[562a]
“Shall we definitely assert, then, that such a
man is to be ranged with democracy and would properly be designated as
democratic?” “Let that be his place,” he
said.“And now,” said
I, “the fairest1 polity and the fairest man
remain for us to describe, the tyranny and the tyrant.”
“Certainly,” he said. “Come then, tell me,
dear friend, how tyranny arises.2 That it is an
outgrowth of democracy is fairly plain.” “Yes,
plain.” “Is it, then, in a sense, in the same way in
which democracy arises out of oligarchy that tyranny arises from
democracy?”
1 For the irony cf. 607 Eτῶν καλῶν πολιτειῶν, 544 Cγενναία, 558 Cἡδεῖα.
2 τίς τρόπος . . . γίγνεται is a mixture of two expressions that need not be pressed. Cf. Meno 96 D, Epist. vii. 324 B. A. G. Laird, in Class. Phil., 1918, pp. 89-90 thinks it means “What τρόπος(of the many τρόποι in a democracy) develops into a τρόπος of tyranny; for that tyranny is a transformation of democracy is fairly evident.” That would be a recognition of what Aristotle says previous thinkers overlook in their classification of polities.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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