The poet Simonides visits Hiero, despot of Syracuse, and asks whether the tyrant’s life holds more pleasure than the private citizen’s. Hiero answers that it holds far less, weighed down by fear, flatterers and the want of true friends, and Simonides then advises how a ruler might win the goodwill of his people. Translated by H. G. Dakyns.
A short, sharp classical dialogue on power, famously studied by Leo Strauss in On Tyranny. Download the free EPUB.