France -- Civilization; France -- Politics and government; France -- Social life and customs
And let me to quote the Greek historian Polybius' observations[0002]
about the cyclic evolution of the Greek city states:
". . . What then are the beginnings I speak of and what is the first
origin of political societies? When owing to floods, famines, failure of
crops or other such causes there occurs such a destruction of the human
race as tradition tells us has more than once happened, and as we must
believe will often happen again, all arts and crafts perishing at the
same time, when in the course of time, when springing from the survivors
as from seeds men have again increased in numbers and just like other
animals form herds--it being a matter of course that they too
should herd together with those of their kind owing to their natural
weakness--it is a necessary consequence that the man who excels in
bodily strength and in courage will lead and rule over the rest. We
observe and should regard as a most genuine work of nature this very
phenomenon in the case of the other animals which act purely by instinct
and among who the strongest are always indisputable the masters--I speak
of bulls, boars, cocks, and the like. It is probable then that at the
beginning men lived thus, herding together like animals and following
the lead of the strongest and bravest, the ruler's strength being here
the sole limit to his power and the name we should give his rule being
monarchy.
But when in time feelings of sociability and companionship begin to grow
in such gatherings of men, then kingship has truck root; and the notions
of goodness, justice, and their opposites begin to arise in men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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