[6,50] καὶ μὴν ἐπιφθονώτατος ἁπάντων ὁ πλεῖστα μὴ δικαίως ἔχων· ὥστε οὐδεὶς τυράννου ἐπιφθονώτερός ἐστιν. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἀνάγκη μὲν αὐτῷ χαρίζεσθαι τοῖς περὶ αὐτόν· εἰ δὲ μή, τάχιστα ἀπολεῖται. χαρίζεσθαι δὲ πολλάκις πολλοῖς οὐ ῥᾴδιον μὴ ἄλλων ἀφαιρούμενον. ἔχει δὴ καὶ τοὺς ἀφαιρεθέντας ἐχθροὺς καὶ τοὺς εἰληφότας ὑπόπτους καὶ ζητοῦντας ὅτι τάχιστα ἀπηλλάχθαι. τὰ μὲν οὖν πόρρω διὰ τὸ πολὺ ἀφεστάναι φοβεῖται, τὰ δὲ ἐγγύς, ὅτι πλησίον ἐστὶν αὐτῷ, καὶ παρὰ μὲν τῶν μακρόθεν ὑφορᾶται πόλεμον, παρὰ δὲ τῶν ἐγγὺς δόλον. (6,51) καὶ τὴν μὲν εἰρήνην ἀσύμφορον νομίζει διὰ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων σχολήν, τὸν δὲ πόλεμον, ὅτι ἀνάγκη τοὺς ὑπηκόους ἐνοχλεῖν καὶ χρήματα πορίζοντα καὶ στρατεύεσθαι προσαναγκάζοντα. τοιγαροῦν πολέμου μὲν ὄντος εἰρήνης ἐρῶσιν, εἰρήνης δὲ γενομένης εὐθὺς μηχανῶνται πόλεμον. (6,52) καὶ τοῦτο μὲν τῶν ἐπιτηδείων ἀφθόνων ὄντων δεδοίκασι τοῦ πλήθους τὴν ὕβριν, τοῦτο δὲ εἴ τις ἔνδεια καταλαμβάνοι, τὴν ὀργήν. ἡγοῦνται δὲ μήτε ἀποδημεῖν ἀσφαλὲς μήτε μένειν μήτε προϊέναι μήτ´ ἔνδον διαιτᾶσθαι παρ´ αὑτοῖς, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ἐπιβαίνειν οὗ ἂν ἐπιβαίνωσιν {ἀσφαλῶς}, ἅπαντα δὲ εἶναι μεστὰ ἐνέδρας καὶ δόλων. (6,53) ἀναλογίζεται δὲ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς θανάτους τῶν τυράννων καὶ τὰς ἐπιβουλάς, ὅσαι πώποτε γεγόνασι, καὶ ξύμπαντα ταῦτα ἐφ´ αὑτὸν ἰέναι νομίζει, καὶ οὕτως ἔχει περιφόβως ὡς ξύμπαντας ἐκείνους τοὺς θανάτους ἀποθανούμενος· καὶ περιβλέπειν μὲν ἀεὶ καὶ περιστρέφεσθαι βούλεται, πληγήσεσθαι πανταχόθεν οἰόμενος, αὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔξεστι ποιεῖν ὑπὸ αἰσχύνης ἅμα καὶ φόβου. (6,54) ὅσῳ γὰρ ἂν ἐνδηλότερος ᾖ φοβούμενος ἀνὴρ τύραννος, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ἐπιβουλεύουσι καταφρονοῦντες τῆς δειλίας. {ἔστιν οὖν ὁ βίος ὅμοιος} ὥσπερ οὖν εἴ τις καθείρξειέ τινα ἐν εἱρκτῇ μικρᾷ, τῶν μὲν ἄνωθεν ξιφῶν κρεμαμένων, τῶν δὲ κυκλόθεν περιπεπηγότων, (6,55) καὶ τούτων ἁπτομένων τοῦ χρωτός· οὕτως οὐ τῷ σώματι μόνον, ἀλλὰ τῇ ψυχῇ τοῦ τυράννου περιπέπηγε τὰ ξίφη, ὥστε τὸν ἐν ᾅδου Τάνταλον, ὅν φασι κεφαλῆς ὑπερτέλλοντα δειμαίνειν πέτρον, πολὺ ῥᾷον διάγειν. οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἔτι φοβεῖται ὁ Τάνταλος μὴ ἀποθάνῃ· τῷ δὲ τυράννῳ ζῶντι τοῦτο ξυμβέβηκεν, ὃ ἐκείνῳ νεκρῷ λέγουσιν. (6,56) ὅσοι μὲν οὖν μιᾶς γεγόνασι τύραννοι πόλεως ἢ χώρας ὀλίγης, τούτοις μὲν οὐκ ἀδύνατον ἀποδράντας ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀλλαχόσε ποι καταφυγόντας ζῆν· καίτοι οὐδεὶς ἄνδρα ἀγαπᾷ τύραννον, ἀλλὰ μισοῦσί τε καὶ ὑποπτεύουσι καὶ ῥᾳδίως ἐκδιδόασι τοῖς ἠδικημένοις· ὅσοι δὲ πολλῶν πόλεων ἄρχουσι καὶ ἐθνῶν καὶ ἀπείρου γῆς, ὥσπερ ὁ τῶν Περσῶν βασιλεύς, τούτοις δὲ οὐδ´ ἄν ποτε παραστῇ συνεῖναι τῶν κακῶν κἂν θεῶν τις ἀφέλῃ τὴν ἄγνοιαν αὐτῶν, οὐ δυνατὸν ἐκφυγεῖν. (6,57) δοκεῖ δὲ οὐδέποτε ἂν ἀσφαλῶς ζῆν, οὐδ´ εἰ χαλκοῦς ἢ σιδηροῦς γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ οὕτως ἂν κατακοπεὶς ἢ καταχωνευθεὶς ἀπολέσθαι. ἐὰν μὲν οὖν τις αὐτῷ διαλέγηται θαρρῶν, ὁ δὲ ὀργίζεται καὶ δέδοικε τὴν παρρησίαν· ἐὰν δὲ θεραπεύων καὶ ὑποκατακλινόμενος, ὑποπτεύει τὴν θεραπείαν. (6,58) καὶ ὑπὸ μὲν τῶν ἐλευθερίως προσερχομένων οἴεται ὑβρίζεσθαι, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ταπεινοτέρων ἐξαπατᾶσθαι. καὶ λοιδορούμενος μὲν πολλαπλασίως ἀνιᾶται ἢ ἄλλος, ὅτι δὴ τύραννος ὢν ἀκούει κακῶς· ἐπαινούμενος δὲ οὐχ ἥδεται· οὐ γὰρ φρονοῦντας οὕτως οἴεται λέγειν. (6,59) τοῦ δὲ καλλίστου καὶ λυσιτελεστάτου κτήματος ἁπάντων ἐστὶν ἀπορώτατος· εὐνοίας γὰρ καὶ φιλίας ἐλπίσαι {δὲ} οὐδὲν δύναται παρ´ οὐδενός, ἀλλὰ πρότερον τοὺς ἀγρίους λέοντας οἱ τρέφοντες ἀγαπήσουσιν ἢ τοὺς τυράννους οἱ θεραπεύοντες καὶ προσιόντες.

[6,50] "The most disliked man, too, is he who has acquired great wealth unjustly; hence no man is more disliked than a tyrant. And furthermore, he is obliged to show favours to those about him, otherwise he will perish most speedily. But it is not easy to give to many repeatedly without taking from others. Accordingly, the men whom he despoils are his enemies, while his beneficiaries eye him with suspicion and seek to be rid of him as soon as possible. What is far removed from him he fears because of its remoteness; what is near, because it is close to him; from those at a distance he looks for war, from those near at hand, treachery. 51 Peace he considers undesirable because it leaves men idle, and war, because he is obliged to disturb his subjects by raising money and compelling them to take the field as well. So when there is a war, tyrants want peace; and when peace has been made, they at once scheme for war. 52 When the people have all the comforts of life, they fear their insolence; when hard times come, they fear their wrath. They feel that it is safe neither to leave the country nor to stay the home, neither to appear in public nor to live in seclusion, nay, not even to set foot where they may (p279) do so in safety, and that plotting and treachery menace them on every side. 53 Every one of them calls to mind the deaths of tyrants and all the conspiracies that have ever been formed against them; he imagines that they are all coming his way, and is terror-stricken as if he were doomed to all those deaths; and he is always wanting to look on every side and to turn around, as though he might be struck from any quarter; but this is the very thing he may not do from shame and fear at once. 54 For the more apparent the tyrant's fear, the more do men conspire against him through scorn of his cowardice. He lives, therefore, like one shut up in a narrow cell with swords hanging over his head and others, just touching the skin, fixed all about him. 55 So closely indeed about the tyrant's soul as well as his body are the swords set that Tantalus in Hades has a far easier time of it, Tantalus, who is said : 'to dread the rock that sways above his head.' Tantalus at least has no further dread of death, while the tyrant suffers in life that fate which men ascribe to Tantalus in the other world. 56 "Now for those who have made themselves tyrants of but a single city or a small country it is not impossible to flee from their realm and live in seclusion elsewhere — yet no one has any fondness for a tyrant, but only hatred and suspicion, and everyone is ready to surrender him to his victims — those, however, who rule over many cities and peoples and (p281) over a boundless territory, as the Persian king does, cannot escape, even though they come to comprehend their evil plight and some god remove their ignorance from them. 57 It seems, then, that the tyrant's life would never be safe, not even if he were to become bronze or iron, but that even then he would be destroyed by being broken to pieces or melted down. "If you talk with him boldly, he is angered and fears your frankness; if you converse with him meekly and deferentially, he suspects your meekness. 58 He feels that he is being insulted by those who treat him as an equal and deceived by those who are more obsequious. Censure, too, stings him far more than it does others because he, a sovereign, is spoken ill of; nor is he pleased with praise either, 59 for he does not think that the speaker is sincere in his praise. Then, of the fairest and most useful of all treasures he has the greatest lack; for friendship and good-will he can expect from no one; nay, keepers of savage lions will love these brutes sooner than they who court and approach tyrants will love them.