[1304a]
[1]
the
bridegroom interpreted some chance occurrence when he came to fetch the bride as
a bad omen and went away without taking her, and her relatives thinking
themselves insulted threw some articles of sacred property into the fire when he
was performing a sacrifice and then put him to death as guilty of sacrilege. And
also at Mitylene1 a faction that arose out
of some heiresses was the beginning of many misfortunes, and of the war with the
Athenians in which Paches captured the city of Mitylene: a wealthy citizen named Timophanes left two
daughters, and a man who was rejected in his suit to obtain them for his own
sons, Doxander, started the faction and kept on stirring up the Athenians, whose
consul he was at Mitylene. And among the Phocians when a faction
arising out of an heiress sprang up in connection with Mnaseas the father of
Mnason and Euthykrates the father of Onomarchus,2 this faction proved to be
the beginning for the Phocians of the Holy War. At Epidamnus also circumstances
relating to a marriage gave rise to a revolution in the constitution3; somebody had betrothed his daughter, and the father of the
man to whom he had betrothed her became a magistrate, and had to sentence him to
a fine; the other thinking that he had been treated with insolence formed a
party of the unenfranchised classes to assist him. And also revolutions to oligarchy and democracy and
constitutional government arise from the growth in reputation or in power of
some magistracy or some section of the state;
[20]
as for example the Council on the Areopagus having risen in
reputation during the Persian wars was believed to have made the constitution
more rigid, and then again the naval multitude, having been the cause of the
victory off Salamis and thereby of the
leadership of Athens due to her
power at sea, made the democracy stronger; and at Argos the notables having risen in repute in connection with
the battle against the Spartans at Mantinea took in hand to put down the people; and at Syracuse the people having been the cause of the victory in the
war against Athens made a revolution
from constitutional government to democracy; and at Chalcis the people with the aid of the
notables overthrew the tyrant Phoxus4 and then immediately seized the government; and again at
Ambracia similarly the people
joined with the adversaries of the tyrant Periander in expelling him and then
brought the government round to themselves.5
And indeed in general it must not
escape notice that the persons who have caused a state to win power, whether
private citizens or magistrates or tribes, or in general a section or group of
any kind, stir up faction; for either those who envy these men for being honored
begin the faction, or these men owing to their superiority are not willing to
remain in a position of equality. And constitutions also undergo revolution when
what are thought of as opposing sections of the state become equal to one
another,
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