In short,
he should practice these and the like Persian and barbaric arts, which
all have the same object. A tyrant should also endeavor to know what
each of his subjects says or does, and should employ spies, like the
'female detectives' at Syracuse, and the eavesdroppers whom Hiero
was in the habit of sending to any place of resort or meeting; for the
fear of informers prevents people from speaking their minds, and if
they do, they are more easily found out. Another art of the tyrant
is to sow quarrels among the citizens; friends should be embroiled
with friends, the people with the notables, and the rich with one
another. Also he should impoverish his subjects; he thus provides
against the maintenance of a guard by the citizen and the people,
having to keep hard at work, are prevented from conspiring. The
Pyramids of Egypt afford an example of this policy; also the offerings
of the family of Cypselus, and the building of the temple of
Olympian Zeus by the Peisistratidae, and the great Polycratean
monuments at Samos; all these works were alike intended to occupy
the people and keep them poor. Another practice of tyrants is to
multiply taxes, after the manner of Dionysius at Syracuse, who
contrived that within five years his subjects should bring into the
treasury their whole property. The tyrant is also fond of making war
in order that his subjects may have something to do and be always in
want of a leader.
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