On Monarchy, Democracy, and Oligrachy (intro-4)

This essay is evidently only a fragment, as Wyttenbach long ago pointed out. The opening words indicate that the author delivers it as an address before an audience to which he has spoken on the day before, but nothing further is known about the circumstances. Few scholars now believe that the author is Plutarch, though who the writer was is not known. The substance of the fragment is derived chiefly from the Republic of Plato.

Now as I was myself bringing before this company as a court of judgement the talk that I presented to you yesterday, I thought I heard, while wide awake, not in a dream,[*] Political Wisdom saying:

Golden foundation is wrought for canticles sacred,[*]

Now the word politeia (citizenship) is defined also as having a share of the rights in a State, as we say the Megarians voted Alexander the politeia (citizenship); and when he made fun of their eagerness, they told him that up to that time they had conferred citizenship upon Heracles only and now upon himself. Then Alexander was astonished and accepted the gift, thinking that its rarity gave it value. But the life of a statesman, a man who is occupied in public affairs, is also called politeia (statecraft); as, for example, we commend the politeia (statecraft) of Pericles and of Bias, but condemn that of Hyperbolus and Cleon. And some people even call a single brilliant act for the public benefit a politeia (politic act), such, for example, as a gift of money, the ending of a war, the introduction of a bill in parliament; and accordingly we say nowadays that so-and-so has performed a politeia if he happens to have put through some needed public measure.

Besides all these, politeia is defined as an order and constitution of a State, which directs its affairs; and accordingly they say that there are three politeiae (forms of government), monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy, a comparison of which is given by Herodotus in his third book.[*] They appear to be the most typical forms; for the others, as happens in musical scales when the strings of the primary notes are relaxed or tightened, turn out to be errors

So, just as a real musician will make use of every instrument harmoniously, adapting it skilfully and striking each one with regard to its natural tunefulness, and yet, following Plato’s advice,[*] will give up guitars, banjoes, psalteries with their many sounds, harps and string triangles and prefer the lyre and the cithara; in the same way the real statesman will manage successfully the oligarchy that Lycurgus established at Sparta, adapting to himself the colleagues who have equal power and honour and quietly forcing them to do his will; he will also get on well in a democracy with its many sounds and strings by loosening the strings in some matters of government and tightening them in others, relaxing at the proper time and then again holding fast mightily, knowing how to resist the masses and to hold his ground against them. But if he were given the choice among governments,

Thou fanst my flame, methinks thou burnst me up.