Are We Now the Monarch’s Slaves?

Solon, Elegy 9 (Quoted at Diogenes Laertius 1.50)

“The force of snow and hail comes from the clouds,
and thunder is born from the flash of lightning.
From powerful men comes the city’s destruction;
through ignorance, the people have fallen into slavery at a monarch’s hands.”

ἐκ νεφέλης φέρεται χιόνος μένος ἠδὲ χαλάζης·
βροντὴ δ’ ἐκ λαμπρῆς γίγνεται ἀστεροπῆς·
ἀνδρῶν δ’ ἐκ μεγάλων πόλις ὄλλυται· ἐς δὲ μονάρχου
δῆμος ἀιδρίῃ δουλοσύνην ἔπεσεν.