ON MONARCHY, DEMOCRACY, AND OLIGARCHY (DE UNIUS IN REPUBLICA DOMINATIONE, POPULARI STATU, ET PAUCORUM IMPERIO)
INTRODUCTION
This essay is evidently only a fragment, as Wyttenbach long ago pointed out. The opening words
indicate that the author delivers it as an address
before an audience to which he has spoken on the
day before, but nothing further is known about the
circumstances. Few scholars now believe that the
author is Plutarch, though who the writer was is not
known. The substance of the fragment is derived
chiefly from the
Republic of Plato.