Hence Periander advised Thrasybulus by cutting off the tops of the
tallest ears of corn, meaning that he must always put out of the way
the citizens who overtop the rest. And so, as I have already
intimated, the beginnings of change are the same in monarchies as in
forms of constitutional government; subjects attack their sovereigns
out of fear or contempt, or because they have been unjustly treated by
them. And of injustice, the most common form is insult, another is
confiscation of property.
The ends sought by conspiracies against monarchies, whether
tyrannies or royalties, are the same as the ends sought by
conspiracies against other forms of government. Monarchs have great
wealth and honor, which are objects of desire to all mankind. The
attacks are made sometimes against their lives, sometimes against
the office; where the sense of insult is the motive, against their
lives. Any sort of insult (and there are many) may stir up anger,
and when men are angry, they commonly act out of revenge, and not from
ambition. For example, the attempt made upon the Peisistratidae
arose out of the public dishonor offered to the sister of Harmodius
and the insult to himself. He attacked the tyrant for his sister's
sake, and Aristogeiton joined in the attack for the sake of Harmodius.
A conspiracy was also formed against Periander, the tyrant of
Ambracia, because, when drinking with a favorite youth, he asked him
whether by this time he was not with child by him.
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