(6,38) τὸ δὲ δὴ πάντων παραλογώτατον, φοβεῖσθαι μὲν τοὺς ἀνόπλους, πιστεύειν 
δὲ αὑτὸν τοῖς ὡπλισμένοις, καὶ διερευνᾶσθαι μὲν τοὺς προσιόντας, μή τις ἔχοι
σίδηρον, ἐν μέσῳ δὲ ζῆν τῶν σιδηροφορούντων. φεύγειν δὲ ἀπὸ μὲν τῶν 
ἀνόπλων πρὸς τοὺς ὡπλισμένους, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ὡπλισμένων πρὸς τοὺς 
ἀνόπλους· ἀπὸ μέν γε τοῦ πλήθους φυλάττεσθαι τοῖς δορυφόροις, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν 
δορυφόρων εὐνούχοις. οὐκ ἔχειν δὲ οἷς ἂν πιστεύσας οὐδὲ ὅποι τραπόμενος 
δυνήσεται ζῆσαι μίαν ἡμέραν ἀφόβως. 
(6,39) ὑφορᾶσθαι δὲ καὶ τὰ σιτία καὶ τὸ ποτόν, καὶ τοὺς προπειράσοντας ταῦτα 
ἔχειν, ὥσπερ ἐν ὁδῷ πολεμίων γεμούσῃ τοὺς προερευνῶντας. ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τοῖς 
ἀναγκαίοις θαρρεῖν, μήτε παισὶ μήτε γυναικί. οὕτως δὲ χαλεποῦ ὄντος {τοῦ} 
πράγματος καὶ δυστυχοῦς τῆς μοναρχίας, μηδὲ ἀπαλλαγῆναί ποτε αὐτοῦ
μήτε βούλεσθαι μήτε δύνασθαι.

The most absurd thing of all, however, was that, though he feared unarmed persons, 
yet he entrusted himself to his armed guards, that though he searched those who 
approached him to see if any had a weapon, yet he lived surrounded by men who 
carried weapons. He was forever fleeing from the unarmed to the armed and from 
the armed to the unarmed; from the people he protected himself by means of his 
bodyguard and from his bodyguard by means of his eunuchs. He had no one that he 
could trust, nor refuge to which he could turn so that he might live a single day 
without fear. 39 He suspected everything he ate or drank, and had men to sample 
things for him like so many scouts on a road beset by the enemy. Nay, he could not 
place confidence in his nearest and dearest, whether children or wife. Yet, difficult 
and grievous as the position of monarch was, he never wanted to get rid of it, nor 
could be.

Trad. anglaise : J.W. COHOON - H. Lamar CROSBY, Dio Chrysostom.  
 Vol. II. London, Heinemann, 1939