As for Draco's laws, they were published when the government was
already established, and they have nothing particular in them worth
mentioning, except their severity on account of the enormity of their
punishments. Pittacus was the author of some laws, but never drew up
any form of government; one of which was this, that if a drunken man
beat any person he should be punished more than if he did it when
sober; for as people are more apt to be abusive when drunk than sober,
he paid no consideration to the excuse which drunkenness might claim,
but regarded only the common benefit. Andromadas Regmus was also a
lawgiver to the Thracian talcidians. There are some laws of his
concerning murders and heiresses extant, but these contain nothing
that any one can say is new and his own. And thus much for different
sorts of governments, as well those which really exist as those which
different persons have proposed.
BOOK III
CHAPTER I
Every one who inquires into the nature of government, and what are its
different forms, should make this almost his first question, What is a
city? For upon this there is a dispute: for some persons say the city
did this or that, while others say, not the city, but the oligarchy,
or the tyranny. We see that the city is the only object which both the
politician and legislator have in view in all they do: but government
is a certain ordering of those who inhabit a city. As a city is a
collective body, and, like other wholes, composed of many parts, it is
evident our first inquiry must be, what a citizen is: for a city is a
certain number of citizens.
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