SelfDefinition.Org
Hiero a.k.a Tyrannicus
by Xenophon
(430-354 BC)
Part 3
(1) "Now consider friendship in its turn, and how the tyrants partake of it. First let us reflect whether friendship is a great good for human beings.
(2) "For surely it is the case with a man who is loved by someone that the one who loves him gladly sees him present; gladly benefits him; longs for him if he is absent; welcomes him returning again; takes pleasure with him in the goods which are his; and comes to his aid if he sees him fallen into any trouble.
(3) "Moreover, it has not even escaped the notice of the cities that friendship is a very great good and very pleasant to human beings. At any rate, many cities have established a law that only adulterers may be killed with impunity, evidently for this reason, because they believe adulterers are destroyers of the wives' friendship for their husbands.
(4) "Since whenever a woman submits to intercourse by way of some misfortune, her husband honors her no less, as far as this goes, provided he is of the opinion that her friendship continues uncorrupted.
(5) "I myself judge being loved a good so great that I believe benefits actually come of themselves to the one who is loved, both from gods and men.
(6) "Yet in this kind of possession too, tyrants are at a disadvantage beyond all others.
"But if you wish to know, Simonides, that I speak the truth, reflect on this consideration:
(7) "For surely the firmest friendships are held to be those of parents for children, and children for their parents, brothers for their brothers, wives for their husbands, and comrades for comrades.
(8) "If, then, you are willing to reflect thoughtfully on it, you will find that private men are loved chiefly by these, whereas many tyrants have killed their own children, and many have themselves perished at the hands of their children; that many brothers in tyrannies have become one another's murderers; and that many tyrants have been brought to ruin both by their wives and by comrades whom they thought were most their friends.
(9) "How should they believe they are loved by anyone else, inasmuch as they are so hated by such as are inclined by nature and compelled by law to love them?"