I have already in the former part of this treatise discussed
royalty or kingship according to the most usual meaning of the term,
and considered whether it is or is not advantageous to states, and
what kind of royalty should be established, and from what source,
and how.
When speaking of royalty we also spoke of two forms of tyranny,
which are both according to law, and therefore easily pass into
royalty. Among barbarians there are elected monarchs who exercise a
despotic power; despotic rulers were also elected in ancient Hellas,
called Aesymnetes or Dictators. These monarchies, when compared with
one another, exhibit certain differences. And they are, as I said
before, royal, in so far as the monarch rules according to law over
willing subjects; but they are tyrannical in so far as he is
despotic and rules according to his own fancy. There is also a third
kind of tyranny, which is the most typical form, and is the
counterpart of the perfect monarchy. This tyranny is just that
arbitrary power of an individual which is responsible to no one, and
governs all alike, whether equals or better, with a view to its own
advantage, not to that of its subjects, and therefore against their
will. No freeman, if he can escape from it, will endure such a
government.
The kinds of tyranny are such and so many, and for the reasons which
I have given.
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