120) compares the Ten to dictators.

We might bring the struggles of the Spartan kings with the Ephoralty into comparison with the attempts of the Doges Falieri and Foscari to make themselves the chiefs of the republic in more than name.
Mueller, in his _Dorians_, observes that 'the Ephoralty was the moving element, the principle of change, in the Spartan constitution, and, in the end, the cause of its dissolution.' Sismondi remarks that the precautions which led to the creation of the Council of Ten 'denaturaient entierement la constitution de l'etat.' [2] See what Aristotle in the _Politics_ says about [Greek: _oliganthropia_], and the unequal distribution of property.

As to the property of the Venetian nobles, see Sanudo, _Vite dei Duchi_, Murat.xxii.p.1194, who mentions the benevolences of the richer families to the poor.

They built houses for aristocratic paupers to live in free of rent.
[3] A curious passage in Plutarch's _Life of Cleomenes_ (Clough's Translation, vol.iv.p.

474) exactly applies to the Venetian statecraft:--'They, the Spartans, worship Fear, not as they do supernatural powers which they dread, esteeming it hurtful, but thinking their polity is chiefly kept up by fear ...