Hiero
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Xenophon >> Hiero
[5] {koinon}, i.e. making demands upon the eneriges of all the
citizens in common, as opposed to the personal character of war as
conducted by a despot = "public," "patriotic," "national" war. Al.
borne by the particular {polis} as member of a league, whether of
states united for the time being in a {summakhia}, or permanently
in a confederacy = a "federal" war.
[6] "Even if serving on a campaign in the enemy's country."
[7] Or, "he has to exercise the utmost vigilance."
[8] "With those who are 'absolutely governed,' not to say tyrannically
ruled."
[9] Or, "which the tyrant may accept in faith and go his way
rejoicing."
Wars doubtless there are,[10] wars waged by states and wars waged by
autocratic monarchs against those whom they have forcibly enslaved,
and in respect of these wars there is no hardship which any member of
the states at war[11] can suffer but the tyrant will feel it also.
That is to say, both must alike be under arms, keep guard, run risks;
and whatever the pains of defeat may be, they are equally sustained by
both. Up to this point there is no distinction. The "bitters" are
equal. But when we come to estimate the "sweets" derivable from
warfare between states,[12] the parallel ceases. The tyrant, if he
shared the pains before, no longer shares the pleasures now. What
happens when a state has gained the mastery in battle over her
antagonist? It would be hard (I take it) to describe the joy of that
occurrence: joy in the rout, joy in the pursuit, joy in the slaughter
of their enemies; and in what language shall I describe the exultation
of these warriors at their feats of arms? With what assumption they
bind on their brows the glittering wreath of glory;[13] with what
mirth and jollity congratulate themselves on having raised their city
to newer heights of fame. Each several citizen claims to have shared
in the plan of the campaign,[14] and to have slain the largest number.
Indeed it would be hard to find where false embellishment will not
creep in,[15] the number stated to be the slain exceeding that of
those that actually perished. So truly glorious a thing it seems to
them to have won a great victory.[16]
[10] Lit. "and further, wars there are, waged against forcibly-
subjected populations whether by free states"--e.g. of Olynthus,
"Hell." V. ii. 23, or Athens against her "subject allies" during
the Pel. war--"or by despotic rules"--Jason of Pherae ("Hell."
VI.) Al. "wars waged by free states against free states, and wars
waged by tyrants against enslaved peoples."
[11] Does {o en tais polesi} = "the citizen"? So some commentators; or
(sub. {polemos}) = "the war among states" (see Hartman, op. cit.
p. 248)? in which case transl. "all the hardships involved in
international war come home to the tyrant also." The same
obscurity attaches to {oi en tais polesi} below (the commonly
adopted emend. of the MS. {oi sunontes polesi} = "the citizens,"
or else = "international wars."
[12] "The pleasures incidental to warfare between states"; al. "the
sweets which citizens engaged in warfare as against rival states
can count upon."
[13] Reading {analambanousin}, or, if after Cobet, etc.,
{lambanousin}, transl. "what brilliant honour, what bright credit
they assume."
[14] "To have played his part in counsel." See "Anab." passim, and M.
Taine, "Essais de Critique," "Xenophon," p. 128.
[15] Lit. "they do not indulge in false additions, pretending to have
put more enemies to death than actually fell."
[16] Cf. "Hipparch," viii. 11; "Cyrop." VIII. iii. 25; "Thuc." i. 49.
But the tyrant, when he forebodes, or possibly perceives in actual
fact, some opposition brewing, and puts the suspects[17] to the sword,
knows he will not thereby promote the welfare of the state
collectively. The cold clear fact is, he will have fewer subjects to
rule over.[18] How can he show a cheerful countenance?[19] how magnify
himself on his achievement? On the contrary, his desire is to lessen
the proportions of what has taken place, as far as may be. He will
apologise for what he does, even in the doing of it, letting it appear
that what he has wrought at least was innocent;[20] so little does his
conduct seem noble even to himself. And when those he dreaded are
safely in their graves, he is not one whit more confident of spirit,
but still more on his guard than heretofore. That is the kind of war
with which the tyrant is beset from day to day continually, as I do
prove.[21]
[17] See Hold. (crit. app.); Hartman, op. cit. p. 260.
[18] Cf. "Mem." I. ii. 38.
[19] Cf. "Anab." II. vi. 11; "Hell." VI. iv. 16.
[20] "Not of malice prepense."
[21] Or, "Such then, as I describe it, is the type of war," etc.
III
Turn now and contemplate the sort of friendship whereof it is given to
tyrants to partake. And first, let us examine with ourselves and see
if friendship is truly a great boon to mortal man.
How fares it with the man who is beloved of friends? See with what
gladness his friends and lovers hail his advent! delight to do him
kindness! long for him when he is absent from them![1] and welcome him
most gladly on his return![2] In any good which shall betide him they
rejoice together; or if they see him overtaken by misfortune, they
rush to his assistance as one man.[3]
[1] Reading {an ate}, or if {an apie}, transl. "have yearning hearts
when he must leave them."
[2] See Anton Rubinstein, "Die Musik and ihre Meister," p. 8, "Some
Remarks on Beethoven's Sonata Op. 81."
[3] Cf. "Cyrop." I. vi. 24 for a repetition of the sentiment and
phraseology.
Nay! it has not escaped the observation of states and governments that
friendship is the greatest boon, the sweetest happiness which men may
taste. At any rate, the custom holds[4] in many states "to slay the
adulterer" alone of all "with impunity,"[5] for this reason clearly
that such miscreants are held to be destroyers of that friendship[6]
which binds the woman to the husband. Since where by some untoward
chance a woman suffers violation of her chastity,[7] husbands do not
the less honour them, as far as that goes, provided true affection
still appear unsullied.[8]
[4] Lit. "many of the states have a law and custom to," etc. Cf. "Pol.
Lac." ii. 4.
[5] Cf. Plat. "Laws," 874 C, "if a man find his wife suffering
violence he may kill the violator and be guiltless in the eye of
the law." Dem. "in Aristocr." 53, {ean tis apokteine en athlois
akon . . . e epi damarti, k.t.l. . . . touton eneka me pheugein
kteinanta}.
[6] See Lys. "de caed Eratosth." S. 32 f., {outos, o andres, tous
biazomenous elattonos zemias axious egesato einai e tous
peithontas . ton men gar thanaton kategno, tois de diplen epoiese
ten blaben, egoumenos tous men diaprattomenous bia upo ton
biasthenton miseisthai, tous de peisantas outos aution tas psukhas
diaphtheirein ost' oikeioteras autois poiein tas allotrias
gunaikas e tois andrasi kai pasan ep' ekeinois ten oikian
gegonenai kai tous paidas adelous einai opoteron tugkhanousin
ontes, ton andron e ton moikhon . anth' on o ton nomon titheis
thanaton autois epoiese ten zemian}. Cf. "Cyrop." III. i. 39;
"Symp." viii. 20; Plut. "Sol." xxiii., {olos de pleisten ekhein
atopian oi peri ton gunaikon nomoi to Soloni dokousi. moikhon men
gar anelein tio labonti dedoken, ean d' arpase tis eleutheran
gunaika kai biasetai zemian ekaton drakhmas etaxe' kan proagogeue
drakhmas aikosi, plen osai pephasmenos polountai, legon de tas
etairas. autai gar emphanos phoitosi pros tous didontas}, "Solon's
laws in general about women are his strangest, for he permitted
any one to kill an adulterer that found him in the act; but if any
one forced a free woman, a hundred drachmas was the fine; if he
enticed her, twenty;--except those that sell themselves openly,
that is, harlots, who go openly to those that hire them" (Clough,
i. p. 190).
[7] Or, "fall a victim to passion through some calamity," "commit a
breach of chastity." Cf. Aristot. "H. A." VII. i. 9.
[8] Or, "if true affection still retain its virgin purity." As to this
extraordinary passage, see Hartman, op. cit. p. 242 foll.
So sovereign a good do I, for my part, esteem it to be loved, that I
do verily believe spontaneous blessings are outpoured from gods and
men on one so favoured.
This is that choice possession which, beyond all others, the monarch
is deprived of.
But if you require further evidence that what I say is true, look at
the matter thus: No friendship, I presume, is sounder than that which
binds parents to their children and children to their parents,
brothers and sisters to each other,[9] wives to husbands, comrade to
comrade.
[9] Or, "brothers to brothers."
If, then, you will but thoughtfully consider it, you will discover it
is the ordinary person who is chiefly blest in these relations.[10]
While of tyrants, many have been murderers of their own children, many
by their children murdered. Many brothers have been murderers of one
another in contest for the crown;[11] many a monarch has been done to
death by the wife of his bosom,[12] or even by his own familiar
friend, by him of whose affection he was proudest.[13]
[10] Or, "that these more obvious affections are the sanctities of
private life."
[11] Or, "have caught at the throats of brothers"; lit. "been slain
with mutually-murderous hand." Cf. Pind. Fr. 137; Aesch. "Sept. c.
Theb." 931; "Ag." 1575, concerning Eteocles and Polynices.
[12] See Grote, "H. G." xi. 288, xii. 6; "Hell." VI. iv. 36; Isocr.
"On the Peace," 182; Plut. "Dem. Pol." iii. (Clough, v. p. 98);
Tac. "Hist." v. 8, about the family feuds of the kings of Judaea.
[13] "It was his own familiar friend who dealt the blow, the nearest
and dearest to his heart."
How can you suppose, then, that being so hated by those whom nature
predisposes and law compels to love him, the tyrant should be loved by
any living soul beside?
IV
Again, without some moiety of faith and trust,[1] how can a man not
feel to be defrauded of a mighty blessing? One may well ask: What
fellowship, what converse, what society would be agreeable without
confidence? What intercourse between man and wife be sweet apart from
trustfulness? How should the "faithful esquire" whose faith is
mistrusted still be lief and dear?[2]
[1] "How can he, whose faith's discredited, the moral bankrupt . . ."
[2] Or, "the trusty knight and serving-man." Cf. "Morte d'Arthur,"
xxi. 5, King Arthur and Sir Bedivere.
Well, then, of this frank confidence in others the tyrant has the
scantiest share.[3] Seeing his life is such, he cannot even trust his
meats and drinks, but he must bid his serving-men before the feast
begins, or ever the libation to the gods is poured,[4] to taste the
viands, out of sheer mistrust there may be mischief lurking in the cup
or platter.[5]
[3] Or, "from this . . . is almost absolutely debarred."
[4] "Or ever grace is said."
[5] Cf. "Cyrop." I. iii. 4.
Once more, the rest of mankind find in their fatherland a treasure
worth all else beside. The citizens form their own body-guard[6]
without pay or service-money against slaves and against evil-doers. It
is theirs to see that none of themselves, no citizen, shall perish by
a violent death. And they have advanced so far along the path of
guardianship[7] that in many cases they have framed a law to the
effect that "not the associate even of one who is blood-guilty shall
be accounted pure." So that, by reason of their fatherland,[8] each
several citizen can live at quiet and secure.
[6] "Are their own 'satellites,' spear-bearers." Cf. Thuc. i. 130;
Herod. ii. 168; vii. 127.
[7] "Pushed so far the principle of mutual self-aid."
[8] "Thanks to the blessing of a fatherland each citizen may spend his
days in peace and safety."
But for the tyrant it is again exactly the reverse.[9] Instead of
aiding or avenging their despotic lord, cities bestow large honours on
the slayer of a tyrant; ay, and in lieu of excommunicating the
tyrannicide from sacred shrines,[10] as is the case with murderers of
private citizens, they set up statues of the doers of such deeds[11]
in temples.
[9] "Matters are once more reversed precisely," "it is all 'topsy-
turvy.'"
[10] "And sacrifices." Cf. Dem. "c. Lept." 137, {en toinun tois peri
touton nomois o Drakon . . . katharon diorisen einai}. "Now in the
laws upon this subject, Draco, although he strove to make it
fearful and dreadful for a man to slay another, and ordained that
the homicide should be excluded from lustrations, cups, and drink-
offerings, from the temples and the market-place, specifying
everything by which he thought most effectually to restrain people
from such a practice, still did not abolish the rule of justice,
but laid down the cases in which it should be lawful to kill, and
declared that the killer under such circumstances should be deemed
pure" (C. R. Kennedy).
[11] e.g. Harmodius and Aristogeiton. See Dem. loc. cit. 138: "The
same rewards that you gave to Harmodius and Aristogiton,"
concerning whom Simonides himself wrote a votive couplet:
{'E meg' 'Athenaioisi phoos geneth' enik' 'Aristogeiton
'Ipparkhon kteine kai 'Armodios.}
But if you imagine that the tyrant, because he has more possessions
than the private person, does for that reason derive greater pleasure
from them, this is not so either, Simonides, but it is with tyrants as
with athletes. Just as the athlete feels no glow of satisfaction in
asserting his superiority over amateurs,[12] but annoyance rather when
he sustains defeat at the hands of any real antagonist; so, too, the
tyrant finds little consolation in the fact[13] that he is evidently
richer than the private citizen. What he feels is pain, when he
reflects that he has less himself than other monarchs. These he holds
to be his true antagonists; these are his rivals in the race for
wealth.
[12] Or, "It gives no pleasure to the athlete to win victories over
amateurs." See "Mem." III. viii. 7.
[13] Or, "each time it is brought home to him that," etc.
Nor does the tyrant attain the object of his heart's desire more
quickly than do humbler mortals theirs. For consider, what are their
objects of ambition? The private citizen has set his heart, it may be,
on a house, a farm, a servant. The tyrant hankers after cities, or
wide territory, or harbours, or formidable citadels, things far more
troublesome and more perilous to achieve than are the pettier
ambitions of lesser men.
And hence it is, moreover, that you will find but few[14] private
persons paupers by comparison with the large number of tyrants who
deserve the title;[15] since the criterion of enough, or too much, is
not fixed by mere arithmetic, but relatively to the needs of the
individual.[16] In other words, whatever exceeds sufficiency is much,
and what falls short of that is little.[17]
[14] Reading as vulg. {alla mentoi kai penetas opsei oukh outos
oligous ton idioton os pollous ton turannon}. Lit. "however that
may be, you will see not so few private persons in a state of
penury as many despots." Breitenbach del. {oukh}, and transl.,
"Daher weist du auch in dem Masse wenige Arme unter den Privat-
leuten finden, als viele unter den Tyrannen." Stob., {penetas
opsei oligous ton idioton, pollous de ton turannon}. Stob. MS.
Par., {alla mentoi kai plousious opsei oukh outos oligous ton
idioton os penetas pollous ton turannon}. See Holden ad loc. and
crit. n.
[15] Cf. "Mem." IV. ii. 37.
[16] Or, "not by the number of things we have, but in reference to the
use we make of them." Cf. "Anab." VII. vii. 36.
[17] Dr. Holden aptly cf. Addison, "The Spectator," No. 574, on the
text "Non possidentem multa vocaveris recte beatum . . ."
And on this principle the tyrant, with his multiplicity of goods, is
less well provided to meet necessary expenses than the private person;
since the latter can always cut down his expenditure to suit his daily
needs in any way he chooses; but the tyrant cannot do so, seeing that
the largest expenses of a monarch are also the most necessary, being
devoted to various methods of safeguarding his life, and to cut down
any of them would be little less than suicidal.[18]
[18] Or, "and to curtail these would seem to be self-slaughter."
Or, to put it differently, why should any one expend compassion on a
man, as if he were a beggar, who has it in his power to satisfy by
just and honest means his every need?[19] Surely it would be more
appropriate to call that man a wretched starveling beggar rather, who
through lack of means is driven to live by ugly shifts and base
contrivances.
[19] i.e. "to expend compassion on a man who, etc., were surely a
pathetic fallacy." Al. "Is not the man who has it in his power,
etc., far above being pitied?"
Now it is your tyrant who is perpetually driven to iniquitous
spoilation of temples and human beings, through chronic need of money
wherewith to meet inevitable expenses, since he is forced to feed and
support an army (even in times of peace) no less than if there were
actual war, or else he signs his own death-warrant.[20]
[20] "A daily, hourly constraint is laid upon him to support an army
as in war time, or--write his epitaph!"
V
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' oti
os tous dikaious kai sophous kai kosmious
monous 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.
Nay more, not even in the years of plenty,[6] when abundance of all
blessings reigns, not even then may the tyrant's heart rejoice amid
the general joy, for the greater the indigence of the community the
humbler he will find them: that is his theory.
[6] "In good seasons," "seasons of prosperity." Cf. Aristot. "Pol." v.
6. 17.
VI
He continued: I desire to make known to you, Simonides,[1] those
divers pleasures which were mine whilst I was still a private citizen,
but of which to-day, nay, from the moment I became a tyrant, I find
myself deprived. In those days I consorted with my friends and
fellows, to our mutual delectation;[2] or, if I craved for
quietude,[3] I chose myself for my companion. Gaily the hours flitted
at our drinking-parties, ofttimes till we had drowned such cares and
troubles as are common to the life of man in Lethe's bowl;[4] or
ofttimes till we had steeped our souls in song and dance[5] and
revelry; ofttimes till the flame of passion kindled in the breasts of
my companions and my own.[6] But now, welladay, I am deprived of those
who took delight in me, because I have slaves instead of friends as my
companions; I am robbed of my once delightful intercourse with them,
because I discern no vestige of goodwill towards me in their looks.
And as to the wine-cup and slumber--these I guard against, even as a
man might guard against an ambuscade. Think only! to dread a crowd, to
dread solitude, to dread the absence of a guard, to dread the very
guards that guard, to shrink from having those about one's self
unarmed, and yet to hate the sight of armed attendants. Can you
conceive a more troublesome circumstance?[7] But that is not all. To
place more confidence in foreigners than in your fellow-citizens, nay,
in barbarians than in Hellenes, to be consumed with a desire to keep
freemen slaves and yet to be driven, will he nill he, to make slaves
free, are not all these the symptoms of a mind distracted and amazed
with terror?
[1] Or, "I wish I could disclose to you (he added) those heart-easing
joys." For {euphrosunas} cf. "Od." vi. 156; Aesch. "P. V." 540;
Eur. "Bacch." 376. A favourite word with our author; see "Ages."
ix. 4; "Cyrop." passim; "Mem." III. viii. 10; "Econ." ix. 12.
[2] Lit. "delighting I in them and they in me."
[3] Or, "when I sought tranquility I was my own companion."
[4] Or, "in sheer forgetfulness."
[5] Or, "absorbed our souls in song and festal cheer and dance." Cf.
"Od." viii. 248, 249, {aiei d' emin dais te phile kitharis te
khoroi te} | {eimata t' exemoiba loetra te therma kau eunai}, "and
dear to us ever is the banquet and the harp and the dance, and
changes of raiment, and the warm bath, and love and sleep"
(Butcher and Lang).
[6] Reading as vulg. {epithumias}. Breit. cf. "Mem." III. ix. 7; Plat.
"Phaed." 116 E, "he has eaten and drunk and enjoyed the society of
his beloved" (Jowett). See "Symp." the finale; or if, after Weiske
and Cobet, {euthumias}, transl. "to the general hilarity of myself
and the whole company" (cf. "Cyrop." I. iii. 12, IV. v. 7), but
this is surely a bathos rhetorically.
[7] Or, "a worse perplexity." See "Hell." VII. iii. 8.
For terror, you know, not only is a source of pain indwelling in the
breast itself, but, ever in close attendance, shadowing the path,[8]
becomes the destroyer of all sweet joys.
[8] Reading {sumparakolouthon lumeon}. Stob. gives {sumparomarton
lumanter}. For the sentiment cf. "Cyrop." III. i. 25.
And if you know anything of war, Simonides, and war's alarms; if it
was your fortune ever to be posted close to the enemy's lines,[9] try
to recall to mind what sort of meals you made at those times, with
what sort of slumber you courted rest. Be assured, there are no pains
you then experienced, no horrors to compare with those that crowd upon
the despot, who sees or seems to see fierce eyes of enemies glare at
him, not face to face alone, but from every side.
[9] Or, "in the van of battle, opposite the hostile lines."
He had spoken so far, when Simonides took up the thread of the
discourse, replying: Excellently put. A part I must admit, of what you
say; since war is terrible. Yet, Hiero, you forget. When we, at any
rate, are out campaigning, we have a custom; we place sentinels at the
outposts, and when the watch is set, we take our suppers and turn in
undauntedly.
And Hiero answered: Yes, I can well believe you, for the laws are the
true outposts,[10] who guard the sentinels, keeping their fears alive
both for themselves and in behalf of you. Whereas the tyrant hires his
guards for pay like harvest labourers.[11] Now of all functions, all
abilities, none, I presume, is more required of a guard than that of
faithfulness; and yet one faithful man is a commodity more hard to
find than scores of workmen for any sort of work you like to name;[12]
and the more so, when the guards in question are not forthcoming
except for money's sake;[13] and when they have it in their power to
get far more in far less time by murdering the despot than they can
hope to earn by lengthened service in protecting him.