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 4o).