as the
court of Areopagus at Athens, having procured great credit during the
Median war, added firmness to their administration; and, on the other
hand, the maritime force, composed of the commonalty, having gained the
victory at Salamis, by their power at sea, got the lead in the state,
and strengthened the popular party: and at Argos, the nobles,
having gained great credit by the battle of Mantinea against the
Lacedaemonians, endeavoured to dissolve the democracy. And at Syracuse,
the victory in their war with the Athenians being owing to the common
people, they changed their free state into a democracy: and at Chalcis,
the people having taken off the tyrant Phocis, together with the nobles,
immediately seized the government: and at Ambracia also the people,
having expelled the tyrant Periander, with his party, placed the
supreme power in themselves. And this in general ought to be known,
that whosoever has been the occasion of a state being powerful, whether
private persons, or magistrates, a certain tribe, or any particular part
of the citizens, or the multitude, be they who they will, will be the
cause of disputes in the state. For either some persons, who envy them
the honours they have acquired, will begin to be seditious, or they,
on account of the dignity they have acquired, will not be content with
their former equality. A state is also liable to commotions when those
parts of it which seem to be opposite to each other approach to an
[1304b] equality, as the rich and the common people; so that the part
which is between them both is either nothing at all, or too little to be
noticed; for if one party is so much more powerful than the other, as
to be evidently stronger, that other will not be willing to hazard the
danger: for which reason those who are superior in excellence and virtue
will never be the cause of seditions; for they will be too few for that
purpose when compared to the many. In general, the beginning and the
causes of seditions in all states are such as I have now described, and
revolutions therein are brought about in two ways, either by violence or
fraud: if by violence, either at first by compelling them to submit to
the change when it is made. It may also be brought about by fraud in
two different ways, either when the people, being at first deceived,
willingly consent to an alteration in their government, and are
afterwards obliged by force to abide by it: as, for instance, when the
four hund