Re: On Tyranny, by Leo Strauss
Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 6:27 am
PART 1 OF 2
Notes to On Tyranny
Introduction
1. Compare Social Research, v. 13, 1946, pp. 123-124. -- Hobbes, Leviathan, "A Review and Conclusion" (ed. by A. R. Waller, p. 523): " ... the name of Tyranny, signifieth nothing more, not lesse, than the name of Sovereignty, be it in one, or many men, saving that they that use the former word, are understood to be angry with them they call Tyrants...." -- Montesquieu, De l'Esprit des Lois, XI 9: "L'embarras d'Aristote parait visiblement quand il traite de la monarchie. Il en etablit cinq especes: il ne les distingue pas par la forme de la constitution, mais par des choses d'accident, comme les vertus ou les vices des princes...."
2. Principe, ch. 15, beginning; Discorsi I, beginning.
3. The most important reference to the Cyropaedia occurs in the Principe. It occurs a few lines before the passage in which Machiavelli expresses his intention to break with the whole tradition (ch. 14, toward the end). The Cyropaedia is clearly referred to in the Discorsi at least four times. If I am not mistaken, Machiavelli mentions Xenophon in the Principe and in the Discorsi more frequently than he does Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero taken together.
4. Discorsi II 2.
5. Classical political science took its bearings by man's perfection or by how men ought to live, and it culminated in the description of the best political order. Such an order was meant to be one whose realization was possible without a miraculous or nonmiraculous change in human nature, but its realization was not considered probable, because it was thought to depend on chance. Machiavelli attacks this view both by demanding that one should take one's bearings, not by how men ought to live but by how they actually live, and by suggesting that chance could or should be controlled. It is this attack which laid the foundation for all specifically modern political thought. The concern with a guarantee for the realization of the "ideal" led to both a lowering of the standards of political life and to the emergence of "philosophy of history": even the modern opponents of Machiavelli could not restore the sober view of the classics regarding the relation of "ideal" and "reality."
I. The Problem
1. Hiero 1.8-10; 2.3-6; 3.3-6; 8.1-7; 11.7-15.
2. Memorabilia II 1.21; Cyropaedia VIII 2.12. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1325a 34 ff. and Euripides, Phoenissae 524-5. 106
3. Memorabilia I 2.56.
4. Hiero 1.1; 2.5.
5. Hiero 8.1. Compare Memorabilia IV 2.23-24 with ibid. 16-17.
6. Hiero 1.14-15; 7.2. Compare Plato, Seventh Letter 332d6-7 and Isocrates, To Nicocles 3-4.
II. The Title and the Form
1. How necessary it is to consider carefully the titles of Xenophon's writings is shown most clearly by the difficulties presented by the titles of the Anabasis, of the Cyropaedia and, though less obviously, of the Memorabilia. Regarding the title of the Hiero, see also IV note 50, below.
2. There is only one more writing of Xenophon which would seem to serve the purpose of teaching a skill, the ; we cannot discuss here the question why it is not entitled . The purpose of the Cyropaedia is theoretical rather than practical, as appears from the first chapter of the work.
3. Compare Cyropaedia I 3.18 with Plato, Theages 124e11-125e7 and Amatores 138b15 ff.
4. De vectigalibus 1.1. Compare Memorabilia IV 4.11-12 and Symposium 4. 1-2.
5. Hiero 4.9-11; 7.10, 12; 8.10; 10.8; 11.1.
6. Memorabilia I 2.9-11; III 9.10; IV 6.12 (compare IV 4). Oeconomicus 21.12. Resp. Lac. 10.7; 15.7-8. Agesilaus 7.2. Hellenica VI 4.33-35; VII 1.46 (compare V 4.1; VII 3.7-8). The opening sentence of the Cyropaedia implies that tyranny is the least stable regime. (See Aristotle, Politics 1315b10 ff.).
7. Hiero 4.5. Hellenica V 4.9, 13; VI 4.32. Compare Hiero 7.10 with Hellenica VII 3.7. See also Isocrates, Nicocles 24.
8. Plato, Republic 393C11.
9. Memorabilia III 4.7-12; 6.14; IV 2.11.
10. Oeconomicus 1.23; 4.2-19; 5.13-16; 6.5-10; 8.4-8; 9.13-15; 13.4-5; 14.310, 20.6-9; 21.2-12. The derogatory remark on tyrants at the end of the work is a fitting conclusion for a writing devoted to the royal art as such. Since Plato shares the "Socratic" view according to which the political art is not essentially different from the economic art, one may also say that it can only be due to secondary considerations that his Politicus is not entitled Oeconomicus.
11. Memorabilia IV 6.12.
12. Apologia Socratis 34.
13. Memorabilia I 2.31 ff.; III 7.5-6.
14. Plato, Hipparchus 228b-c (cf. 229b). Aristotle, Resp. Athen. 18.1.
15. Plato, Second Letter 310e5 ff.
16. Memorabilia I 5.6.
17. Aristophanes, Pax 698-9. Aristotle, Rhetoric 1391a8-11; 1405b24-28. See also Plato, Hipparchus 228c. Lessing called Simonides the Greek Voltaire.
18. Oeconomicus 6.4; 2.2, 12 ff. Compare Memorabilia IV 7.1 with ibid. III 1.1 ff. Compare Anabasis VI 1.23 with ibid. 110.12.
19. Hiero 9.7-11; 11.4, 13-14, Compare Oeconomicus 1.15.
20. Hiero 1.2, 10; 2.6.
21. Note the almost complete absence of proper names from the Hiero. The only proper name that occurs in the work (apart, of course, from the names of Hiero, Simonides, Zeus, and the Greeks) is that of Dailochus, Hiero's favorite. George Grote, Plato and the other companions of Socrates (London, 1888, v. I, 222), makes the following just remark: "When we read the recommendations addressed by Simonides, teaching Hiero how he might render himself popular, we perceive at once that they are alike well intentioned and ineffectual. Xenophon could neither find any real Grecian despot correspondingly to this portion ... nor could he invent one with any show of plausibility." Grote continues, however, as follows: "He was forced to resort to other countries and other habits different from those of Greece. To this necessity probably we owe the Cyropaedia." For the moment, it suffices to remark that, according to Xenophon, Cyrus is not a tyrant but a king. Grote's error is due to the identification of "tyrant" with "despot."
22. Simonides barely alludes to the mortality of Hiero or of tyrants in general (Hiero 10.4): Hiero, being a tyrant, must be supposed to live in perpetual fear of assassination. Compare especially Hiero 11.7, end, with Agesilaus 9.7 end. Compare also Hiero 7.2 and 7.7 ff. as well as 8.3 ff. (the ways of honoring people) with Hellenica VI 1.6 (honoring by solemnity of burial). Cf. Hiero 11.7, 15 with Plato, Republic 465d2-e2.
III. The Setting
A. THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR INTENTIONS
1. Hiero 1.12; 2.8. Compare Plato, Republic 579b3-c3.
2. Aristotle, Rhetoric 1391a8-11.
3. Hiero 1.13; 6.13; 11.10.
4. Memorabilia I 2.33. Oeconomicus 7.2. Cyropaedia I 4.13; III 1.14; VIII 4.9.
5. Hiero 1.1-2.
6. Aristotle, Politics 1311a4-5. Compare the thesis of Callides in Plato's Gorgias.
7. Observe the repeated in Hiero 1.1-2. The meaning of this indication is revealed by what happens during the conversation. In order to know better than Simonides how the two ways of life differ in regard to pleasures and pains, Hiero would have to possess actual knowledge of both ways of life; i.e., Hiero must not have forgotten the pleasures and pains characteristic of private life; yet Hiero suggests that he does not remember them sufficiently (1.3). Furthermore, knowledge of the difference in question is acquired by means of calculation or reasoning (l.11, 3), and the calculation required presupposes knowledge of the different value, or of the different degree of importance, of the various kinds of pleasure and pain; yet Hiero has to learn from Simonides that some kinds of pleasure are of minor importance as compared with others (2.1; 7.3-4). Besides, in order to know better than Simonides the difference in question, Hiero would have to possess at least as great a power of calculating or reasoning as Simonides; yet Simonides shows that Hiero's alleged knowledge of the difference (a knowledge which he had not acquired but with the assistance of Simonides) is based on the fatal disregard of a most relevant factor (8.1-7). The thesis that a man who has experienced both ways of life knows the manner of their difference better than he who has experienced only one of them is then true only if important qualifications are added; in itself, it is the result of an enthymeme and merely plausible.
8. Hiero 1.8, 14, 16. Simonides says that tyrants are universally admired or envied (1.9), and he implies that the same is of course not true of private men as such. His somewhat more reserved statements in 2.1-2 and 7.1-4 about specific kinds of pleasure must be understood, to begin with, in the light of his general statement about all kinds of pleasure in 1.8. The statement that Simonides makes in 2.1-2 is understood by Hiero in the light of Simonides' general statement, as appears from 2.3-5; 4.6; and 6.12. (Compare also 8.7 with 3.3.) For the interpretation of Simonides' initial question, consider Isocrates, To Nicocles 4- 5.
9. Hiero 2.3-5. One should also not forget the fact that the author of the Hiero never was a tyrant. Compare Plato, Republic 577a-b and Gorgias 470d5-ell.
10. Memorabilia I 3.2; IV 8.6; 5.9-10. Compare Anabasis VI 1.17-21.
11. Memorabilia IV 6.1, 7; III 3.11; I 2.14.
12. Hiero 1.21, 31.
13. Compare Hiero 11.5-6 and Agesilaus 9.6-7 with Pindar, Ol. I and Pyth. I-III.
14. Hiero 1.14. The same rule of conduct was observed by Socrates. Compare the manner in which he behaved when talking to the "legislators" Critias and Charicles, with his open blame of the Thirty which he pronounced "somewhere, " i.e., not in the presence of the tyrants, and which had to be "reported" to Critias and Charicles (Memorabilia I 2.32-38; observe the repetition of . In Plato's Protagoras (345e-346b8) Socrates excuses Simonides for having praised tyrants under compulsion.
15. Hiero 1.9-10, 16-17; 2.3-5.
16. Hiero 1.10; 8.1.
17. Hiero 2.3-5.
18. While all men consider tyrants enviable, while the multitude is deceived by the outward splendor of tyrants, the multitude does not wish to be ruled by tyrants but rather by the just. Compare Hiero 2.3-5 with ibid. 5.1 and 4.5. Compare Plato, Republic 344b5- l.
19. Compare the end of the Oeconomicus with ibid. 6.12 ff. See also Memorabilia II 6.22 ff.
20. Hiero 5.1; 1.1.
21. Hiero 6.5. Aristotle, Politics 1314a10-13.
22. Hiero 4.2. See note 14 above.
23. Hiero 5.1-2.
24. Hiero mentions "contriving something bad and base" in 4.10, i.e., almost immediately before the crucial passage. Compare also 1.22-23.
25. Memorabilia I 2.31; IV 2.33; Symposium 6.6. Apologia Socratis 20-21. Cyropaedia III 1.39. Compare Plato, Apol. Socr. 23d4-7 and 28a6-bl, as well as Seventh Letter 344c1-3.
26. Memorabilia I 6.12-13.
27. Compare Oeconomicus 6.12 ff. and 11.1 ff with Memorabilia I 1.16 and IV 6.7. Compare Plato, Republic 489e3-490a3. The distinction between the two meanings of "gentleman" corresponds to the Platonic distinction between common or political virtue and genuine virtue.
28. Cyropaedia 11.1. Memorabilia I 2.56; 6.11-12. Compare Memorabilia IV 2.33 with Symposium 3.4. See Plato, Seventh Letter 333b3 ff. and 334al-3 as well as Gorgias 468e6- -9 and 469c3 (cf. 492d2-3); also Republic 493a6 ff.
29. Memorabilia I 2.31 ff.; IV 4.3. Symposium 4.13. Compare Plato, Apol. Socr. 20e8-21a3 and 32c4-d8 as well as Gorgias 480e6 ff.; also Protagoras 329e2-330a2. Cf. note 14 above.
30. Hellenica IV 4.6. Compare Symposium 3.4.
31. Whereas Hiero asserts that the tyrant is unjust, he does not say that he is foolish. Whereas he asserts that the entourage of the tyrant consists of the unjust, the intemperate, and the servile, he does not say that it consists of fools. Consider the lack of correspondence between the virtues mentioned in Hiero 5.1. and the vices mentioned in 5.2. Moreover, by proving that he is wiser than the wise Simonides, Hiero proves that the tyrant may be wise indeed.
32. According to Xenophon's Socrates, he who possesses the specific knowledge required for ruling well is eo ipso a ruler (Memorabilia III 9.10; 1.4). Hence he who possesses the tyrannical art is eo ipso a tyrant. From Xenophon's point of view, Hiero's distrust of Simonides is an ironic reflection of the Socratic truth. It is ironic for the following reason: From Xenophon's point of view, the wise teacher of the royal art, or of the tyrannical art, is not a potential ruler in the ordinary sense of the term, because he who knows how to rule does not necessarily wish to rule. Even Hiero grants by implication that the just do not wish to rule, or that they wish merely to mind their own business (cf. Hiero 5.1 with Memorabilia I 2.48 and II 9.1). If the wise man is necessarily just, the wise teacher of the tyrannical art will not wish to be a tyrant. But it is precisely the necessary connection between wisdom and justice which is questioned by Hiero's distinction between the wise and the just.
33. Hiero 2.3-5 (compare the wording with that used ibid. 1.9 and in Cyropaedia IV 2.28). It should be emphasized that in this important passage Hiero does not speak explicitly of wisdom. (His only explicit remark on wisdom occurs in the central passage, in 5.1). Furthermore, Hiero silently qualifies what he says about happiness in 2.3-5 in a later passage (7.9-10) where he admits that bliss requires outward or visible signs.
34. Hiero 2.6; 1.10.
35. Hiero states at the beginning that Simonides is a wise man (); but as Simonides explains in 7.3-4, [real] men () as distinguished from [ordinary] human beings () are swayed by ambition and hence apt to aspire to tyrannical power. (The at the end of 1.1 corresponds to the at the end of 1.2. Cf. also 7.9 beginning.) Shortly after the beginning, Hiero remarks that Simonides is "at present still a private man" (1.3), thus implying that he might well become a tyrant. Accordingly, Hiero speaks only once of "you [private men], " whereas Simonides speaks fairly frequently of "you [tyrants]": Hiero hesitates to consider Simonides as merely a private man (6.10. The "you" in 2.5 refers to the reputedly wise men as distinguished from the multitude. Simonides speaks of "you tyrants" in the following passages: 1.14, 16, 24, 26; 2.2; 7.2, 4; 8.7). For the distinction between "real men" and "ordinary human beings," compare also Anabasis 17.4; Cyropaedia IV 2.25; V 5.33; Plato, Republic 550a1; Protagoras 316c5-317b5.
36. Hiero 1.9; 6.12. , the term used by Simonides and later on by Hiero, designates jealousy, the noble counterpart of envy rather than envy proper (cf. Aristotle, Rhetoric II 11). That the tyrant is exposed to envy in the strict sense of the term appears from Hiero's remark in 7.10 and from Simonides' emphatic promise at the end of the dialogue: the tyrant who has become the benefactor of his subjects will be happy without being envied. Cf. also 11.6, where it is implied that a tyrant like Hiero is envied (cf. note 13 above). In Hiero 1.9, Simonides avoids speaking of "envy" because the term might suggest that all men bear ill- ill to the tyrant, and this implication would spoil completely the effect of his statement. Hiero's statement in 6.12, which refers not only to 1.9 but to 2.2 as well, amounts to a correction of what Simonides had said in the former passage; Hiero suggests that not all men, but only men like Simonides, are jealous of the tyrant's wealth and power. As for Simonides' distinction (in 1.9) between "all men" who are jealous of tyrants and the "many" who desire to be tyrants, it has to be understood as follows: many who consider a thing an enviable possession do not seriously desire it, because they are convinced of their inability to acquire it. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1311a29-31 and 1313a17-23.
37. By using the tyrant's fear as a means for his betterment, Simonides acts in accordance with a pedagogic principle of Xenophon; see Hipparchicus 1.8; Memorabilia III 5.5-6; Cyropaedia III 1.23-24.
38. Compare Hiero 1.14 with 1.16. Note the emphatic character of Simonides' assent to Hiero's reply. (1.16, beginning). Compare also 2.2 with 11.2-5.
39. Compare Hiero 4.5 with Hellenica VI 4.32 and VII 3.4-6.
40. Compare Hiero 6.14 with Hellenica VII 3.12.
41. Compare Hiero 6.1-3 with Cyropaedia 13.10, 18.
42. Compare Hiero 8.6 with ibid. 2.1. The statement is not contradicted by Hiero; it is prepared, and thus to a certain extent confirmed, by what Hiero says in 1.27 () and 1.29. In 7.5, Hiero indicates that agreement had been reached between him and Simonides on the subject of sex.
43. Hiero 2.12-18.
44. By showing this, Hiero elaborates what we may call the gentleman's image of the tyrant. Xenophon pays a great compliment to Hiero's education by entrusting to him the only elaborate presentation of the gentleman's view of tyranny which he ever wrote. Compare p. 31 above on the relation between the Hiero and the Agesilaus. The relation of Hiero's indictment of tyranny to the true account of tyranny can be compared to the relation of the Athenian story about the family of Pisistratus to Thucydides' "exact" account. One may also compare it to the relation of the Agesilaus to the corresponding sections of the Hellenica.
45. Memorabilia IV 4.10. Agesilaus 1.6. As for the purpose of the Hellenica, compare IV 8.1 and V 1.4 with II 3.56 as well as with Symposium 1.1 and Cyropaedia VIII 7.24.
46. Memorabilia I 2.58-61. While Xenophon denies the charge that Socrates had interpreted the verses in question in a particularly obnoxious manner, he does not deny the fact that Socrates frequently quoted the verses. Why Socrates liked them, or how he interpreted them, is indicated ibid. IV 6.13-15: Socrates used two types of dialectics, one which leads to the truth and another which, by never leaving the dimension of generally accepted opinions, leads to (political) agreement. For the interpretation of the passage, compare Symposium 4.59-60 with ibid. 4.56-58.
47. Symposium 3.6. Compare Plato, Republic 378d6-8 and al-6.
48. To summarize our argument, " we shall say that if Hiero is supposed to state the truth or even merely to be completely frank, the whole Hiero becomes unintelligible. If one accepts either supposition, one will be compelled to agree with the following criticism by Ernst Richter ("Xenophon-Studien," Fleckeisen's Jahrbucher fur classische Philologie, 19. Supplementband, 1893, 149): "Einem solchen Manne, der sich so freimuthig uber sich selbst aussert, und diese lobenswerten Gesinnungen hegt, mochte man kaum die Schreckensthaten zutrauen, die er als von der Tyrannenherrschaft unzertrennlich hinstellt. Hat er aber wirklich soviel Menschen getotet und ubt er taglich noch soviel Ubelthaten aus, ist fur ihn wirklich das Beste der Strick -- und er musste es ja wissen --, so kommen die Ermahnungen des Simonides in zweiten Teil ganz gewiss zu spat.... Simonides gibt Ratschlage, wie sie nur bei einem Fursten vom Schlage des Kyros oder Agesilaos angebracht sind, nie aber bei einem Tyrannen, wie ihn Hieron beschreibt, der schon gar nicht mehr weiss, wie er sich vor seinen Todfeinden schutzen kann." Not to repeat what we have said in the text, the quick transition from Hiero's indictment of the tyrant's injustice (7.7-13)tohisremark that the tyrants punish the unjust (8.9) is unintelligible but for the fact that his account is exaggerated. If one supposes then that Hiero exaggerates, one has to wonder why he exaggerates. Now, Hiero himself makes the following assertions: that the tyrants trust no one; that they fear the wise; that Simonides is a real man; and that Simonides admires, or is jealous of, the tyrants' power. These assertions of Hiero supply us with the only authentic clue to the riddle of the dialogue. Some of the assertions referred to are without doubt as much suspect of being exaggerated as almost all other assertions of Hiero. But this very fact implies that they contain an element of truth, or that they are true if taken with a grain of salt.
B. THE ACTION OF THE DIALOGUE
1. Hiero 1.3. As for the duration of Hiero's reign, see Aristotle, Politics 1315b35 ff. and Diodorus Siculus XI 38. Hiero shows later on (Hiero 6.1-2) that he recalls very well certain pleasures of private men of which he had not been reminded by Simonides.
2. Hiero 1.4-5. The "we" in "we all know" in 1.4 refers of course to private men and tyrants alike. Compare 1.29 and 10.4.
3. Hiero 1.4-6. To begin with, i.e., before Simonides has aroused his opposition, Hiero does not find any difference between tyrants and private men in regard to sleep (1. 7). Later on, in an entirely different conversational situation, Hiero takes up "the pleasures of private men of which the tyrant is deprived"; in that context, while elaborating the gentleman's image of the tyrant (with which Simonides must be presumed to have been familiar from the outset), Hiero speaks in the strongest terms of the difference between tyrants and private men in regard to the enjoyment of sleep (6.3, 7-10).
4. Twelve out of fifteen classes of pleasant or painful things are unambiguously of a bodily nature. The three remaining classes are (1) the good things, (2) the bad things, and (3) sleep. As for the good and the bad things, Simonides says that they please or pain us sometimes through the working of the soul alone and sometimes through that of the soul and the body together. As regards sleep, he leaves open the question by means of what kind of organ or faculty we enjoy it.
5. Compare Hiero 2.1 and 7.3 with Memorabilia II 1.
6. Hiero 1.19. Compare Isocrates, To Nicocles 4.
7. Compare Hiero 4.8-9 with Memorabilia IV 2.37-38.
8. Hiero 1.7-10. Hiero's oath in 1.10 is the first oath occurring in the dialogue. Hiero uses the emphatic form
9. See in Hiero 1.10 the explicit reference to the order of Simonides' enumeration.
10. The proof is based on , i.e., on a comparison of data that are supplied by experience or observation. Compare Hiero 1.11 () with the reference to in 1.10. Compare Memorabilia IV 3.11 and Hellenica VII 4.2.
11. The passage consists of five parts: (1) "sights" (Hiero contributes 163 words, Simonides is silent); (2) "sounds" (Hiero 36 words, Simonides 68 words); (3) "food" (Hiero 230 words, Simonides 76 words); (4) "odors" (Hiero is silent, Simonides 32 words); (5) "sex" (Hiero 411 words, Simonides 42 words). Hiero is most vocal concerning "sex"; Simonides is most vocal concerning "food. "
12. Compare III A, note 42, and III B, notes 11 and 19. As for the connection between sexual love and tyranny, cf. Plato, Republic 573e6.-7, 574e2 and 575a1-2.
13. Hiero 1.31-33.
14. Compare Hiero 1.16 with the parallels in 1.14, 24, 26.
15. Simonides' first oath () occurs in the passage dealing with sounds, i.e., with praise (1.16).
16. Rudolf Hirzel, Der Dialog, I. Leipzig, 1895, 171, notes "die geringe Lebendigkeit des Gesprachs, die vorherrschende Neigung zu langeren Vortragen": all the more striking is the character of the discussion of "food."
17. Simonides grants this by implication in Hiero 1.26.
18. Mr. Marchant (Xenophon, Scripta Minora, Loeb's Classical Library, XV-XVI) says: "There is no attempt at characterization in the persons of the dialogue.... The remark of the poet at c.l.22 is singularly inappropriate to a man who had a liking for good living." In the passage referred to, Simonides declares that "acid, pungent, astringent and kindred things" are "very unnatural for human beings": he says nothing at all against "sweet and kindred things." The view that bitter, acid, etc., things are "against nature, " was shared by Plato (Timaeus 65c-66c), by Aristotle (Eth. Nic. 1153a5-6; cf. De anima 422b 10-14) and, it seems, by Alcmaeon (cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics 986a22-34). Moreover, Simonides says that acid, pungent, etc., things are unnatural for "human beings"; but "human beings" may have to be understood in contradistinction to "real men" (cf. III A, note 35 above). At any rate, the fare censured by Simonides is recommended as a fare for soldiers by Cyrus in a speech addressed to "real men" (Cyropaedia VI 2.31). (Compare also Symposium 4.9). Above all, Marchant who describes the Hiero as "a naive little work, not unattractive, " somewhat naively overlooks the fact that Simonides' utterances serve primarily the purpose, not of characterizing Simonides, but of influencing Hiero; they characterize the poet in a more subtle way than the one which alone is considered by Marchant: the fact that Simonides indicates, or fails to indicate, his likes or dislikes according to the requirements of his pedagogic intentions, characterizes him as wise.
19. Hiero 1.26. "Sex" is the only motive of which Simonides ever explicitly says that it could be the only motive for desiring tyrannical power. Compare note 12 above.
20. Hiero 7.5-6.
21. Hiero 8.6.
22. Note the increased emphasis on "(real) men" in Hiero 2.1. In the parallel passage of the first section (1.9), Simonides had spoken of "most able (real) men." Compare the corresponding change of emphasis in Hiero's replies (see the following note).
23. Compare Hiero 1.16-17 with 2.1, where Simonides declares that the bodily pleasures appear to him to be very minor things and that, as he observes, many of those who are reputed to be real men do not attach any great value to those pleasures. Hiero's general statement in 2.3-5, which is so much stronger than his corresponding statement in the first section (1.10), amounts to a tacit rejection of Simonides' claim: Hiero states that the view expressed by Simonides in 2.1-2, far from being nonvulgar, is the vulgar view.
24. Hiero 2.1-2. Simonides does not explicitly speak of "wealth and power." "Wealth and power" had been mentioned by Hiero in 1.27. (Compare Aristotle, Politics 1311a8-12.) On the basis of Simonides' initial enumeration (1.4-6), one would expect that the second section (ch. 2-6) would deal with the three kinds of pleasure that had not been discussed in the first section, viz. the objects perceived by the whole body, the good and bad things, and sleep. Only good and bad things and, to a lesser degree, sleep are clearly discernible as subjects of the second section. As for good and bad things, see the following passages: 2.6- 7, 3.1, 3, 5; 4.1; 5.2, 4. (Compare also 2.2 with Anabasis III 1.19-20.) As for sleep, see 6.3-9. As for objects perceived by the whole body, compare 1.5 and 2.2 with Memorabilia III 8.8-9 and 10.13. Sleep (the last item of the initial enumeration) is not yet mentioned in the retrospective summary at the beginning of the second section, whereas it is mentioned in the parallel at the beginning of the third section (cf. 2.1 with 7.3); in this manner Xenophon indicates that the discussion of the subjects mentioned in the initial enumeration is completed at the end of the second section: the third section deals with an entirely new subject.
25. Simonides merely intimates it, for he does not say in so many words that "they aspire to greater things, to power and wealth." Taken by itself, the statement with which Simonides opens the second section is much less far-reaching than the statements with which he had opened the discussion of the first section (1.8-9, 16). But one has to understand the later statement in the light of the earlier ones, if one wants to understand the conversational situation. Compare III A, note 8 above.
26. Simonides fails to mention above all the field or farm which occupies the central position among the objects desired by private men (Hiero 4.7) and whose cultivation is praised by Socrates as a particularly pleasant possession (Oeconomicus 5.11). Compare also Hiero 11.1-4 with ibid. 4.7 and Memorabilia III 11.4. Simonides pushes into the background the pleasures of private men who limit themselves to minding their own business instead of being swayed by political ambition (see Memorabilia 1. 2.48 and II 9.1) Farming is a skill of peace (Oeconomicus 4.12 and 1.17). Simonides also fails to mention dogs (compare Hiero 2.2 with Agesilaus 9.6). Compare De vectigalibus 4.8.
27. Whereas we find in the first section an explicit reference to the order of Simonides' enumeration (1.10), no such reference occurs in the second section. In the second section Hiero refers only once explicitly to the statement with which Simonides had opened the section, i.e., to 2.1-2; he does this, however, only after (and in fact almost immediately after) Simonides has made his only contribution to the discussion of the second section (6.12-13). An obvious, although implicit, reference to 2.2 occurs in 4.6-7. (Cf. especially the ... ... in 4.7 with the in 2.2). The in 2.7 (peace-war) refers to the last item mentioned in 2.2 (enemies-friends). These references merely underline the deviation of Hiero's speech from Simonides' enumeration. Simonides' silence is emphasized by Xenophon's repeated mention of the fact that Simonides has been listening to Hiero's speeches, i.e., that Simonides had not spoken (see 6.9; 7.1, 11). There is no mention of Hiero's listening to Simonides' statements.
28. See note 25 above.
29. As for Simonides, see p. 33 above. Hiero's concern with wealth is indicated by the fact that, deviating from Simonides, he explicitly mentions the receiving of gifts among the signs of honor (compare 7.7-9 with 7.2). To comply with Hiero's desire, Simonides promises him later on (11.12) gifts among other things. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1311a8 ff. and note 74 below. Consider also the emphatic use of "possession" in Simonides' final promise. Simonides' silence about love of gain as distinguished from love of honor (compare Hiero 7.1-4 with Oeconomicus 14.9-10) is remarkable. It appears from Hiero 9.11 and 11.12-13 that the same measures which would render the tyrant honored, would render him rich as well.
30. Friendship as discussed by Hiero in ch. 3 is something different from "helping friends" which is mentioned by Simonides in 2.2. The latter topic is discussed by Hiero in 6.12-13.
31. Compare 2.8 with 1.11-12; 3.7-9 with 1.38; 3.8 and 4.1-2 with 1.27-29; 4.2 with 1.17- 5. In the cited passages of ch. 1, as distinguished from the parallels in ch. 2 ff., no mention of "killing of tyrants" occurs. Compare also the insistence on the moral depravity of the tyrant, or on his injustice, in the second section (5.1-2 and 4.11) with the only mention of "injustice" in the first section (1.12): in the first section only the "injustice" suffered by tyrants is mentioned. As regards, 1.36, see note 41 below.
32. Marchant (loc. cit, XVI) remarks that Xenophon "makes no attempt anywhere to represent the courtier poet; had he done so he must have made Simonides bring in the subject of verse panegyrics on princes at c. 1.14." It is hard to judge this suggested improvement on the Hiero since Marchant does not tell us how far the remark on verse panegyrics on princes would have been more conducive than what Xenophon's Simonides actually says toward the achievement of Simonides' aim. Besides, compare Hiero 9.4 with 9.2. We read in Macauley's essay on Frederick the Great: "Nothing can be conceived more whimsical than the conferences which took place between the first literary man and the first practical man of the age, whom a strange weakness had induced to exchange their parts. The great poet would talk of nothing but treaties and guarantees, and the great king of nothing but metaphors and rhymes."
33. Hiero 3.6; 4.6; 5.1.
34. Note the frequent use of the second person singular in ch. 13, and the ascent from the in 3.1 to the in 3.6 and finally to the in 3.8.
35. Hiero 6.1-6.
36. Compare Hiero 6.7 with ibid. 6.3
37. Hiero 6.7-9. The importance of Simonides' remark is underlined by the following three features of Hiero's reply: First, that reply opens with the only oath that occurs in the second section. Second, that reply, being one of the three passages of the Hiero in which laws are mentioned (3.9; 4.4; 6.10), is the only passage in the dialogue in which it is clearly intimated that tyrannical government is government without laws, i.e., it is the only passage in Xenophon's only work on tyranny in which the essential character of tyranny comes, more or less, to light. Third, Hiero's reply is the only passage of the Hiero in which Hiero speaks of "you (private men)" (see III A, note 35 above). Compare also III B, note 27 above.
38. The character of Simonides' only contribution to the discussion of the second section can also be described as follows: While he was silent when friendship was being discussed, he talks in a context in which war is mentioned; he is more vocal regarding war than regarding friendship. See note 26 above.
39. The situation is illustrated by the following figures: In the first section (1.1038) Simonides contributes about 218 words out of about 1058; in the second section (2.3-6.16) he contributes 28 words out of about 2,000; in the third section (ch. 7) he contributes 220 words out of 522; in the fourth section (ch. 8-11) he contributes about 1, 475 words out of about 1, 600.-K. Lincke, "Xenophons Hiero und Demetrios von Phaleron," Philologus, v. 58, 1899, 226, correctly describes the "Sinnesanderung" of Hiero as "die Peripetie des Dialogs."
40. Compare note 24 above. The initial enumeration had dealt explicitly with the pleasures of "human beings" (see III a, note 35 above), but honor, the subject of the third section, is the aim, not of "human beings," but of "real men." One has no right to assume that the subject of the third section is the pleasures or pains of the soul, and the subject of the second section is the pleasures or pains common to body and soul. In the first place, the pleasures or pains of the soul precede in the initial enumeration the pleasures or pains common to body and soul; besides , which is mentioned in the enumeration that opens the second section (2.2), is certainly an activity of the soul alone; finally, the relation of honor to praise as well as the examples adduced by Simonides show clearly that the pleasure connected with honor is not meant to be a pleasure of the soul alone (compare 7.2-3 with 1.14). When Simonides says that no human pleasure comes nearer to the divine than the pleasure concerning honors, he does not imply that that pleasure is a pleasure of the soul alone, for, apart from other considerations, it is an open question whether Simonides, or Xenophon, considered the deity an incorporeal being. As for Xenophon's view on this subject, compare Memorabilia I 4.17 and context (for the interpretation consider Cicero, De natura deorum 112.30-31 and III 10.26-27) as well as ibid. IV 3.13- 4. Compare Cynegeticus 12.19ff.
41. Compare Hiero 7.1-4 with ibid. 2.1-2. See III A, note 8, and III B, note 22 above. The "many" (in the expression "tor many of those who are reputed to be real men") is emphasized by the insertion of "he said" after "for many" (2.1), and the purpose of this emphasis is to draw our attention to the still limited character of the thesis that opens the second section. This is not the only case in which Xenophon employs this simple device for directing the reader's attention. The "he said" after "we seem" in 1.5 draws our attention to the fact that Simonides uses here for the first time the first person when speaking of private men. The two redundant "he said" 's in 1.7-8 emphasize the "he answered" which precedes the first of these two "he said" 's, thus making it clear that Simonides' preceding enumeration of pleasures has the character of a question addressed to Hiero, or that Simonides is testing Hiero. The second "he said" in 1.31 draws our attention to the preceding (lV, i.e., to the fact that Hiero's assertion concerning tyrants in general is now applied by Simonides to Hiero in particular. The "he said" in 1.36 draws our attention to the fact that the tyrant Hiero hates to behave like a brigand. The redundant" he said" in 7.1 draws our attention to the fact that the following praise of honor is based on . The "he said" in 7.13 emphasizes the preceding , i.e., the fact that Hiero does not use in this context the normally used , for he is now describing in the strongest possible terms how bad tyranny is.
42. Hiero 7.5-10.
43. Compare Hiero 7.3 with ibid. 1.14-15.
44. In the third section, Simonides completely abandons the vulgar opinion in favor not of the gentleman's opinion but of the opinion of the real man. The aim of the real man is distinguished from that of the gentleman by the fact that honor as striven for by the former does not essentially presuppose a just life. Compare Hiero 7.3 with Oeconomicus 14.9.
45. Hiero 7.11-13. I have put in parentheses the thoughts which Hiero does not express. As for Simonides' question, compare Anabasis VII 7.28.
46. Hiero 1.12. As for the tyrant's fear of punishment, see ibid. 5.2.
47. Regarding strangers, see Hiero 1.28; 5.3; 6.5.
48. Compare Hiero 8.9 with ibid. 7.7 and 5.2.
49. Simonides continues asserting that tyrannical life is superior to private life; compare Hiero 8.1-7 with ibid. 1.8 ff.; 2.1-2; 7.1 ff.
50. Hiero 7.12-13.
51. When comparing Hiero 7.13 with Apologia Socratis 7 and 32, one is led to wonder why Hiero is contemplating such an unpleasant form of death as hanging: does he belong to those who never gave thought to the question of the easiest way of dying? Or does he thus reveal that he never seriously considered committing suicide? Compare also Anabasis II 6.29.
52. Memorabilia I 2.10-11, 14.
53. "You are out of heart with tyranny because you believe...." (Hiero 8.1).
54. Compare also the transition from "tyranny" to the more general "rule" in Hiero 8.1 ff. Regarding the relation of "tyranny" and "rule, " see Memorabilia IV 6.12; Plato, Republic 338d7-11; Aristotle, Politics 1276a2-4.
55. Hiero 7.5-6, 9; compare ibid. 1.37-38 and 3.8-9.
56. Hiero 8.1.
57. Hiero 8.1-7. Compare note 54 above.
58. Compare Hiero 1.36-38.
59. In this context (8.3), there occur allusions to the topics discussed in 1.10 ff: (sights), (sounds), (food). The purpose of this is to indicate the fact that Simonides is now discussing the subject matter of the first part from the opposite point of view.
60. Memorabilia II 1.27-28; 3.10-14; 6.10-16. Compare Anabasis 19.20 ff.
61. If Simonides had acted differently, he would have appeared as a just man, and Hiero would fear him. Whereas Hiero's fear of the just is definite, his fear of the wise is indeterminate (see pp. 41-45 above); it may prove to be unfounded in a given case. This is what actually happens in the Hiero: Simonides convinces Hiero that the wise can be friends of tyrants. One cannot help being struck by the contrast between Simonides' "censure" of the tyrant Hiero and the prophet Nathan's accusation of the Lord's anointed King David (II Samuel 12).
62. Hiero 8.8. The equally unique a in 9.1 draws our attention to the in 8.8.
63. Hiero 8.8-10. Compare ibid. 6.12-13.
64. Hiero 9.1. Observe the negative formulation of Simonides' assent to a statement dealing with unpleasant aspects of tyrannical rule.
65. Simonides' speech consists of two parts. In the fairly short first part (9.1-4), he states the general principle. In the more extensive second part (9.5-11), he makes specific proposals regarding its application by the tyrant. In the second part punishment and the like are no longer mentioned. The unpleasant aspects of tyranny, or of government in general, are also barely alluded to in the subsequent chapters. Probably the most charming expression of the poet's dignified silence about these disturbing things occurs in 10.8. There, Simonides refrains from mentioning the possibility that the tyrant's mercenaries, these angels of mercy, might actually punish the evildoers: he merely mentions how they should behave toward the innocent, toward those who intend to do evil and toward the injured. Compare the preceding note. Compare also the statement of the Athenian stranger in Plato's Laws 711 b4-c2 with the subsequent statement of Clinias.
66. As for bewitching tricks to be used by absolute rulers, see Cyropaedia VIII 1.40-42; 2.26; 3.1. These less reserved remarks are those of a historian or a spectator rather than of an adviser. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1314a40: the tyrant ought to play the king.
67. Ch. 9 and ch. 10 are the only parts of the Hiero in which "tyrant" and derivatives are avoided.
68. Compare especially Hiero 9.10 with ibid. 11.10.
69. Hiero 9.7, 11.
70. Hiero 9.6. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1315a31-40.
71. Hiero 8.10.
72. Hiero 10.1.
73. Hiero 10.2. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1314a33 ff.
74. Compare Hiero 4.9, 11 with 4.3 ("without pay") and 10.8.
75. Compare Hiero 11.1 with 9.7-11 and 10.8.
76. Hiero 11.1-6. Compare p. 38 above. One is tempted to suggest that the Hiero represents Xenophon's interpretation of the contest between Simonides and Pindar.
77. Hiero 11.7-15. Compare Plato, Republic 465d2-e2.
78. K. Lincke (loc. cit, 244), however, feels "dass Hiero eines Besseren belehrt worden ware, muss der Leser sich hinzudenken, obgleich es ... besser ware, wenn man die Zustimmung ausgesprochen sahe." The Platonic parallel to Hiero's silence at the end of the Hiero is Callicles' silence at the end of the Gorgias and Thrasymachus' silence in books II- of the Republic.
C. THE USE OF CHARACTERISTIC TERMS
1.Marchant, loc. cit, XVI.
2. For instance, Nabis is called "principe" in Principe IX and "tiranno" in Discorsi I 40, and Pandolfo Petruzzi is called "principe" in Principe XX and XXII, and "tiranno" in Discorsi III 6. Compare also the transition from "tyrant" to "ruler" in the second part of the Hiero.
3. Compare Hellenica VI 3.8, end.
4. Hiero 9.6.
5. Hiero 11.6; 1.31. Compare Apologia Socratis 28, a remark which Socrates made "laughingly."
6.Compare the absence of courage (or manliness) from the lists of Socrates' virtues: Memorabilia IV 8.11 (cf. IV 4.1 ff.) and Apologia Socratis 14, 16. Compare Symposium 9.1 with Hiero 7.3. But consider also II, note 22 above.
7. Compare Hiero 9.8 on the one hand with 1.8, 19 and 5.1-2 on the other.
8. Hiero 10.1.
Notes to On Tyranny
Introduction
1. Compare Social Research, v. 13, 1946, pp. 123-124. -- Hobbes, Leviathan, "A Review and Conclusion" (ed. by A. R. Waller, p. 523): " ... the name of Tyranny, signifieth nothing more, not lesse, than the name of Sovereignty, be it in one, or many men, saving that they that use the former word, are understood to be angry with them they call Tyrants...." -- Montesquieu, De l'Esprit des Lois, XI 9: "L'embarras d'Aristote parait visiblement quand il traite de la monarchie. Il en etablit cinq especes: il ne les distingue pas par la forme de la constitution, mais par des choses d'accident, comme les vertus ou les vices des princes...."
2. Principe, ch. 15, beginning; Discorsi I, beginning.
3. The most important reference to the Cyropaedia occurs in the Principe. It occurs a few lines before the passage in which Machiavelli expresses his intention to break with the whole tradition (ch. 14, toward the end). The Cyropaedia is clearly referred to in the Discorsi at least four times. If I am not mistaken, Machiavelli mentions Xenophon in the Principe and in the Discorsi more frequently than he does Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero taken together.
4. Discorsi II 2.
5. Classical political science took its bearings by man's perfection or by how men ought to live, and it culminated in the description of the best political order. Such an order was meant to be one whose realization was possible without a miraculous or nonmiraculous change in human nature, but its realization was not considered probable, because it was thought to depend on chance. Machiavelli attacks this view both by demanding that one should take one's bearings, not by how men ought to live but by how they actually live, and by suggesting that chance could or should be controlled. It is this attack which laid the foundation for all specifically modern political thought. The concern with a guarantee for the realization of the "ideal" led to both a lowering of the standards of political life and to the emergence of "philosophy of history": even the modern opponents of Machiavelli could not restore the sober view of the classics regarding the relation of "ideal" and "reality."
I. The Problem
1. Hiero 1.8-10; 2.3-6; 3.3-6; 8.1-7; 11.7-15.
2. Memorabilia II 1.21; Cyropaedia VIII 2.12. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1325a 34 ff. and Euripides, Phoenissae 524-5. 106
3. Memorabilia I 2.56.
4. Hiero 1.1; 2.5.
5. Hiero 8.1. Compare Memorabilia IV 2.23-24 with ibid. 16-17.
6. Hiero 1.14-15; 7.2. Compare Plato, Seventh Letter 332d6-7 and Isocrates, To Nicocles 3-4.
II. The Title and the Form
1. How necessary it is to consider carefully the titles of Xenophon's writings is shown most clearly by the difficulties presented by the titles of the Anabasis, of the Cyropaedia and, though less obviously, of the Memorabilia. Regarding the title of the Hiero, see also IV note 50, below.
2. There is only one more writing of Xenophon which would seem to serve the purpose of teaching a skill, the ; we cannot discuss here the question why it is not entitled . The purpose of the Cyropaedia is theoretical rather than practical, as appears from the first chapter of the work.
3. Compare Cyropaedia I 3.18 with Plato, Theages 124e11-125e7 and Amatores 138b15 ff.
4. De vectigalibus 1.1. Compare Memorabilia IV 4.11-12 and Symposium 4. 1-2.
5. Hiero 4.9-11; 7.10, 12; 8.10; 10.8; 11.1.
6. Memorabilia I 2.9-11; III 9.10; IV 6.12 (compare IV 4). Oeconomicus 21.12. Resp. Lac. 10.7; 15.7-8. Agesilaus 7.2. Hellenica VI 4.33-35; VII 1.46 (compare V 4.1; VII 3.7-8). The opening sentence of the Cyropaedia implies that tyranny is the least stable regime. (See Aristotle, Politics 1315b10 ff.).
7. Hiero 4.5. Hellenica V 4.9, 13; VI 4.32. Compare Hiero 7.10 with Hellenica VII 3.7. See also Isocrates, Nicocles 24.
8. Plato, Republic 393C11.
9. Memorabilia III 4.7-12; 6.14; IV 2.11.
10. Oeconomicus 1.23; 4.2-19; 5.13-16; 6.5-10; 8.4-8; 9.13-15; 13.4-5; 14.310, 20.6-9; 21.2-12. The derogatory remark on tyrants at the end of the work is a fitting conclusion for a writing devoted to the royal art as such. Since Plato shares the "Socratic" view according to which the political art is not essentially different from the economic art, one may also say that it can only be due to secondary considerations that his Politicus is not entitled Oeconomicus.
11. Memorabilia IV 6.12.
12. Apologia Socratis 34.
13. Memorabilia I 2.31 ff.; III 7.5-6.
14. Plato, Hipparchus 228b-c (cf. 229b). Aristotle, Resp. Athen. 18.1.
15. Plato, Second Letter 310e5 ff.
16. Memorabilia I 5.6.
17. Aristophanes, Pax 698-9. Aristotle, Rhetoric 1391a8-11; 1405b24-28. See also Plato, Hipparchus 228c. Lessing called Simonides the Greek Voltaire.
18. Oeconomicus 6.4; 2.2, 12 ff. Compare Memorabilia IV 7.1 with ibid. III 1.1 ff. Compare Anabasis VI 1.23 with ibid. 110.12.
19. Hiero 9.7-11; 11.4, 13-14, Compare Oeconomicus 1.15.
20. Hiero 1.2, 10; 2.6.
21. Note the almost complete absence of proper names from the Hiero. The only proper name that occurs in the work (apart, of course, from the names of Hiero, Simonides, Zeus, and the Greeks) is that of Dailochus, Hiero's favorite. George Grote, Plato and the other companions of Socrates (London, 1888, v. I, 222), makes the following just remark: "When we read the recommendations addressed by Simonides, teaching Hiero how he might render himself popular, we perceive at once that they are alike well intentioned and ineffectual. Xenophon could neither find any real Grecian despot correspondingly to this portion ... nor could he invent one with any show of plausibility." Grote continues, however, as follows: "He was forced to resort to other countries and other habits different from those of Greece. To this necessity probably we owe the Cyropaedia." For the moment, it suffices to remark that, according to Xenophon, Cyrus is not a tyrant but a king. Grote's error is due to the identification of "tyrant" with "despot."
22. Simonides barely alludes to the mortality of Hiero or of tyrants in general (Hiero 10.4): Hiero, being a tyrant, must be supposed to live in perpetual fear of assassination. Compare especially Hiero 11.7, end, with Agesilaus 9.7 end. Compare also Hiero 7.2 and 7.7 ff. as well as 8.3 ff. (the ways of honoring people) with Hellenica VI 1.6 (honoring by solemnity of burial). Cf. Hiero 11.7, 15 with Plato, Republic 465d2-e2.
III. The Setting
A. THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR INTENTIONS
1. Hiero 1.12; 2.8. Compare Plato, Republic 579b3-c3.
2. Aristotle, Rhetoric 1391a8-11.
3. Hiero 1.13; 6.13; 11.10.
4. Memorabilia I 2.33. Oeconomicus 7.2. Cyropaedia I 4.13; III 1.14; VIII 4.9.
5. Hiero 1.1-2.
6. Aristotle, Politics 1311a4-5. Compare the thesis of Callides in Plato's Gorgias.
7. Observe the repeated in Hiero 1.1-2. The meaning of this indication is revealed by what happens during the conversation. In order to know better than Simonides how the two ways of life differ in regard to pleasures and pains, Hiero would have to possess actual knowledge of both ways of life; i.e., Hiero must not have forgotten the pleasures and pains characteristic of private life; yet Hiero suggests that he does not remember them sufficiently (1.3). Furthermore, knowledge of the difference in question is acquired by means of calculation or reasoning (l.11, 3), and the calculation required presupposes knowledge of the different value, or of the different degree of importance, of the various kinds of pleasure and pain; yet Hiero has to learn from Simonides that some kinds of pleasure are of minor importance as compared with others (2.1; 7.3-4). Besides, in order to know better than Simonides the difference in question, Hiero would have to possess at least as great a power of calculating or reasoning as Simonides; yet Simonides shows that Hiero's alleged knowledge of the difference (a knowledge which he had not acquired but with the assistance of Simonides) is based on the fatal disregard of a most relevant factor (8.1-7). The thesis that a man who has experienced both ways of life knows the manner of their difference better than he who has experienced only one of them is then true only if important qualifications are added; in itself, it is the result of an enthymeme and merely plausible.
8. Hiero 1.8, 14, 16. Simonides says that tyrants are universally admired or envied (1.9), and he implies that the same is of course not true of private men as such. His somewhat more reserved statements in 2.1-2 and 7.1-4 about specific kinds of pleasure must be understood, to begin with, in the light of his general statement about all kinds of pleasure in 1.8. The statement that Simonides makes in 2.1-2 is understood by Hiero in the light of Simonides' general statement, as appears from 2.3-5; 4.6; and 6.12. (Compare also 8.7 with 3.3.) For the interpretation of Simonides' initial question, consider Isocrates, To Nicocles 4- 5.
9. Hiero 2.3-5. One should also not forget the fact that the author of the Hiero never was a tyrant. Compare Plato, Republic 577a-b and Gorgias 470d5-ell.
10. Memorabilia I 3.2; IV 8.6; 5.9-10. Compare Anabasis VI 1.17-21.
11. Memorabilia IV 6.1, 7; III 3.11; I 2.14.
12. Hiero 1.21, 31.
13. Compare Hiero 11.5-6 and Agesilaus 9.6-7 with Pindar, Ol. I and Pyth. I-III.
14. Hiero 1.14. The same rule of conduct was observed by Socrates. Compare the manner in which he behaved when talking to the "legislators" Critias and Charicles, with his open blame of the Thirty which he pronounced "somewhere, " i.e., not in the presence of the tyrants, and which had to be "reported" to Critias and Charicles (Memorabilia I 2.32-38; observe the repetition of . In Plato's Protagoras (345e-346b8) Socrates excuses Simonides for having praised tyrants under compulsion.
15. Hiero 1.9-10, 16-17; 2.3-5.
16. Hiero 1.10; 8.1.
17. Hiero 2.3-5.
18. While all men consider tyrants enviable, while the multitude is deceived by the outward splendor of tyrants, the multitude does not wish to be ruled by tyrants but rather by the just. Compare Hiero 2.3-5 with ibid. 5.1 and 4.5. Compare Plato, Republic 344b5- l.
19. Compare the end of the Oeconomicus with ibid. 6.12 ff. See also Memorabilia II 6.22 ff.
20. Hiero 5.1; 1.1.
21. Hiero 6.5. Aristotle, Politics 1314a10-13.
22. Hiero 4.2. See note 14 above.
23. Hiero 5.1-2.
24. Hiero mentions "contriving something bad and base" in 4.10, i.e., almost immediately before the crucial passage. Compare also 1.22-23.
25. Memorabilia I 2.31; IV 2.33; Symposium 6.6. Apologia Socratis 20-21. Cyropaedia III 1.39. Compare Plato, Apol. Socr. 23d4-7 and 28a6-bl, as well as Seventh Letter 344c1-3.
26. Memorabilia I 6.12-13.
27. Compare Oeconomicus 6.12 ff. and 11.1 ff with Memorabilia I 1.16 and IV 6.7. Compare Plato, Republic 489e3-490a3. The distinction between the two meanings of "gentleman" corresponds to the Platonic distinction between common or political virtue and genuine virtue.
28. Cyropaedia 11.1. Memorabilia I 2.56; 6.11-12. Compare Memorabilia IV 2.33 with Symposium 3.4. See Plato, Seventh Letter 333b3 ff. and 334al-3 as well as Gorgias 468e6- -9 and 469c3 (cf. 492d2-3); also Republic 493a6 ff.
29. Memorabilia I 2.31 ff.; IV 4.3. Symposium 4.13. Compare Plato, Apol. Socr. 20e8-21a3 and 32c4-d8 as well as Gorgias 480e6 ff.; also Protagoras 329e2-330a2. Cf. note 14 above.
30. Hellenica IV 4.6. Compare Symposium 3.4.
31. Whereas Hiero asserts that the tyrant is unjust, he does not say that he is foolish. Whereas he asserts that the entourage of the tyrant consists of the unjust, the intemperate, and the servile, he does not say that it consists of fools. Consider the lack of correspondence between the virtues mentioned in Hiero 5.1. and the vices mentioned in 5.2. Moreover, by proving that he is wiser than the wise Simonides, Hiero proves that the tyrant may be wise indeed.
32. According to Xenophon's Socrates, he who possesses the specific knowledge required for ruling well is eo ipso a ruler (Memorabilia III 9.10; 1.4). Hence he who possesses the tyrannical art is eo ipso a tyrant. From Xenophon's point of view, Hiero's distrust of Simonides is an ironic reflection of the Socratic truth. It is ironic for the following reason: From Xenophon's point of view, the wise teacher of the royal art, or of the tyrannical art, is not a potential ruler in the ordinary sense of the term, because he who knows how to rule does not necessarily wish to rule. Even Hiero grants by implication that the just do not wish to rule, or that they wish merely to mind their own business (cf. Hiero 5.1 with Memorabilia I 2.48 and II 9.1). If the wise man is necessarily just, the wise teacher of the tyrannical art will not wish to be a tyrant. But it is precisely the necessary connection between wisdom and justice which is questioned by Hiero's distinction between the wise and the just.
33. Hiero 2.3-5 (compare the wording with that used ibid. 1.9 and in Cyropaedia IV 2.28). It should be emphasized that in this important passage Hiero does not speak explicitly of wisdom. (His only explicit remark on wisdom occurs in the central passage, in 5.1). Furthermore, Hiero silently qualifies what he says about happiness in 2.3-5 in a later passage (7.9-10) where he admits that bliss requires outward or visible signs.
34. Hiero 2.6; 1.10.
35. Hiero states at the beginning that Simonides is a wise man (); but as Simonides explains in 7.3-4, [real] men () as distinguished from [ordinary] human beings () are swayed by ambition and hence apt to aspire to tyrannical power. (The at the end of 1.1 corresponds to the at the end of 1.2. Cf. also 7.9 beginning.) Shortly after the beginning, Hiero remarks that Simonides is "at present still a private man" (1.3), thus implying that he might well become a tyrant. Accordingly, Hiero speaks only once of "you [private men], " whereas Simonides speaks fairly frequently of "you [tyrants]": Hiero hesitates to consider Simonides as merely a private man (6.10. The "you" in 2.5 refers to the reputedly wise men as distinguished from the multitude. Simonides speaks of "you tyrants" in the following passages: 1.14, 16, 24, 26; 2.2; 7.2, 4; 8.7). For the distinction between "real men" and "ordinary human beings," compare also Anabasis 17.4; Cyropaedia IV 2.25; V 5.33; Plato, Republic 550a1; Protagoras 316c5-317b5.
36. Hiero 1.9; 6.12. , the term used by Simonides and later on by Hiero, designates jealousy, the noble counterpart of envy rather than envy proper (cf. Aristotle, Rhetoric II 11). That the tyrant is exposed to envy in the strict sense of the term appears from Hiero's remark in 7.10 and from Simonides' emphatic promise at the end of the dialogue: the tyrant who has become the benefactor of his subjects will be happy without being envied. Cf. also 11.6, where it is implied that a tyrant like Hiero is envied (cf. note 13 above). In Hiero 1.9, Simonides avoids speaking of "envy" because the term might suggest that all men bear ill- ill to the tyrant, and this implication would spoil completely the effect of his statement. Hiero's statement in 6.12, which refers not only to 1.9 but to 2.2 as well, amounts to a correction of what Simonides had said in the former passage; Hiero suggests that not all men, but only men like Simonides, are jealous of the tyrant's wealth and power. As for Simonides' distinction (in 1.9) between "all men" who are jealous of tyrants and the "many" who desire to be tyrants, it has to be understood as follows: many who consider a thing an enviable possession do not seriously desire it, because they are convinced of their inability to acquire it. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1311a29-31 and 1313a17-23.
37. By using the tyrant's fear as a means for his betterment, Simonides acts in accordance with a pedagogic principle of Xenophon; see Hipparchicus 1.8; Memorabilia III 5.5-6; Cyropaedia III 1.23-24.
38. Compare Hiero 1.14 with 1.16. Note the emphatic character of Simonides' assent to Hiero's reply. (1.16, beginning). Compare also 2.2 with 11.2-5.
39. Compare Hiero 4.5 with Hellenica VI 4.32 and VII 3.4-6.
40. Compare Hiero 6.14 with Hellenica VII 3.12.
41. Compare Hiero 6.1-3 with Cyropaedia 13.10, 18.
42. Compare Hiero 8.6 with ibid. 2.1. The statement is not contradicted by Hiero; it is prepared, and thus to a certain extent confirmed, by what Hiero says in 1.27 () and 1.29. In 7.5, Hiero indicates that agreement had been reached between him and Simonides on the subject of sex.
43. Hiero 2.12-18.
44. By showing this, Hiero elaborates what we may call the gentleman's image of the tyrant. Xenophon pays a great compliment to Hiero's education by entrusting to him the only elaborate presentation of the gentleman's view of tyranny which he ever wrote. Compare p. 31 above on the relation between the Hiero and the Agesilaus. The relation of Hiero's indictment of tyranny to the true account of tyranny can be compared to the relation of the Athenian story about the family of Pisistratus to Thucydides' "exact" account. One may also compare it to the relation of the Agesilaus to the corresponding sections of the Hellenica.
45. Memorabilia IV 4.10. Agesilaus 1.6. As for the purpose of the Hellenica, compare IV 8.1 and V 1.4 with II 3.56 as well as with Symposium 1.1 and Cyropaedia VIII 7.24.
46. Memorabilia I 2.58-61. While Xenophon denies the charge that Socrates had interpreted the verses in question in a particularly obnoxious manner, he does not deny the fact that Socrates frequently quoted the verses. Why Socrates liked them, or how he interpreted them, is indicated ibid. IV 6.13-15: Socrates used two types of dialectics, one which leads to the truth and another which, by never leaving the dimension of generally accepted opinions, leads to (political) agreement. For the interpretation of the passage, compare Symposium 4.59-60 with ibid. 4.56-58.
47. Symposium 3.6. Compare Plato, Republic 378d6-8 and al-6.
48. To summarize our argument, " we shall say that if Hiero is supposed to state the truth or even merely to be completely frank, the whole Hiero becomes unintelligible. If one accepts either supposition, one will be compelled to agree with the following criticism by Ernst Richter ("Xenophon-Studien," Fleckeisen's Jahrbucher fur classische Philologie, 19. Supplementband, 1893, 149): "Einem solchen Manne, der sich so freimuthig uber sich selbst aussert, und diese lobenswerten Gesinnungen hegt, mochte man kaum die Schreckensthaten zutrauen, die er als von der Tyrannenherrschaft unzertrennlich hinstellt. Hat er aber wirklich soviel Menschen getotet und ubt er taglich noch soviel Ubelthaten aus, ist fur ihn wirklich das Beste der Strick -- und er musste es ja wissen --, so kommen die Ermahnungen des Simonides in zweiten Teil ganz gewiss zu spat.... Simonides gibt Ratschlage, wie sie nur bei einem Fursten vom Schlage des Kyros oder Agesilaos angebracht sind, nie aber bei einem Tyrannen, wie ihn Hieron beschreibt, der schon gar nicht mehr weiss, wie er sich vor seinen Todfeinden schutzen kann." Not to repeat what we have said in the text, the quick transition from Hiero's indictment of the tyrant's injustice (7.7-13)tohisremark that the tyrants punish the unjust (8.9) is unintelligible but for the fact that his account is exaggerated. If one supposes then that Hiero exaggerates, one has to wonder why he exaggerates. Now, Hiero himself makes the following assertions: that the tyrants trust no one; that they fear the wise; that Simonides is a real man; and that Simonides admires, or is jealous of, the tyrants' power. These assertions of Hiero supply us with the only authentic clue to the riddle of the dialogue. Some of the assertions referred to are without doubt as much suspect of being exaggerated as almost all other assertions of Hiero. But this very fact implies that they contain an element of truth, or that they are true if taken with a grain of salt.
B. THE ACTION OF THE DIALOGUE
1. Hiero 1.3. As for the duration of Hiero's reign, see Aristotle, Politics 1315b35 ff. and Diodorus Siculus XI 38. Hiero shows later on (Hiero 6.1-2) that he recalls very well certain pleasures of private men of which he had not been reminded by Simonides.
2. Hiero 1.4-5. The "we" in "we all know" in 1.4 refers of course to private men and tyrants alike. Compare 1.29 and 10.4.
3. Hiero 1.4-6. To begin with, i.e., before Simonides has aroused his opposition, Hiero does not find any difference between tyrants and private men in regard to sleep (1. 7). Later on, in an entirely different conversational situation, Hiero takes up "the pleasures of private men of which the tyrant is deprived"; in that context, while elaborating the gentleman's image of the tyrant (with which Simonides must be presumed to have been familiar from the outset), Hiero speaks in the strongest terms of the difference between tyrants and private men in regard to the enjoyment of sleep (6.3, 7-10).
4. Twelve out of fifteen classes of pleasant or painful things are unambiguously of a bodily nature. The three remaining classes are (1) the good things, (2) the bad things, and (3) sleep. As for the good and the bad things, Simonides says that they please or pain us sometimes through the working of the soul alone and sometimes through that of the soul and the body together. As regards sleep, he leaves open the question by means of what kind of organ or faculty we enjoy it.
5. Compare Hiero 2.1 and 7.3 with Memorabilia II 1.
6. Hiero 1.19. Compare Isocrates, To Nicocles 4.
7. Compare Hiero 4.8-9 with Memorabilia IV 2.37-38.
8. Hiero 1.7-10. Hiero's oath in 1.10 is the first oath occurring in the dialogue. Hiero uses the emphatic form
9. See in Hiero 1.10 the explicit reference to the order of Simonides' enumeration.
10. The proof is based on , i.e., on a comparison of data that are supplied by experience or observation. Compare Hiero 1.11 () with the reference to in 1.10. Compare Memorabilia IV 3.11 and Hellenica VII 4.2.
11. The passage consists of five parts: (1) "sights" (Hiero contributes 163 words, Simonides is silent); (2) "sounds" (Hiero 36 words, Simonides 68 words); (3) "food" (Hiero 230 words, Simonides 76 words); (4) "odors" (Hiero is silent, Simonides 32 words); (5) "sex" (Hiero 411 words, Simonides 42 words). Hiero is most vocal concerning "sex"; Simonides is most vocal concerning "food. "
12. Compare III A, note 42, and III B, notes 11 and 19. As for the connection between sexual love and tyranny, cf. Plato, Republic 573e6.-7, 574e2 and 575a1-2.
13. Hiero 1.31-33.
14. Compare Hiero 1.16 with the parallels in 1.14, 24, 26.
15. Simonides' first oath () occurs in the passage dealing with sounds, i.e., with praise (1.16).
16. Rudolf Hirzel, Der Dialog, I. Leipzig, 1895, 171, notes "die geringe Lebendigkeit des Gesprachs, die vorherrschende Neigung zu langeren Vortragen": all the more striking is the character of the discussion of "food."
17. Simonides grants this by implication in Hiero 1.26.
18. Mr. Marchant (Xenophon, Scripta Minora, Loeb's Classical Library, XV-XVI) says: "There is no attempt at characterization in the persons of the dialogue.... The remark of the poet at c.l.22 is singularly inappropriate to a man who had a liking for good living." In the passage referred to, Simonides declares that "acid, pungent, astringent and kindred things" are "very unnatural for human beings": he says nothing at all against "sweet and kindred things." The view that bitter, acid, etc., things are "against nature, " was shared by Plato (Timaeus 65c-66c), by Aristotle (Eth. Nic. 1153a5-6; cf. De anima 422b 10-14) and, it seems, by Alcmaeon (cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics 986a22-34). Moreover, Simonides says that acid, pungent, etc., things are unnatural for "human beings"; but "human beings" may have to be understood in contradistinction to "real men" (cf. III A, note 35 above). At any rate, the fare censured by Simonides is recommended as a fare for soldiers by Cyrus in a speech addressed to "real men" (Cyropaedia VI 2.31). (Compare also Symposium 4.9). Above all, Marchant who describes the Hiero as "a naive little work, not unattractive, " somewhat naively overlooks the fact that Simonides' utterances serve primarily the purpose, not of characterizing Simonides, but of influencing Hiero; they characterize the poet in a more subtle way than the one which alone is considered by Marchant: the fact that Simonides indicates, or fails to indicate, his likes or dislikes according to the requirements of his pedagogic intentions, characterizes him as wise.
19. Hiero 1.26. "Sex" is the only motive of which Simonides ever explicitly says that it could be the only motive for desiring tyrannical power. Compare note 12 above.
20. Hiero 7.5-6.
21. Hiero 8.6.
22. Note the increased emphasis on "(real) men" in Hiero 2.1. In the parallel passage of the first section (1.9), Simonides had spoken of "most able (real) men." Compare the corresponding change of emphasis in Hiero's replies (see the following note).
23. Compare Hiero 1.16-17 with 2.1, where Simonides declares that the bodily pleasures appear to him to be very minor things and that, as he observes, many of those who are reputed to be real men do not attach any great value to those pleasures. Hiero's general statement in 2.3-5, which is so much stronger than his corresponding statement in the first section (1.10), amounts to a tacit rejection of Simonides' claim: Hiero states that the view expressed by Simonides in 2.1-2, far from being nonvulgar, is the vulgar view.
24. Hiero 2.1-2. Simonides does not explicitly speak of "wealth and power." "Wealth and power" had been mentioned by Hiero in 1.27. (Compare Aristotle, Politics 1311a8-12.) On the basis of Simonides' initial enumeration (1.4-6), one would expect that the second section (ch. 2-6) would deal with the three kinds of pleasure that had not been discussed in the first section, viz. the objects perceived by the whole body, the good and bad things, and sleep. Only good and bad things and, to a lesser degree, sleep are clearly discernible as subjects of the second section. As for good and bad things, see the following passages: 2.6- 7, 3.1, 3, 5; 4.1; 5.2, 4. (Compare also 2.2 with Anabasis III 1.19-20.) As for sleep, see 6.3-9. As for objects perceived by the whole body, compare 1.5 and 2.2 with Memorabilia III 8.8-9 and 10.13. Sleep (the last item of the initial enumeration) is not yet mentioned in the retrospective summary at the beginning of the second section, whereas it is mentioned in the parallel at the beginning of the third section (cf. 2.1 with 7.3); in this manner Xenophon indicates that the discussion of the subjects mentioned in the initial enumeration is completed at the end of the second section: the third section deals with an entirely new subject.
25. Simonides merely intimates it, for he does not say in so many words that "they aspire to greater things, to power and wealth." Taken by itself, the statement with which Simonides opens the second section is much less far-reaching than the statements with which he had opened the discussion of the first section (1.8-9, 16). But one has to understand the later statement in the light of the earlier ones, if one wants to understand the conversational situation. Compare III A, note 8 above.
26. Simonides fails to mention above all the field or farm which occupies the central position among the objects desired by private men (Hiero 4.7) and whose cultivation is praised by Socrates as a particularly pleasant possession (Oeconomicus 5.11). Compare also Hiero 11.1-4 with ibid. 4.7 and Memorabilia III 11.4. Simonides pushes into the background the pleasures of private men who limit themselves to minding their own business instead of being swayed by political ambition (see Memorabilia 1. 2.48 and II 9.1) Farming is a skill of peace (Oeconomicus 4.12 and 1.17). Simonides also fails to mention dogs (compare Hiero 2.2 with Agesilaus 9.6). Compare De vectigalibus 4.8.
27. Whereas we find in the first section an explicit reference to the order of Simonides' enumeration (1.10), no such reference occurs in the second section. In the second section Hiero refers only once explicitly to the statement with which Simonides had opened the section, i.e., to 2.1-2; he does this, however, only after (and in fact almost immediately after) Simonides has made his only contribution to the discussion of the second section (6.12-13). An obvious, although implicit, reference to 2.2 occurs in 4.6-7. (Cf. especially the ... ... in 4.7 with the in 2.2). The in 2.7 (peace-war) refers to the last item mentioned in 2.2 (enemies-friends). These references merely underline the deviation of Hiero's speech from Simonides' enumeration. Simonides' silence is emphasized by Xenophon's repeated mention of the fact that Simonides has been listening to Hiero's speeches, i.e., that Simonides had not spoken (see 6.9; 7.1, 11). There is no mention of Hiero's listening to Simonides' statements.
28. See note 25 above.
29. As for Simonides, see p. 33 above. Hiero's concern with wealth is indicated by the fact that, deviating from Simonides, he explicitly mentions the receiving of gifts among the signs of honor (compare 7.7-9 with 7.2). To comply with Hiero's desire, Simonides promises him later on (11.12) gifts among other things. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1311a8 ff. and note 74 below. Consider also the emphatic use of "possession" in Simonides' final promise. Simonides' silence about love of gain as distinguished from love of honor (compare Hiero 7.1-4 with Oeconomicus 14.9-10) is remarkable. It appears from Hiero 9.11 and 11.12-13 that the same measures which would render the tyrant honored, would render him rich as well.
30. Friendship as discussed by Hiero in ch. 3 is something different from "helping friends" which is mentioned by Simonides in 2.2. The latter topic is discussed by Hiero in 6.12-13.
31. Compare 2.8 with 1.11-12; 3.7-9 with 1.38; 3.8 and 4.1-2 with 1.27-29; 4.2 with 1.17- 5. In the cited passages of ch. 1, as distinguished from the parallels in ch. 2 ff., no mention of "killing of tyrants" occurs. Compare also the insistence on the moral depravity of the tyrant, or on his injustice, in the second section (5.1-2 and 4.11) with the only mention of "injustice" in the first section (1.12): in the first section only the "injustice" suffered by tyrants is mentioned. As regards, 1.36, see note 41 below.
32. Marchant (loc. cit, XVI) remarks that Xenophon "makes no attempt anywhere to represent the courtier poet; had he done so he must have made Simonides bring in the subject of verse panegyrics on princes at c. 1.14." It is hard to judge this suggested improvement on the Hiero since Marchant does not tell us how far the remark on verse panegyrics on princes would have been more conducive than what Xenophon's Simonides actually says toward the achievement of Simonides' aim. Besides, compare Hiero 9.4 with 9.2. We read in Macauley's essay on Frederick the Great: "Nothing can be conceived more whimsical than the conferences which took place between the first literary man and the first practical man of the age, whom a strange weakness had induced to exchange their parts. The great poet would talk of nothing but treaties and guarantees, and the great king of nothing but metaphors and rhymes."
33. Hiero 3.6; 4.6; 5.1.
34. Note the frequent use of the second person singular in ch. 13, and the ascent from the in 3.1 to the in 3.6 and finally to the in 3.8.
35. Hiero 6.1-6.
36. Compare Hiero 6.7 with ibid. 6.3
37. Hiero 6.7-9. The importance of Simonides' remark is underlined by the following three features of Hiero's reply: First, that reply opens with the only oath that occurs in the second section. Second, that reply, being one of the three passages of the Hiero in which laws are mentioned (3.9; 4.4; 6.10), is the only passage in the dialogue in which it is clearly intimated that tyrannical government is government without laws, i.e., it is the only passage in Xenophon's only work on tyranny in which the essential character of tyranny comes, more or less, to light. Third, Hiero's reply is the only passage of the Hiero in which Hiero speaks of "you (private men)" (see III A, note 35 above). Compare also III B, note 27 above.
38. The character of Simonides' only contribution to the discussion of the second section can also be described as follows: While he was silent when friendship was being discussed, he talks in a context in which war is mentioned; he is more vocal regarding war than regarding friendship. See note 26 above.
39. The situation is illustrated by the following figures: In the first section (1.1038) Simonides contributes about 218 words out of about 1058; in the second section (2.3-6.16) he contributes 28 words out of about 2,000; in the third section (ch. 7) he contributes 220 words out of 522; in the fourth section (ch. 8-11) he contributes about 1, 475 words out of about 1, 600.-K. Lincke, "Xenophons Hiero und Demetrios von Phaleron," Philologus, v. 58, 1899, 226, correctly describes the "Sinnesanderung" of Hiero as "die Peripetie des Dialogs."
40. Compare note 24 above. The initial enumeration had dealt explicitly with the pleasures of "human beings" (see III a, note 35 above), but honor, the subject of the third section, is the aim, not of "human beings," but of "real men." One has no right to assume that the subject of the third section is the pleasures or pains of the soul, and the subject of the second section is the pleasures or pains common to body and soul. In the first place, the pleasures or pains of the soul precede in the initial enumeration the pleasures or pains common to body and soul; besides , which is mentioned in the enumeration that opens the second section (2.2), is certainly an activity of the soul alone; finally, the relation of honor to praise as well as the examples adduced by Simonides show clearly that the pleasure connected with honor is not meant to be a pleasure of the soul alone (compare 7.2-3 with 1.14). When Simonides says that no human pleasure comes nearer to the divine than the pleasure concerning honors, he does not imply that that pleasure is a pleasure of the soul alone, for, apart from other considerations, it is an open question whether Simonides, or Xenophon, considered the deity an incorporeal being. As for Xenophon's view on this subject, compare Memorabilia I 4.17 and context (for the interpretation consider Cicero, De natura deorum 112.30-31 and III 10.26-27) as well as ibid. IV 3.13- 4. Compare Cynegeticus 12.19ff.
41. Compare Hiero 7.1-4 with ibid. 2.1-2. See III A, note 8, and III B, note 22 above. The "many" (in the expression "tor many of those who are reputed to be real men") is emphasized by the insertion of "he said" after "for many" (2.1), and the purpose of this emphasis is to draw our attention to the still limited character of the thesis that opens the second section. This is not the only case in which Xenophon employs this simple device for directing the reader's attention. The "he said" after "we seem" in 1.5 draws our attention to the fact that Simonides uses here for the first time the first person when speaking of private men. The two redundant "he said" 's in 1.7-8 emphasize the "he answered" which precedes the first of these two "he said" 's, thus making it clear that Simonides' preceding enumeration of pleasures has the character of a question addressed to Hiero, or that Simonides is testing Hiero. The second "he said" in 1.31 draws our attention to the preceding (lV, i.e., to the fact that Hiero's assertion concerning tyrants in general is now applied by Simonides to Hiero in particular. The "he said" in 1.36 draws our attention to the fact that the tyrant Hiero hates to behave like a brigand. The redundant" he said" in 7.1 draws our attention to the fact that the following praise of honor is based on . The "he said" in 7.13 emphasizes the preceding , i.e., the fact that Hiero does not use in this context the normally used , for he is now describing in the strongest possible terms how bad tyranny is.
42. Hiero 7.5-10.
43. Compare Hiero 7.3 with ibid. 1.14-15.
44. In the third section, Simonides completely abandons the vulgar opinion in favor not of the gentleman's opinion but of the opinion of the real man. The aim of the real man is distinguished from that of the gentleman by the fact that honor as striven for by the former does not essentially presuppose a just life. Compare Hiero 7.3 with Oeconomicus 14.9.
45. Hiero 7.11-13. I have put in parentheses the thoughts which Hiero does not express. As for Simonides' question, compare Anabasis VII 7.28.
46. Hiero 1.12. As for the tyrant's fear of punishment, see ibid. 5.2.
47. Regarding strangers, see Hiero 1.28; 5.3; 6.5.
48. Compare Hiero 8.9 with ibid. 7.7 and 5.2.
49. Simonides continues asserting that tyrannical life is superior to private life; compare Hiero 8.1-7 with ibid. 1.8 ff.; 2.1-2; 7.1 ff.
50. Hiero 7.12-13.
51. When comparing Hiero 7.13 with Apologia Socratis 7 and 32, one is led to wonder why Hiero is contemplating such an unpleasant form of death as hanging: does he belong to those who never gave thought to the question of the easiest way of dying? Or does he thus reveal that he never seriously considered committing suicide? Compare also Anabasis II 6.29.
52. Memorabilia I 2.10-11, 14.
53. "You are out of heart with tyranny because you believe...." (Hiero 8.1).
54. Compare also the transition from "tyranny" to the more general "rule" in Hiero 8.1 ff. Regarding the relation of "tyranny" and "rule, " see Memorabilia IV 6.12; Plato, Republic 338d7-11; Aristotle, Politics 1276a2-4.
55. Hiero 7.5-6, 9; compare ibid. 1.37-38 and 3.8-9.
56. Hiero 8.1.
57. Hiero 8.1-7. Compare note 54 above.
58. Compare Hiero 1.36-38.
59. In this context (8.3), there occur allusions to the topics discussed in 1.10 ff: (sights), (sounds), (food). The purpose of this is to indicate the fact that Simonides is now discussing the subject matter of the first part from the opposite point of view.
60. Memorabilia II 1.27-28; 3.10-14; 6.10-16. Compare Anabasis 19.20 ff.
61. If Simonides had acted differently, he would have appeared as a just man, and Hiero would fear him. Whereas Hiero's fear of the just is definite, his fear of the wise is indeterminate (see pp. 41-45 above); it may prove to be unfounded in a given case. This is what actually happens in the Hiero: Simonides convinces Hiero that the wise can be friends of tyrants. One cannot help being struck by the contrast between Simonides' "censure" of the tyrant Hiero and the prophet Nathan's accusation of the Lord's anointed King David (II Samuel 12).
62. Hiero 8.8. The equally unique a in 9.1 draws our attention to the in 8.8.
63. Hiero 8.8-10. Compare ibid. 6.12-13.
64. Hiero 9.1. Observe the negative formulation of Simonides' assent to a statement dealing with unpleasant aspects of tyrannical rule.
65. Simonides' speech consists of two parts. In the fairly short first part (9.1-4), he states the general principle. In the more extensive second part (9.5-11), he makes specific proposals regarding its application by the tyrant. In the second part punishment and the like are no longer mentioned. The unpleasant aspects of tyranny, or of government in general, are also barely alluded to in the subsequent chapters. Probably the most charming expression of the poet's dignified silence about these disturbing things occurs in 10.8. There, Simonides refrains from mentioning the possibility that the tyrant's mercenaries, these angels of mercy, might actually punish the evildoers: he merely mentions how they should behave toward the innocent, toward those who intend to do evil and toward the injured. Compare the preceding note. Compare also the statement of the Athenian stranger in Plato's Laws 711 b4-c2 with the subsequent statement of Clinias.
66. As for bewitching tricks to be used by absolute rulers, see Cyropaedia VIII 1.40-42; 2.26; 3.1. These less reserved remarks are those of a historian or a spectator rather than of an adviser. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1314a40: the tyrant ought to play the king.
67. Ch. 9 and ch. 10 are the only parts of the Hiero in which "tyrant" and derivatives are avoided.
68. Compare especially Hiero 9.10 with ibid. 11.10.
69. Hiero 9.7, 11.
70. Hiero 9.6. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1315a31-40.
71. Hiero 8.10.
72. Hiero 10.1.
73. Hiero 10.2. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1314a33 ff.
74. Compare Hiero 4.9, 11 with 4.3 ("without pay") and 10.8.
75. Compare Hiero 11.1 with 9.7-11 and 10.8.
76. Hiero 11.1-6. Compare p. 38 above. One is tempted to suggest that the Hiero represents Xenophon's interpretation of the contest between Simonides and Pindar.
77. Hiero 11.7-15. Compare Plato, Republic 465d2-e2.
78. K. Lincke (loc. cit, 244), however, feels "dass Hiero eines Besseren belehrt worden ware, muss der Leser sich hinzudenken, obgleich es ... besser ware, wenn man die Zustimmung ausgesprochen sahe." The Platonic parallel to Hiero's silence at the end of the Hiero is Callicles' silence at the end of the Gorgias and Thrasymachus' silence in books II- of the Republic.
C. THE USE OF CHARACTERISTIC TERMS
1.Marchant, loc. cit, XVI.
2. For instance, Nabis is called "principe" in Principe IX and "tiranno" in Discorsi I 40, and Pandolfo Petruzzi is called "principe" in Principe XX and XXII, and "tiranno" in Discorsi III 6. Compare also the transition from "tyrant" to "ruler" in the second part of the Hiero.
3. Compare Hellenica VI 3.8, end.
4. Hiero 9.6.
5. Hiero 11.6; 1.31. Compare Apologia Socratis 28, a remark which Socrates made "laughingly."
6.Compare the absence of courage (or manliness) from the lists of Socrates' virtues: Memorabilia IV 8.11 (cf. IV 4.1 ff.) and Apologia Socratis 14, 16. Compare Symposium 9.1 with Hiero 7.3. But consider also II, note 22 above.
7. Compare Hiero 9.8 on the one hand with 1.8, 19 and 5.1-2 on the other.
8. Hiero 10.1.