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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Damocles Biography DAMOCLES, A courtier and sycophant of the elder Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse. When Damocles lauded the lot of royalty, Dionysius, to set him right, invited him to a luxurious banquet. On looking upward, he saw a keen-edged sword suspended over his head by a single hair, and at once changed his views concerning the happiness of kings. Consult Horace , Odes, iii, 1, 17 ff. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 458. |