[1314a]
[1]
In fact owing to this tyranny is a friend of the base; for
tyrants enjoy being flattered, but nobody would ever flatter them if he
possessed a free spirit—men of character love their ruler, or at all
events do not flatter him. And the base are useful for base business, for nail
is driven out by nail, as the proverb goes.1
And it is a mark of a tyrant to
dislike anyone that is proud or free-spirited; for the tyrant claims for himself
alone the right to bear that character, and the man who meets his pride with
pride and shows a free spirit robs tyranny of its superiority and position of
mastery; tyrants therefore hate the proud as undermining their authority. And it
is a mark of a tyrant to have men of foreign extraction rather than citizens as
guests at table and companions, feeling that citizens are hostile but strangers
make no claim against him.2 These and
similar habits are characteristic of tyrants and preservative of their office,
but they lack no element of baseness. And broadly speaking, they are all included under three heads; for tyranny
aims at three things, one to keep its subjects humble （for a
humble-spirited man would not plot against anybody）, second to have
them continually distrust one another （for a tyranny is not destroyed
until some men come to trust each other, owing to which tyrants also make war on
the respectable, as detrimental
[20]
to
their rule not only because of their refusal to submit to despotic rule, but
also because they are faithful to one another and to the other citizens, and do
not inform against one another nor against the others）; and the third
is lack of power for political action （since nobody attempts
impossibilities, so that nobody tries to put down a tyranny if he has not power
behind him）. These then in
fact are the three aims to which the wishes of tyrants are directed; for all the
measures taken by tyrants one might class under these principles—some
are designed to prevent mutual confidence among the subjects, others to curtail
their power, and others to make them humble-spirited.Such then is the nature of
one method by which security is obtained for tyrannies. The other tries to
operate in a manner almost the opposite of the devices mentioned. And it can be
ascertained from considering the downfall of royal governments. For just as one
mode of destroying royalty is to make its government more tyrannical, so a mode
of securing tyranny is to make it more regal, protecting one thing only, its
power, in order that the ruler may govern not only with the consent of the
subjects but even without it; for if he gives up this, he also gives up his
position as tyrant. But while this must stand as a fundamental principle, all
the other measures he may either adopt or pretend to adopt by cleverly acting
the royal part. The first step is
to be careful of the public funds,
1 The proverb ἡλῷ ἧλος ἐκκρούεται usually meant driving out something by a thing of the same kind （‘set a thief to catch a thief’）, not as here the execution of evil designs by appropriate agents.
2 i.e. do not claim honors as against their patron, claim to be his equals.
Aristotle. Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 21, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1944.
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