real pleasure? When would you be free from biting grief? It is quite
inevitable that the man who holds so great an empire should reflect
deeply, be subject to many fears enjoy very little pleasure, but hear
and see, perform and suffer, always and everywhere, what is most
disagreeable. That is why, I think, both Greeks and some barbarians would
not accept government by a king when offered to them.

"Knowing this beforehand, take good counsel before you enter upon such an
existence. For it is disgraceful, or rather impossible, after you have
once plunged into it to rise to the upper air again. Do not be deceived
by the greatness of the authority nor the abundance of possessions, nor
the mass of body-guards, nor the throng of courtiers. Men who have great
power have great troubles: those who have large possessions are obliged
to spend largely: the crowd of body-guards is gathered because of the
crowd of conspirators: and the flatterers would be more glad to destroy
than to save any one. Consequently, in view of these facts, no sensible
man would desire to become supreme ruler. [-11-] If the fact that such
rulers can enrich and preserve others and perform many other good deeds,
and that, by Jupiter, they may also outrage others and injure whomsoever
they please leads any one to think that tyranny is worth striving for, he
is utterly mistaken. I need not tell you that to live licentiously and to
do evil is base and hazardous and hated of both gods and men. You are not
that sort of man, and it is not for these reasons that you would choose
to be sole ruler. I have elected to speak now not of everything which one
might accomplish who handled affairs badly, but of what even the very
best are compelled to do and endure when they adopt the system. The other
point,--that one may bestow abundant favors,--is worthy of zeal, to be
sure: yet when this disposition is indulged in private capacity, it is
noble, august, glorious, and safe, whereas in monarchies it is first of
all not a sufficient offset to the other, more disagreeable matters, that