Kingship

And he entrusted to Heracles the kingship over the whole race of men, as to one who was fit for it.

that not all hold the sceptre and this office from Zeus, but only the good man, and on no other just terms than that he take counsel and have care for those he rules;

that no one who is base and dissolute and a lover of money is ever able to rule even himself or be master of himself, let alone of anything else;

But in kingdoms the rest have too small a share in the common law and counsel, and under the rule of the best men the multitude can scarcely have any part in liberty, since it lacks all share in common counsel and power;

When, therefore, the supreme control of all things lies in the hands of one man, we call that one a king, and the condition of that commonwealth a kingdom.

But if some single and simple form must be approved, I should approve the kingly.

) The Athenians at first used kingship.

When a change of constitution takes place, Kingship passes into Tyranny, because Tyranny is the bad form of monarchy, so that a bad king becomes a tyrant.

The constitutions are Kingship, Aristocracy, and thirdly, a constitution based on a property classification, which it seems appropriate to describe as timocratic, although most people are accustomed to speak of it merely as a constitutional government or Republic.

The friendship of a king for his subjects is one of superiority in beneficence;

" And a second kind of kingship, after the pure rational and divine administration, is that which uses for kingship the spirited part of the soul alone — the kind by which Heracles reigned over Argos and Alexander over the Macedonians.

And fourth, the worst of all, is set down the kingship that is according to the desires, like that of Sardanapallus and of those who make their end in the desires, to gratify as much as possible.

Assuming this to be the purport of the oracle, they joined forces with your forefathers and organized an army, sharing meantime their own country with their followers, but receiving from them the kingship as the prize reserved for themselves alone;

Worsted in battle by the neighboring barbarians, and robbed of all Macedonia, he at first proposed to quit the country and save his life, but hearing someone praise the remark made to Dionysius, and, like Dionysius, repenting of his decision, Amyntas seized a small fortified post, sent out thence for reinforcements, recovered the whole of Macedonia within three months, spent the remainder of his d …

For I should feel disgraced, I who am descended from Heracles, who am the son of the ruling king and likely myself to attain to this honor, if I did not strive with all the strength that is in me to prevent this territory, which our fathers left to us, from becoming the possession of our slaves.

But for you it is fitting, giving attention to all that I have said, to deliberate upon the question whether you should shrink from the conduct of the affairs of Hellas—you, whose noble lineage I have a little while ago described, leader of the Lacedaemonians, addressed by the name King, and a man who enjoys the greatest renown of all the Hellenes—or, disdaining the matters you now have in hand, y …

For how could anyone have surpassed in nobility of birth the descendants of Heracles and Zeus—and all men know that to your family alone confessedly belongs this honor—or in valor the founders of the Dorian cities in the Peloponnese who occupied that land, or in the multitude of the perilous deeds and the trophies erected as a result of your leadership and rule?

And the cause of this inconsistency and confusion is that men believe that the office of king is, like that of priest, one which any man can fill, whereas it is the most important of human functions and demands the greatest wisdom.

for he will give to kings a greater security in office and to the people a milder government.

for all the property of those who live in the state belongs to kings who rule them well.

And to accomplish all this from your present status is much easier for you than it was for you to advance to the power and renown you now possess from the kingship which you had in the beginning.

Mind, therefore, that you be not flogged within an inch of your life, when you come home, if you return with a knowledge acquired from your grandfather here of the principles not of kingship but of tyranny, one principle of which is that it is right for one to have more than all.

He ruled over these nations, even though they did not speak the same language as he, nor one nation the same as another;

the Scythian king, for instance, would never be able to extend his rule over any other nation besides his own, although the Scythians are very numerous, but he would be well content if he could maintain himself in power over his own people;