Letter Eight
352b Plato to the intimates and comrades of Dion: Do well!
What things, should you1 intend them, you would most of all really “do well”—these I will attempt to go through for you as much as is in my power. I hope to counsel the things that are advantageous not for
352c you alone, but most of all, to be sure, for you, and second for all those in Syracuse, but third for your enemies and adversaries in war, except for any of them who may have become a doer of impious deeds; for these things are incurable, and one may never purge them away. And think about what I am now saying.
For you, throughout all of Sicily, the tyranny having been dissolved, all is battle concerning these very things: some wishing to take up the rule again, others to complete the escape from tyranny. Correct coun-
352d sel concerning such things seems to the many on each occasion to be counsel as to what is needed to achieve as many evils as possible for their adversaries in war and as many goods as possible for their friends; but it is in no way easy for one doing many evils to others not also to suffer many further evils himself. And there is no need to go anywhere far away to see such things clearly, but so many have now come to be in this way right there, all around Sicily—some undertaking to do them, others to
352e defend against the doers; and by telling the tales2 about these things to others, you would come to be sufficient teachers on every occasion. Now about these things, there is hardly any perplexity; but about how many of them would come to be either advantageous for all, both enemies and friends, or as little evil as possible for both, these things are neither easy to see, nor, having been seen, to bring to completion, but such counsel and undertaking of speech resembles a prayer. Let it be altogether, then,
353a a certain prayer—for one ought always to speak and think, in all things, beginning from the gods—and would that it be brought to completion, signaling to us some speech such as the following.
Over you and pretty much over your adversaries in war, now and from the very moment the war came to be, one family continuously rules, which your fathers set up in the time when they had come to be altogether at a loss: when an extreme danger came to be for Greek Sicily, that it would be wholly overrun by Carthaginians and thoroughly bar-
353b barized. For they then chose Dionysius for the actions of war that befit him, on the grounds that he was young and skilled in warfare, and an elder, Hipparinus,3 as a counselor, and both, for the salvation of Sicily, as “rulers with full powers,” as they say, naming them tyrants. And whether one wishes to hold that it turned out to be divine fortune and a god, or the virtue of the rulers, or even both of these together with the citizens of that time that came to be the cause of salvation, let it be in whatever way one assumes; thus did there turn out to be salvation for those who
353c then came to be. Such things as these having come to be, then, it is presumably just for everyone to have gratitude for the saviors; but if in the time thereafter the tyranny has not correctly made use of the gift from the city, it has paid some of the just penalties for these things—let it pay others.
What just penalties, then, would necessarily come to be correct on the basis of their situation? If you were able to escape them easily and with out great dangers or toils, or they to take back the rule without trouble, I would not be able to counsel the things that are about to be spoken.
353d But now, both of you ought to think of and to remember how often you have each come to be in hope of at last supposing that you are in need—it is almost always this way—of some small further thing in order to do everything to your liking, and then this small thing turns out each time to come to be the cause of ten thousand great evils; and no limit ever puts an end to it, but an old end seems always to be joined to a new naturally growing beginning;4 and both the entire tyrannical and the
353e popular tribe will be in danger of being utterly destroyed5 by this circle; and all Sicily, if any of the likely and abominable things should come to be, will come to be nearly devoid of the Greek language, changing into some power and might of Phoenicians or Opicans.6 All the Greeks ought to provide a remedy for these things with all eagerness of spirit. Now, if someone has something more correct and better than what will be said by me, he would be most correctly spoken of as a lover of the
354a Greeks if he brought it forward; but what now appears to me somehow, I will attempt to make clear in all frankness and by a certain common, just speech.
Indeed, conversing in a certain way as an arbiter with the two parties—those who tyrannized and those who were tyrannized—and to each as one, I speak my old counsel: even now, my speech at any rate would be a counsel to every tyrant to flee this name and deed and, if it should
354b be possible, to change into a kingship. But it is possible, as Lycurgus showed by deed, a wise and good man who, having seen the tribe of his intimates in Argos and Messene changing from the power of kings to that of tyrants, having corrupted themselves as well as the city of each, and dreading the same for his own city and tribe, he brought in as a remedy the rule of the old and the bond of the Ephors, a salvation for the kingly rule,7 so as to save it with glory for so many generations now,
354c since law became a sovereign king over human beings, and not human beings tyrants over laws.
Which, even now, my speech urges to everyone: it urges those aiming at tyranny to turn away in flight and flee the purported happiness8 of insatiably hungry and mindless human beings, and to attempt to change into a form9 of a king, and to be slaves to kingly laws, having acquired the greatest honors both from human beings voluntarily and
354d from the laws; and those pursuing free ways and fleeing the slavish yoke as being bad, I would counsel to beware lest they should ever fall into the disease of their ancestors out of insatiability for a certain unpropitious freedom, which disease they then suffered because of the excessive anarchy, making use of an unmeasured, passionate love of freedom.10 For the Siceliotes before Dionysius and Hipparinus had ruled were living happily (as they then supposed), luxuriously, and at the same time ruling the rulers; and they, casting stones, lapidated the ten generals pre-
354e ceding Dionysius, in no way judging according to law, in order that they should in no way be enslaved with either justice or law as a master, but be altogether free in every way; hence did the tyrannies over them come to be. For slavery and freedom are each, if excessive, altogether bad, but if each is in measure, altogether good; and slavery to a god is measured, but to human beings unmeasured; and law is a god to moderate human
355a beings, pleasure [a god] to the imprudent.
These things naturally being this way, I encourage the friends of Dion to explain to all Syracusans what I counsel, which is his and my common counsel; and I will interpret what he would say to you now, if he were breathing and capable of speaking. “What speech, then,” someone might say, “would Dion’s counsel bring to light for us concerning the things that are present now?” The following.
355b “Accept, O Syracusans, first of all, laws which would appear to you not to turn your judgments, together with your desire, toward money-making and riches, but—there being three things, soul, and body, and then money—such as would make the virtue of the soul most honored, second that of the body, which lies under that of the soul, and third and
355c last the honor of money, which is a slave to both body and soul. And the ordained law that achieves these things would be laid down correctly for you, completing as really happy those who use it; but the speech that names the rich “happy” is both wretched itself, being a mindless speech of women and children, and achieves [wretchedness] for such as who are persuaded by it. That these things I encourage are true, you will recognize by deed if you shall taste the things now being said concerning laws, which seems to come to be the truest test concerning all things.
355d “And having accepted such laws, since danger has taken hold of Sicily and you are neither prevailing sufficiently nor, in turn, have you been surpassingly prevailed over, perhaps it would come to be just and advantageous for all of you to cut down the middle, both for you who are fleeing the harshness of rule and for those passionately desiring to hit upon rule again, whose ancestors then saved the Greeks from barbarians in the greatest way so that it is possible now to make speeches about regimes; had they then been wiped out, neither speech nor hope would have remained in any place or in any way.
355e “Now, then, let the former have freedom under kingly rule and let the latter have kingly rule for which they are accountable, with laws as masters both of the other citizens and of the kings themselves in case they should do anything illegal. And on all these terms, by means of judgment that is without trickery and sound, together with gods, set [each of the following people] up as king. First, my own son, for the sake of gratitude on two counts: for my contribution and for my father’s.
356a For my father freed the city from barbarians in his time, and I from tyranny twice now, of which things you yourselves have come to be witnesses. Second, make a king of the one possessing the same name as my father, the son of Dionysius, in gratitude for his giving aid now and for his pious ways.11 Though born of a tyrant father, he voluntarily sets the city free, acquiring honor for himself and his tribe that will live forever instead of acquiring an ephemeral and unjust tyranny. Third, you ought to propose that he shall become king of the Syracusans, a willing king
356b of a willing city, who now rules the camp of your adversaries in war: Dionysius, son of Dionysius. If, that is, he should be willing voluntarily to be removed and changed into the shape of a king out of dread for his fortunes and pity for his fatherland and its neglected temples and graves, lest, on account of love of victory, he should destroy everything in every way, coming to be a source of joy to barbarians.
“Set up three kings, agreeing to give them either the Laconian power12 or something less, and arrange matters in some way such as the follow-
356c ing (which has been said to you also earlier, but nevertheless listen now yet again). If the tribe of Dionysius and Hipparinus should be willing, for the salvation of Sicily, to put a stop to the evils that are now present, receiving honors for themselves and for their tribe both in the time to come and now, then on these terms, just as has also been said before, call in ambassadors whom they would be willing to make sovereign authorities over the reconciliations—from here, from outside, or both, as many
356d as they should agree on. When they come, let them first set down laws and the sort of regime in which it is consonant for kings to come to be sovereign authorities over sacred things and over however many other things are fitting for those who were once benefactors. But let them create guardians of the laws,13 thirty-five in number, as rulers of war and peace together with both demos and council.14 Let there be other lawcourts for other things, but let the thirty-five initiate cases involving penalties of death and exile. Besides these, let the judges always be
356e selected from among the rulers of the previous year, one from each ruling office—he who seems to be best and most just. For the following year, let these judge cases involving penalties of death, imprisonment, and removal of the citizens;15 but let it not be possible for a king to come
357a to be a judge in cases involving these sorts of just penalties, since he, like a priest, is to be pure of murder, imprisonment, and exile.
“These things I intended to come to be for you while I lived, and I intend them now; and once I, together with you, had prevailed over our enemies, then, had guest-friend Furies16 not prevented me, I would have set things up in the very way I intended, and after these things, had deeds followed upon thought, I would have recolonized the rest of Sicily, taking from the barbarians—so many as did not carry on the
357b war against the tyranny on behalf of the common freedom—what they now have, and recolonizing, with the previous inhabitants, the Greek places in the ancient and patrimonial habitations. I counsel everyone in common even now to intend and to do these same things and to call everyone toward these actions, and to hold that he who is not willing is a common adversary.
“And these things are not impossible. For he who judges to be impossible such things as happen to be in two souls, and which come readily
357c to those who try to find what is best by calculating, can hardly mean well. The two souls of which I speak are those of Hipparinus, the son of Dionysius, and of my own son; for I suppose that, if these two were to agree, all these things will also be so resolved by all the other Syracusans who are solicitous for the city. But, having given honors, together with prayers, to all gods, and to as many others for whom, together with gods, it is fitting, do not leave off persuading and making proposals to friends and those with whom you are in conflict, softly and in every way, until
357d you shall have achieved the completion of the things that have now been said by us, like divine dreams standing before ones who are awake, clear, and fortunate.”17
1. Plato employs the second-person plural throughout this letter.
2. I avoid the near transliteration “mythologizing” as a translation for muthologountes, though it would not be an altogether inappropriate alternative to “telling the tales.”
3. Father of Dion; on the various Syracusan Hipparini, see n. 3 to Letter Seven.
4. The word for “beginning” here, archēi, may carry a double entendre, since the same word also means “rule” or “empire.” See n. 5 to Letter One.
5. There is disagreement among the best manuscripts as to whether the word here is diolesthai, “utterly destroyed,” or dielesthai, “divided,” “broken apart.”
6. To the south, the Carthaginians, who had long been the Syracusans’ major rivals for power in Sicily, spoke a Phoenician language. The “Opicans,” also called the Osci, were an Italic people to the north. Their Oscan language was also spoken by the Samnites, who at this time were competing with Rome for dominance over the central Italian mainland; in addition, Dionysius the Elder’s practice of employing non-Greek Italian mercenaries may have led to the existence of some Opican presence in Sicily itself (see Morrow’s note ad loc.). Plato’s wording leaves unclear whether he is speaking of Phoenician and Opican peoples or languages.
7. Political power in the Spartan regime was shared between three major institutions: the two kings, the “Gerousia” or council of thirty elders, and the Ephorate, a council of five citizens elected by the full Spartan assembly. Plato’s attribution to Lycurgus (see n. 8 to Letter Four) of the creation of the latter two offices agrees with the account of Herodotus (1.65.5), but not with the account given by Plato’s own Athenian Stranger in the Laws (691d8–692b1; see also Plutarch, Lycurgus 7.1). The claim that Lycurgus’s lawgiving was prompted by his observation of what happened in the nearby cities of Argos and Messene is unique to the Letters, but cf. Laws 690d1–e5 in context.
8. The word for “purported happiness” (eudaimonisma) appears to be a Platonic coinage, and its intended meaning can only be inferred from the context. Strictly speaking, it is formed from the word for “happiness” (eudaimonia; see n. 69 to Letter Seven) and the suffix-isma, which generally denotes a finished product emerging from some productive process. Thus one might well translate eudaimonisma as “state of happiness,” in which case the sense “purported” is conveyed by sarcasm rather than explicitly.
9. The word for “form” here is eidos, as in the famous Platonic doctrine of the “Forms” or “Ideas.” The word occurs only once elsewhere in the Letters, at 322d5 above.
10. The phrase “passionate love” translates the word erōs. See n. 95 to Letter Seven.
11. See n. 3 to Letter Seven for a discussion of the three men named Hipparinus who figure in this story: Dion’s father, Dion’s son (both mentioned just above), and this one, the son of Dionysius the Elder, who had by the time of this letter become the leader of Dion’s party at Syracuse.
12. I.e., the power of the Spartan kings, Laconia being the name of the region in which Sparta lay. The authority of Sparta’s dual-kingship decreased steadily over time. The Spartan kings retained their military roles as generals as well as certain priestly religious functions, but their political power, even over matters of war and peace, was quite limited by the time of this letter.
13. “Guardians of the laws” (nomophulakas) is the title Plato’s Athenian Stranger gives to one of the highest offices he creates for the city discussed in the Laws, though there they number thirty-seven instead of thirty-five; see especially book 6 of the Laws for the description of that office.
14. The demos of a Greek polis was comprised of the totality of its citizenry, what might later have been called “the commons.” In a democracy, the demos expressed its political will in the “assembly” (ekklēsia). Even in democracies, however—and also in other regimes—it was common to have a separate institution known as a boulē (“council” or “senate”), formed of a more manageable subset of citizens, empowered to deal with daily administrative affairs.
15. For the difference between “exile” and “removal” from the city, see n. 84 to Letter Seven.
16. The Furies were ancient goddesses believed to wreak divine vengeance upon human beings who had committed great offenses, especially those involving the failure to uphold solemn duties or obligations. As the phrase “guest-friend Furies” implies (xenikai erinues), these included the obligations of xenia, guest-friendship; see n. 12 to Letter Three.
17. The last word of this letter, which I here translate “fortunate,” is the adjective eutuchē. It is a form of the same word that also ends Letters Four, Five, and Eleven, the imperative verb eutuchei, which I translate “Good luck!”