BOOK IV - CHAPTER X

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_ It now remains to treat of a tyranny; not that there is [1295a] much
to be said on that subject, but as it makes part of our plan, since we
enumerated it amongst our different sorts of governments. In the
beginning of this work we inquired into the nature of kingly
government, and entered into a particular examination of what was most
properly called so, and whether it was advantageous to a state or not,
and what it should be, and how established; and we divided a tyranny
into two pieces when we were upon this subject, because there is
something analogous between this and a kingly government, for they are
both of them established by law; for among some of the barbarians
they elect a monarch with absolute power, and formerly among the
Greeks there were some such, whom they called sesumnetes. Now
these differ from each other; for some possess only kingly power
regulated by law, and rule those who voluntarily submit to their
government; others rule despotically according to their own will.
There is a third species of tyranny, most properly so called, which is
the very opposite to kingly power; for this is the government of one
who rules over his equals and superiors without being accountable for
his conduct, and whose object is his own advantage, and not the
advantage of those he governs; for which reason he rules by
compulsion, for no freemen will ever willingly submit to such a
government. These are the different species of tyrannies, their
principles, and their causes. _

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