1. The people of Cyrene were entreating Plato to write laws for them and to reorganize their constitution, but he declined, claiming that it would be difficult to establish laws for the Cyreneans because they were so well off. “For nothing is so naturally haughty” and harsh and hard to govern “as a man” who has acquired a reputation for success.¹ For the same reason, it is difficult to act as an advisor about governing to those who hold office, because they are afraid to accept Reason as their own governor, for fear that it will make them subservient to the obligations of their office and so reduce the benefit of their power. These people do not know the example of Theopompus, king of the Spartans, who was the first in Sparta to involve the ephors in the affairs of the kings. When his wife reproached him with the complaint that he would leave to his children an office that was weaker than the one he had received, he replied, “Actually it will be stronger, to the same degree that it is more stable.” For by letting go of the excessive and absolute character of his office, he escaped envy and so avoided danger. And yet, when Theopompus diverted royal power to the ephors, which was like diverting the current of a great stream, he deprived himself of whatever power he granted to them. Reason that has been conditioned by philosophy, however, once it has been established as a counselor and protector of the one who governs, removes the unstable element of power and leaves behind what is sound, just as happens when we apply Reason to the maintenance of our health.

2. Most kings and leaders, however, lack sense, and so they imitate the unskilled sculptors who believe that their colossal statues appear great and strong when they fashion their figures with a mighty stride, a straining body, and a gaping mouth. These kings and leaders, because they speak with a low-pitched voice, cast a harsh gaze, affect a cantankerous manner, and hold themselves aloof in their daily lives, suppose that they are imitating the dignity and solemnity of leadership. In fact, they are not at all different from those colossal statues, which on the exterior possess a heroic and divine facade but inside are filled with earth and stone and lead.² In the case of the statues, however, this weight keeps their upright posture stable and steady, while uneducated generals and leaders are oftentimes tripped up and toppled over by their innate foolishness. For they establish their lofty power upon a pedestal that has not been leveled, and so it cannot stand upright. Moreover, just as a builder’s rule is first established straight and unbending, and then is used to correct the alignment of everything else through adjustments and juxtapositions with respect to it, in the very same way those who govern must first achieve governance of themselves, straighten out their souls, and set their character aright, and then they should assimilate their subjects to themselves. For the one who is tipping over cannot straighten up someone else, nor can the ignorant person teach, the disorderly establish order, the disorganized organize, the ungoverned govern. But most leaders misunderstand this, thinking instead that the greatest benefit in governing is the freedom from being governed themselves. Take the king of the Persians for instance: He believed that everyone was his slave except for his wife, over whom he ought especially to have been the master.

3. Who, then, will govern the governor? “The law, which is king of everyone, both mortals and immortals,” as Pindar says. But I am not referring to a law that has been written in books or on any wooden tablets to be read, but I mean Reason, which exists within those who govern, always accompanying and guarding their souls, and never allowing them to lack guidance. Now, the Persian king assigned to one of his attendants this task: to come to him at dawn and to say, “Arise, O king, and attend to the matters that the great Ahuramazda wants you to attend to.”³ But this voice is always present within educated and self-controlled leaders, speaking out and exhorting them. Polemon used to say that erotic love was “a service of the gods intended for the care and well-being of young people.” One might more truly say that those who govern serve god for the care and well-being of their fellow humans, with the aim of disbursing some of the noble and good gifts that god grants, and protecting the rest.

“Do you see this boundless sky, up on high and enfolding the earth in its soft embrace?”⁴ The sky sends down the beginnings of the necessary seeds, while the earth yields them up. Some will grow from rain, others from wind, and others when warmed on their surface by the stars and moon; and the sun arranges everything and mixes its own charm into all that grows. But of the good gifts which the gods give—gifts that are so great and so many—there is no enjoyment or proper use of them that is separate from law and justice and a leader. Justice, in fact, is the aim of the law, and law is the work of the leader, and the leader is the image of god, who gives order to everything. True leaders require no Phidias to fashion them, no Polyclitus and no Myron, because they on their own transform themselves into the likeness of god through virtue, creating a real-life statue that is the most pleasant to look upon and the most fitting image of a god.⁵

And so, just as god has established the sun in the sky as a beautiful image of himself, and the moon as well, so in cities there is a facsimile of god and a source of light: the leader “who is god-fearing and upholds righteousness.”⁶ That is to say, the leader who possesses the Reason and the intellect of god, but not one who holds a scepter or lightning bolt or trident, as some fashion themselves in images and describe themselves in writing, thus making their foolishness odious by adding to it what in fact is unattainable. For god resents those who imitate thunder and lightning and shooting rays of light, but he is pleased with those who eagerly pursue his virtue and assimilate themselves to true beauty and benevolence. These he strengthens, and to these he gives a share of his order, justice, truth, and mildness. Fire is not more divine than they are, nor is light, nor the course of the sun, nor the risings and settings of stars, nor eternity and immortality. For god is fortunate not in his longevity, but in the governing ability of his virtue. For this is a divine thing, and noble, too, is the ability of his virtue to be governed.

4. When Anaxarchus was consoling Alexander, who was despondent over his murder of Cleitus,⁷ he said that Justice and Right were attendants to Zeus, so that everything done by a king was by definition righteous and just.⁸ But in his attempt to assuage Alexander’s remorse for his crime, he encouraged similar actions in the future. This was wrong and harmful. For if we must find a model for this situation, it would not be to say that Zeus has Justice as an attendant, but that Zeus himself is Justice and Right, and that he is the eldest and most perfect of laws. The ancient authors and teachers tell us, however, that not even Zeus is able to govern nobly apart from Justice. “She is a maiden,” writes Hesiod,⁹ uncorrupted, and the companion of reverence, self-control, and profit. For this reason, they call kings “reverend,” for it is appropriate that those who are least fearful should be most revered. Leaders, in fact, must be more afraid of inflicting harm than of suffering harm themselves. This is what causes them to be revered. This is the benevolent and noble sort of fear that leaders possess: to be afraid on behalf of those they govern, and so to remain vigilant and keep their constituents from harm, “just as dogs keep careful watch over flocks in the pen. When they’ve heard a stouthearted wild beast,”¹⁰ they act not in their own interests but on behalf of those they are protecting.

Take Epaminondas, for example. When his fellow Thebans had abandoned themselves to a drunken festival, he alone kept watch over the city’s weapons and walls, saying that by remaining sober and awake he was freeing the others to get drunk and sleep. Or consider Cato the Younger at Utica. Following their defeat in battle, he ordered that everyone be sent to the coast, and after embarking them on ships and praying for good sailing, he returned to his quarters and committed suicide. Thus, he has taught us on whose behalf a leader ought to be afraid and what things a leader ought to scorn.¹¹ But Clearchus, the tyrant of Heraclea Pontica, used to curl himself into a box like a snake when he went to sleep. And Aristodemus of Argos used to go up into a room on the second floor through a trap door, and after moving his bed on top of the door, he would sleep there with his mistress, while the woman’s mother would take away the ladder from below and then put it back again in the morning.¹² How much, do you suppose, the theater and the town hall and the council chamber and the drinking party frightened this man, who had converted his own bedroom into a personal prison? In truth, kings are afraid for their subjects, while tyrants are afraid of their subjects.¹³ And so, tyrants increase their fear in proportion to their power: the more people they rule, the more people they fear.

5. It is, indeed, neither likely nor fitting, as some philosophers claim, that god should exist intermingled with matter that is entirely passive or with substances that are liable to countless acts of compulsion and changes of fortune and fluctuations. Rather, up on high, somewhere near that nature which ever and always remains the same, god is established upon a holy pedestal, as Plato says,¹⁴ and “making his way along a straight path in accordance with nature, he completes his course.”¹⁵ Just as the sun in the sky appears plainly as a beautiful facsimile and mirror-image of god to those who are able to perceive him in it, so god has established in cities the light of righteousness and of his own Reason. This light acts as an image, which those who are blessed and self-controlled seek to replicate in themselves through philosophy, reshaping themselves closer to the absolute standard of goodness.¹⁶ Nothing other than Reason developed through philosophy creates this character within a person. If we understand this, we may avoid making the same mistake as Alexander. For when he saw Diogenes at Corinth, he admired him for his natural abilities and marveled at his intellect and stature. Then he declared, “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.” In saying this, he essentially affirmed that he was weighed down by his own good fortune, fame, and power, which acted as impediments to virtue and left him no time for anything else. He was further declaring that he envied the philosopher’s ragged cloak and leather bag, because Diogenes was neither conquered nor held captive by them, while he himself was restrained by armor and horses and spears.¹⁷ But it was, in fact, possible for him to practice philosophy, and so to become Diogenes in his character while remaining Alexander in his success. Indeed, because he was Alexander, he had all the more reason to become Diogenes, because with respect to his great success, which like a ship is subject to strong winds and rough seas, he was in need of heavy ballast and a stout pilot.

6. For private citizens who are weak and obscure, however, lack of intelligence combines with a lack of power to result in no harm being done, just as in bad dreams when a sense of grief disturbs the soul, but the soul, though it has the will, is unable to respond. But political power, once it has latched onto depravity, gives physical strength to one’s emotions. Thus, the saying of Dionysius proves to be true, for he declared that whenever he achieved his desires quickly, that was when he most enjoyed being tyrant. There is a great danger, then, when people who are able to accomplish what they wish in fact wish for things that are improper. “Then as soon as the word was spoken, the deed was accomplished.”¹⁸ Depravity, once combined with political power, races to give expression to every emotion: it converts anger into murder, love into adultery, and greed into the confiscation of property.¹⁹ “Then as soon as the word was spoken,” the offender was put to death. As soon as the suspicion was raised, the one who was slandered was killed. Scientists declare that lightning follows thunder, as blood flows after a wound is inflicted, even though we see the lightning first, because our sense of hearing passively awaits sound while our sense of sight actively encounters light.²⁰ Likewise, in the sphere of government, punishments may come before formal accusations, and indictments may precede the presentation of proof. “For the spirit is already yielding and no longer holds out, as the hook of an anchor lodged in sand yields when seas are rough,” unless a weighty Reason presses down on and applies pressure to political power. For then a leader imitates the sun, which moves least when it achieves its greatest height, once it has ascended high into the northerly sky, and by taking its time, it makes its path more certain.

7. It is, of course, impossible for vices to go unnoticed when people hold positions of power. Epileptics begin to spin and rock back and forth when they go to high places and move around, and so height and motion expose their disease. Fortune, likewise, after elevating uneducated and unlearned people to even slight prominence through some wealth or glory or political office, immediately makes a show of their downfall. Or to put it another way, when jars are empty you cannot distinguish between those that are intact and those that are damaged, but once you fill them, then the leaks appear. Just so, cracked souls cannot contain political power, but they leak with desire, anger, boasting, and vulgarity. But why must I go on about this, when we know that people criticize even the smallest of defects in prominent and famous leaders? Wine, for example, became a slander against Cimon, and sleep against Scipio,²¹ while Lucullus was criticized for his overly luxurious dinners.