the property of the
state. What influence honours have, and how they may occasion sedition,
is evident enough; for those who are themselves unhonoured while they
see others honoured, will be ready for any disturbance: and these things
are done unjustly when any one is either honoured or discarded contrary
to their deserts, justly when they are according to them. Excessive
honours are also a cause of sedition when one person or more are greater
than the state and the power of the government can permit; for then
a monarchy or a dynasty is usually established: on which account the
ostracism was introduced in some places, as at Argos and Athens: though
it is better to guard against such excesses in the founding of a state,
than when they have been permitted to take place, to correct them
afterward. Those who have been guilty of crimes will be the cause of
sedition, through fear of punishment; as will those also who expect an
injury, that they may prevent it; as was the case at Rhodes, when the
nobles conspired against the people on account of the decrees they
expected would pass against them. Contempt also is a cause of sedition
and conspiracies; as in oligarchies, where there are many who have
no share in the administration. The rich also even in democracies,
despising the disorder and anarchy which will arise, hope to better
themselves by the same means which happened at Thebes after the battle
of Oenophyta, where, in consequence of bad administration, the democracy
was destroyed; as it was at Megara, where the power of the people was
lost through anarchy and disorder; the same thing happened at Syracuse
before the tyranny of Gelon; and at Rhodes there was the same sedition
before the popular government was overthrown. Revolutions in state will
also arise from a disproportionate increase; for as the body consists
of many parts, it ought to increase proportion-ably to preserve its
symmetry, which would otherwise be destroyed; as if the foot was to
be four cubits long, and the rest of the body but two palms; it might
otherwise [1303a] be changed into an animal of a different form, if it
increase beyond proportion not only in quantity, but also in disposition
of parts; so also a city consists of parts, some of which may often
increase without notice, as the number of poor in democracies and free
states. They will also sometimes happen by accident, as at Tarentum, a
little after the Median war, where so many of the nobles were