Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

The Younger Dionysius used to say that he gave bed and board to many learned men, not because he felt any admiration for them, but because he wished through them to gain admiration for himself.

When Polyxenus, [*](Cf. Plato’s Letters, ii. p. 314 C.) who was skilled in argumentation, asserted that he had confuted the king, the latter said, Yes, very likely by your words, but by your deeds I confute you; for you forsake your own affairs, and pay court to me and mine.

He was compelled to abdicate, and when a man said to him, What help have Plato and philosophy

On being asked how his father, who was a poor man and a private citizen, had gained control over the Syracusans, and how he, who held control, and was the son of a despot, had come to lose it, he said, My father embarked upon his venture at a time when democracy was hated, but I at a time when despotism was odious.

Being asked this same question by another man, [*](By Philip of Macedon, according to Aelian, Varia Historia, xii. 60.) he said, My father bequeathed to me his kingdom, but not his luck.

Agathocles was the son of a potter. After he had made himself master of Sicily, and had been proclaimed king, he used to have drinking-cups of pottery placed beside those of gold, and as he pointed these out to the young men he would say, That is the sort of thing which I used to do formerly, but this is what I do now because of my diligence and fortitude.[*](Cf. Moralia, 544 B, where the story is repeated in slightly different words.)

When he was besieging a city, some of the people on the wall reviled him, saying, Potter, how are you going to pay your soldiers’ wages ? But he, unruffled and smiling, said, If I take this town. And after he had taken it by storm he sold the captives as slaves, and said, If you revile me again, what I have to say will be said to your masters. [*](Cf. Moralia, 458 F, where, however, the last remark is attributed to Antigonus the One-eyed.)

When the people of Ithaca complained of his sailors because they had put in at the island and had forcibly carried off some of the animals, he said, But your king carne to us, and not only took our flocks, but also blinded their shepherd, [*](The Cyclops, Homer, Od. ix. 375.) and went his way. [*](Cf. Moralia, 557 B, where the story is repeated in fewer words.)

When Dion, who expelled Dionysius from his kingdom, heard that a plot against him was being set on foot by Callippus, in whom he placed the greatest trust above all other friends, both those at home and those from abroad, he could not bring himself to investigate, but said, It is better to die than to live in a state of continual watchfulness not only against one’s enemies but also against one’s friends. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Dion, chap. lvi. (982 D)). The story of the plot and the death of Dion is in chaps. liv.-lvii. Cf. also Valerius Maximus, iii. 8. Ext. 5.)