1. Polybius, Histories, 6.4.7-6.4.10, 6.8.5-6.8.6, 6.57.9, 15.26.1-15.26.8, 15.27.1, 15.27.3, 15.30.4, 15.32.4, 15.33.5, 15.33.9-15.33.10, 15.34, 34.14.2 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
| 6.4.7. Now the first of these to come into being is monarchy, its growth being natural and unaided; and next arises kingship derived from monarchy by the aid of art and by the correction of defects. 6.4.8. Monarchy first changes into its vicious allied form, tyranny; and next, the abolishment of both gives birth to aristocracy. 6.4.9. Aristocracy by its very nature degenerates into oligarchy; and when the commons inflamed by anger take vengeance on this government for its unjust rule, democracy comes into being; and in due course the licence and lawlessness of this form of government produces mob-rule to complete the series. 6.8.5. they abandoned themselves some to greed of gain and unscrupulous money-making, others to indulgence in wine and the convivial excess which accompanies it, and others again to the violation of women and the rape of boys; and thus converting the aristocracy into an oligarchy aroused in the people feelings similar to those of which I just spoke, and in consequence met with the same disastrous end as the tyrant. 6.57.9. When this happens, the state will change its name to the finest sounding of all, freedom and democracy, but will change its nature to the worst thing of all, mob-rule. 15.26.1. Agathocles in the first place summoned a meeting of the Macedonians and appeared together with Agathoclea and the young king. 15.26.2. At first he pretended that he could not say what he wished owing to the abundance of the tears that choked him, but after wiping his eyes many times with his chlamys and subduing the outburst, he took the child in his arms and exclaimed, "Take the child whom his father on his death-bed placed in the arms of this woman," pointing to his sister, "and confided to your faith, you soldiers of Macedon. 15.26.4. Her affection indeed is of but little moment to ensure his safety, but his fate depends on you and your valour. 15.26.5. For it has long been evident to those who judge correctly that Tlepolemus aspires to a position higher than it behoves him to covet, and now he has actually fixed the day and the hour at which he will assume the diadem. 15.26.6. And as to this he told them not to rely on his own word but on that of those who knew the truth and had just come from the very scene of action. 15.26.7. After speaking thus he brought forward Critolaus, who told them that he had himself seen the altars being erected and the victims being prepared in presence of the populace for the ceremony of proclaiming the coronation. 15.26.8. When the Macedonians heard this, not only did they feel no pity for Agathocles but paid absolutely no attention to his words, and showed such levity by hooting and murmuring to each other that he did not know himself how he got away from the meeting. 15.27.1. There was also one thing done by Agathocles and his party which contributed to exasperate the populace and Tlepolemus. 15.27.3. This so irritated the people that they no longer spoke of the matter in private and secretly, but while some expressed their detestation of those in power by scribbling it all over the town at night, others even began to meet openly in groups in the day-time for this purpose. 15.30.4. The open spaces round the palace, the stadium, and the great square were now filled with a mixed multitude, including all the crowd of supernumerary performers in the theatre of Dionysus 15.32.4. The joy of the crowd was mingled with regret, for on the one hand they were delighted at having the boy in their hands, but on the other they were displeased that the guilty persons had not been arrested and punished as they deserved. 15.33.5. Then as soon as he was ignominiously dragged still breathing into the middle of the stadium and the people had tasted blood, they all eagerly waited the arrival of the others. 15.33.9. All of them were delivered into the hands of the mob, and now some began to bite them with their teeth, some to stab them and others to dig out their eyes. Whenever one of them fell they tore the body from limb to limb until they had thus mutilated them all. 15.33.10. For terrible is the cruelty of the Egyptians when their anger is aroused. 15.34. 1. I am not unaware that some authors in describing these events have introduced the sensational element and worked up their material with the object of making the whole more striking to their readers, largely transgressing the bounds of what is essential to give coherence to their narrative.,2. Some of them attribute all to Fortune, and lay stress on her instability and on men's incapacity of evading her, while others take count of the strangeness of all that happened, attempting to assign reasons or probable causes to everything.,3. It was, however, not my own object to treat these matters in that manner, inasmuch as Agathocles displayed neither courage in war nor conspicuous ability,,4. nor was he fortunate and exemplary in his management of affairs, nor, finally, had he that acuteness and mischievous address which serve a courtier's ends and which made Sosibius and several others so successful until the end of their lives in their management of king after king. On the contrary it was quite different with Agathocles.,5. Owing to Philopator's incapacity as a ruler he attained an exceptionally high position;,6. and in this position finding himself after that king's death most favourably circumstanced to maintain his power, he lost both his control and his life through his own cowardice and indolence, becoming an object of universal reprobation in quite a short time. 34.14.2. He says it is inhabited by three classes of people, first the native Egyptians, an acute and civilized race; |
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