general johnson
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[h2]The story[/h2]
The Damocles of the anecdote was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse.Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority,Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places withhim for a day, so that Damocles could taste first hand that fortune. Inthe evening a banquet was held where Damocles very much enjoyed beingwaited upon like a king. Only at the end of the meal did he look up andnotice a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head by a singlehorse-hair. Immediately, he lost all taste for the fine foods andbeautiful companions and asked leave of the tyrant, saying he no longerwanted to be so fortunate.[sup][1][/sup][sup][4][/sup]
Dionysius had successfully conveyed a sense of the constant fear in which the great man lives. Cicerouses this story as the last in a series of contrasting examples forreaching the conclusion he had been moving towards in this fifth Disputation, in which the theme is that virtue is sufficient for living a happy life.[sup][5][/sup] Cicero asks
The Damocles of the anecdote was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse.Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority,Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places withhim for a day, so that Damocles could taste first hand that fortune. Inthe evening a banquet was held where Damocles very much enjoyed beingwaited upon like a king. Only at the end of the meal did he look up andnotice a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head by a singlehorse-hair. Immediately, he lost all taste for the fine foods andbeautiful companions and asked leave of the tyrant, saying he no longerwanted to be so fortunate.[sup][1][/sup][sup][4][/sup]
Dionysius had successfully conveyed a sense of the constant fear in which the great man lives. Cicerouses this story as the last in a series of contrasting examples forreaching the conclusion he had been moving towards in this fifth Disputation, in which the theme is that virtue is sufficient for living a happy life.[sup][5][/sup] Cicero asks
"Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear thatthere can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear alwayslooms?"[sup][6][/sup]
DOPE.
