Dion

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.

Even when he admonished, he was thought to denounce, and when he would not share men’s sins, to despise.

And in very truth his character had naturally a certain majesty, together with a harshness that repelled intercourse and was hard to deal with. For not only to a man who was young and whose ears had been corrupted by flattery was he an unpleasant and irksome associate, but many also who were intimate with him and who loved the simplicity and nobility of his disposition, were apt to find fault with the manner of his intercourse with men, on the ground that he dealt with those who sought his aid more rudely and harshly than was needful in public life.

On this head Plato also afterwards wrote to him,[*](Epist. iv. ad fin.) in a tone almost prophetic, that he should be on his guard against self-will, which was a

companion of solitude.
[*](Cf. the Coriolanus, xv. 4. )