[1303a] one of which often grows without its being noticed, as for example the number of the poor in democracies and constitutional states. [loeb_subsection_8] And sometimes this is also brought about by accidental occurrences, as for instance at Tarentum when a great many notables were defeated and killed by the Iapygians a short time after the Persian wars a constitutional government was changed to a democracy, and at Argos when those in the seventh tribeThe word to be understood here may be φυλῇ, or possibly ἡμέρᾳ: the seventh day of the month was sacred to Apollo, especially at Sparta, and one account assigns Cleomenes’ victory to that day, in which case the casualties may well have been known afterwards as those who fell on the seventh. had been destroyed by the Spartan Cleomenes the citizens were compelled to admit some of the surrounding people, and at Athens when they suffered disasters by land the notables became fewer because at the time of the war against Sparta the army was drawn from a muster-roll.i.e. was made up of citizens and not of mercenaries. And this happens also in democracies, though to a smaller extent; for when the wealthy become more numerous or their properties increase, the governments change to oligarchies and dynasties.See 1292b 10 n. [loeb_subsection_9] And revolutions in constitutions take place even without factious strife, owing to election intrigue, as at Heraea On the Alpheus, in Arcadia. (for they made their magistrates elected by lot instead of by vote for this reason, because the people used to elect those who canvassed); and also owing to carelessness, when people allow men that are not friends of the constitution to enter into the sovereign offices, as at OreusIn Euboea; its secession from Sparta to Athens, 377 B.C., was perhaps the occasion of this revolution. oligarchy was broken up when Heracleodorus became one of the magistrates, who in place of an oligarchyformed a constitutional government, or rather a democracy. Another cause is alteration by small stages; by this I mean that often a great change of institutions takes place unnoticed when people overlook a small alteration, as in Ambracia the property-qualification was small, and finally men hold office with none at all, as a little is near to nothing, or practically the same. [loeb_subsection_10] Also difference of race is a cause of faction, until harmony of spirit is reached; for just as any chance multitude of people does not form a state, so a state is not formed in any chance period of time. Hence most of the states that have hitherto admitted joint settlers or additional settlersi.e. colonists not from the mother-city, admitted either at the foundation of the colony or later. have split into factions; for example Achaeans settled at Sybaris Sybaris, founded 720 B.C., became very wealthy. The Troezenian population when expelled were received at Croton, which made war on Sybaris and destroyed it 510 B.C. To what exactly τὸ ἄγος refers is unknown. jointly with Troezenians, and afterwards the Achaeans having become more numerous expelled the Troezenians, which was the Cause of the curse that fell on the Sybarites; and at Thurii Sybarites quarrelled with those who had settled there with them, for they claimed to have the larger share in the country as being their own, and were ejected; and at Byzantium the additional settlers were discovered plotting against the colonists and were expelled by force of arms; and the people of Antissa In Lesbos. after admitting the Chian exiles expelled them by arms; [loeb_subsection_11] and the people of Zancle Later Messana, Messina. after admitting settlers from Samos were themselves expelled; and the people of Apollonia on the Euxine Sea after bringing in additional settlers fell into faction;
and the Syracusans after the period of the tyrantsThrasybulus succeeded his brother Hiero as tyrant in 467 B.C. and fell within a year. [1303b] conferred citizenship on their foreign troops and mercenaries and then faction set in and they came to battle; and the Amphipolitans having received settlers from Chalcis were most of them driven out by them.Cf. 1306a 2. The exact circumstances are unknown; Amphipolis was colonized from Athens 437 B.C.
(And in oligarchies civil strife is raised by the many, on the ground that they are treated unjustly because they are not admitted to an equal share although they are equal, as has been said before, but in democracies it begins with the notables, because they have an equal share although they are not equal.)This sentence is out of place here, and would fit in better if placed (as it is by Newman) above at 1301a 39, after στασιάζουσι, or (with other editors) 1301b 26.
[loeb_subsection_12] Also states sometimes enter on faction for geographical reasons, when the nature of the country is not suited for there being a single city, as for example at ClazomenaeTopography uncertain: Clazomenae near Smyrna was partly on a small island, which Alexander joined to the mainland with a causeway. the people near Chytrum are in feud with the inhabitants of the island, and the Colophonians and the Notians Notium was the port of Colophon.; and at Athens the population is not uniformly democratic in spirit, but the inhabitants of Piraeus are more so than those of the city. For just as in wars the fording of watercourses, even quite small ones, causes the formations to lose contact, so every difference seems to cause division. Thus perhaps the greatest division is that between virtue and vice, next that between wealth and poverty, and so with other differences in varying degree, one of which is the one mentioned.i.e. difference of locality.
[loeb_section_3] [loeb_subsection_1] Factions arise therefore not about but out of small matters; but they are carried on about great matters. And even the small ones grow extremely violent when they spring up among men of the ruling class,as happened for example at Syracuse in ancient times. For the constitution underwent a revolution as a result of a quarrel that arosePerhaps under the oligarch of the Gamori, overthrown by the people and followed by Gelo’s tyranny, 485 B.C. between two young men, who belonged to the ruling class, about a love affair. While one of them was abroad the other who was his comrade won over the youth with whom he was in love, and the former in his anger against him retaliated by persuading his wife to come to him; owing to which they stirred up a party struggle among all the people in the state, enlisting them on their sides. [loeb_subsection_2] On account of this it is necessary to guard against such affairs at their beginning, and to break up the factions of the leaders and powerful men; for the error occurs at the beginning, andthe beginning as the proverb says is half of the whole, so that even a small mistake at the beginning stands in the same ratioi.e. the ratio of being a half to the whole: a bad start does as much to harm as all the later mistakes put together. to mistakes at the other stages. And in general the faction quarrels of the notables involve the whole state in the consequences, as happened at HestiaeaAlso called Oreus, see 1303a 18. after the Persian wars, when two brothers quarrelled about the division of their patrimony; for the poorer of the two, on the ground that the other would not make a return of the estate and of the treasure that their father had found, got the common people on his side, and the other possessing much property was supported by therich. [loeb_subsection_3] And at Delphi the beginning of all the factions that occurred afterwards was when a quarrel arose out of a marriage;