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[332c] because they possessed citizens who were their friends in each of those cities.1 But Dionysius, though he amalgamated the whole of Sicily into one City-State, because in his wisdom he distrusted everyone, barely achieved safety; for he was poor in men who were loyal friends, and there exists no surer sign of a man's virtue or vice than whether he is or is not destitute of men of that kind.

Such, then, was the counsel which Dion and I always gave to Dionysius. Inasmuch as the result of his father's conduct was

1 The maritime empire of the Athenians lasted for some seventy years after Salamis (480 B.C.)

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 7 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1966.

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