And the same thing happened also at Cyme [1305a] in the time of the democracy which Thrasymachus put downAn event otherwise unknown., and in the case of other states also examination would show that revolutions take place very much in this manner. Sometimes they make the notables combine by wronging them in order to curry favor, causing either their estates to be divided up or their revenues by imposing public services, and sometimes by so slandering them that they may have the property of the wealthy to confiscate. [loeb_subsection_4] And in old times whenever the same man became both leader of the people and general, they used to change the constitution to a tyranny; for almost the largest number of the tyrants of early days have risen from being leaders of the people. And the reason why this used to happen then but does not do so now is because then the leaders of the people were drawn from those who held the office of general (for they were not yet skilled in oratory), but now when rhetoric has developed the able speakers are leaders of the people, but owing to their inexperience in military matters they are not put in control of these, except in so far as something of the kind has taken place to a small extent in some places. [loeb_subsection_5] And tyrannies also used to occur in former times more than they do now because important offices were entrusted to certain men, as at Miletus a tyrannyPerhaps that of Thrasybulus (Hdt. 1.20), 612 B.C. arose out of the presidency (for the president had control of many important matters). And moreover, because the cities in those times were not large but the common people lived on their farmsbusily engaged in agriculture, the people’s champions when they became warlike used to aim at tyranny. And they all used to do this when they had acquired the confidence of the people, and their pledge of confidence was their enmity towards the rich, as at Athens Pisistratus made himself tyrant by raising up a party against the men of the plain, and Theagenes at Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the well-to-do which he captured grazing by the river, and DionysiusDionysius the elder, see 1259a 29 n. established a claim to become tyrant when he accused Daphnaeus and the rich, since his hostility to them caused him to be trusted as a true man of the people. [loeb_subsection_6] And revolutions also take place from the ancestral form of democracy to one of the most modern kind; for where the magistracies are elective, but not on property-assessments, and the people elect, men ambitious of office by acting as popular leaders bring things to the point of the people’s being sovereign even over the laws. A remedy to prevent this or to reduce its extent is for the tribes to elect the magistrates, and not the people collectively.
These then are the causes through which almost all the revolutions in democracies take place.
[loeb_section_5] [loeb_subsection_1] Oligarchies undergo revolution principally through two ways that are the most obvious. One is if they treat the multitude unjustly; for anybody makes an adequate people’s champion, and especially so when their leader happens to come from the oligarchy itself, like Lygdamis at Naxos, who afterwards actually became tyrant of the Naxians.
[1305b] [loeb_subsection_2] Faction originating with other people also has various ways of arising. Sometimes when the honors of office are shared by very few, dissolution originates from the wealthy themselves,The contrasted case, of dissolution of oligarchy arising from the people, should follow, but is omitted. but not those that are in office, as for example has occurred at Marseilles,Cf. 1321a 29 ff. at Istrus,Near the mouth of the Danube. at Heraclea,See 1304b 31 n. and in other states; for those who did not share in the magistracies raised disturbances until as a first stage the older brothers were admitted, and later the younger ones again (for in some places a father and a son may not hold office together, and in others an elder and a younger brother may not). At Marseilles the oligarchy became more constitutional, while at Istrus it ended in becoming democracy, and in Heraclea the government passed from a smaller number to six hundred. [loeb_subsection_3] At Cnidus also there was a revolutionPerhaps not the same as the one mentioned at 1306b 3. of the oligarchy caused by a faction formed by the notables against one another, because few shared in the government, and the rule stated held, that if a father was a member a son could not be, nor if there were several brothers could any except the eldest; for the common people seized the opportunity of their quarrel and, taking a champion from among the notables, fell upon them and conquered them, for a party divided against itself is weak. [loeb_subsection_4] Another case was at Erythrae,Just west of Smyrna. The family name implies a claim to royal ancestry. where at the time of the oligarchy of the Basilidae in ancient days, althoughthe persons in the government directed affairs well, nevertheless the common people were resentful because they were governed by a few, and brought about a revolution of the constitution.
On the other hand, oligarchies are overthrown from within themselves bothThis sentence is interrupted by a parenthesis and is resumed in 5.6, And revolution is oligarchy also—. when from motives of rivalry they play the demagogue (and this demagogy is of two sorts, one among the oligarchs themselves, for a demagogue can arise among them even when they are a very small body,—as for instance in the time of the Thirty at Athens, the party of Charicles rose to power by currying popularity with the Thirty, and in the time of the Four HundredSee 1304b 12 n. the party of Phrynichus rose in the same way,— [loeb_subsection_5] the other when the members of the oligarchy curry popularity with the mob, as the Civic Guards at Larisa See 1275b 29 n. courted popularity with the mob because it elected them, and in all the oligarchies in which the magistracies are not elected by the class from which the magistrates come but are filled from high property-grades or from political clubs while the electors are the heavy-armed soldiers or the common people, as used to be the case at Abydos, and in places where the jury-courts are not made up from the governmenti.e. (apparently) where membership is not confined to the class eligible for the magistracies.—for there members of the oligarchy by courting popular favor with a view to their trials cause a revolution of the constitution, as took place at Heraclea on the EuxineSee 1304b 31 n.; [loeb_subsection_6] and a further instance is when some men try to narrow down the oligarchy to a smaller number, for those who seek equality are forced to bring in the people as a helper.) And revolutions in oligarchy also take place when they squander their private means by riotous living; for also men of this sort seek to bring about a new state of affairs, and either aim at tyranny themselves or suborn somebody else