The Sword of Damocles is the cautionary tale of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, who demonstrates to Damocles, an admirer and lackey at his court, that the riches and power the tyrant possesses cannot be enjoyed because the tyrant is but a horse-hair away from death at the hands of his own subjects.
The story is related by Cicero in his work The Tusculan Disputations.
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