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;