Moreover, when in
consequence of their disputes and quarrels with each other, either the
rich get the better of the poor, or the poor of the rich, neither of
them will establish a free state; but, as the record of their victory,
one which inclines to their own principles, and form either a
democracy or an oligarchy.
Those who made conquests in Greece, having all of them an eye to the
respective forms of government in their own cities, established either
democracies or oligarchies, not considering what was serviceable to
the state, but what was similar to their own; for which reason a
government has never been established where the supreme power has been
placed amongst those of the middling rank, or very seldom; and,
amongst a few, one man only of those who have yet been conquerors has
been persuaded to give the preference to this order of [1296b] men: it
is indeed an established custom with the inhabitants of most cities
not to desire an equality, but either to aspire to govern, or when
they are conquered, to submit.
Thus we have shown what the best state is, and why. It will not be
difficult to perceive of the many states which there are, for we have
seen that there are various forms both of democracies and oligarchies,
to which we should give the first place, to which the second, and in
the same manner the next also; and to observe what are the particular
excellences and defects of each, after we have first described the
best possible; for that must be the best which is nearest to this,
that worst which is most distant from the medium, without any one has
a particular plan of his own which he judges by.
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