They will also raise commotions concerning the degree in
which they would have the established power; as if, for instance, the
government is an oligarchy, to have it more purely so, and in the same
manner if it is a democracy, or else to have it less so; and, in like
manner, whatever may be the nature of the government, either to extend
or contract its powers; or else to make some alterations in some parts
of it; as to establish or abolish a particular magistracy, as some
persons say Lysander endeavoured to abolish the kingly power in
Sparta; and Pausanias that of the ephori. Thus in Epidamnus there was
an alteration in one part of the constitution, for instead of the
philarchi they established a senate. It is also necessary for all the
magistrates at Athens; to attend in the court of the Helisea when any
new magistrate is created: the power of the archon also in that state
partakes of the nature of an oligarchy: inequality is always the
occasion of sedition, but not when those who are unequal are treated
in a different manner correspondent to that inequality. Thus kingly
power is unequal when exercised over equals. Upon the whole, those who
aim after an equality are the cause of seditions. Equality is twofold,
either in number or value. Equality in number is when two things
contain the same parts or the same quantity; equality in value is by
proportion as two exceeds one, and three two by the same number-thus
by proportion four exceeds two, and two one in the same degree, for
two is the same part of four that one is of two; that is to say, half.
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