hy; nor this, when
the rest who are rich have no share in the administration. We should
rather say, that a democracy is when the supreme power is in the [1290b]
hands of the freemen; an oligarchy, when it is in the hands of the rich:
it happens indeed that in the one case the many will possess it, in
the other the few; because there are many poor and few rich. And if the
power of the state was to be distributed according to the size of the
citizens, as they say it is in Ethiopia, or according to their beauty,
it would be an oligarchy: for the number of those who are large and
beautiful is small.

Nor are those things which we have already mentioned alone sufficient
to describe these states; for since there are many species both of a
democracy and an oligarchy, the matter requires further consideration;
as we cannot admit, that if a few persons who are free possess the
supreme power over the many who are not free, that this government is a
democracy: as in Apollonia, in Ionia, and in Thera: for in each of these
cities the honours of the state belong to some few particular families,
who first founded the colonies. Nor would the rich, because they are
superior in numbers, form a democracy, as formerly at Colophon; for
there the majority had large possessions before the Lydian war: but a
democracy is a state where the freemen and the poor, being the majority,
are invested with the power of the state. An oligarchy is a state where
the rich and those of noble families, being few, possess it.

We have now proved that there are various forms of government and have
assigned a reason for it; and shall proceed to show that there are
even more than these, and what they are, and why; setting out with the
principle we have already laid down. We admit that every city consists
not of one, but many parts: thus, if we should endeavour to comprehend
the different species of animals we should first of all note those parts
which every animal must have, as a certain sensorium, and also what is
necessary to acquire and retain food, as a mouth and a belly; besides
certain parts to enable it to move from place to place. If, then, these
are the only parts of an animal and there are differences between them;
namely, in their various sorts of stomachs, bellies, and sensoriums: to
which we must add their motive powers; the number of the combinations of
all these must necessarily make up the different species of animals.
For it is not possible that