AFTER what has been said, however, it will perhaps be well to make a transition, and direct our attention to a kingdom. For we have said that this is one of the polities which are rightly established. But it must be considered whether it is advantageous to a city and a country which are to be well governed, to be under a kingly government or not, or whether some other polity is more conducive to their happiness. Or whether it is indeed advantageous to some cities, but not to others. It is necessary, however, in the first place, to determine, whether there is one genus of a kingly government, or whether it has many differences. It is easy, therefore, to learn this, that it comprehends many genera, and that there is not one mode of government in all of them. For in the Lacedæmonian polity, the kingly power seems to subsist principally according to law; but it has not the supreme authority in all things. For when the king quits the territories of the state, he is the leader in things which pertain to war. And besides this, whatever belongs to the worship of the gods, is entrusted to the kings. This kingly government, therefore, is as it were that of a general, whose power is absolute, and perpetual. For he has not the power of life and death except as a general, as was the case with the ancients in their warlike expeditions, by martial law. But this Homer manifests. For Agamemnon endured to hear himself reviled in council, but out of it he had the power of life and death. Hence, he says,
“Who dares this day to shun th’ impending fight,
That wretch, too mean to fall by martial power,
The birds shall mangle, and the dogs devour,
For death is mine.”
This, therefore, is one species of kingly government, being the office of a general for life. But of these species, some are according to family, but others are elective. Besides this, however, there is another species of monarchy, such as is to be found among some of the kings of the Barbarians. But all these have a power which resembles tyrannic power; yet at the same time they are subject to the laws and the customs of their country. For as the Barbarians are naturally more servile than the Greeks, and those in Asia more than those in Europe, they endure a despotic government without any indignation. Their polities, therefore, are through a cause of this kind tyrannical; but yet they are secure, because they are customary and according to law. The guard also of these kings is royal and not tyrannic, for the same reason. For the citizens guard kings with their arms, but foreigners tyrants. For kings, indeed, govern according to law those who willingly obey; but tyrants, those who are unwilling. Hence, the former are guarded by the citizens; but the latter have a guard against the citizens. These, therefore, are two species of monarchies; but another species is that which amongst the ancient Greeks was called asymnetes. But this is, in short, an elective tyranny; but differing from the Barbaric, not only in not being according to law, but also in not being conformable to the customs of the country. Some persons, however, possessed this power for life; but others to the extent of certain definite times or actions. Thus the people of Mityline elected Pittacus for the purpose of opposing the exiles, who were headed by Antemenides, and Alcæus the poet. But Alcæus renders it evident in one of his poems, that they elected a tyrant, viz. Pittacus. For he upbraids them for extolling to the skies Pittacus, who was the ruin of a rash and devoted people. These governments, therefore, are and were despotic, because they are tyrannic; but because they are elective, and over a free people, they are royal.
The fourth species, however, of kingly monarchy is that which existed in the heroic times, and which was voluntary, and conformable to the customs and laws of the country. For those who first benefitted mankind, either in arts or arms, or by collecting them into civil society, or procuring them a country to live in, became the kings of a willing people, and established an hereditary monarchy. But they were the lords of military rule, i.e. they were the generals in war, and also of such sacrifices as did not belong to the priests. And besides these things, they were likewise the judges of causes. But in performing this, some of them took an oath, and others did not. And the oath was an extension of the sceptre. The power, therefore, of the kings of ancient times continually extended to civil, domestic and foreign affairs; but in after times, they relinquished some of their privileges, and others the people assumed, so that in some cities, indeed, they only left the kings the right of presiding over the sacrifices; and where it was worth while to call the form of government kingly, the kings were only commanders in chief in their foreign wars. These, therefore, are the four species of kingdoms; one, indeed, being that which existed in the heroic times; and this was a government over a willing people in certain definite particulars; for the king was the general and the judge, and the lord of things pertaining to the gods. But the second species is the Barbaric; and this is an hereditary despotic government conformable to law. The third is that which is called æsymnetic; but this is an elective tyranny. And the fourth of these is the Laconic. But this in short is, a perpetual hereditary generalship. These species of kingdoms, therefore, differ after this manner from each other. But the fifth species of a kingdom is when one person is the lord of all things, in the same manner as every nation and every city has absolute authority over those things which belong to the public, conformably to the domestic government. For as economic sway is a certain kingly government of a family, so a kingdom is the economy of a city and one nation, or of more than one.
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