However much he is heroised by left-wingers, the Venezuelan ‘tyrant’ Nicolás Maduro must wonder what is in it for him. The soldier-historian Xenophon composed a dialogue in which Hiero, the Greek tyrant of Syracuse (478-476 bc), freely admitted what a nightmare a tyrant’s life was.
Hiero came clean when his court poet Simonides asked him how much more pleasurable his life must be than that of the ordinary citizen. Far from it, said H: citizens can go to festivals and travel freely abroad; not tyrants, for fear of assassination or a coup. S: But surely it is wonderful being praised to the heavens? H: Not when you know they do not mean it. S: What, however, of the food and drink you enjoy? H: When you are constantly served the best possible, it becomes a treat no longer.
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