No friendship, I presume, is sounder than that which binds\nparents to their children and children to their parents, brothers and\nsisters to each other, (9) wives to husbands, comrade to comrade.\n\n (9) Or, \"brothers to brothers.\"\n\nIf, then, you will but thoughtfully consider it, you will discover it is\nthe ordinary person who is chiefly blest in these relations. (10) While\nof tyrants, many have been murderers of their own children, many by\ntheir children murdered. Many brothers have been murderers of one\nanother in contest for the crown; (11) many a monarch has been done to\ndeath by the wife of his bosom, (12) or even by his own familiar friend,\nby him of whose affection he was proudest. (13)\n\n (10) Or, \"that these more obvious affections are the sanctities of\n    private life.\"\n\n (11) Or, \"have caught at the throats of brothers\"; lit. \"been slain\n    with mutually-murderous hand.\" Cf. Pind. Fr. 137; Aesch. \"Sept. c.\n    Theb.\" 931; \"Ag.\" 1575, concerning Eteocles and Polynices.\n\n (12) See Grote, \"H. G.\" xi. 288, xii. 6; \"Hell.\" VI. iv. 36; Isocr.\n    \"On the Peace,\" 182; Plut. \"Dem. Pol.\" iii. (Clough, v. p. 98);\n    Tac. \"Hist.\" v. 8, about the family feuds of the kings of Judaea.\n\n (13) \"It was his own familiar friend who dealt the blow, the nearest\n    and dearest to his heart.\"\n\nHow can you suppose, then, that being so hated by those whom nature\npredisposes and law compels to love him, the tyrant should be loved by\nany living soul beside?\n\n\n\nIV\n\nAgain, without some moiety of faith and trust, (1) how can a man not\nfeel to be defrauded of a mighty blessing? One may well ask: What\nfellowship, what converse, what society would be agreeable without\nconfidence? What intercourse between man and wife be sweet apart\nfrom trustfulness? How should the \"faithful esquire\" whose faith is\nmistrusted still be lief and dear? (2)\n\n (1) \"How can he, whose faith's discredited, the moral bankrupt...\"\n\n (2) Or, \"the trusty knight and serving-man.\" Cf. \"Morte d'Arthur,\"\n    xxi. 5, King Arthur and Sir Bedivere.\n\nWell, then, of this frank confidence in others the tyrant has the\nscantiest share. (3) Seeing his life is such, he cannot even trust\nhis meats and drinks, but he must bid his serving-men before the feast\nbegins, or ever the libation to the gods is poured, (4) to taste the\nviands, out of sheer mistrust there may be mischief lurking in the cup\nor platter. (5)\n\n (3) Or, \"from this... is almost absolutely debarred.\"\n\n (4) \"Or ever grace is said.\"\n\n (5) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" I. iii. 4.\n\nOnce more, the rest of mankind find in their fatherland a treasure worth\nall else beside. The citizens form their own body-guard (6) without pay\nor service-money against slaves and against evil-doers. It is theirs\nto see that none of themselves, no citizen, shall perish by a violent\ndeath. And they have advanced so far along the path of guardianship (7)\nthat in many cases they have framed a law to the effect that \"not the\nassociate even of one who is blood-guilty shall be accounted pure.\" So\nthat, by reason of their fatherland, (8) each several citizen can live\nat quiet and secure.\n\n (6) \"Are their own 'satellites,' spear-bearers.\" Cf. Thuc. i. 130;\n    Herod. ii. 168; vii. 127.\n\n (7) \"Pushed so far the principle of mutual self-aid.\"\n\n (8) \"Thanks to the blessing of a fatherland each citizen may spend his\n    days in peace and safety.\"\n\nBut for the tyrant it is again exactly the reverse. (9) Instead of\naiding or avenging their despotic lord, cities bestow large honours\non the slayer of a tyrant; ay, and in lieu of excommunicating the\ntyrannicide from sacred shrines, (10) as is the case with murderers of\nprivate citizens, they set up statues of the doers of such deeds (11) in\ntemples.\n\n (9) \"Matters are once more reversed precisely,\" \"it is all\n     'topsy-turvy.'\"\n\n (10) \"And sacrifices.\" Cf. Dem. \"c. Lept.\" 137, {en toinun tois peri\n    touton nomois o Drakon... katharon diorisen einai}. \"Now in the\n    laws upon this subject, Draco, although he strove to make it\n    fearful and dreadful for a man to slay another, and ordained that\n    the homicide should be excluded from lustrations, cups, and\n    drink-offerings, from the temples and the market-place, specifying\n    everything by which he thought most effectually to restrain people\n    from such a practice, still did not abolish the rule of justice,\n    but laid down the cases in which it should be lawful to kill, and\n    declared that the killer under such circumstances should be deemed\n    pure\" (C. R. Kennedy).\n\n (11) e.g. Harmodius and Aristogeiton. See Dem. loc. cit. 138: \"The\n    same rewards that you gave to Harmodius and Aristogiton,\"\n    concerning whom Simonides himself wrote a votive couplet:\n\n        {'E meg' 'Athenaioisi phoos geneth' enik' 'Aristogeiton\n        'Ipparkhon kteine kai 'Armodios.}\n\nBut if you imagine that the tyrant, because he has more possessions than\nthe private person, does for that reason derive greater pleasure from\nthem, this is not so either, Simonides, but it is with tyrants as with\nathletes. Just as the athlete feels no glow of satisfaction in asserting\nhis superiority over amateurs, (12) but annoyance rather when he\nsustains defeat at the hands of any real antagonist; so, too, the tyrant\nfinds little consolation in the fact (13) that he is evidently richer\nthan the private citizen. What he feels is pain, when he reflects that\nhe has less himself than other monarchs. These he holds to be his true\nantagonists; these are his rivals in the race for wealth.\n\n (12) Or, \"It gives no pleasure to the athlete to win victories over\n    amateurs.\" See \"Mem.\" III. viii. 7.\n\n (13) Or, \"each time it is brought home to him that,\" etc.\n\nNor does the tyrant attain the object of his heart's desire more quickly\nthan do humbler mortals theirs. For consider, what are their objects of\nambition? The private citizen has set his heart, it may be, on a house,\na farm, a servant. The tyrant hankers after cities, or wide territory,\nor harbours, or formidable citadels, things far more troublesome and\nmore perilous to achieve than are the pettier ambitions of lesser men.\n\nAnd hence it is, moreover, that you will find but few (14) private\npersons paupers by comparison with the large number of tyrants who\ndeserve the title; (15) since the criterion of enough, or too much,\nis not fixed by mere arithmetic, but relatively to the needs of the\nindividual. (16) In other words, whatever exceeds sufficiency is much,\nand what falls short of that is little. (17)\n\n (14) Reading as vulg. {alla mentoi kai penetas opsei oukh outos\n    oligous ton idioton os pollous ton turannon}. Lit. \"however that\n    may be, you will see not so few private persons in a state of\n    penury as many despots.\" Breitenbach del. {oukh}, and transl.,\n    \"Daher weist du auch in dem Masse wenige Arme unter den\n    Privat-leuten finden, als viele unter den Tyrannen.\" Stob.,\n    {penetas opsei oligous ton idioton, pollous de ton\n    turannon}. Stob. MS. Par., {alla mentoi kai plousious opsei\n    oukh outos oligous ton idioton os penetas pollous ton\n    turannon}. See Holden ad loc. and crit. n.\n\n (15) Cf. \"Mem.\" IV. ii. 37.\n\n (16) Or, \"not by the number of things we have, but in reference to the\n    use we make of them.\" Cf. \"Anab.\" VII. vii. 36.\n\n (17) Dr. Holden aptly cf. Addison, \"The Spectator,\" No. 574, on the\n    text \"Non possidentem multa vocaveris recte beatum...\"\n\nAnd on this principle the tyrant, with his multiplicity of goods, is\nless well provided to meet necessary expenses than the private person;\nsince the latter can always cut down his expenditure to suit his daily\nneeds in any way he chooses; but the tyrant cannot do so, seeing that\nthe largest expenses of a monarch are also the most necessary, being\ndevoted to various methods of safeguarding his life, and to cut down any\nof them would be little less than suicidal. (18)\n\n (18) Or, \"and to curtail these would seem to be self-slaughter.\"\n\nOr, to put it differently, why should any one expend compassion on a\nman, as if he were a beggar, who has it in his power to satisfy by\njust and honest means his every need? (19) Surely it would be more\nappropriate to call that man a wretched starveling beggar rather,\nwho through lack of means is driven to live by ugly shifts and base\ncontrivances.\n\n (19) i.e. \"to expend compassion on a man who, etc., were surely a\n    pathetic fallacy.\" Al. \"Is not the man who has it in his power,\n    etc., far above being pitied?\"\n\nNow it is your tyrant who is perpetually driven to iniquitous spoilation\nof temples and human beings, through chronic need of money wherewith to\nmeet inevitable expenses, since he is forced to feed and support an army\n(even in times of peace) no less than if there were actual war, or else\nhe signs his own death-warrant. (20)\n\n (20) \"A daily, hourly constraint is laid upon him to support an army\n    as in war time, or--write his epitaph!\"\n\n\n\nV\n\nBut there is yet another sore affliction to which the tyrant is liable,\nSinmonides, which I will name to you. It is this. Tyrants no less than\nordinary mortals can distinguish merit. The orderly, (1) the wise, the\njust and upright, they freely recognise; but instead of admiring them,\nthey are afraid of them--the courageous, lest they should venture\nsomething for the sake of freedom; the wise, lest they invent some\nsubtle mischief; (2) the just and upright, lest the multitude should\ntake a fancy to be led by them.\n\n (1) The same epithets occur in Aristoph. \"Plut.\" 89:\n\n        {ego gar on meirakion epeiles' oti\n        os tous dikaious kai sophous kai kosmious\n        monous badioimen.}\n\n    Stob. gives for {kasmious} {alkimous}.\n\n (2) Or, \"for fear of machinations.\" But the word is suggestive of\n    mechanical inventions also, like those of Archimedes in connection\n    with a later Hiero (see Plut. \"Marcel.\" xv. foll.); or of\n    Lionardo, or of Michael Angelo (Symonds, \"Renaissance in Italy,\"\n    \"The Fine Arts,\" pp. 315, 393).\n\nAnd when he has secretly and silently made away with all such people\nthrough terror, whom has he to fall back upon to be of use to him, save\nonly the unjust, the incontinent, and the slavish-natured? (3) Of these,\nthe unjust can be trusted as sharing the tyrant's terror lest the cities\nshould some day win their freedom and lay strong hands upon them;\nthe incontinent, as satisfied with momentary license; and the\nslavish-natured, for the simple reason that they have not themselves the\nslightest aspiration after freedom. (4)\n\n (3) Or, \"the dishonest, the lascivious, and the servile.\"\n\n (4) \"They have no aspiration even to be free,\" \"they are content to\n    wallow in the slough of despond.\" The {adikoi} (unjust) correspond\n    to the {dikaioi} (just), {akrateis} (incontinent) to the {sophoi}\n    (wise) (Breit. cf. \"Mem.\" III. ix. 4, {sophian de kai sophrosunen\n    ou diorizen}), {andrapododeis} (servile) to the {kasmioi},\n    {andreioi} (orderly, courageous).\n\nThis, then, I say, appears to me a sore affliction, that we should look\nupon the one set as good men, and yet be forced to lean upon the other.\n\nAnd further, even a tyrant cannot but be something of a patriot--a\nlover of that state, without which he can neither hope for safety nor\nprosperity. On the other hand, his tyrrany, the exigencies of despotic\nrule, compel him to incriminate his fatherland. (5) To train his\ncitizens to soldiery, to render them brave warriors, and well armed,\nconfers no pleasure on him; rather he will take delight to make his\nforeigners more formidable than those to whom the state belongs, and\nthese foreigners he will depend on as his body-guard.\n\n (5) Or, \"depreciate the land which gave him birth.\" Holden cf.\n    \"Cyrop.\" VII. ii. 22. See Sturz, s.v.\n\nNay more, not even in the years of plenty, (6) when abundance of all\nblessings reigns, not even then may the tyrant's heart rejoice amid the\ngeneral joy, for the greater the indigence of the community the humbler\nhe will find them: that is his theory.\n\n (6) \"In good seasons,\" \"seasons of prosperity.\" Cf. Aristot. \"Pol.\" v.\n    6. 17.\n\n\n\nVI\n\nHe continued: I desire to make known to you, Simonides, (1) those divers\npleasures which were mine whilst I was still a private citizen, but\nof which to-day, nay, from the moment I became a tyrant, I find myself\ndeprived. In those days I consorted with my friends and fellows, to our\nmutual delectation; (2) or, if I craved for quietude, (3) I chose myself\nfor my companion. Gaily the hours flitted at our drinking-parties,\nofttimes till we had drowned such cares and troubles as are common to\nthe life of man in Lethe's bowl; (4) or ofttimes till we had steeped\nour souls in song and dance (5) and revelry; ofttimes till the flame of\npassion kindled in the breasts of my companions and my own. (6) But now,\nwelladay, I am deprived of those who took delight in me, because I\nhave slaves instead of friends as my companions; I am robbed of my\nonce delightful intercourse with them, because I discern no vestige\nof goodwill towards me in their looks. And as to the wine-cup and\nslumber--these I guard against, even as a man might guard against an\nambuscade. Think only! to dread a crowd, to dread solitude, to dread the\nabsence of a guard, to dread the very guards that guard, to shrink from\nhaving those about one's self unarmed, and yet to hate the sight of\narmed attendants. Can you conceive a more troublesome circumstance? (7)\nBut that is not all. To place more confidence in foreigners than in your\nfellow-citizens, nay, in barbarians than in Hellenes, to be consumed\nwith a desire to keep freemen slaves and yet to be driven, will he\nnill he, to make slaves free, are not all these the symptoms of a mind\ndistracted and amazed with terror?\n\n (1) Or, \"I wish I could disclose to you (he added) those heart-easing\n    joys.\" For {euphrosunas} cf. \"Od.\" vi. 156; Aesch. \"P. V.\" 540;\n    Eur. \"Bacch.\" 376. A favourite word with our author; see \"Ages.\"\n    ix. 4; \"Cyrop.\" passim; \"Mem.\" III. viii. 10; \"Econ.\" ix. 12.\n\n (2) Lit. \"delighting I in them and they in me.\"\n\n (3) Or, \"when I sought tranquility I was my own companion.\"\n\n (4) Or, \"in sheer forgetfulness.\"\n\n (5) Or, \"absorbed our souls in song and festal cheer and dance.\" Cf.\n    \"Od.\" viii. 248, 249, {aiei d' emin dais te phile kitharis te\n    khoroi te} | {eimata t' exemoiba loetra te therma kau eunai}, \"and\n    dear to us ever is the banquet and the harp and the dance, and\n    changes of raiment, and the warm bath, and love and sleep\"\n    (Butcher and Lang).\n\n (6) Reading as vulg. {epithumias}. Breit. cf. \"Mem.\" III. ix. 7; Plat.\n    \"Phaed.\" 116 E, \"he has eaten and drunk and enjoyed the society of\n    his beloved\" (Jowett). See \"Symp.\" the finale; or if, after Weiske\n    and Cobet, {euthumias}, transl. \"to the general hilarity of myself\n    and the whole company\" (cf. \"Cyrop.\" I. iii. 12, IV. v. 7), but\n    this is surely a bathos rhetorically.\n\n (7) Or, \"a worse perplexity.\" See \"Hell.\" VII. iii. 8.\n\nFor terror, you know, not only is a source of pain indwelling in the\nbreast itself, but, ever in close attendance, shadowing the path, (8)\nbecomes the destroyer of all sweet joys.\n\n (8) Reading {sumparakolouthon lumeon}. Stob. gives {sumparomarton\n    lumanter}. For the sentiment cf. \"Cyrop.\" III. i. 25.\n\nAnd if you know anything of war, Simonides, and war's alarms; if it was\nyour fortune ever to be posted close to the enemy's lines, (9) try to\nrecall to mind what sort of meals you made at those times, with what\nsort of slumber you courted rest. Be assured, there are no pains you\nthen experienced, no horrors to compare with those that crowd upon the\ndespot, who sees or seems to see fierce eyes of enemies glare at him,\nnot face to face alone, but from every side.\n\n (9) Or, \"in the van of battle, opposite the hostile lines.\"\n\nHe had spoken so far, when Simonides took up the thread of the\ndiscourse, replying: Excellently put. A part I must admit, of what you\nsay; since war is terrible. Yet, Hiero, you forget. When we, at any\nrate, are out campaigning, we have a custom; we place sentinels at the\noutposts, and when the watch is set, we take our suppers and turn in\nundauntedly.\n\nAnd Hiero answered: Yes, I can well believe you, for the laws are the\ntrue outposts, (10) who guard the sentinels, keeping their fears alive\nboth for themselves and in behalf of you. Whereas the tyrant hires his\nguards for pay like harvest labourers. (11) Now of all functions, all\nabilities, none, I presume, is more required of a guard than that of\nfaithfulness; and yet one faithful man is a commodity more hard to find\nthan scores of workmen for any sort of work you like to name; (12) and\nthe more so, when the guards in question are not forthcoming except for\nmoney's sake; (13) and when they have it in their power to get far more\nin far less time by murdering the despot than they can hope to earn by\nlengthened service in protecting him.\n\n (10) Or, \"beyond the sentinels themselves is set the outpost of the\n    laws, who watch the watch.\"\n\n (11) Or, \"ten-day labourers in harvest-time.\"\n\n (12) Or, \"but to discover one single faithful man is far more\n    difficult than scores of labourers in any field of work you\n    please.\"\n\n (13) Or, \"are merely hirelings for filthy lucre's sake.\"\n\nAnd as to that which roused your envy--our ability, as you call it, to\nbenefit our friends most largely, and beyond all else, to triumph over\nour foes--here, again, matters are not as you suppose.\n\nHow, for instance, can you hope to benefit your friends, when you may\nrest assured the very friend whom you have made most your debtor will be\nthe happiest to quit your sight as fast as may be? since nobody believes\nthat anything a tyrant gives him is indeed his own, until he is well\nbeyond the donor's jurisdiction.\n\nSo much for friends, and as to enemies conversely. How can you say \"most\npower of triumphing over our enemies,\" when every tyrant knows full well\nthey are all his enemies, every man of them, who are despotically ruled\nby him? And to put the whole of them to death or to imprison them is\nhardly possible; or who will be his subjects presently? Not so, but\nknowing they are his enemies, he must perform this dexterous feat: (14)\nhe must keep them at arm's length, and yet be compelled to lean upon\nthem.\n\n (14) Lit. \"he must at one and the same moment guard against them, and\n    yet be driven also to depend upon them.\"\n\nBut be assured, Simonides, that when a tyrant fears any of his citizens,\nhe is in a strait; it is ill work to see them living and ill work to put\nthem to the death. Just as might happen with a horse; a noble beast, but\nthere is that in him makes one fear he will do some mischief presently\npast curing. (15) His very virtue makes it hard to kill the creature,\nand yet to turn him to account alive is also hard; so careful must one\nbe, he does not choose the thick of danger to work irreparable harm. And\nthis, further, doubtless holds of all goods and chattels, which are at\nonce a trouble and a benefit. If painful to their owners to possess,\nthey are none the less a source of pain to part with.\n\n (15) Lit. \"good but fearful (i.e. he makes one fear), he will some day\n    do some desperate mischief.\"\n\n\n\nVII\n\nNow when he had heard these reasonings, Simonides replied: O Hiero,\nthere is a potent force, it would appear, the name of which is honour,\nso attractive that human beings strain to grasp it, (1) and in the\neffort they will undergo all pains, endure all perils. It would further\nseem that even you, you tyrants, in spite of all that sea of trouble\nwhich a tyranny involves, rush headlong in pursuit of it. You must be\nhonoured. All the world shall be your ministers; they shall carry out\nyour every injunction with unhesitating zeal. (2) You shall be the\ncynosure of neighbouring eyes; men shall rise from their seats at your\napproach; they shall step aside to yield you passage in the streets. (3)\nAll present shall at all times magnify you, (4) and shall pay homage to\nyou both with words and deeds. Those, I take it, are ever the kind of\nthings which subjects do to please the monarch, (5) and thus they treat\neach hero of the moment, whom they strive to honour. (6)\n\n (1) Lit. \"that human beings will abide all risks and undergo all pains\n    to clutch the bait.\"\n\n (2) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" II. iii. 8; VIII. i. 29.\n\n (3) Cf. \"Mem.\" II. iii. 16; \"Cyrop.\" VII. v. 20.\n\n (4) {gerairosi}, poetic. Cf. \"Cyrop.\" VIII. i. 39; \"Hell.\" I. vii. 33;\n    \"Econ.\" iv. 8; \"Herod.\" v. 67; Pind. \"O.\" iii. 3, v. 11; \"N.\" v.\n    15; \"Od.\" xiv. 437, 441; \"Il.\" vii. 321; Plat. \"Rep.\" 468 D,\n    quoting \"Il.\" vii. 321.\n\n (5) Reading {tois turannois}, or if {tous turannous}, after Cobet,\n    \"That is how they treat crowned heads.\"\n\n (6) Cf. Tennyson, \"Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington\":\n\n        With honour, honour, honour to him,\n        Eternal honour to his name.\n\nYes, Hiero, and herein precisely lies the difference between a man and\nother animals, in this outstretching after honour. (7) Since, it would\nseem, all living creatures alike take pleasure in meats and drinks, in\nsleep and sexual joys. Only the love of honour is implanted neither in\nunreasoning brutes (8) nor universally in man. But they in whose hearts\nthe passion for honour and fair fame has fallen like a seed, these\nunmistakably (9) are separated most widely from the brutes. These may\nclaim to be called men, (10) not human beings merely. So that, in my\npoor judgment, it is but reasonable you should submit to bear the pains\nand penalties of royalty, since you are honoured far beyond all other\nmortal men. And indeed no pleasure known to man would seem to be nearer\nthat of gods than the delight (11) which centres in proud attributes.\n\n (7) Or, \"in this strong aspiration after honour.\" Holden aptly cf.\n    \"Spectator,\" No. 467: \"The love of praise is a passion deeply\n    fixed in the mind of every extraordinary person; and those who are\n    most affected with it seem most to partake of that particle of the\n    divinity which distinguishes mankind from the inferior creation.\"\n\n (8) {alogous}, i.e. \"without speech and reason\"; cf. modern Greek {o\n    alogos} = the horse (sc. the animal par excellence). See\n    \"Horsemanship,\" viii. 14.\n\n (9) {ede}, \"ipso facto.\"\n\n (10) See \"Anab.\" I. vii. 4; Frotscher ap. Breit. cf. Cic. \"ad Fam.\" v.\n    17. 5, \"ut et hominem te et virum esse meminisses.\"\n\n (11) Or, \"joyance.\"\n\nTo these arguments Hiero replied: Nay, but, Simonides, the honours and\nproud attributes bestowed on tyrants have much in common with their\nlove-makings, as I described them. Like honours like loves, the pair are\nof a piece.\n\nFor just as the ministrations won from loveless hearts (12) are felt to\nbe devoid of grace, and embraces forcibly procured are sweet no longer,\nso the obsequious cringings of alarm are hardly honours. Since how shall\nwe assert that people who are forced to rise from their seats do really\nrise to honour those whom they regard as malefactors? or that these\nothers who step aside to let their betters pass them in the street,\ndesire thus to show respect to miscreants? (13) And as to gifts, it is\nnotorious, people commonly bestow them largely upon those they hate, and\nthat too when their fears are gravest, hoping to avert impending evil.\nNay, these are nothing more nor less than acts of slavery, and they may\nfairly be set down as such.\n\n (12) Or, \"the compliance of cold lips where love is not reciprocated\n    is...\"\n\n (13) Or, \"to rank injustice.\"\n\nBut honours have a very different origin, (14) as different to my\nmind as are the sentiments to which they give expression. See how, for\ninstance, men of common mould will single out a man, who is a man, (15)\nthey feel, and competent to be their benefactor; one from whom they hope\nto reap rich blessings. His name lives upon their lips in praise. As\nthey gaze at him, each one among them sees in him a private treasure.\nSpontaneously they yield him passage in the streets. They rise from\ntheir seats to do him honour, out of love not fear; they crown him for\nhis public (16) virtue's sake and benefactions. They shower gifts upon\nhim of their own free choice. These same are they who, if my definition\nholds, may well be said to render honour to their hero by such service,\nwhilst he that is held worthy of these services is truly honoured. And\nfor my part I can but offer my congratulations to him. \"God bless him,\"\nsay I, perceiving that so far from being the butt of foul conspiracy, he\nis an object of anxiety to all, lest evil should betide him; and so he\npursues the even tenour of his days in happiness exempt from fears\nand jealousy (17) and risk. But the current of the tyrant's life runs\ndifferently. Day and night, I do assure you, Simonides, he lives like\none condemned by the general verdict of mankind to die for his iniquity.\n\n (14) Lit. \"Honours would seem to be the outcome and expression of\n    conditions utterly remote from these, in fact their very\n    opposites.\"\n\n (15) Cf. Napoleon's accost of Goethe, \"Vous etes un homme,\" and \"as\n    Goethe left the room, Napoleon repeated to Berthier and Daru,\n    'Voila un homme!'\" (\"The Life of Goethe,\" Lewes, p. 500).\n\n (16) Reading {koines}, which ought to mean \"common to them and him\";\n    if with Cobet {koine}, \"in public crown him for his virtue's sake,\n    a benefactor.\"\n\n (17) Or, \"without reproach.\"\n\nNow when Simonides had listened to these reasonings to the end, (18)\nhe answered: How is it, Hiero, if to play the tyrant is a thing so\nvillainous, (19) and that is your final judgment, how comes it you are\nnot quit of so monstrous an evil? Neither you, nor, for that matter, any\nmonarch else I ever heard of, having once possessed the power, did ever\nof his own free will divest himself of sovereignty. How is that, Hiero?\n\n (18) Cf. \"Econ.\" xi. 1.\n\n (19) Or, \"if to monarchise and play the despot.\"\n\nFor one simple reason (the tyrant answered), and herein lies the supreme\nmisery of despotic power; it is not possible even to be quit of it. (20)\nHow could the life of any single tyrant suffice to square the account?\nHow should he pay in full to the last farthing all the moneys of all\nwhom he has robbed? with what chains laid upon him make requital to all\nthose he has thrust into felons' quarters? (21) how proffer lives enough\nto die in compensation of the dead men he has slain? how die a thousand\ndeaths?\n\n (20) Holden aptly cf. Plut. \"Sol.\" 14, {kalon men einai ten torannida\n    khorion, ouk ekhein de apobasin}, \"it was true a tyrrany was a\n    very fair spot, but it had no way down from it\" (Clough, i. p.\n    181).\n\n (21) Or, \"how undergo in his own person the imprisonments he has\n    inflicted?\" Reading {antipaskhoi}, or if {antiparaskhoi}, transl.\n    \"how could he replace in his own person the exact number of\n    imprisonments which he has inflicted on others?\"\n\nAh, no! Simonides (he added), if to hang one's self outright be ever\ngainful to pour mortal soul, then, take my word for it, that is the\ntyrant's remedy: there's none better suited (22) to his case, since he\nalone of all men is in this dilemma, that neither to keep nor lay aside\nhis troubles profits him.\n\n (22) Or, \"nought more profitable to meet the case.\" The author plays\n    on {lusitelei} according to his wont.\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nHere Simonides took up the thread of the discourse (1) as follows: That\nfor the moment, Hiero, you should be out of heart regarding tyranny (2)\nI do not wonder, since you have a strong desire to be loved by human\nbeings, and you are persuaded that it is your office which balks the\nrealisation of your dream.\n\n (1) Al. \"took up the speaker thus.\"\n\n (2) \"In reference to despotic rule.\"\n\nNow, however, I am no less certain I can prove to you that government\n(3) implies no obstacle to being loved, but rather holds the advantage\nover private life so far. And whilst investigating if this be really so,\nlet us not embarrass the inquiry by asking whether in proportion to his\ngreater power the ruler is able to do kindness on a grander scale. But\nput it thus: Two human beings, the one in humble circumstances, (4) the\nother a despotic ruler, perform a common act; which of these twain will,\nunder like conditions, (5) win the larger thanks? I will begin with\nthe most trifling (6) examples; and first a simple friendly salutation,\n\"Good day,\" \"Good evening,\" dropped at sight of some one from the\nlips of here a ruler, there a private citizen. In such a case, whose\nsalutation will sound the pleasanter to him accosted?\n\n (3) {to arkhein}. Cf. \"Cyrop.\" passim.\n\n (4) \"A private person.\"\n\n (5) Lit. \"by like expenditure of power.\"\n\n (6) {arkhomai soi}. Lit. \"I'll begin you with quite commonplace\n    examples.\" Holden cf. Shakesp. \"Merry Wives,\" i. 4. 97, \"I'll do\n    you your master what good I can\"; \"Much Ado,\" ii. 3. 115, \"She\n    will sit you.\" For the distinction between {paradeigmaton} =\n    examples and {upodeigmata} = suggestions see \"Horsem.\" ii. 2.\n\nOr again, (7) let us suppose that both should have occasion to pronounce\na panegyric. Whose compliments will carry farther, in the way of\ndelectation, think you? Or on occasion of a solemn sacrifice, suppose\nthey do a friend the honour of an invitation. (8) In either case it is\nan honour, but which will be regarded with the greater gratitude, the\nmonarch's or the lesser man's?\n\n (7) \"Come now.\"\n\n (8) Cf. \"Mem.\" II. iii. 11 as to \"sacrifices as a means of social\n    enjoyment.\" Dr. Holden cf. Aristot. \"Nic. Eth.\" VIII. ix. 160,\n    \"And hence it is that these clan communities and hundreds solemnise\n    sacrifices, in connection with which they hold large gatherings,\n    and thereby not only pay honour to the gods, but also provide for\n    themselves holiday and amusement\" (R. Williams). Thuc. ii. 38,\n    \"And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many\n    relaxations from toil; we have regular games and sacrifices\n    throughout the year\" (Jowett). Plut. \"Them.\" v., {kai gar\n    philothuten onta kai lampron en tais peri tous xenous dapanais\n   ...} \"For loving to sacrifice often, and to be splendid in his\n    entertainment of strangers, he required a plentiful revenue\"\n    (Clough, i. 236). To which add Theophr. \"Char.\" xv. 2, \"The\n    Shameless Man\": {eita thusas tois theois autos men deipnein par'\n    etero, ta de krea apotithenai alsi pasas, k.t.l.}, \"then when he\n    has been sacrificing to the gods, he will put away the salted\n    remains, and will himself dine out\" (Jebb).\n\nOr let a sick man be attended with a like solicitude by both. It is\nplain, the kind attentions of the mighty potentate (9) arouse in the\npatient's heart immense delight. (10)\n\n (9) \"Their mightinesses,\" or as we might say, \"their serene\n    highnesses.\" Cf. Thuc. ii. 65.\n\n (10) \"The greatest jubilance.\"\n\nOr say, they are the givers of two gifts which shall be like in all\nrespects. It is plain enough in this case also that \"the gracious\nfavour\" of his royal highness, even if halved, would more than\ncounterbalance the whole value of the commoner's \"donation.\" (11)\n\n (11) Or, \"half the great man's 'bounty' more than outweighs the small\n    man's present.\" For {dorema} cf. Aristot. \"N. E.\" I. ix. 2,\n    \"happiness... a free gift of God to men.\"\n\nNay, as it seems to me, an honour from the gods, a grace divine, is shed\nabout the path of him the hero-ruler. (12) Not only does command itself\nennoble manhood, but we gaze on him with other eyes and find the fair\nwithin him yet more fair who is to-day a prince and was but yesterday a\nprivate citizen. (13) Again, it is a prouder satisfaction doubtless\nto hold debate with those who are preferred to us in honour than with\npeople on an equal footing with ourselves.\n\n (12) Lit. \"attends the footsteps of the princely ruler.\" Cf. \"Cyrop.\"\n    II. i. 23, Plat. \"Laws,\" 667 B, for a similar metaphorical use of\n    the word.\n\n (13) {to arkhein}, \"his princely power makes him more noble as a man,\n    and we behold him fairer exercising rule than when he functioned\n    as a common citizen.\" Reading {kallio}, or if {edion}, transl. \"we\n    feast our eyes more greedily upon him.\"\n\nWhy, the minion (with regard to whom you had the gravest fault to find\nwith tyranny), the favourite of a ruler, is least apt to quarrel (14)\nwith gray hairs: the very blemishes of one who is a prince soon cease to\nbe discounted in their intercourse. (15)\n\n (14) Lit. \"feels least disgust at age\"; i.e. his patron's years and\n    wrinkles.\n\n (15) Cf. Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 231 B.\n\nThe fact is, to have reached the zenith of distinction in itself lends\nornament, (16) nay, a lustre effacing what is harsh and featureless and\nrude, and making true beauty yet more splendid.\n\n (16) Or, \"The mere prestige of highest worship helps to adorn.\" See\n    Aristot. \"N. E.\" xi. 17. As to {auto to tetimesthai m. s.} I think\n    it is the {arkhon} who is honoured by the rest of men, which\n    {time} helps to adorn him. Others seem to think it is the\n    {paidika} who is honoured by the {arkhon}. If so, transl.: \"The\n    mere distinction, the privilege alone of being highly honoured,\n    lends embellishment,\" etc.\n\nSince then, by aid of equal ministrations, you are privileged to win not\nequal but far deeper gratitude: it would seem to follow, considering\nthe vastly wider sphere of helpfulness which lies before you as\nadministrators, and the far grander scale of your largesses, I say it\nnaturally pertains to you to find yourselves much more beloved than\nordinary mortals; or if not, why not?\n\nHiero took up the challenge and without demur made answer: For this good\nreason, best of poets, necessity constrains us, far more than ordinary\npeople, to be busybodies. We are forced to meddle with concerns which\nare the very fount and springhead of half the hatreds of mankind.\n\nWe have moneys to exact if we would meet our necessary expenses. Guards\nmust be impressed and sentinels posted wherever there is need of watch\nand ward. We have to chastise evil-doers; we must put a stop to those\nwho would wax insolent. (17) And when the season for swift action comes,\nand it is imperative to expedite a force by land or sea, at such a\ncrisis it will not do for us to entrust the affair to easy-goers.\n\n (17) Or, \"curb the over-proud in sap and blood.\"\n\nFurther than that, the man who is a tyrant must have mercenaries, and of\nall the burdens which the citizens are called upon to bear there is none\nmore onerous than this, since nothing will induce them to believe these\npeople are supported by the tyrant to add to his and their prestige,\n(18) but rather for the sake of his own selfishness and greed.\n\n (18) Reading with Breit. {eis timas}, or if the vulg. {isotimous},\n    transl. \"as equal merely to themselves in privilege\"; or if with\n    Schenkl (and Holden, ed. 3) {isotimias}, transl. \"their firm\n    persuasion is these hirelings are not supported by the tyrant in\n    the interests of equality but of undue influence.\"\n\n\n\nIX\n\nTo these arguments Simonides in turn made answer: Nay, Hiero, I am far\nfrom stating that you have not all these divers matters to attend to.\nThey are serious duties, (1) I admit. But still, what strikes me is,\nif half these grave responsibilities do lend themselves undoubtedly to\nhatred, (2) the remaining half are altogether gratifying. Thus, to teach\nothers (3) arts of highest virtue, and to praise and honour each\nmost fair performance of the same, that is a type of duty not to be\ndischarged save graciously. Whilst, on the other hand, to scold at\npeople guilty of remissness, to drive and fine and chasten, these are\nproceedings doubtless which go hand in hand with hate and bitterness.\n\n (1) Cf. \"Econ.\" vii. 41.\n\n (2) Or, \"tend indisputably to enmity.\"\n\n (3) Or, \"people,\" \"the learner.\"\n\nWhat I would say then to the hero-ruler is: Wherever force is needed,\nthe duty of inflicting chastisement should be assigned to others, but\nthe distribution of rewards and prizes must be kept in his own hands.\n(4)\n\n (4) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" VIII. ii. 27; ib. i. 18; \"Hipparch,\" i. 26.\n\nCommon experience attests the excellence of such a system. (5) Thus when\nwe (6) wish to set on foot a competition between choruses, (7) it is the\nfunction of the archon (8) to offer prizes, whilst to the choregoi (9)\nis assigned the duty of assembling the members of the band; (10) and\nto others (11) that of teaching and applying force to those who come\nbehindhand in their duties. There, then, you have the principle at once:\nThe gracious and agreeable devolves on him who rules, the archon; the\nrepellent counterpart (12) on others. What is there to prevent the\napplication of the principle to matters politic in general? (13)\n\n (5) Or, \"current incidents bear witness to the beauty of the\n    principle.\"\n\n (6) {emin}. The author makes Simonides talk as an Athenian.\n\n (7) Lit. \"when we wish our sacred choirs to compete.\"\n\n (8) Or, \"magistrate\"; at Athens the Archon Eponymos. See Boeckh, \"P.\n    E. A.\" p. 454 foll. Al. the {athlethetai}. See Pollux, viii. 93;\n    cf. Aeschin. \"c. Ctes.\" 13.\n\n (9) Or more correctly at Athens the choragoi = leaders of the chorus.\n\n (10) i.e. the choreutai.\n\n (11) Sc. the choro-didaskaloi, or chorus-masters.\n\n (12) {ta antitupa}, \"the repellent obverse,\" \"the seamy side.\" Cf.\n    Theogn. 1244, {ethos ekhon solion pistios antitupon}. \"Hell.\" VI.\n    iii. 11.\n\n (13) Or, \"Well then, what reason is there why other matters of\n    political concern--all other branches of our civic life, in\n    fact--should not be carried out on this same principle?\"\n\nAll states as units are divided into tribes ({thulas}), or regiments\n({moras}), or companies ({lokhous}), and there are officers\n({arkhontes}) appointed in command of each division. (14)\n\n (14) e.g. Attica into ten phylae, Lacedaemon into six morae, Thebes\n    and Argos into lochi. See Aristot. \"Pol.\" v. 8 (Jowett, i. 166);\n    \"Hell.\" VI. iv. 13; VII. ii. 4.\n\nWell then, suppose that some one were to offer prizes (15) to these\npolitical departments on the pattern of the choric prizes just\ndescribed; prizes for excellence of arms, or skill in tactics, or\nfor discipline and so forth, or for skill in horsemanship; prizes\nfor prowess (16) in the field of battle, bravery in war; prizes for\nuprightness (17) in fulfilment of engagements, contracts, covenants.\nIf so, I say it is to be expected that these several matters, thanks to\nemulous ambition, will one and all be vigorously cultivated. Vigorously!\nwhy, yes, upon my soul, and what a rush there would be! How in the\npursuit of honour they would tear along where duty called: with what\npromptitude pour in their money contributions (18) at a time of crisis.\n\n (15) See \"Revenues,\" iii. 3; A. Zurborg, \"de. Xen. Lib. qui {Poroi}\n    inscribitur,\" p. 42.\n\n (16) Cf. \"Hell.\" III. iv. 16; IV. ii. 5 foll.\n\n (17) \"In reward for justice in, etc.\" See \"Revenues,\" l.c.; and for\n    the evil in question, Thuc. i. 77; Plat. \"Rep.\" 556.\n\n (18) {eispheroien}, techn. of the war-tax at Athens. See \"Revenues,\"\n    iii. 7 foll.; iv. 34 foll.; Thuc. iii. 19; Boeckh, \"P. E. A.\" pp.\n    470, 539. Cf. Aristot. \"Pol.\" v. 11. 10, in illustration of the\n    tyrant's usual method of raising money.\n\nAnd that which of all arts is the most remunerative, albeit the least\naccustomed hitherto to be conducted on the principle of competition\n(19)--I mean agriculture--itself would make enormous strides, if some\none were to offer prizes in the same way, \"by farms and villages,\" to\nthose who should perform the works of tillage in the fairest fashion.\nWhilst to those members of the state who should devote themselves\nwith might and main to this pursuit, a thousand blessings would be the\nresult. The revenues would be increased; and self-restraint be found\nfar more than now, in close attendance on industrious habits. (20) Nay\nfurther, crimes and villainies take root and spring less freely among\nbusy workers.\n\n (19) Al. \"and what will be the most repaying... being a department\n    of things least wont,\" etc.\n\n (20) Or, \"soundness of soul much more be found allied with\n    occupation.\"\n\nOnce more, if commerce (21) is of any value to the state, then let the\nmerchant who devotes himself to commerce on the grandest scale receive\nsome high distinction, and his honours will draw on other traders in his\nwake.\n\n (21) Cf. \"Revenues,\" l.c.\n\nOr were it made apparent that the genius who discovers a new source of\nrevenue, which will not be vexatious, will be honoured, by the state,\na field of exploration will at once be opened, which will not long\ncontinue unproductive. (22)\n\n (22) Lit. \"that too is an inquiry which will not long lie fallow.\"\n\nAnd to speak compendiously, if it were obvious in each department\nthat the introducer of any salutary measure whatsoever will not remain\nunhonoured, that in itself will stimulate a host of pople who will make\nit their business to discover some good thing or other for the state.\nWherever matters of advantage to the state excite deep interest, of\nnecessity discoveries are made more freely and more promptly perfected.\nBut if you are afraid, O mighty prince, that through the multitude\nof prizes offered (23) under many heads, expenses also must be much\nincreased, consider that no articles of commerce can be got more cheaply\nthan those which people purchase in exchange for prizes. Note in the\npublic contests (choral, equestrian, or gymnastic) (24) how small the\nprizes are and yet what vast expenditure of wealth and toil, and painful\nsupervision these elicit. (25)\n\n (23) Reading {protithemenon} with Cobet.\n\n (24) Lit. \"hippic, gymnic, and choregic contests.\"\n\n (25) e.g. \"in the choral dances (1) money on the part of the choragoi;\n    (2) pains on the part of the choreutai; (3) supervising care on\n    the part of the choro-didaskoi, and so mutatis mutandis of the\n    hippic and gymnic.\"\n\n\n\nX\n\nAnd Hiero replied: Thus far you reason prettily, methinks, Simonides;\nbut about these mercenary troops have you aught to say? Can you suggest\na means to avoid the hatred of which they are the cause? Or will you\ntell me that a ruler who has won the affection of his subjects has no\nneed for body-guards?\n\nNay, in good sooth (replied Simonides), distinctly he will need them\nnone the less. I know it is with certain human beings as with horses,\nsome trick of the blood they have, some inborn tendency; the more their\nwants are satisfied, the more their wantonness will out. Well then, to\nsober and chastise wild spirits, there is nothing like the terror of\nyour men-at-arms. (1) And as to gentler natures, (2) I do not know by\nwhat means you could bestow so many benefits upon them as by means of\nmercenaries.\n\n (1) Lit. \"spear-bearers\"; the title given to the body-guard of kings\n    and tyrants.\n\n (2) Lit. \"the beautiful and good,\" the {kalois kagathois}. See \"Econ.\"\n    vi. 11 foll.\n\nLet me explain: You keep them, I presume, in the first instance, for\nyourself, as guards of your own person. But for masters, owners of\nestates and others, to be done to death with violence by their own\nslaves is no unheard-of thing. Supposing, then, the first and foremost\nduty laid on mercenary troops were this: they are the body-guards of the\nwhole public, and bound as such to come to the assistance of all members\nof the state alike, in case they shall detect some mischief brewing (3)\n(and miscreants do spring up in the hearts of states, as we all know);\nI say then, if these mercenary troops were under orders to act as\nguardians of the citizens, (4) the latter would recognise to whom they\nwere indebted.\n\n (3) \"If they become aware of anything of that sort.\" Is not this\n    modelled on the {krupteia}? See Pater, \"Plato and Platonism,\" ch.\n    viii. \"Lacedaemon,\" p. 186.\n\n (4) Or, \"as their police.\" {toutous}, sc. \"the citizens\"; al. \"the\n    evil-doers.\" If so, transl. \"to keep watch and ward on evil-doers;\n    the citizens would soon recognise the benefit they owe them for\n    that service.\"\n\nBut in addition to these functions, such a body might with reason be\nexpected to create a sense of courage and security, by which the country\nlabourers with their flocks and herds would greatly benefit, a benefit\nnot limited to your demesne, but shared by every farm throughout the\nrural district.\n\nAgain, these mercenaries, if set to guard strategic points, (5) would\nleave the citizens full leisure to attend to matters of more private\ninterest.\n\n (5) Or, \"as garrisons of critical positions,\" like Phyle or Decelia\n    near Athens.\n\nAnd again, a further function: Can you conceive a service better\nqualified to gain intelligence beforehand and to hinder the secret\nsudden onslaughts of a hostile force, than a set of troopers always\nunder arms and fully organised? (6)\n\n (6) Or, \"trained to act as one man.\" See Sturz, s.v.\n\nMoreover, on an actual campaign, where will you find an arm of greater\nservice to the citizens than these wage-earning troops? (7) than whom,\nit is likely, there will none be found more resolute to take the lion's\nshare of toil or peril, or do outpost duty, keeping watch and ward while\nothers sleep, brave mercenaries.\n\n (7) The author is perhaps thinking of some personal experiences. He\n    works out his theory of a wage-earning militia for the protection\n    of the state in the \"Cyropaedia.\" See esp. VII. v. 69 foll.\n\nAnd what will be the effect on the neighbour states conterminous with\nyours? (8) Will not this standing army lead them to desire peace beyond\nall other things? In fact, a compact force like this, so organised,\nwill prove most potent to preserve the interests of their friends and to\ndamage those of their opponents.\n\n (8) Or, \"that lie upon your borders,\" as Thebes and Megara were\n    \"nigh-bordering\" to Athens. Cf. Eur. \"Rhes.\" 426; Soph. \"Fr.\" 349.\n\nAnd when, finally, the citizens discover it is not the habit of these\nmercenaries to injure those who do no wrong, but their vocation rather\nis to hinder all attempts at evil-doing; whereby they exercise a kindly\nprovidence and bear the brunt of danger on behalf of the community,\nI say it must needs be, the citizens will rejoice to pay the expenses\nwhich the force entails. At any rate, it is for objects of far less\nimportance that at present guards (9) are kept in private life.\n\n (9) \"Police or other.\"\n\n\n\nXI\n\nBut, Hiero, you must not grudge to spend a portion of your private\nsubstance for the common weal. For myself, I hold to the opinion that\nthe sums expended by the monarch on the state form items of disbursement\nmore legitimate (1) than those expended on his personal account. But let\nus look into the question point by point.\n\n (1) {eis to deon}. Holden cf. \"Anab.\" I. iii. 8. Aristoph. \"Clouds,\"\n    859, {osper Periklees eis to deon apolesa}: \"Like Pericles, for a\n    necessary purpose, I have lost them.\"\n\nFirst, the palace: do you imagine that a building, beautified in every\nway at an enormous cost, will afford you greater pride and ornament than\na whole city ringed with walls and battlements, whose furniture consists\nof temples and pillared porticoes, (2) harbours, market-places?\n\n (2) Reading {parastasi}, properly \"pillasters\" (Poll. i. 76. 10. 25) =\n    \"antae,\" hence \"templum in antis\" (see Vitruv. iii. 2. 2); or more\n    widely the entrance of a temple or other building. (Possibly the\n    author is thinking of \"the Propylea\").Cf. Eur. \"Phoen.\" 415; \"I.\n    T.\" 1159. = {stathmoi}, Herod. i. 179; Hom. \"Il.\" xiv. 167; \"Od.\"\n    vii. 89, {stathmoi d' argureoi en khalkeo estasan oudio}.\n\n        The brazen thresholds both sides did enfold\n        Silver pilasters, hung with gates of gold (Chapman).\n\n    Al. {pastasi}, = colonnades.\n\nNext, as to armaments: Will you present a greater terror to the foe if\nyou appear furnished yourself from head to foot with bright emlazonrie\nand horrent arms; (3) or rather by reason of the warlike aspect of a\nwhole city perfectly equipped?\n\n (3) Or, \"with armour curiously wrought a wonder and a dread.\" {oplois\n    tois ekpaglotatois}, most magnificent, awe-inspiring, a poetical\n    word which appears only in this passage in prose (Holden). L. & S.\n    cf. Hom. \"Il.\" i. 146, xxi. 589, of persons; \"Od.\" xiv. 552, of\n    things. Pind. \"Pyth.\" iv. 140; \"Isth.\" 7 (6), 30.\n\nAnd now for ways and means: On which principle do you expect your\nrevenues to flow more copiously--by keeping your own private capital (4)\nemployed, or by means devised to make the resources of the entire state\n(5) productive?\n\n (4) Reading {idia}, al. {idia}, = \"your capital privately employed.\"\n\n (5) Lit. \"of all citizens alike,\" \"every single member of the state.\"\n\nAnd next to speak of that which people hold to be the flower of\ninstitutions, a pursuit both noble in itself and best befitting a great\nman--I mean the art of breeding chariot-horses (6)--which would reflect\nthe greater lustre on you, that you personally (7) should train and send\nto the great festal gatherings (8) more chariots than any Hellene else?\nor rather that your state should boast more racehorse-breeders than the\nrest of states, that from Syracuse the largest number should enter to\ncontest the prize?\n\n (6) Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 834 B.\n\n (7) Breit. cf. Pind. \"Ol.\" i. 82; \"Pyth.\" i. 173; ii. 101; iii. 96.\n\n (8) \"Our solemn festivals,\" e.g. those held at Olympia, Delphi, the\n    Isthmus, Nemea.\n\nWhich would you deem the nobler conquest--to win a victory by virtue of\na chariot, or to achieve a people's happiness, that state of which you\nare the head and chief? And for my part, I hold it ill becomes a tyrant\nto enter the lists with private citizens. For take the case he wins, he\nwill not be admired, but be envied rather, when is is thought how many\nprivate fortunes go to swell the stream of his expenditure; while if he\nloses, he will become a laughing-stock to all mankind. (9)\n\n (9) Or, \"you will be mocked and jeered at past all precedence,\" as\n    historically was the fate of Dionysus, 388 or 384 B.C. (?); and\n    for the possible connection between that incident and this\n    treatise see Lys. \"Olymp.\"; and Prof. Jebb's remarks on the\n    fragment, \"Att. Or.\" i. p. 203 foll. Grote, \"H. G.\" xi. 40 foll.;\n    \"Plato,\" iii. 577.\n\nNo, no! I tell you, Hiero, your battlefield, your true arena is with the\nchampion presidents of rival states, above whose lesser heads be it your\ndestiny to raise this state, of which you are the patron and supreme\nhead, to some unprecedented height of fortune, which if you shall\nachieve, be certain you will be approved victorious in a contest the\nnoblest and the most stupendous in the world.\n\nSince what follows? In the first place, you will by one swift stroke\nhave brought about the very thing you have set your heart on, you will\nhave won the affection of your subjects. Secondly, you will need no\nherald to proclaim your victory; not one man only, but all mankind,\nshall hymn your virtue.\n\nWherever you set foot you shall be gazed upon, and not by individual\ncitizens alone, but by a hundred states be warmly welcomed. You shall be\na marvel, not in the private circle only, but in public in the sight of\nall.\n\nIt shall be open to you, so far as safety is concerned, to take your\njourney where you will to see the games or other spectacles; or it shall\nbe open to you to bide at home, and still attain your object.\n\nBefore you shall be gathered daily an assembly, a great company of\npeople willing to display whatever each may happen to possess of wisdom,\nworth, or beauty; (10) and another throng of persons eager to do you\nservice. Present, regard them each and all as sworn allies; or absent,\nknow that each and all have one desire, to set eyes on you.\n\n (10) Or, \"to display their wares of wisdom, beauty, excellence.\"\n\nThe end will be, you shall not be loved alone, but passionately adored,\nby human beings. You will not need to woo the fair but to endure the\nenforcement of their loving suit.\n\nYou shall not know what fear is for yourself; you shall transfer it to\nthe hearts of others, fearing lest some evil overtake you. You will have\nabout you faithful lieges, willing subjects, nimble servitors. You shall\nbehold how, as a matter of free choice, they will display a providential\ncare for you. And if danger threatens, you will find in them not simply\nfellow-warriors, but champions eager to defend you with their lives.\n(11)\n\n (11) Not {summakhoi}, but {promakhoi}.\n\nWorthy of many gifts you shall be deemed, and yet be never at a loss for\nsome well-wisher with whom to share them. You shall command a world-wide\nloyalty; a whole people shall rejoice with you at your good fortunes,\na whole people battle for your interests, as if in very deed and truth\ntheir own. Your treasure-houses shall be coextensive with the garnered\nriches of your friends and lovers.\n\nTherefore be of good cheer, Hiero; enrich your friends, and you will\nthereby heap riches on yourself. Build up and aggrandise your city, for\nin so doing you will gird on power like a garment, and win allies for\nher. (12)\n\n (12) Some commentators suspect a lacuna at this point.\n\nEsteem your fatherland as your estate, the citizens as comrades, your\nfriends as your own children, and your sons even as your own soul. And\nstudy to excel them one and all in well-doing; for if you overcome your\nfriends by kindness, your enemies shall nevermore prevail against you.\n\nDo all these things, and, you may rest assured, it will be yours to own\nthe fairest and most blessed possession known to mortal man. You shall\nbe fortunate and none shall envy you. (13)\n\n (13) Al. \"It shall be yours to be happy and yet to escape envy.\" The\n    concluding sentence is gnomic in character and metrical in form.\n    See \"Pol. Lac.\" xv. 9.","title":"Hiero","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":15226}