[41]
12. Now it seems to me, at least, that not only1
among the Medes, as Herodotus tells us, but also
among our own ancestors, men of high moral character were made kings in order that the people
might enjoy justice. For, as the masses in their
helplessness were oppressed by the strong, they
appealed for protection to some one man who was
[p. 211]
conspicuous for his virtue; and, as he shielded the
weaker classes from wrong, he managed by establishing equitable conditions to hold the higher and the
lower classes in an equality of right. The reason for
making constitutional laws was the same as that for
making kings.
1 Kings chosen for the sake of justice.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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