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And now when five days were gone, and the hubbub had settled down,
the conspirators met together to consult about the situation of
affairs. At this meeting speeches were made, to which many of the
Greeks give no credence, but they were made nevertheless. Otanes
recommended that the management of public affairs should be entrusted to
the whole nation. "To me," he said, "it seems advisable, that we
should no longer have a single man to rule over us - the rule of one is
neither good nor pleasant. Ye cannot have forgotten to what lengths
Cambyses went in his haughty tyranny, and the haughtiness of the Magi
ye have yourselves experienced. How indeed is it possible that
monarchy should be a well-adjusted thing, when it allows a man to do
as he likes without being answerable? Such licence is enough to stir
strange and unwonted thoughts in the heart of the worthiest of men.
Give a person this power, and straightway his manifold good things
puff him up with pride, while envy is so natural to human kind that it
cannot but arise in him. But pride and envy together include all
wickedness - both of them leading on to deeds of savage violence.
True it is that kings, possessing as they do all that heart can
desire, ought to be void of envy; but the contrary is seen in their
conduct towards the citizens. They are jealous of the most virtuous
among their subjects, and wish their death; while they take delight in
the meanest and basest, being ever ready to listen to the tales of
slanderers. A king, besides, is beyond all other men inconsistent
with himself. Pay him court in moderation, and he is angry because
you do not show him more profound respect - show him profound respect,
and he is offended again, because (as he says) you fawn on him. But
the worst of all is, that he sets aside the laws of the land, puts men
to death without trial, and subjects women to violence. The rule of
the many, on the other hand, has, in the first place, the fairest of
names, to wit, isonomy; and further it is free from all those
outrages which a king is wont to commit. There, places are given by
lot, the magistrate is answerable for what he does, and measures rest
with the commonalty. I vote, therefore, that we do away with
monarchy, and raise the people to power. For the people are all in all."
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