And
Alcaeus himself shows in one of his banquet odes that they chose
Pittacus tyrant, for he reproaches his fellow-citizens for 'having
made the low-born Pittacus tyrant of the spiritless and ill-fated
city, with one voice shouting his praises.'
These forms of government have always had the character of
tyrannies, because they possess despotic power; but inasmuch as they
are elective and acquiesced in by their subjects, they are kingly.
(4) There is a fourth species of kingly rule- that of the heroic
times- which was hereditary and legal, and was exercised over
willing subjects. For the first chiefs were benefactors of the
people in arts or arms; they either gathered them into a community, or
procured land for them; and thus they became kings of voluntary
subjects, and their power was inherited by their descendants. They
took the command in war and presided over the sacrifices, except those
which required a priest. They also decided causes either with or
without an oath; and when they swore, the form of the oath was the
stretching out of their sceptre. In ancient times their power extended
continuously to all things whatsoever, in city and country, as well as
in foreign parts; but at a later date they relinquished several of
these privileges, and others the people took from them, until in
some states nothing was left to them but the sacrifices; and where
they retained more of the reality they had only the right of
leadership in war beyond the border.
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