Damocles

Damocles, one of the courtiers and flatterers of the elder Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. Cicero tells how Damocles, having extolled in the highest terms the grandeur and happiness of royalty, was reproved by Dionysius in a singular manner. The sycophant was seated at a table, richly spread and surrounded by all the furniture of royalty, but in the midst of his luxurious banquet, on looking upwards, he saw a keen-edged sword suspended over his head by a single horse-hair—a sight that at once altered his views of the felicity of kings.