A state is also liable to commotions when those
parts of it which seem to be opposite to each other approach to an
[1304b] equality, as the rich and the common people; so that the part
which is between them both is either nothing at all, or too little to
be noticed; for if one party is so much more powerful than the other,
as to be evidently stronger, that other will not be willing to hazard
the danger: for which reason those who are superior in excellence and
virtue will never be the cause of seditions; for they will be too few
for that purpose when compared to the many. In general, the beginning
and the causes of seditions in all states are such as I have now
described, and revolutions therein are brought about in two ways,
either by violence or fraud: if by violence, either at first by
compelling them to submit to the change when it is made. It may also
be brought about by fraud in two different ways, either when the
people, being at first deceived, willingly consent to an alteration in
their government, and are afterwards obliged by force to abide by it:
as, for instance, when the four hundred imposed upon the people by
telling them that the king of Persia would supply them with money for
the war against the Lacedaemonians; and after they had been guilty of
this falsity, they endeavoured to keep possession of the supreme
power; or when they are at first persuaded and afterwards consent to
be governed: and by one of these methods which I have mentioned are
all revolutions in governments brought about.
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