Herodotus tells a story about what it’s like when tyrants take counsel.
Periander of Corinth asked Thrasybulus of Miletus how to stay in power.
The young Corinthian sent a messenger to ask the old tyrant how he’d stayed around so long.
Thrasybulus took the messenger on a long walk through a field of grain. He kept asking the messenger why he’d come. The messenger asked a dozen times, but Thrasybulus showed no interest in Periander’s question.
Every time Thrasybulus passed an ear of grain that was taller and heavier than the others, he snapped it off.
Thrasybulus sent the messenger home with no advice.
The messenger, distraught, told his boss he had been given no helpful insights. He described Thrasybulus as a kind of lunatic who destroyed his own wealth — the best specimens of his crop.
Periander heard the story and understood.
• Source: Herodotus, The Histories, translated by Robin Waterfield; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, Book V, paragraph 92.
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