)
Draco has left laws, but he adapted them to a constitution which
already existed, and there is no peculiarity in them which is worth
mentioning, except the greatness and severity of the punishments.
Pittacus, too, was only a lawgiver, and not the author of a
constitution; he has a law which is peculiar to him, that, if a
drunken man do something wrong, he shall be more heavily punished than
if he were sober; he looked not to the excuse which might be offered
for the drunkard, but only to expediency, for drunken more often
than sober people commit acts of violence.
Androdamas of Rhegium gave laws to the Chalcidians of Thrace. Some
of them relate to homicide, and to heiresses; but there is nothing
remarkable in them.
And here let us conclude our inquiry into the various
constitutions which either actually exist, or have been devised by
theorists.
BOOK THREE
I
HE who would inquire into the essence and attributes of various
kinds of governments must first of all determine 'What is a state?' At
present this is a disputed question. Some say that the state has
done a certain act; others, no, not the state, but the oligarchy or
the tyrant. And the legislator or statesman is concerned entirely with
the state; a constitution or government being an arrangement of the
inhabitants of a state.
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