[356b]
commander of your enemies' army, Dionysius, son of Dionysius, if so be that he is willing of his own accord to transform himself into a king, being moved thereto by fear of fortune's changes, and by pity for his country and the untended state of her temples and her tombs, lest because of his ambition he utterly ruin all and become a cause of rejoicing to the barbarians.And these three,—whether you grant them the power of the Laconian kings1 or curtail that power by a common agreement,—you should establish as kings in some such manner as the following,
1 That power was little more than nominal, dealing chiefly with matters of religion.
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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