Post 3.9.2013.8

Theseus:     Nothing
Is worse for a city than an absolute ruler.
In the earliest days, before the laws are common,
One man has power and makes the law his own:
Equality is not yet.  With written laws,
People of small resources and the rich
Both have the same recourse to justice.  Now
A man of means, if badly spoken of,
Will have no better standing than the weak;
And if the little man is right, he wins
Against the great.  This is the call of freedom:
"What man has good advice to give the city,
And wishes to make it known?"  He who responds
Gains glory; the reluctant hold their peace.
For the city, what can be more fair than that?
Again, when the people is master in the land,
It welcomes youthful townsmen as its subjects;
But when one man is king, he finds this hateful,
And if he thinks that any of the nobles
Are wise, he fears for his despotic power
And kills them.  How can a city become strong
If someone takes away, cuts off new ventures
Like ears of corn in a spring field?  What use
To build a fortune, if your work promotes
The despot's welfare, not your family's?
Why bring up girls as gentlewomen, fit
For marriage, if tyrants may take them for their joy--
A grief to parents?  I would rather die
Than see my children forced to such a union.