Politics

but because they see others, some justly and others unjustly, getting more of these things. Further, they rebel because of insolence, because of fear, because of superiority, because of contempt, because of disproportionate growth; and in another way because of party rivalry, because of negligence, because of smallness, because of dissimilarity. Of these, what power insolence and gain have, and how they are causes, is pretty clear. For when those in office act insolently and grasp for more, men rebel both against one another and against the constitutions that give them the power; and this grabbing of more occurs sometimes at the expense of private property and sometimes of public property. It is also clear about honor, both what power it has and how it is a cause of faction; for men also rebel when they are themselves dishonored and when they see others honored; and these things happen unjustly when some are honored or dishonored contrary to their merit, and justly when it is according to their merit. Faction because of superiority occurs when someone (either one person or more) is greater in power than is in proportion to the city and the power of its government; for from such men a monarchy or a dynasty is accustomed to arise. Therefore in some places they are accustomed to ostracize them, as in Argos and Athens; though it is better from the beginning to see to it that there are no men of such outstanding superiority, rather than to allow them to arise and then to cure it afterwards. Because of fear, men rebel both when they have committed injustice and are afraid of paying the penalty, and when they are about to suffer injustice and wish to forestall it before they suffer, just as in Rhodes the notables coalesced against the people because of the lawsuits brought against them. Because of contempt, men both rebel and attack, for instance in oligarchies, when those who have no share in the constitution are more numerous (for they think they are stronger), and in democracies, when the wealthy look down on the disorder and anarchy, as in Thebes after the battle of Oenophyta the democracy was destroyed because of bad government, and that of the Megarians when they were defeated through disorder and anarchy, and in Syracuse before the tyranny of Gelon, and in Rhodes the people before the uprising. Changes in constitutions also occur because of disproportionate growth. For just as a body is composed of parts and must grow in proportion so that symmetry remains, and if not, it is ruined, as when the foot is four cubits long and the rest of the body only two spans, and sometimes it might even change into the shape of another animal if it should grow disproportionately not only in quantity but also in quality, so also a city is composed of parts,