To Nicocles (3-6)

next, the laws by which in each case their civic life is governed; furthermore, freedom of speech and the privilege which is openly granted to friends to rebuke and to enemies to attack each other’s faults; besides, a number of the poets of earlier times[*] have left precepts which direct them how to live; so that, from all these influences, they may reasonably be expected to become better men.

Kings, however, have no such help; on the contrary, they, who more than other men should be thoroughly trained, live all their lives, from the time when they are placed in authority, without admonition; for the great majority of people do not come in contact with them, and those who are of their society consort with them to gain their favor. Indeed, although they are placed in authority over vast wealth and mighty affairs, they have brought it about because of their misuse of these advantages that many debate whether it were best to choose the life of men in private station who are reasonably prosperous, or the life of princes.

For when men look at their honors, their wealth, and their powers, they all think that those who are in the position of kings are the equals of the gods; but when they reflect on their fears and their dangers, and when, as they review the history of monarchs, they see instances where they have been slain by those from whom they least deserved that fate, other instances where they have been constrained to sin against those nearest and dearest to them, and still others where they have experienced both of these calamities, then they reverse their judgement and conclude that it is better to live in any fashion whatsoever than, at the price of such misfortunes, to rule over all Asia.

And the cause of this inconsistency and confusion is that men believe that the office of king is, like that of priest,[*] one which any man can fill, whereas it is the most important of human functions and demands the greatest wisdom. Now as to each particular course of action, it is the business of those who are at the time associated with a king to advise him how he may handle it in the best way possible, and how he may both preserve what is good and prevent disaster; but as regards a king’s conduct in general, I shall attempt to set forth the objects at which he should aim and the pursuits to which he should devote himself.