I know (replied the poet) that you were once a private person,[3] and
are now a monarch. It is but likely, therefore, that having tested
both conditions,[4] you should know better than myself, wherein the
life of the despotic ruler differs from the life of any ordinary
person, looking to the sum of joys and sorrows to which flesh is heir.

[3] Or, "a common citizen," "an ordinary mortal," "a private
individual."

[4] Or, "having experienced both lots in life, both forms of
existence."

Would it not be simpler (Hiero replied) if you, on your side,[5] who
are still to-day a private person, would refresh my memory by
recalling the various circumstances of an ordinary mortal's life? With
these before me,[6] I should be better able to describe the points of
difference which exist between the one life and the other.

[5] Simonides is still in the chrysalis or grub condition of private
citizenship; he has not broken the shell as yet of ordinary
manhood.

[6] Lit. "in that case, I think I should best be able to point out the
'differentia' of either."

Thus it was that Simonides spoke first: Well then, as to private
persons, for my part I observe,[7] or seem to have observed, that we
are liable to various pains and pleasures, in the shape of sights,
sounds, odours, meats, and drinks, which are conveyed through certain