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Damocles

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Damocles
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
• Damocles

one of the courtiers of the elder Dionysius of Syracuse. When he spoke in extravagant terms of the happiness of his sovereign, Dionysius is said to have invited him to a sumptuous banquet, at which he found himself seated under a naked sword suspended by a single hair (Cicero, Tusc. v. 21; Horace, Odes, iii. 1, 17; Persius iii. 40).