[577b]
his dealings with his intimates in each
instance where he would best be seen stripped1 of his vesture
of tragedy,2 and who had likewise observed
his behavior in the hazards of his public life—and if we should
ask the man who has seen all this to be the messenger to report on the
happiness or misery of the tyrant as compared with other men?”
“That also would be a most just challenge,” he said.
“Shall we, then, make believe,” said I, “that
we are of those who are thus able to judge and who have ere now lived with
tyrants, so that we may have someone to answer our questions?”
“By all means.”
1 Cf. Thackeray on Ludovicus and Ludovicus rex, Hazlitt, “Strip it of its externals and what is it but a jest?” also Gory. 523 E, Xen.Hiero 2. 4, Lucian, Somnium seu Gallus 24ἢν δὲ ὑποκύψας ἴδῃς τὰ γ᾽ ἔνδον . . . , Boethius, Cons. iii. chap. 8 (Loeb, p. 255), and for the thought Herod. i. 99.
2 Cf. Longinus, On the Sublime 7τὸ ἔξωθεν προστραγῳδούμενον, and Dümmler, Akademika p. 5.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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