| [3,115] καίτοι πατέρα γε ὄντα οὐκ ἀδύνατον υἱὸν ἀδικῆσαι καὶ παῖδα περὶ τοὺς
γονέας ἐξαμαρτεῖν· ὁμοίως δὲ ἀδελφοὺς ἀλλήλων κακόν τι ἀπο λαῦσαι.
οὕτως δὲ πάνυ τὴν φιλίαν ἱερὸν νενόμικεν ὥστε καὶ τοὺς
θεοὺς αὑτῷ πειρᾶται ποιεῖν φίλους.
(116) {ἐν ἅπασι μὲν οὖν τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἔστι συννοεῖν ὅτι πάντα τἀναντία
τοῖς τυράννοις κακὰ πρόσεστιν ὧν ἐμνήσθημεν ἀγαθῶν, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ ἐν τῷ
νῦν λεγομένῳ. πάντων γὰρ ἀπορώτατός ἐστι φιλίας τύραννος· οὐδὲ γὰρ
(117) δύναται ποιεῖσθαι φίλους. τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ὁμοίους αὑτῷ, πονηροὺς ὄντας,
ὑφορᾶται, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀνομοίων καὶ ἀγαθῶν μισεῖται.}
{ὁ δὲ μισούμενος ἐχθρὸς καὶ τοῖς ἀδίκοις ἄδικος. οἱ μὲν γὰρ
δικαίως μισοῦσιν αὐτόν, οἱ δὲ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιθυμοῦντες ἐπιβουλεύουσιν.}
(118) {ὥστε ὁ μὲν Πέρσης ἕνα τινὰ ἔσχεν, ὀφθαλμὸν βασιλέως
λεγόμενον, καὶ τοῦτον οὐ σπουδαῖον ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλὰ ἐκ τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων,
ἀγνοῶν ὅτι τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ βασιλέως οἱ φίλοι πάντες εἰσὶν ὀφθαλμοί.}
(119) φιλοίκειος δὲ καὶ φιλοσυγγενὴς πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη διαφερόντως;
ὅς γε τοὺς οἰκείους καὶ τοὺς συγγενεῖς μέρος νενόμικετῆς αὑτοῦ ψυχῆς;
| [3,115] Furthermore, it is not impossible for a father to be
unjust to a son and for a child to sin against its
parents ; brother, too, may wrong brother in some
way ; but friendship our king esteems as such an
altogether sacred thing that he tries to make even
the gods his friends.
(116) Now, while it may be gathered from all that has
been said that tyrants suffer all the ills that are the
opposites of the blessings we have enumerated, this
is especially true as regards the matter we are now
discussing. For the tyrant is the most friendless
man in the world, since he cannot even make
friends. Those like himself he suspects, since they
are evil, and by those unlike himself, and good, he
is hated; and the hated man is an enemy to both
the just and the unjust. For some men do justly
hate him ; while others, because they covet the
same things, plot against him. And so the Persian
king had one special man, called the " king's eye "
—not a man of high rank, but just an ordinary one.
He did not know that all the friends of a good king
are his eyes.
And should not the ties of blood and kinship be
especially dear to a good king ? For he regards his
kith and kin as a part of his own soul,
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