Such
an one may truly be deemed a God among men. Hence we see that
legislation is necessarily concerned only with those who are equal
in birth and in capacity; and that for men of pre-eminent virtue there
is no law- they are themselves a law. Any would be ridiculous who
attempted to make laws for them: they would probably retort what, in
the fable of Antisthenes, the lions said to the hares, when in the
council of the beasts the latter began haranguing and claiming
equality for all. And for this reason democratic states have
instituted ostracism; equality is above all things their aim, and
therefore they ostracized and banished from the city for a time
those who seemed to predominate too much through their wealth, or
the number of their friends, or through any other political influence.
Mythology tells us that the Argonauts left Heracles behind for a
similar reason; the ship Argo would not take him because she feared
that he would have been too much for the rest of the crew. Wherefore
those who denounce tyranny and blame the counsel which Periander
gave to Thrasybulus cannot be held altogether just in their censure.
The story is that Periander, when the herald was sent to ask counsel
of him, said nothing, but only cut off the tallest ears of corn till
he had brought the field to a level. The herald did not know the
meaning of the action, but came and reported what he had seen to
Thrasybulus, who understood that he was to cut off the principal men
in the state; and this is a policy not only expedient for tyrants or
in practice confined to them, but equally necessary in oligarchies and
democracies.
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