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Athens, however, is not the only instance by which one might show how great are the advantages of daring to resist one's enemies. There is also the case of the tyrant Dionysius, who, when he was besieged by the Carthaginians, seeing not a glimmer of hope for deliverance, but being hard pressed both by the war and by the disaffection of his citizens, was, for his part, on the point of sailing away, when one of his companions made bold to declare that “royalty is a glorious shroud.”1
1 That is, it is a glorious thing to die a king. For the event, 396 B.C., See Dio. Sic. 14.58, and for the anecdote, Dio. Sic. 14.8.5 and Ael. Var. Hist. 4.8.