Read "Xenophon: Hiero or Tyrannicus" by Leo Strauss online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"I wish, Simonides," he said, "to make clear to you those pleasures which I enjoyed when I was a private man; now, since I became a tyrant, I perceive that I am deprived of them.
I was together with companions of my own age, taking pleasure in them, and they in me; I was a companion to myself when I desired peace and tranquility; I lived amid banquets, often until I forgot everything harsh in human life, and often until my soul was completely absorbed in song, festivity, and dancing, and often until there was desire for intercourse between me and those who were present.