[14] Lit. "he must at one and the same moment guard against them, and
yet be driven also to depend upon them."

But be assured, Simonides, that when a tyrant fears any of his
citizens, he is in a strait; it is ill work to see them living and ill
work to put them to the death. Just as might happen with a horse; a
noble beast, but there is that in him makes one fear he will do some
mischief presently past curing.[15] His very virtue makes it hard to
kill the creature, and yet to turn him to account alive is also hard;
so careful must one be, he does not choose the thick of danger to work
irreparable harm. And this, further, doubtless holds of all goods and
chattels, which are at once a trouble and a benefit. If painful to
their owners to possess, they are none the less a source of pain to
part with.

[15] Lit. "good but fearful (i.e. he makes one fear), he will some day
do some desperate mischief."



VII

Now when he had heard these reasonings, Simonides replied: O Hiero,
there is a potent force, it would appear, the name of which is honour,
so attractive that human beings strain to grasp it,[1] and in the
effort they will undergo all pains, endure all perils. It would
further seem that even you, you tyrants, in spite of all that sea of
trouble which a tyranny involves, rush headlong in pursuit of it. You
must be honoured. All the world shall be your ministers; they shall