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_ What has been now said, it seems proper to change our subject and to
inquire into the nature of monarchies; for we have already admitted
them to be one of those species of government which are properly
founded. And here let us consider whether a kingly government is
proper for a city or a country whose principal object is the happiness
of the inhabitants, or rather some other. But let us first determine
whether this is of one kind only, or more; [1285a] and it is easy to
know that it consists of many different species, and that the forms of
government are not the same in all: for at Sparta the kingly power
seems chiefly regulated by the laws; for it is not supreme in all
circumstances; but when the king quits the territories of the state he
is their general in war; and all religious affairs are entrusted to
him: indeed the kingly power with them is chiefly that of a general
who cannot be called to an account for his conduct, and whose command
is for life: for he has not the power of life and death, except as a
general; as they frequently had in their expeditions by martial law,
which we learn from Homer; for when Agamemnon is affronted in council,
he restrains his resentment, but when he is in the field and armed
with this power, he tells the Greeks:
"Whoe'er I know shall shun th' impending fight, To dogs and
vultures soon shall be a prey; For death is mine. . . ."
This, then, is one species of monarchical government in which the
kingly power is in a general for life; and is sometimes hereditary,
sometimes elective: besides, there is also another, which is to be met
with among some of the barbarians, in which the kings are invested
with powers nearly equal to a tyranny, yet are, in some respects,
bound by the laws and the customs of their country; for as the
barbarians are by nature more prone to slavery than the Greeks, and
those in Asia more than those in Europe, they endure without murmuring
a despotic government; for this reason their governments are
tyrannies; but yet not liable to be overthrown, as being customary and
according to law. Their guards also are such as are used in a kingly
government, not a despotic one; for the guards of their kings are his
citizens, but a tyrant's are foreigners. The one commands, in the
manner the law directs, those who willingly obey; the other,
arbitrarily, those who consent not. The one, therefore, is guarded by
the citizens, the other against them.
These, then, are the two different sorts of these monarchies, and
another is that which in ancient Greece they called _aesumnetes_;
which is nothing more than an elective tyranny; and its difference
from that which is to be found amongst the barbarians consists not in
its' not being according to law, but only in its not being according
to the ancient customs of the country. Some persons possessed this
power for life, others only for a particular time or particular
purpose, as the people of Mitylene elected Pittacus to oppose the
exiles, who were headed by Antimenides and Alcaeus the poet, as we
learn from a poem of his; for he upbraids the Mitylenians for having
chosen Pittacus for their tyrant, and with one [1285b] voice extolling
him to the skies who was the ruin of a rash and devoted people. These
sorts of government then are, and ever were, despotic, on account of
their being tyrannies; but inasmuch as they are elective, and over a
free people, they are also kingly.
A fourth species of kingly government is that which was in use in the
heroic times, when a free people submitted to a kingly government,
according to the laws and customs of their country. For those who were
at first of benefit to mankind, either in arts or arms, or by
collecting them into civil society, or procuring them an
establishment, became the kings of a willing people, and established
an hereditary monarchy. They were particularly their generals in war,
and presided over their sacrifices, excepting such only as belonged to
the priests: they were also the supreme judges over the people; and in
this case some of them took an oath, others did not; they did, the
form of swearing was by their sceptre held out.
In ancient times the power of the kings extended to everything
whatsoever, both civil, domestic, and foreign; but in after-times they
relinquished some of their privileges, and others the people assumed,
so that, in some states, they left their kings only the right of
presiding over the sacrifices; and even those whom it were worth while
to call by that name had only the right of being commander-in-chief in
their foreign wars.
These, then, are the four sorts of kingdoms : the first is that of the
heroic times; which was a government over a free people, with its
rights in some particulars marked out; for the king was their general,
their judge, and their high priest. The second, that of the
barbarians; which is an hereditary despotic government regulated by
laws: the third is that which they call aesumnetic, which is an
elective tyranny. The fourth is the Lacedaemonian; and this, in few
words, is nothing more than an hereditary generalship: and in these
particulars they differ from each other. There is a fifth species of
kingly government, which is when one person has a supreme power over
all things whatsoever, in the manner that every state and every city
has over those things which belong to the public: for as the master of
a family is king in his own house, so such a king is master of a
family in his own city or state. _
Read next: BOOK III: CHAPTER XV
Read previous: BOOK III: CHAPTER XIII
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