Hiero | Page 7

Simonides. What I most desire of him is no ready spoil, as men might reckon it, but rather what it is least of all the privilege of a tyrant to obtain.[42] I say it truly, I--the love I bear Dailochus is of this high sort. All that the constitution of our souls and bodies possibly compels a man to ask for at the hands of beauty, that my fantasy desires of him; but what my fantasy demands, I do most earnestly desire to obtain from willing hands and under seal of true affection. To clutch it forcibly were as far from my desire as to do myself some mortal mischief.
[42] Lit. "of tyrant to achieve," a met. from the chase. Cf. "Hunting," xii. 22.
Were he my enemy, to wrest some spoil from his unwilling hands would be an exquisite pleasure, to my thinking. But of all sweet favours the sweetest to my notion is the free-will offering of a man's beloved. For instance, how sweet the responsive glance of love for love; how sweet the questions and the answers;[43] and, most sweet of all, most love-enkindling, the battles and the strifes of faithful lovers.[44] But to enjoy[45] one's love perforce (he added) resembles more an act of robbery, in my judgment, than love's pastime. And, indeed, the robber derives some satisfaction from the spoils he wins and from the pain he causes to the man he hates. But to seek pleasure in the pain of one we love devoutly, to kiss and to be hated, to touch[46] and to be loathed--can one conceive a state of things more odious or more pitiful? For, it is a certainty, the ordinary person may accept at once each service rendered by the object of his love as a sign and token of kindliness inspired by affection, since he knows such ministry is free from all compulsion. Whilst to the tyrant, the confidence that he is loved is quite foreclosed. On the contrary,[47] we know for certain that service rendered through terror will stimulate as far as possible the ministrations of affection. And it is a fact, that plots and conspiracies against despotic rulers are oftenest hatched by those who most of all pretend to love them.[48]
[43] "The 'innere Unterhaltung'"; the {oarismos}. Cf. Milton, "P. L.":
With thee conversing, I forget all time.
[44] Cf. Ter. "Andr." iii. 3. 23, "amantium irae amoris intergratiost."
[45] "To make booty of."
[46] For {aptesthai} L. & S. cf. Plat. "Laws," 840 A; Aristot. "H. A." v. 14. 27; Ep. 1 Cor. vii. 1.
[47] Reading {au}. "If we do know anything it is this, that," etc.
[48] Or, "do oftenest issue from treacherous make-believe of warmest friendship." Cf. Grote, "H. G." xi. 288; "Hell." VI. iv. 36.

II
To these arguments Simonides replied: Yes, but the topics you have named are to my thinking trifles; drops, as it were, in the wide ocean. How many men, I wonder, have I seen myself, men in the deepest sense,[1] true men, who choose to fare but ill in respect of meats and drinks and delicacies; ay, and what is more, they voluntarily abstain from sexual pleasures. No! it is in quite a different sphere, which I will name at once, that you so far transcend us private citizens.[2] It is in your vast designs, your swift achievements; it is in the overflowing wealth of your possessions; your horses, excellent for breed and mettle; the choice beauty of your arms; the exquisite finery of your wives; the gorgeous palaces in which you dwell, and these, too, furnished with the costliest works of art; add to which the throng of your retainers, courtiers, followers, not in number only but accomplishments a most princely retinue; and lastly, but not least of all, in your supreme ability at once to afflict your foes and benefit your friends.
[1] Lit. "many among those reputed to be men." Cf. "Cyrop." V. v. 33; "Hell." i. 24, "their hero"; and below, viii. 3. Aristoph. "Ach." 78, {oi barbaroi gar andras egountai monous} | {tous pleista dunamenous phagein te kai piein}: "To the Barbarians 'tis the test of manhood: there the great drinkers are the greatest men" (Frere); id. "Knights," 179; "Clouds," 823; so Latin "vir." See Holden ad loc.
[2] "Us lesser mortals."
To all which Hiero made answer: That the majority of men, Simonides, should be deluded by the glamour of a despotism in no respect astonishes me, since it is the very essence of the crowd, if I am not mistaken, to rush wildly to conjecture touching the happiness or wretchedness of people at first sight.
Now the nature of a tyrrany is such: it presents, nay flaunts, a show of costliest possessions unfolded to the general gaze, which rivets the attention;[3] but the real troubles in the souls of monarchs it keeps concealed in