ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ δῆμος ὁ μέν τις εὐγνώμων καὶ πρᾷος καὶ γαληνὸς ὄντως, οἷος 
γεύσασθαι παρρησίας καὶ μὴ πάντα ἐθέλειν τρυφᾶν, ἐπιεικής, μεγαλόφρων,
 αἰδούμενος τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς καὶ ἄνδρας καὶ λόγους, τοῖς νουθετοῦσι καὶ 
διδάσκουσι χάριν εἰδώς· ὃν ἐγὼ τίθημι τῆς θείας καὶ βασιλικῆς φύσεως, 
καὶ προσιέναι φημὶ καὶ διαλέγεσθαι τούτῳ πρέπειν, καθάπερ ἵππον γενναῖον ἐξ 
ἡνίας εὐτελοῦς πρᾴως ἄγοντα, οὐδὲν δεόμενον ψαλίων. οἱ δὲ πλείους {καὶ οἱ} 
θρασεῖς καὶ ὑπερήφανοι, δυσάρεστοι πρὸς ἅπαντα, ἁψίκοροι, τυράννοις ὅμοιοι 
καὶ πολὺ χείρους· οἷα δὴ τῆς κακίας αὐτῶν οὔσης οὐ μιᾶς οὐδὲ ἁπλῆς, ἀλλὰ 
συμπεφορημένης ἐκ μυρίων· ὥστε πάνυ ποικίλον τε καὶ δεινὸν εἶναι θηρίον, οἷα 
ποιηταὶ καὶ δημιουργοὶ πλάττουσι Κενταύρους τε καὶ Σφίγγας καὶ Χιμαίρας, ἐκ 
παντοδαπῶν φύσεων {εἰς} μίαν μορφὴν εἰδώλου ξυντιθέντες. τῷ δὲ τοιούτῳ 
τέρατι ξυμπλέκεσθαι καὶ ὁμόσε ἰέναι μαινομένου τινὸς ἀληθῶς ἔργον ἢ σφόδρα 
ἀνδρείου  καὶ πτηνοῦ, Περσέως ἢ Βελλεροφόντου.

In like manner democracy is of two kinds : the one is reasonable and gentle and truly 
mild, disposed to accept frankness of speech and not to care to be pampered in 
everything, fair, magnanimous, showing respect for good men and good advice, 
grateful to those who admonish and instruct ; this is the democracy which I regard as 
partaking of the divine and royal nature, and I deem it fitting that one should
approach and address it, just as one directs with gentleness a noble steed by means of 
simple reins, since it does not need the curb. But the more prevalent kind of 
democracy is both bold and arrogant, difficult to please in anything, fastidious, 
resembling tyrants or much worse than they, seeing that its vice is not that of one 
individual or of one kind but a jumble of the vices of thousands; and so it is a 
multifarious and dreadful beast, like those which poets and artists invent, Centaurs 
and Sphinxes and Chimaeras, combining in a single shape of unreal existence 
attributes borrowed from manifold natures. And to engage at close quarters with that 
sort of monster is the act of a man who is truly mad or else exceedingly brave and 
equipped with wings, a Perseus or a Bellerophon.

Trad. anglaise : J.W. COHOON - H. Lamar CROSBY, Dio Chrysostom. 
 Vol. III. London, Heinemann, 1940