be seen from his:
and this was the cause of their living at Thebes. [1274b]

As Philolaus gave them laws concerning many other things, so did he upon
adoption, which they call adoptive laws; and this he in particular did
to preserve the number of families. Charondas did nothing new, except
in actions for perjury, which he was the first person who took into
particular consideration. He also drew up his laws with greater elegance
and accuracy than even any of our present legislators. Philolaus
introduced the law for the equal distribution of goods; Plato that for
the community of women, children, and goods, and also for public tables
for the women; and one concerning drunkenness, that they might observe
sobriety in their symposiums. He also made a law concerning their
warlike exercises; that they should acquire a habit of using both hands
alike, as it was necessary that one hand should be as useful as the
other.

As for Draco's laws, they were published when the government was already
established, and they have nothing particular in them worth mentioning,
except their severity on account of the enormity of their punishments.
Pittacus was the author of some laws, but never drew up any form of
government; one of which was this, that if a drunken man beat any person
he should be punished more than if he did it when sober; for as
people are more apt to be abusive when drunk than sober, he paid no
consideration to the excuse which drunkenness might claim, but regarded
only the common benefit. Andromadas Regmus was also a lawgiver to the
Thracian talcidians. There are some laws of his concerning murders and
heiresses extant, but these contain nothing that any one can say is new
and his own. And thus much for different sorts of governments, as well
those which really exist as those which different persons have proposed.

BOOK III

CHAPTER I

Every one who inquires into the nature of government, and what are its
different forms, should make this almost his first question, What is a
city? For upon this there is a dispute: for some persons say the city
did this or that, while others say, not the city, but the oligarchy,
or the tyranny. We see that the city is the only object which both the
politician and legislator have in view in all they do: but government
is a certain ordering of those who inhabit a city. As a city is a
collective body, and, like other wholes, composed of many parts, it is
evident our first