But there is yet another sore affliction to which the tyrant is liable, Sinmonides, which I will name to you. It is this. Tyrants no less than ordinary mortals can distinguish merit. The orderly,[1] the wise, the just and upright, they freely recognise; but instead of admiring them, they are afraid of them--the courageous, lest they should venture something for the sake of freedom; the wise, lest they invent some subtle mischief;[2] the just and upright, lest the multitude should take a fancy to be led by them.
[1] The same epithets occur in Aristoph. "Plut." 89:
{ego gar on meirakion epeiles' otios tous dikaious kai sophous kai kosmiousmonous badioimen.}
Stob. gives for {kasmious} {alkimous}.
[2] Or, "for fear of machinations." But the word is suggestive of mechanical inventions also, like those of Archimedes in connection with a later Hiero (see Plut. "Marcel." xv. foll.); or of Lionardo, or of Michael Angelo (Symonds, "Renaissance in Italy," "The Fine Arts," pp. 315, 393).
And when he has secretly and silently made away with all such people through terror, whom has he to fall back upon to be of use to him, save only the unjust, the incontinent, and the slavish-natured?[3] Of these, the unjust can be trusted as sharing the tyrant's terror lest the cities should some day win their freedom and lay strong hands upon them; the incontinent, as satisfied with momentary license; and the slavish-natured, for the simple reason that they have not themselves the slightest aspiration after freedom.[4]
[3] Or, "the dishonest, the lascivious, and the servile."[4] "They have no aspiration even to be free," "they are content to wallow in the slough of despond." The {adikoi} (unjust) correspond to the {dikaioi} (just), {akrateis} (incontinent) to the {sophoi} (wise) (Breit. cf. "Mem." III. ix. 4, {sophian de kai sophrosunen ou diorizen}), {andrapododeis} (servile) to the {kasmioi}, {andreioi}
(orderly, courageous).
This, then, I say, appears to me a sore affliction, that we should look upon the one set as good men, and yet be forced to lean upon the other.
And further, even a tyrant cannot but be something of a patriot--a lover of that state, without which he can neither hope for safety nor prosperity. On the other hand, his tyrrany, the exigencies of despotic rule, compel him to incriminate his fatherland.[5] To train his citizens to soldiery, to render them brave warriors, and well armed, confers no pleasure on him; rather he will take delight to make his foreigners more formidable than those to whom the state belongs, and these foreigners he will depend on as his body-guard.
[5] Or, "depreciate the land which gave him birth." Holden cf. "Cyrop." VII. ii. 22. See Sturz, s.v.
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[6] "In good seasons," "seasons of prosperity." Cf. Aristot. "Pol." v. 6. 17.
