Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

He was compelled to abdicate, and when a man said to him, What help have Plato and philosophy

On being asked how his father, who was a poor man and a private citizen, had gained control over the Syracusans, and how he, who held control, and was the son of a despot, had come to lose it, he said, My father embarked upon his venture at a time when democracy was hated, but I at a time when despotism was odious.

Being asked this same question by another man, [*](By Philip of Macedon, according to Aelian, Varia Historia, xii. 60.) he said, My father bequeathed to me his kingdom, but not his luck.