Kitap 5
1305b
On the other hand, oligarchies are overthrown from within themselves bothThis sentence is interrupted by a parenthesis and is resumed in 5.6, And revolution is oligarchy also—. when from motives of rivalry they play the demagogue (and this demagogy is of two sorts, one among the oligarchs themselves, for a demagogue can arise among them even when they are a very small body,—as for instance in the time of the Thirty at Athens, the party of Charicles rose to power by currying popularity with the Thirty, and in the time of the Four HundredSee 1304b 12 n. the party of Phrynichus rose in the same way,— the other when the members of the oligarchy curry popularity with the mob, as the Civic Guards at Larisa See 1275b 29 n. courted popularity with the mob because it elected them, and in all the oligarchies in which the magistracies are not elected by the class from which the magistrates come but are filled from high property-grades or from political clubs while the electors are the heavy-armed soldiers or the common people, as used to be the case at Abydos, and in places where the jury-courts are not made up from the governmenti.e. (apparently) where membership is not confined to the class eligible for the magistracies.—for there members of the oligarchy by courting popular favor with a view to their trials cause a revolution of the constitution, as took place at Heraclea on the EuxineSee 1304b 31 n.; and a further instance is when some men try to narrow down the oligarchy to a smaller number, for those who seek equality are forced to bring in the people as a helper.) And revolutions in oligarchy also take place when they squander their private means by riotous living; for also men of this sort seek to bring about a new state of affairs, and either aim at tyranny themselves or suborn somebody else
