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