_Pol._ As if, Socrates, you yourself would not like to be allowed to do what you please in a city, rather than not, and would not be envious when you saw any one either slaying whom he pleased, or taking away his possessions, or putting him in bonds. _Socr._ Do you mean justly or unjustly? _Pol._ Whichever he should do, is he not in either case to be envied? _Socr._ Good words, I pray you, Polus. _Pol._ But why? _Socr._ Because it is not right, either to envy those that are not to be envied, or the wretched; but to pity them. _Pol._ What say you? Does such appear to you to be the case with the men of whom I am speaking? 55. _Socr._ How can it be otherwise? _Pol._ Does he, then, who slays whom he pleases, slaying him justly, appear to you to be wretched, and an object of pity? _Socr._ Not at all; nor indeed is he to be envied. _Pol._ Did you not say just now that he was wretched? _Socr._ I said, my friend, that he is wretched who slays another unjustly, and more than that, to be pitied; but that he who slays another justly is not to be envied. _Pol._ He surely who dies unjustly is to be pitied, and is wretched. _Socr._ Less so, Polus, than he who slays him; and less than he who dies justly? _Pol._ How so, Socrates? _Socr._ Thus; because to act unjustly is the greatest of evils. _Pol._ But is this really the greatest of evils? Is it not a greater evil to suffer unjustly? _Socr._ By no means. _Pol._ Had you, then, rather suffer unjustly than act unjustly? _Socr._ I should wish neither of these: but if I must necessarily either act unjustly or suffer unjustly, I should choose rather to suffer unjustly than to act unjustly. _Pol._ Would you not, then, consent to be a tyrant? _Socr._ I would not, if by being a tyrant you mean the same that I do. _Pol._ I mean by it what I just now said, to have the power to do in a city whatever one pleases; to slay and banish, and do every thing according to one’s own pleasure. 56. _Socr._ My excellent friend, attend to what I say, and confute me if you can. If, when the forum is full, I should take a dagger under my arm, and say to you, Polus, a certain wonderful power and tyranny has just now fallen to my lot: for, if it seems fit to me that any one of these men whom you see ought immediately to die, he shall die; and if it seems fit to me that any one of them ought to have his head broken, he shall immediately have it broken; or if that his garment should be torn to pieces, it shall be torn to pieces: so great is the power I possess in the city. And if, on your disbelieving me, I should shew you the dagger, perhaps, on seeing it, you would say: According to this, Socrates, all men may have great power, since any house that you please might be burnt in this way, and even the dock-yards of the Athenians, and the triremes, and all the shipping, as well public as private. But surely this is not to possess great power, to do whatever one pleases: do you think so?