They soon became obsolete--the mere creatures of occasion.

While they lasted, they bore a strong resemblance to the Roman dictators--a resemblance remarked by Dionysius, who quotes Theophrastus as agreeing with Aristotle in his account of the Aesymnetes.
[158] For, as the great Florentine has well observed, "To found well a government, one man is the best--once established, the care and execution of the laws should be transferred to many."-- (Machiavel.
Discor., lib.i., c.

9.) And thus a tyranny builds the edifice, which the republic hastens to inhabit.
[159] That of Orthagoras and his sons in Sicyon.

"Of all governments," says Aristotle, "that of an oligarchy, or of a tyrant, is the least permanent." A quotation that cannot be too often pressed on the memory of those reasoners who insist so much on the brief duration of the ancient republics.
[160] Besides the representation necessary to confederacies--such as the Amphictyonic League, etc., a representative system was adopted at Mantinea, where the officers were named by deputies chosen by the people.

"This form of democracy," says Aristotle, "existed among the shepherds and husbandmen of Arcadia;" and was probably not uncommon with the ancient Pelasgians.