[1306a] (as Hipparinus put forward DionysiusSee 1259a 29 n. at Syracuse, and at Amphipolis See 1303b 2 n. a man named Cleotimus led the additional settlers that came from Chalcis and on their arrival stirred them up to sedition against the wealthy, and in Aegina the man who carried out the transactions with Chares attempted to cause a revolution in the constitution for a reason of this sorti.e. he had squandered his fortune in riotous living; this deal with the Athenian general may have been in 367 B.C.); [loeb_subsection_7] so sometimes they attempt at once to introduce some reform, at other times they rob the public funds and in consequence either they or those who fight against them in their peculations stir up faction against the government, as happened at Apollonia on the Black Sea. On the other hand, harmonious oligarchy does not easily cause its own destruction; and an indication of this is the constitutional government at Pharsalus, for there the ruling class though few are masters of many meni.e. both of the lower classes and of the subject cities. because on good terms with one another. [loeb_subsection_8] Also oligarchical governments break up when they create a second oligarchy within the oligarchy. This is when, although the whole citizen class is small, its few members are not all admitted to the greatest offices; this is what once occurred in Elis, for the government being in the hands of a few, very few men used to become members of the Elders,i.e. the small governing body. because these numbering ninety held office for life, and the mode of election was of a dynastic typei.e. like a dynasteia, favorable to the interest of a few very wealthy families; see 1292b 10 n. and resembled that of the Elders at Sparta.
[loeb_subsection_9] Revolutionsof oligarchies occur both during war and in time of peace— during war since the oligarchs are forced by their distrust of the people to employ mercenary troops (for the man in whose hands they place them often becomes tyrant, as Timophanes did at Corinth, Corinth was at war with Argos circa 350 B.C. Timophanes was killed by his brother the famous Timoleon, in order to restore constitutional government. and if they put several men in command, these win for themselves dynastic power), and when through fear of this they give a share in the constitution to the multitude, the oligarchy falls because they are compelled to make use of the common people; during peace, on the other hand, because of their distrust of one another they place their protection in the hands of mercenary troops and a magistrate between the two parties, who sometimes becomes master of both, which happened at Larisa in the time of the government of the Aleuadae led by Simus,A probable emendation of the Greek gives happened at Larisa to Simus and his party at the time of the government of the Aleuadae. This family were hereditary rulers of Larisa (see also 1275b 29 ff. n., and 1305b 29 ff.) and at Abydos in the time of the political clubs of which that of Iphiades was one. [loeb_subsection_10] And factions arise also in consequence of one set of the members of the oligarchy themselves being pushed aside by another set and being driven into party strife in regard to marriages or law-suits; examples of such disorders arising out of a cause related to marriage are the instances spoken of before, and also the oligarchy of the knights at Eretria was put downPossibly before the Persian wars. See 1289b 36 ff. The two following cases are unrecorded elsewhere. by Diagoras when he had been wronged in respect of a marriage, while the faction at Heraclea and that at Thebes arose out of a judgement of a law-court, when the people at Heraclea justly but factiously enforced the punishment against Eurytion on a charge of adultery [1306b] and those at Thebes did so against Archias;
for their personal enemies stirred up party feeling against them so as to get them bound in the pillory in the market-place. [loeb_subsection_11] Also many governments have been put down by some of their members who had become resentful because the oligarchies were too despotic; this is how the oligarchies fell at Cnidus See 1305b 13 n. and at Chios. And revolutions also occur from an accident, both in what is called a constitutional government and in those oligarchies in which membership of the council and the law-courts and tenure of the other offices are based on a property-qualification. For often the qualification first having been fixed to suit the circumstances of the time, so that in an oligarchy a few may be members and in a constitutional government the middle classes, when peace or some other good fortune leads to a good harvest it comes about that the same properties become worth many times as large an assessment, so that all the citizens share in all the rights, the change sometimes taking place gradually and little by little and not being noticed, but at other times more quickly.
[loeb_subsection_12] Such then are the causes that lead to revolutions and factions in oligarchies (and generally, both democracies and oligarchies are sometimes altered not into the opposite forms of constitution but into ones of the same class, for instancefrom legitimate democracies and oligarchies into autocratic ones and from the latter into the former).
[loeb_section_6] [loeb_subsection_1] In aristocracies factions arise in some cases because few men share in the honors (which has also been saidSee 1306a 13 ff. to be the cause of disturbances in oligarchies, because an aristocracy too is a sort of oligarchy, for in both those who govern are few—although the reason for this is not the same in both—since this does cause it to be thought that aristocracy is a form of oligarchy). And this is most bound to come about when there is a considerable number of people who are proud-spirited on the ground of being equals in virtue (for example the clan called the Maidens’ SonsSaid to be descended from irregular unions authorized in order to keep up population during the First Messenian War. They founded Taranto 708 B.C. at Sparta—for they were descended from the Equals—whom the Spartans detected in a conspiracy and sent away to colonize Tarentum); [loeb_subsection_2] or when individuals although great men and inferior to nobody in virtue are treated dishonorably by certain men in higher honor (for example Lysander by the kingsKing Pausanias II. checked Lysander after his conquest of Athens in 403 B.C. and King Agesilaus thwarted him on the expedition into Asia Minor in 396.); or when a person of manly nature has no share in the honors (for example Cinadon,His conspiracy against the Ὅμοιοι in 398 B.C. was discovered and he was executed. who got together the attack upon the Spartans in the reign of Agesilaus). Faction in aristocracies also arises when some of the well-born are too poor and others too rich (which happens especially during wars, and this also occurred at Sparta at the time of the Messenian War—as appears from the poem of Tyrtaeus entitledLaw and Order;