I 
Men of Delphi, we have been sent by our ruler
Phalaris to bring your god this bull, and to say to
you what should be said about Phalaris himself and
about his gift. That is why we are here, then; and
what he told us to tell you is this:
‘For my part, men of Delphi, to have all the
Greeks think me the sort of man I am, and not the
sort that rumour, coming from those who hate and
envy me, has made me out to the ears of strangers,
would please me better than anything else in the
world ; above all, to have you think me what I am,
as you are priests and associates of Apollo, and
(one might almost say) live in his house and under
his roof-tree. I feel that if I clear myself before you
and convince you that there was no reason to think
me cruel, I shall have cleared myself through you
before the rest of the Greeks. And I call your god.
himself to witness what I am about to say. Of


 

course he cannot be tripped by fallacies and misled
by falsehoods : for although mere men are no doubt
easy to cheat, a god (and above all this god) cannot
be hoodwinked.
 
‘I was not one of the common people in Acragas,
but was as well-born, as delicately brought up and as
thoroughly educated as anyone. Never at any time
did I fail to display public spirit toward the city, and
discretion and moderation toward my fellow-citizens ;
and no one ever charged me with a single violent,
tude, insolent, or overbearing action in the early
period of my life. But when I saw that the men of
the opposite party were plotting against me and trying in every way to get rid of me—our city was
split into factions at the time—I found only one means
of escape and safety, in which lay also the salvation
of the city: it was to put myself at the head of the
state, curb those men and check their plotting, and
force the city to be reasonable. As there were not
a few who commended this plan, men of sense and
patriotism who understood my purpose and the
necessity of the coup, I made use of their assistance
and easily succeeded.
 
‘From that time on the others made no more
trouble, but gave obedience ; I ruled, and the city
was free from party strife. Executions, banishments
and confiscations I did not employ even against the
former conspirators, although a man must bring
 

himself to take such measures in the beginning
of a reign more than at any other time. I had
marvellous hopes of getting them to listen to me
by my humanity, mildness and good-nature, and
through the impartiality of my favour. At the
outset, for instance, I came to an understanding
with my enemies and laid aside hostility, taking
most of them as counsellors and intimates. As for
the city, perceiving that it had been brought to
rack and ruin through the neglect of those, in office,
because everybody was robbing or rather plundering
the state, I restored it by building aqueducts,
adorned it with buildings and strengthened it with
walls ; the revenues of the state I readily increased
through the diligence of my officials; I cared for
the young, provided for the old, and entertained
the people with shows, gifts, festivals and banquets.
Even to hear of girls wronged, boys led astray,
wives carried off, guardsmen with warrants, or .any
form of despotic threat made me throw up my hands
in horror.

 I was already planning to resign my
office and lay down my authority, thinking only how
one might stop with safety ; for being governor and
managing everything began to seem to me unpleasant
in itself and, when attended by jealousy, a burden
to the flesh. I was still seeking, however, to ensure
that the city would never again stand in need of
such ministrations. But while I in my simplicity
was engaged in all this, the others were already
combining against me, planning the manner of their
plot and uprising, organizing bands of conspirators,
collecting arms, raising money, asking the aid of
men in neighbouring towns, and sending embassies

 

to Greece, to the Spartans and the Athenians.
What they had already resolved to do with me
if they caught me, how they had threatened to tear
me to pieces with their own hands, and what
punishments they had devised for me, they confessed in public on the rack. For the fact that
I met no such fate I have the gods to thank, who
exposed the plot: above all, Apollo, who showed me
dreams and also sent me men to interpret them
fully.

 
‘At this point I ask you, men of Delphi, to
imagine yourselves now as alarmed as I was then,
and to give me your advice as to what I should have
done when I had almost been taken off my guard -
and was trying to save myself from the situation.
Transport yourselves, then, in fancy to my city of
Acragas for a while; see their preparations, hear
their threats, and tell me what to do. Use them
with humanity? Spare them and put up with them
when I am on the point of meeting my death the
very next moment—nay, proffer my naked throat,
and see my nearest and dearest slain before my
eyes? Would not that be sheer imbecility, and should
not I, with high and manly resolution and the anger
natural to a man of sense who has been wronged,
bring those men to book and provide for my own
future security as best I may in the situation?
That is the advice that I know you would have
given me.

 
‘Well, what did I do then? I summoned the
men implicated, gave them a hearing, brought in the
evidence, and clearly convicted them on each count;

 

and then, as they themselves no longer denied the
charge, I avenged myself, angry in the main, not
because they had plotted against me, but because
they had not let me abide by the plan which I had
made in the beginning. From that time I have
continued to protect myself and to punish those of
my opponents who plot against me at any time.
And then men charge me with cruelty, forgetting to
consider which of us s began it! Suppressing all that
-went before, which caused them to be punished,
they always censured the punishments in themselves
and their seeming cruelty. It is as if someone
among yourselves should see a temple-robber thrown
over the cliff, and should not take into account what
he had dared to do—how he had entered the temple
at night, had pulled down the offerings, and had laid
hands on the image—but should accuse you of great
barbarity on the ground that you, who call yourselves
Greeks and priests, countenanced the infliction of -
such a punishment on a fellow-Greek hard by the
temple (for they say that the cliff is not very far
from the city). Why, you yourselves will laugh at
any man who makes this charge against you, I am
sure ; and the rest of the world will praise you for
your severity towards the impious.

 
‘Peoples in general, without trying to find out
what sort of man the head of the state is, whether
just or unjust, simply hate the very name of tyranny,
and even if the tyrant is an Aeacus, a Minos or a
Rhadamanthus they make every effort to put him
out of the way just the same, for they fix their
eyes on the bad tyrants and include the good in
equal hatred by reason of the common title. Yet
I hear that among you Greeks there have been many

 

wise tyrants who, under a name of ‘ill-repute have
shown a good and kindly character; and even that
brief sayings of some of them are deposited in your
temple as gifts and oblations to Pythius.

 
‘You will observe that legislators lay most
- stress on the punitive class of measures, naturally
because no others are of any use if unattended by
fear and the expectation of punishment. With us
tyrants this is all the more necessary because we
govern by force and live among men who ‘not only
hate us but plot against us, in an environment where
even the bugaboos we set up do not help us. Our
case is like the story of the Hydra: the more heads
we lop, the more occasions for punishing grow up
under our eyes. We must needs make the best
of it and lop each new growth—yes, and sear it, too,
like Iolaus, The helper of Hercules in the story. if we are to hold the upper hand; for
when a man has once been forced into a situation ot
this sort, he must adapt himself to his réle or lose
his life by being merciful to his neighbours. In
general, do you suppose that any man is so barbarous and savage as to take pleasure in flogging,
in hearing groans and in seeing men slaughtered,
if he has not some good reason for punishing?
How many times have I not shed tears while others
were being flogged? How many times have I not
been forced to lament and bewail my lot in undergoing greater and more protracted punishment than
they? When a man is kindly by nature and harsh
by necessity, it is much harder for him to punish
than to be punished.



 
 

‘For my part, if I may speak freely, in case I
were offered the choice between inflicting unjust
punishment and being put to death myself, you
may be very certain that without delay I should
choose to die rather than to punish the innocent.
But if someone should say: ‘ Phalaris, choose between
meeting an unjust death and inflicting just punishment on conspirators, I should choose the latter ;
for—-once more I call upon you for advice, men
of Delphi—is it better to be put to death unjustly,
or to pardon conspirators unjustly? Nobody, surely,
is such a simpleton as not to prefer to live rather
than to pardon his enemies and die. But how many
men who made attempts on me and were clearly
convicted of it have I not pardoned in spite of
everything? So it was with Acanthus, whom you
see before you, and Timocrates and his brother
Leogoras, for I remembered my old-time friendship
with them.
 
‘When you wish to know my side, ask the
strangers who visit Acragas how I am with them, and
whether I treat visitors kindly. Why, I even have
watchmen at the ports, and agents to enquire who
people are and where they come from, so that I may
speed them on their way with fitting honours. Some
(and they are the wisest of the Greeks) come to see
me of their own free will instead of shunning my
society. For instance, just the other day the wise
man Pythagoras came to us; he had heard a
different’ story about me, but when he had seen
what I was like he went away praising me for my
justice and pitying me. for my necessary severity.
Then do you think that a man who is kind to


 

foreigners would treat his fellow-countrymen so
harshly if he had not been exceptionally wronged ?

 
‘So much for what I had to say to you in my
own behalf: it is true and just and, I flatter myself,
merits praise rather than hatred. As for my gift, it
is time you heard where and how I got this bull. I
did not order it of the sculptor myself—I hope I
may never be so insane as to want such things !—but
there was a man in our town called Perilaus, a good
metal-worker but a bad man, Completely missing
my point of view, this fellow thought to do me a
favour by inventing a new punishment, imagining
that I wanted to punish people in any and every
way. So he made the bull and came to me with it,
a very beautiful thing to look at and a very close
copy of nature ; motion and voice were all it needed
to make it seem actually alive. At the sight of it I
cried out at once: “The thing is good enough for
Apollo; we must send the bull to the god!” But
Perilaus at my elbow said: “What if you knew the
trick of it and the purpose it serves?” . With that
he opened the bull’s back and said: “If you wish
to punish anyone, make him get into this contrivance
and lock him up; then attach these flutes to the
nose of the bull and have a fire lighted underneath.
The man will groan and shriek in the grip of unremitting pain, and his voice will make you the
sweetest possible music on the flutes, piping dolefully
and lowing piteously ; so that while he is punished
you are entertained by having flutes played to you.”

 

When I heard this I was disgusted with the wicked
ingenuity of the fellow and hated the idea of the

 

contrivance, so I gave him a punishment that fitted,
his crime. “Come now, Perilaus,” said I, “if this is
not mere empty boasting, show us the real nature of
the invention by getting into it yourself and imitating people crying out, so that we may know whether
the music you speak of ig really made on the flutes.”
Perilaus complied, and when he was inside, I locked
him up and had a fire kindled underneath, saying:
“Take the reward you deserve for your wonderful
invention, and as you are our music-master, play the
first tune yourself !” So he, indeed, got his deserts
by thus having the enjoyment of his own ingenuity.
But I had the fellow taken out while he -was still
alive and breathing, that he might not pollute the
work by dying in it; then I had him thrown over a
cliff to lie unburied, and after purifying the bull,
sent it to you to be dedicated to the god. I also
had the whole story inscribed on it—my name as the
- giver; that of Perilaus, the maker; his idea; my
justice ; the apt punishment ; the songs of the clever
metal-worker and the first trial of the music.

 
‘You will do what is right, men of Delphi, if
you offer sacrifice in my behalf with my ambassadors,
and if you set the bull up in a fair place in the
temple-close, that all may know how I deal with bad
men and how I requite their extravagant inclinations
toward wickedness. Indeed, this affair of itself is
enough to show my character: Perilaus was punished,
the bull was dedicated without being kept to pipe
when others were punished and without having
played any other tune than the bellowings of its


 

maker, and his case sufficed me to try the invention
and put an end to that uninspired, inhyman music.
At present, this is what I offer the god, but I shall
make many other gifts as soon as he permits me to
dispense with punishments.’

 
This, men of Delphi, is the message from Phalaris,
all of it true and everything just as‘ it took place.
You would be justified in believing our testimony,
as we know the facts and have never yet had the
reputation of being untruthful. But if it is necessary
to resort to entreaty on behalf of a man who has
been wrongly thought wicked and has been compelled to punish people against his will, then we, the
people of Acragas, Greeks of Dorian stock, beseech
you to grant him access to the sanctuary, for he
wishes to be your friend and is moved to confer
many benefits on each and all of yon, both public
and private. Take the bull then; dedicate it, and
pray for Acragas and for Phalaris himself. Do not
send us away unsuccessful or insult him or deprive
the god of an offering at once most beautiful and
most fitting.
 II 
I am neither an official representative of the
people of Acragas, men of Delphi, nor a personal
representative of Phalaris himself, and I have no
private ground at all for good-will to him and no
expectation of future friendship. But after listening
to the reasonable and temperate story of the ambassadors who have come from him, I rise in the

 

interests of religion, of our common good and, above
all, of the dignity of Delphi to exhort you neither
to insult a devout monarch nor to put away a gift
already pledged to the god, especially as it will be
for ever a memorial of three very significant things—
beautiful workmanship, wicked inventiveness, and
just punishment.

 
for you to hesitate about
this matter at all and to submit us the question
whether we should receive the gift or send it back
again—even this I, for my part, consider impious ;
indeed, nothing short of extreme sacrilege, for the
business is nothing else than temple-robbery, far
more serious than other forms of it because it is
more impious not to allow people to make gifts
when they will than to steal gifts after they are
made.

 
A man of Delphi myself and an equal participant
in our public good name if we maintain it and in ~
our disrepute if we acquire it from the present case,
I beg you neither to lock the temple to worshippers
nor to give the world a bad opinion of the city as
one that quibbles over things sent the god, and tries
givers by ballot and jury. No one would venture to
give in future if he knew that the god would not
accept anything not previously approved by the men
of Delphi.

 

As a matter of fact, Apollo has already
voted justly about the gift. At any rate, if he hated
Phalaris or loathed his present, he could easily have
sunk it in the middle of the Ionian sea, along with
the ship that carried it. But, quite to the contrary,


 

he vouchsafed them a calm passage, they say, and a
safe arrival at Cirrha.

 

By this it is clear that he
accepts the monarch’s worship. You must cast the
same vote as he, and add this bull to the other
attractions of the temple: for it would be most preposterous that a’man who has sent so magnificent a
present to our god should get the sentence of
exclusion from the sanctuary and should be paid for
his piety by being pronounced unworthy even to
make an oblation.

 

The man who. holds the contrary opinion ranted
about the tyrant’s murders and assaults and
robberies and abductions as if he had just put into
port from Acragas, all but saying that he had been
an eye-witness; we know, however, that he has not
even been as far from ‘home as the boat. We
should not give such stories full credence even when
told by those who profess to be the victims, for it is
doubtful whether they are telling the truth. Much
less should we ourselves play the accuser in matters of
which we have no knowledge.

 

But even if something of the sort has actually taken place in Sicily,
we of Delphi need not trouble ourselves about it,
unless we now want to be judges instead of priests,
and when we should be sacrificing and performing
the other divine services and helping to dedicate
whatever anyone sends us, sit and speculate whether
people on the other side of the Ionian sea are ruled
justly or unjustly.

 
Let the situation of others be as it may: we, in
my opinion, must needs realize our own situation—
what it was of old, what it is now, and what we can
do to better it. That we live on crags and cultivate


 

rocks is something we need not wait for Homer to
tell us—anyone can see it for himself. “Rocky Pytho” is twice mentioned in the Iliad (2, 519;
9, 405). But Lucian is thinking particularly of the Homeric
Hymn to Apollo, toward the close of which (526f.) the
Cretans whom Apollo has settled at Delphi ask him haw they
are to live; "for here is no lovely vine-land or fertile glebe.”
He tells them that they have only to slaughter sheep, and all
that_men bring him shall be theirs. As far as
the land is concerned, we should always be cheek by
jow] with starvation: the temple, the god, the oracle,
the sacrificers and the worshippers—these are the
grain-lands of Delphi, these are our revenue, these
are the sources of our prosperity and of our subsistence. We-should speak the truth among ourselves,
at any rate! “Unsown and untilled,” Homer, Od. 9, 109; 123. as the poets
say, everything is grown for us with the god for our
husbandman. Not only does he vouchsafe us the
good things found among the Greeks, but every
product of the Phrygians, the Lydians, the Persians,
the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Italians and even
the Hyperboreans comes to Delphi. And next to
the god we are held in honour by all men, and we
are prosperous and happy. Thus it was of old, thus
it has been till now, and may we never cease leading
this life !

 

Never in the memory of any man have we taken
avote on a gift, or prevented anyone from sacrificing
or giving. For this very reason, I think, the temple
has prospered extraordinarily and is excessively rich
in gifts. Therefore we ought not to make any
innovation in the present case and break precedents
by setting up the practice of censoring gifts and
looking into the pedigree of things that are sent



 

here, to see where they come from and from whom,
and what they are: we should receive them and
dedicate them without officiousness, serving bothparties, the god and the worshippers.

 

It seems to me, men of Delphi, that you will
come to the best conclusion about the present case
if you should consider the number and the magnitude
of the issues involved in the question—first, the god,
the temple, sacrifices, gifts, old. customs, timehonoured observances and the credit of the oracle ;
then the whole-city and-the interests not only of
our body but of every man in Delphi; and more
than all, our good or bad name in the world. I
have no doubt that if you are in -your senses you
will think nothing more important or more vital than
these issues.

 
This is what we are in consultation about, then:
it is not Phalaris (a single tyrant) or. this bull
of bronze only, but all kings and all monarchs who
now frequent the temple, and gold and silver and all
other things of price that will be given the god on
many occasions. The first point to be investigated
should be the interest of the god. Why: should
we not manage the matter of gifts as we have always
done, as we did in the beginning?

 

What fault
have we to find with the good old customs, that we
should make innovations, and that we should now
set up a practice that has never existed among us
since the city has been inhabited, since our god has
given oracles, since the tripod has had a voice and
since the priestess has been inspired—the practice
of trying and cross-examining givers? In consequence
 

of that fine old custom of unrestricted -access for
all, you see how many good things fill the temple :
all men give, and some are more generous to the
god than their means warrant.

 
But if you make
yourselves examiners and inquisitors upon gifts, I
doubt we shall be in want of people to examine
hereafter, for nobody has the courage to put himself
on the defensive, and to stand trial and risk everything as a result of spending his money lavishly.
Who can endure life, if he is pronounced unworthy
to make an oblation?