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]