red imposed upon the people by telling them that the king
of Persia would supply them with money for the war against the
Lacedaemonians; and after they had been guilty of this falsity, they
endeavoured to keep possession of the supreme power; or when they are
at first persuaded and afterwards consent to be governed: and by one of
these methods which I have mentioned are all revolutions in governments
brought about.

CHAPTER V

We ought now to inquire into those events which will arise from these
causes in every species of government. Democracies will be most subject
to revolutions from the dishonesty of their demagogues; for partly, by
informing against men of property, they induce them to join together
through self-defence, for a common fear will make the greatest enemies
unite; and partly by setting the common people against them: and this is
what any one may continually see practised in many states. In the island
of Cos, for instance, the democracy was subverted by the wickedness
of the demagogues, for the nobles entered into a combination with
each other. And at Rhodes the demagogues, by distributing of bribes,
prevented the people from paying the trierarchs what was owing to them,
who were obliged by the number of actions they were harassed with to
conspire together and destroy the popular state. The same thing was
brought about at Heraclea, soon after the settlement of the city, by
the same persons; for the citizens of note, being ill treated by them,
quitted the city, but afterwards joining together they returned and
overthrew the popular state. Just in the same manner the democracy
was destroyed in Megara; for there the demagogues, to procure money by
confiscations, drove out the nobles, till the number of those who were
banished was considerable, who, [1305a] returning, got the better of the
people in a battle, and established an oligarchy. The like happened at
Cume, during the time of the democracy, which Thrasymachus destroyed;
and whoever considers what has happened in other states may perceive the
same revolutions to have arisen from the same causes. The demagogues,
to curry favour with the people, drive the nobles to conspire together,
either by dividing their estates, or obliging them to spend them on
public services, or by banishing them, that they may confiscate the
fortunes of the wealthy. In former times, when the same person was both
demagogue and general, the democracies were changed into t