1 Cicero made this point in his Republic when he asked
(Book III, 43), ‘So who would call that a republic, i.e., the
property of the public, when everyone was oppressed by
the cruelty of a single man…?’ As the subsequent discussion,
in his dialogue indicates, Cicero believed that rule by
the few and rule by the many could also be tyrannical –
and therefore not republican.