[351c]
the smaller cities to his own, contrary to what is just. For neither Dion nor any other will ever voluntarily1 aim thus at a power that would bring upon himself and his race an everlasting curse, but rather at a moderate government and the establishment of the justest and best of laws by means of the fewest possible exiles and executions.Yet when Dion was now pursuing this course, resolved to suffer rather than to do unholy deeds—although guarding himself against so suffering2—none the less when he had attained the highest pitch of superiority over his foes he stumbled. And therein he suffered no surprising fate.
1 According to the Socratic dictum, “No one sins voluntarily.”
2 For “suffering” wrong as a bar to complete happiness cf. Plat. Laws 829a.
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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