And men are very apt to give way
to their passions when they are insulted. To this cause is to be
attributed the fall of the Peisistratidae and of many others. Hatred
is more reasonable, for anger is accompanied by pain, which is an
impediment to reason, whereas hatred is painless.
In a word, all the causes which I have mentioned as destroying the
last and most unmixed form of oligarchy, and the extreme form of
democracy, may be assumed to affect tyranny; indeed the extreme
forms of both are only tyrannies distributed among several persons.
Kingly rule is little affected by external causes, and is therefore
lasting; it is generally destroyed from within. And there are two ways
in which the destruction may come about; (1) when the members of the
royal family quarrel among themselves, and (2) when the kings
attempt to administer the state too much after the fashion of a
tyranny, and to extend their authority contrary to the law.
Royalties do not now come into existence; where such forms of
government arise, they are rather monarchies or tyrannies. For the
rule of a king is over voluntary subjects, and he is supreme in all
important matters; but in our own day men are more upon an equality,
and no one is so immeasurably superior to others as to represent
adequately the greatness and dignity of the office.
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