And hence it is, moreover, that you will find but few (14) private persons paupers by comparison with the large number of tyrants who deserve the title; (15) since the criterion of enough, or too much, is not fixed by mere arithmetic, but relatively to the needs of the individual. (16) In other words, whatever exceeds sufficiency is much, and what falls short of that is little. (17)

(14) Reading as vulg. {alla mentoi kai penetas opsei oukh outos
oligous ton idioton os pollous ton turannon}. Lit. "however that
may be, you will see not so few private persons in a state of
penury as many despots." Breitenbach del. {oukh}, and transl.,
"Daher weist du auch in dem Masse wenige Arme unter den
Privat-leuten finden, als viele unter den Tyrannen." Stob.,
{penetas opsei oligous ton idioton, pollous de ton
turannon}. Stob. MS. Par., {alla mentoi kai plousious opsei
oukh outos oligous ton idioton os penetas pollous ton
turannon}. See Holden ad loc. and crit. n.
(15) Cf. "Mem." IV. ii. 37.
(16) Or, "not by the number of things we have, but in reference to the
use we make of them." Cf. "Anab." VII. vii. 36.
(17) Dr. Holden aptly cf. Addison, "The Spectator," No. 574, on the
text "Non possidentem multa vocaveris recte beatum..."

And on this principle the tyrant, with his multiplicity of goods, is less well provided to meet necessary expenses than the private person; since the latter can always cut down his expenditure to suit his daily needs in any way he chooses; but the tyrant cannot do so, seeing that the largest expenses of a monarch are also the most necessary, being devoted to various methods of safeguarding his life, and to cut down any of them would be little less than suicidal. (18)

(18) Or, "and to curtail these would seem to be self-slaughter."

Or, to put it differently, why should any one expend compassion on a man, as if he were a beggar, who has it in his power to satisfy by just and honest means his every need? (19) Surely it would be more appropriate to call that man a wretched starveling beggar rather, who through lack of means is driven to live by ugly shifts and base contrivances.

(19) i.e. "to expend compassion on a man who, etc., were surely a
pathetic fallacy." Al. "Is not the man who has it in his power,
etc., far above being pitied?"

Now it is your tyrant who is perpetually driven to iniquitous spoilation of temples and human beings, through chronic need of money wherewith to meet inevitable expenses, since he is forced to feed and support an army (even in times of peace) no less than if there were actual war, or else he signs his own death-warrant. (20)

(20) "A daily, hourly constraint is laid upon him to support an army
as in war time, or—write his epitaph!"

V

But there is yet another sore affliction to which the tyrant is liable, Sinmonides, which I will name to you. It is this. Tyrants no less than ordinary mortals can distinguish merit. The orderly, (1) the wise, the just and upright, they freely recognise; but instead of admiring them, they are afraid of them—the courageous, lest they should venture something for the sake of freedom; the wise, lest they invent some subtle mischief; (2) the just and upright, lest the multitude should take a fancy to be led by them.