Whichever way he does it, is it not enviable in either case?
Hush, Polus!
Why?
Because we ought not to envy either the unenviable or the wretched, but pity them.
What! Is that the state in which you consider those people, of whom I speak, to be?
Yes, for so I must.
Then do you consider that a man who puts another to death as he thinks fit, and justly puts him to death, is wretched and pitiable?
Not I; but not enviable either.
Did you not say just now that he was wretched?
Only he who unjustly put some one to death, my friend, and I called him pitiable as well: if he acted justly, then he is unenviable.
I suppose, at any rate, the man who is put to death unjustly is both pitiable and wretched.
Less so than he who puts him to death, Polus, and less so than he who is put to death justly.
In what way can that be, Socrates ?
In this, that to do wrong is the greatest of evils.
What, is this the greatest? Is not to suffer wrong a greater?
By no means.
Then would you wish rather to suffer wrong than to do it?
I should wish neither, for my own part; but if it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.
Then you would not accept a despot’s power?
No, if you mean by a despot’s power the same as I do.
Why, what I mean is, as I did just now, the liberty of doing anything one thinks fit in one’s city—putting people to death and expelling them and doing everything at one’s own discretion.
My gifted friend, let me speak, and you shall take me to task in your turn. Polus, I have just acquired, by a wonderful chance, the power of a despot; for if I should think fit that one of those people whom you see there should die this very instant, a dead man he will be, just as I think fit; or if I think fit that one of them shall have his head broken, broken it will be immediately; or to have his cloak torn in pieces,
Then suppose that on your disbelieving this I showed you my dagger; I expect when you saw it you would say: Socrates, at this rate every one would have great power, for any house you thought fit might be set ablaze on these methods, and the Athenian arsenals also, and the men-of-war and all the rest of the shipping, both public and private.
But surely this is not what it is to have great power—merely doing what one thinks fit. Or do you think it is?
Oh no, not in that way.