What has been now said, it seems proper to change our subject and to
inquire into the nature of monarchies; for we have already admitted them
to be one of those species of government which are properly founded. And
here let us consider whether a kingly government is proper for a city or
a country whose principal object is the happiness of the inhabitants,
or rather some other. But let us first determine whether this is of one
kind only, or more; [1285a] and it is easy to know that it consists of
many different species, and that the forms of government are not the
same in all: for at Sparta the kingly power seems chiefly regulated by
the laws; for it is not supreme in all circumstances; but when the king
quits the territories of the state he is their general in war; and all
religious affairs are entrusted to him: indeed the kingly power with
them is chiefly that of a general who cannot be called to an account for
his conduct, and whose command is for life: for he has not the power
of life and death, except as a general; as they frequently had in
their expeditions by martial law, which we learn from Homer; for when
Agamemnon is affronted in council, he restrains his resentment, but when
he is in the field and armed with this power, he tells the Greeks:
"Whoe'er I know shall shun th' impending fight,
To dogs and vultures soon shall be a prey; For death is mine...."
This, then, is one species of monarchical government in which the kingly
power is in a general for life; and is sometimes hereditary, sometimes
elective: besides, there is also another, which is to be met with among
some of the barbarians, in which the kings are invested with powers
nearly equal to a tyranny, yet are, in some respects, bound by the laws
and the customs of their country; for as the barbarians are by nature
more prone to slavery than the Greeks, and those in Asia more than those
in Europe, they endure without murmuring a despotic government; for
this reason their governments are tyrannies; but yet not liable to be
overthrown, as being customary and according to law. Their guards also
are such as are used in a kingly government, not a despotic one; for the
guards of their kings are his citizens, but a tyrant's are foreigners.
The one commands, in the manner the law directs, those who willingly
obey; the other, arbitrarily, those who consent not. The one, therefore,
is guarded by the citizens, the other against them.
These, then, are the two different sorts of these monarchies, and
another is that which in ancient Greece they called _aesumnetes_; which
is nothing more than an elective tyranny; and its difference from that
which is to be found amongst the barbarians consists not in its not
being according to law, but only in its not being according to the
ancient customs of the country. Some persons possessed this power for
life, others only for a particular time or particular purpose, as the
people of Mitylene elected Pittacus to oppose the exiles, who were
headed by Antimenides and Alcaeus the poet, as we learn from a poem
of his; for he upbraids the Mitylenians for having chosen Pittacus for
their tyrant, and with one [1285b] voice extolling him to the skies who
was the ruin of a rash and devoted people. These sorts of government
then are, and ever were, despotic, on account of their being tyrannies;
but inasmuch as they are elective, and over a free people, they are also
kingly.
A fourth species of kingly government is that which was in use in the
heroic times, when a free people submitted to a kingly government,
according to the laws and customs of their country. For those who were
at first of benefit to mankind, either in arts or arms, or by collecting
them into civil society, or procuring them an establishment, became the
kings of a willing people, and established an hereditary monarchy.
They were particularly their generals in war, and presided over their
sacrifices, excepting such only as belonged to the priests: they were
also the supreme judges over the people; and in this case some of them
took an oath, others did not; they did, the form of swearing was by
their sceptre held out.
In ancient times the power of the kings extended to everything
whatsoever, both civil, domestic, and foreign; but in after-times they
relinquished some of their privileges, and others the people assumed, so
that, in some states, they left their kings only the right of presiding
over the sacrifices; and even those whom it were worth while to call
by that name had only the right of being commander-in-chief in their
foreign wars.
These, then, are the four sorts of kingdoms: the first is that of the
heroic times; which was a government over a free people, with its rights
in some particulars marked out; for the king was their general, their
judge, and their high priest. The second, that of the barbarians; which
is an hereditary despotic government regulated by laws: the third is
that which they call aesumnetic, which is an elective tyranny. The
fourth is the Lacedaemonian; and this, in few words, is nothing more
than an hereditary generalship: and in these particulars they differ
from each other. There is a fifth species of kingly government, which is
when one person has a supreme power over all things whatsoever, in
the manner that every state and every city has over those things which
belong to the public: for as the master of a family is king in his own
house, so such a king is master of a family in his own city or state.