The magistracies of the highest
rank, which ought to be in the hands of the governing body, should
have expensive duties attached to them, and then the people will not
desire them and will take no offense at the privileges of their rulers
when they see that they pay a heavy fine for their dignity. It is
fitting also that the magistrates on entering office should offer
magnificent sacrifices or erect some public edifice, and then the
people who participate in the entertainments, and see the city
decorated with votive offerings and buildings, will not desire an
alteration in the government, and the notables will have memorials
of their munificence. This, however, is anything but the fashion of
our modern oligarchs, who are as covetous of gain as they are of
honor; oligarchies like theirs may be well described as petty
democracies. Enough of the manner in which democracies and oligarchies
should be organized.
VIII
Next in order follows the right distribution of offices, their
number, their nature, their duties, of which indeed we have already
spoken. No state can exist not having the necessary offices, and no
state can be well administered not having the offices which tend to
preserve harmony and good order. In small states, as we have already
remarked, there must not be many of them, but in larger there must
be a larger number, and we should carefully consider which offices may
properly be united and which separated.
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