At
Cnidos, again, the oligarchy underwent a considerable change. For
the notables fell out among themselves, because only a few shared in
the government; there existed among them the rule already mentioned,
that father and son not hold office together, and, if there were
several brothers, only the eldest was admitted. The people took
advantage of the quarrel, and choosing one of the notables to be their
leader, attacked and conquered the oligarchs, who were divided, and
division is always a source of weakness. The city of Erythrae, too, in
old times was ruled, and ruled well, by the Basilidae, but the
people took offense at the narrowness of the oligarchy and changed the
constitution.
(2) Of internal causes of revolutions in oligarchies one is the
personal rivalry of the oligarchs, which leads them to play the
demagogue. Now, the oligarchical demagogue is of two sorts: either (a)
he practices upon the oligarchs themselves (for, although the
oligarchy are quite a small number, there may be a demagogue among
them, as at Athens Charicles' party won power by courting the
Thirty, that of Phrynichus by courting the Four Hundred); or (b) the
oligarchs may play the demagogue with the people. This was the case at
Larissa, where the guardians of the citizens endeavored to gain over
the people because they were elected by them; and such is the fate
of all oligarchies in which the magistrates are elected, as at Abydos,
not by the class to which they belong, but by the heavy-armed or by
the people, although they may be required to have a high
qualification, or to be members of a political club; or, again,
where the law-courts are composed of persons outside the government,
the oligarchs flatter the people in order to obtain a decision in
their own favor, and so they change the constitution; this happened at
Heraclea in Pontus.
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