Note 106 — LIFE OF CAIUS GRACCHUS.

Plutarch has here used the word oligarch (ὀλιγαρχικός), one who is a friend to the party of the Few as opposed to the Many. The meaning of an oligarchy, according to Aristotle (Politik, 4, c. 4), is a government in which the rich and those of noble birth possess the political power, being Few in number. But the smallness of the number is only an accident: the essence of an oligarchy consists in the power being in the hands of the rich and the noble, who happen in all countries to be the Few compared with the Many.