[
1305b]
[1]
Faction
originating with other people also has various ways of arising. Sometimes when
the honors of office are shared by very few, dissolution originates from the
wealthy themselves,
1 but not those that are in office, as for example has
occurred at
Marseilles,
2 at
Istrus,
3 at
Heraclea,
4 and in other states; for those who did not share in the
magistracies raised disturbances until as a first stage the older brothers were
admitted, and later the younger ones again (for in some places a father
and a son may not hold office together, and in others an elder and a younger
brother may not). At
Marseilles the oligarchy became more constitutional, while at
Istrus it ended in becoming
democracy, and in
Heraclea the
government passed from a smaller number to six hundred. At
Cnidus
also there was a revolution
5 of the oligarchy caused by a
faction formed by the notables against one another, because few shared in the
government, and the rule stated held, that if a father was a member a son could
not be, nor if there were several brothers could any except the eldest; for the
common people seized the opportunity of their quarrel and, taking a champion
from among the notables, fell upon them and conquered them, for a party divided
against itself is weak. Another case
was at Erythrae,
6 where at the time of the oligarchy of the
Basilidae in ancient days, although
[20]
the persons in the government directed affairs well, nevertheless the common
people were resentful because they were governed by a few, and brought about a
revolution of the constitution.
On the other hand,
oligarchies are overthrown from within themselves both
7 when from motives of rivalry they play
the demagogue (and this demagogy is of two sorts, one among the
oligarchs themselves, for a demagogue can arise among them even when they are a
very small body,—as for instance in the time of the Thirty at
Athens, the party of Charicles
rose to power by currying popularity with the Thirty, and in the time of the
Four Hundred
8 the party
of Phrynichus rose in the same way,—the other when the members of the oligarchy curry
popularity with the mob, as the Civic Guards at
Larisa9 courted popularity with the mob because it elected them, and in
all the oligarchies in which the magistracies are not elected by the class from
which the magistrates come but are filled from high property-grades or from
political clubs while the electors are the heavy-armed soldiers or the common
people, as used to be the case at
Abydos, and in places where the jury-courts are not made up
from the government
10—for there members of the
oligarchy by courting popular favor with a view to their trials cause a
revolution of the constitution, as took place at
Heraclea on the Euxine
11; and a
further instance is when some men try to narrow down the oligarchy to a smaller
number, for those who seek equality are forced to bring in the people as a
helper.) And revolutions in oligarchy also take place when they
squander their private means by riotous living; for also men of this sort seek
to bring about a new state of affairs, and either aim at tyranny themselves or
suborn somebody else