Phalaris

1Men 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.

2‘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.

3‘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.

4I 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.

5‘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.

6‘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.

7‘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.

8‘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,†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.

9‘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.

10‘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?

11‘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.”

12When 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.

13‘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.’

14This, 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.