The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

hence the curse fell upon Sybaris. At Thurii the
Sybarites quarrelled with their fellow-colonists; thinking that the
land belonged to them, they wanted too much of it and were driven
out. At Byzantium the new colonists were detected in a conspiracy,
and were expelled by force of arms; the people of Antissa, who had
received the Chian exiles, fought with them, and drove them out;
and the Zancleans, after having received the Samians, were driven
by them out of their own city. The citizens of Apollonia on the
Euxine, after the introduction of a fresh body of colonists, had a
revolution; the Syracusans, after the expulsion of their tyrants,
having admitted strangers and mercenaries to the rights of
citizenship, quarrelled and came to blows; the people of
Amphipolis, having received Chalcidian colonists, were nearly all
expelled by them.
    Now, in oligarchies the masses make revolution under the idea
that they are unjustly treated, because, as I said before, they are
equals, and have not an equal share, and in democracies the
notables revolt, because they are not equals, and yet have only an
equal share.
    Again, the situation of cities is a cause of revolution when the
country is not naturally adapted to preserve the unity of the
state. For example, the Chytians at Clazomenae did not agree with
the people of the island; and the people of Colophon quarrelled
with the Notians; at Athens too, the inhabitants of the Piraeus are
more democratic than those who live in the city. For just as in war
the impediment of a ditch, though ever so small, may break a
regiment, so every cause of difference, however slight, makes a
breach in a city. The greatest opposition is confessedly that of
virtue and vice; next comes that of wealth and poverty; and there
are other antagonistic elements, greater or less, of which one is
this difference of place.
IV
    In revolutions the occasions may be trifling, but great
interests are at stake. Even trifles are most important when they
concern the rulers, as was the case of old at Syracuse; for the
Syracusan constitution was once changed by a love-quarrel of two
young men, who were in the government. The story is that while one
of them was away from home his beloved was gained over by his
companion, and he to revenge himself seduced the other’s wife. They
then drew the members of the ruling class into their quarrel and so
split all the people into portions. We learn from this story that
we should be on our guard against the beginnings of such evils, and
should put an end to the quarrels of chiefs and mighty men. The
mistake lies in the beginning—as the proverb says—‘Well begun is
half done’; so an error at the beginning, though quite small, bears
the same ratio to the errors in the other parts. In general, when
the notables quarrel, the whole city is involved, as happened in
Hesdaea after the Persian War. The occasion was the division of an
inheritance; one of two brothers refused to give an account of
their father’s property and the treasure which he had found: so the
poorer of the two quarrelled with him and enlisted in his cause the
popular party, the other, who was very rich, the wealthy
classes.
    At Delphi, again, a quarrel about a marriage was the beginning
of all the troubles which followed. In this case the bridegroom,
fancying some occurrence to be of evil omen, came to the bride, and
went away without taking her. Whereupon her relations, thinking
that they were insulted by him, put some of the sacred treasure
among his offerings while he was sacrificing, and then slew him,
pretending that he had been robbing the temple. At Mytilene, too, a
dispute about heiresses was the beginning of many misfortunes, and
led to the war with the Athenians in which Paches took their city.
A wealthy citizen, named Timophanes, left two daughters; Dexander,
another citizen, wanted to obtain them for his sons; but he was
rejected in his suit, whereupon he stirred up a revolution, and
instigated the Athenians (of whom he was proxenus) to interfere. A
similar quarrel about an heiress arose at Phocis between Mnaseas
the father of Mnason, and Euthycrates the father of Onomarchus;
this was the beginning of the Sacred War. A marriage-quarrel was
also the cause of a change in the government of Epidamnus. A
certain man betrothed his daughter to a person whose father, having
been made a magistrate, fined the father of the girl, and the
latter, stung by the insult, conspired with the unenfranchised
classes to