[45] Xen. Hieron, x. 6-8.
[46] Xen. Hieron, xi. 10-12-15. κἂν ταῦτα πάντα ποιῆς, εὖ ἴσθι πάντων τῶν ἀνθρώποις κάλλιστον καὶ μακαριώτατον κτῆμα κεκτημένος· εὐδαιμονῶν γὰρ οὐ φθονηθήσῃ.
Probable experience had by Xenophon of the feelings at Olympia against Dionysius.
The dialogue of which I have given this short abstract, illustrates what Xenophon calls the torment of Tantalus — the misery of a despot who has to extort obedience from unwilling subjects:—especially if the despot be one who has once known the comfort and security of private life, under tolerably favourable circumstances. If we compare this dialogue with the Platonic Gorgias, where we have seen a thesis very analogous handled in respect to Archelaus, — we shall find Plato soaring into a sublime ethical region of his own, measuring the despot’s happiness and misery by a standard peculiar to himself, and making good what he admits to be a paradox by abundant eloquence covering faulty dialectic: while Xenophon, herein following his master, applies to human life the measure of a rational common sense, talks about pleasures and pains which every one can feel to be such, and points out how many of these pleasures the despot forfeits, how many of these pains and privations he undergoes, — in spite of that great power of doing hurt, and less power, though still considerable, of doing good, which raises the envy of spectators. The Hieron gives utterance to an interesting vein of sentiment, more common at Athens than elsewhere in Greece; enforced by the conversation of Sokrates, and serving as corrective protest against that unqualified worship of power which prevailed in the ancient world no less than in the modern. That the Syrakusan Hieron should be selected as an exemplifying name, may be explained by the circumstance, that during thirty-eight years of Xenophon’s mature life (405-367 B.C.), Dionysius the elder was despot of Syrakuse; a man of energy and ability, who had extinguished the liberties of his native city, and acquired power and dominion greater than that of any living Greek. Xenophon, resident at Skillus, within a short distance from Olympia, had probably[47] seen the splendid Thêory (or sacred legation of representative envoys) installed in rich and ornamented tents, and the fine running horses sent by Dionysius, at the ninety-ninth Olympic festival (384 B.C.): but he probably also heard the execration with which the name of Dionysius himself had been received by the spectators, and he would feel that the despot could hardly shew himself there in person. There were narratives in circulation about the interior life of Dionysius,[48] analogous to those statements which Xenophon puts into the mouth of Hieron. A predecessor of Dionysius as despot of Syracuse[49] and also as patron of poets, was therefore a suitable person to choose for illustrating the first part of Xenophon’s thesis — the countervailing pains and penalties which spoilt all the value of power, if exercised over unwilling and repugnant subjects.[50]
[47]Xenoph. Anab. v. 3, 11.
[48]See chap. 83, vol. xi. pp. 40-50, of my ‘History of Greece,’ where this memorable scene at Olympia is described.
[49] Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 20, 57-63; De Officiis, ii. 7, 24-25.
“Multos timebit ille, quem multi timent.”
[50] An anecdote is told about a visit of Xenophon to Dionysius at Syracuse — whether the elder or the younger is not specified — but the tenor of the anecdote points to the younger; if so the visit must have been later than 367 B.C. (Athenæus x. 427).
Xenophon could not have chosen a Grecian despot to illustrate his theory of the happiness of governing willing subjects.