Socrates “But now, when under the tyranny of his ruling passion, he is continuously and in waking hours what he rarely became in sleep, and he will refrain from no atrocity of murder nor from any food or deed, 575a but the passion that dwells in him as a tyrant will live in utmost anarchy and lawlessness, and, since it is itself sole autocrat, will urge the polity,¹ so to speak, of him in whom it dwells² to dare anything and everything in order to find support for himself and the hubbub of his henchmen,³ in part introduced from outside by evil associations, and in part released and liberated within by the same habits of life as his. Is not this the life of such a one?” “It is this,” he said. “And if,” I said, “there are only a few of this kind in a city, 575b and the others, the multitude as a whole, are sober-minded, the few go forth into exile and serve some tyrant elsewhere as bodyguard or become mercenaries in any war there may be. But if they spring up in time of peace and tranquillity they stay right there in the city and effect many small evils.” “What kind of evils do you mean?” “Oh, they just steal, break into houses, cut purses, strip men of their garments, plunder temples, and kidnap,⁴ and if they are fluent speakers they become sycophants and bear false witness and take bribes.” 575c “Yes, small evils indeed,⁵” he said, “if the men of this sort are few.” “Why, yes,” I said, “for small evils are relatively small compared with great, and in respect of the corruption and misery of a state all of them together, as the saying goes, don’t come within hail⁶ of the mischief done by a tyrant. For when men of this sort and their followers become numerous in a state and realize their numbers, then it is they who, in conjunction with the folly of the people, create a tyrant out of that one of them who has 575d the greatest and mightiest tyrant in his own soul.” “Naturally,” he said, “for he would be the most tyrannical.” “Then if the people yield willingly—’tis well,⁷ but if the city resists him, then, just as in the previous case the man chastized his mother and his father, so now in turn will he chastize his fatherland if he can, bringing in new boon companions beneath whose sway he will hold and keep enslaved his once dear motherland⁸—as the Cretans name her—and fatherland. And this would be the end of such a man’s desire.⁹” 575e “Yes,” he said, “this, just this.”

“Then,” said I, “is not this the character of such men in private life and before they rule the state: to begin with they associate with flatterers, who are ready to do anything to serve them, 576a or, if they themselves want something, they themselves fawn¹⁰ and shrink from no contortion¹¹ or abasement in protest of their friendship, though, once the object gained, they sing another tune.¹²” “Yes indeed,” he said. “Throughout their lives, then, they never know what it is to be the friends of anybody. They are always either masters or slaves, but the tyrannical nature never tastes freedom¹³ or true friendship.” “Quite so.” “May we not rightly call such men faithless¹⁴?” “Of course.” “Yes, and unjust to the last degree, 576b if we were right in our previous agreement about the nature of justice.” “But surely,” he said, “we were right.” “Let us sum up,¹⁵ then,” said I, “the most evil type of man. He is, I presume, the man who, in his waking hours, has the qualities we found in his dream state.” “Quite so.” “And he is developed from the man who, being by nature most of a tyrant, achieves sole power, and the longer he lives as an actual tyrant the stronger this quality becomes.” “Inevitably,” said Glaucon, taking up the argument.

“And shall we find,” said I, “that the man who is shown to be the most evil 576c will also be the most miserable, and the man who is most of a tyrant for the longest time is most and longest miserable¹⁶ in sober truth? Yet the many have many opinions.¹⁷” “That much, certainly,” he said, “must needs be true.” “Does not the tyrannical man,” said I, “correspond to the tyrannical state in similitude,¹⁸ the democratic to the democratic and the others likewise?” “Surely.” “And may we not infer that the relation of state to state in respect of virtue and happiness 576d is the same as that of the man to the man?” “Of course.” “What is, then, in respect of virtue, the relation of a city ruled by a tyrant to a royal city as we first described it?” “They are direct contraries,” he said; “the one is the best, the other the worst.” “I’ll not ask which is which,” I said, “because that is obvious. But again in respect of happiness and wretchedness, is your estimate the same or different? And let us not be dazzled¹⁹ by fixing our eyes on that one man, the tyrant, or a few²⁰ of his court, but let us enter into and survey the entire city, 576e as is right, and declare our opinion only after we have so dived to its uttermost recesses and contemplated its life as a whole.” “That is a fair challenge,” he said, “and it is clear to everybody that there is no city more wretched than that in which a tyrant rules, and none more happy than that governed by a true king.²¹”

“And would it not also be a fair challenge,” said I, 577a “to ask you to accept as the only proper judge of the two men the one who is able in thought to enter with understanding into the very soul and temper of a man, and who is not like a child viewing him from outside, overawed by the tyrants’ great attendance,²² and the pomp and circumstance which they assume²³ in the eyes of the world, but is able to see through it all? And what if I should assume, then, that the man to whom we ought all to listen is he who has this capacity of judgement and who has lived under the same roof with a tyrant²⁴ and has witnessed his conduct in his own home and observed in person 577b his dealings with his intimates in each instance where he would best be seen stripped²⁵ of his vesture of tragedy,²⁶ 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.” 577c

“Come, then,” said I, “examine it thus. Recall the general likeness between the city and the man, and then observe in turn what happens to each of them.” “What things?” he said. “In the first place,” said I, “will you call the state governed by a tyrant free or enslaved, speaking of it as a state?” “Utterly enslaved,” he said. “And yet you see in it masters and freemen.” “I see,” he said, “a small portion of such, but the entirety, so to speak, and the best part of it, is shamefully and wretchedly enslaved.²⁷” “If, then,” I said, 577d “the man resembles the state, must not the same proportion²⁸ obtain in him, and his soul teem²⁹ with boundless servility and illiberality, the best and most reasonable parts of it being enslaved, while a small part, the worst and the most frenzied, plays the despot?” “Inevitably,” he said. “Then will you say that such a soul is enslaved or free?” “Enslaved, I should suppose.” “Again, does not the enslaved and tyrannized city least of all do what it really wishes³⁰?” “Decidedly so.” “Then the tyrannized soul— 577e to speak of the soul as a whole³¹—also will least of all do what it wishes, but being always perforce driven and drawn by the gadfly of desire it will be full of confusion and repentance.³²” “Of course.” “And must the tyrannized city 578a be rich or poor?” “Poor.”

“Then the tyrant soul also must of necessity always be needy³³ and suffer from unfulfilled desire.” “So it is,” he said. “And again, must not such a city, as well as such a man, be full of terrors and alarms?” “It must indeed.” “And do you think you will find more lamentations and groans and wailing and anguish in any other city?” “By no means.” “And so of man, do you think these things will more abound in any other than in this tyrant type, that is maddened by its desires and passions?” “How could it be so?” he said. “In view of all these 578b and other like considerations, then, I take it, you judged that this city is the most miserable of cities.” “And was I not right?” he said. “Yes, indeed,” said I. “But of the tyrant man, what have you to say in view of these same things?” “That he is far and away the most miserable of all,” he said. “I cannot admit,” said I, “that you are right in that too.” “How so?” said he. “This one,” said I, “I take it, has not yet attained the acme of misery.³⁴” “Then who has?” “Perhaps you will regard the one I am about to name as still more wretched.” 578c “What one?” “The one,” said I, “who, being of tyrannical temper, does not live out³⁵ his life in private station³⁶ but is so unfortunate that by some unhappy chance he is enabled to become an actual tyrant.” “I infer from what has already been said,” he replied, “that you speak truly.” “Yes,” said I, “but it is not enough to suppose such things. We must examine them thoroughly by reason and an argument such as this.³⁷ For our inquiry concerns the greatest of all things,³⁸ the good life or the bad life.” “Quite right,” he replied. “Consider, then, if there is anything in what I say. 578d For I think we must get a notion of the matter from these examples.” “From which?” “From individual wealthy private citizens in our states who possess many slaves. For these resemble the tyrant in being rulers over many, only the tyrant’s numbers are greater.³⁹” “Yes, they are.” “You are aware, then, that they are unafraid and do not fear their slaves?” “What should they fear?” “Nothing,” I said; “but do you perceive the reason why?” “Yes, because the entire state 578e is ready to defend each citizen.” “You are right,” I said. “But now suppose some god should catch up a man who has fifty or more slaves⁴⁰ and waft him with his wife and children away from the city and set him down with his other possessions and his slaves in a solitude where no freeman could come to his rescue. What and how great would be his fear,⁴¹ do you suppose, lest he and his wife and children be destroyed by the slaves?” “The greatest in the world,⁴²” he said, “if you ask me.”