Hiero

Name: Hiero
Author: Xenophon

by Xenophon

Pages: about 55
Category: Philosophy
Language: English
Reading time: 60 min at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 33 min at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

Once upon a time Simonides the poet paid a visit to Hiero the "tyrant," (1) and when both obtained the leisure requisite, Simonides began this conversation:
(1) Or, "came to the court of the despotic monarch Hiero." For the "dramatis personae" see Dr. Holden's Introduction to the "Hieron" of Xenophon.
Would you be pleased to give me information, Hiero, upon certain matters, as to which it is likely you have greater knowledge than myself? (2)
(2) Or, "would you oblige me by explaining certain matters, as to which your knowledge naturally transcends my own?"
And pray, what sort of things may those be (answered Hiero), of which I can have greater knowledge than yourself, who are so wise a man?
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.
(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."

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Hiero

From the opening

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