International law; Natural law; War (International law)
Now it is plain both from sacred and profane history, that there are
kings, who are not subject to the controul of the people in their
collective body; God addressing the people of Israel, says, if thou
shalt say, "I will place a king over me"; and to Samuel "Shew them the
manner of the king, who shall reign over them." Hence the King is said
to be anointed over the people, over the inheritance of the Lord, over
Israel. Solomon is styled King over all Israel. Thus David gives thanks
to God, for subduing the people under him. And Christ says, "the Kings
of the nations bear rule over them." There is a well known passage in
Horace, "Powerful sovereigns reign over their own subjects, and the
supreme being over sovereigns themselves." Seneca thus describes the
three forms of government, "Sometimes the supreme power is lodged in
the people, sometimes in a senate composed of the leading men of the
state, sometimes this power of the people, and dominion over the people
themselves is vested in a single person." Of the last description are
those, who, as Plutarch says, exercise authority not according to the
laws, but over the laws. And in Herodotus, Otanes describes a monarch
as one whose acts are not subject to controul. Dion Prusaeensis also
and Pausanias define a monarchy in the same terms.
Aristotle says there are some kings, who have the same right, which the
nation elsewhere possesses over persons and property. Thus when the
Roman Princes began to exercise regal power, the people it was said
had transferred all their own personal sovereignty to them, which gave
rise to the saying of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher, that no one
but God alone can be judge of the Prince. Dion. L. liii. speaking of
such a prince, says, "he is perfectly master of his own actions, to do
whatever he pleases, and cannot be obliged to do any thing against his
will." Such anciently was the power of the Inachidae established at
Argos in Greece. For in the Greek Tragedy of the Suppliants, Aeschylus
has introduced the people thus addressing the King: "You are the
state, you the people; you the court from which there is no appeal,
you preside over the altars, and regulate all affairs by your supreme
will." King Theseus himself in Euripides speaks in very different
terms of the Athenian Republic; "The city is not governed by one man,
but in a popular form, by an annual succession of magistrates." For
according to Plutarch's explanation, Theseus was the general in war,
and the guardian of the laws; but in other respects nothing more
than a citizen. So that they who are limited by popular controul are
improperly called kings. Thus after the time of Lycurgus, and more
particularly after the institution of the Ephori, the Kings of the
Lacedaemonians are said by Polybius, Plutarch, and Cornelius Nepos,
to have been Kings more in name than in reality. An example which was
followed by the rest of Greece. Thus Pausanias says of the Argives to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account