Laudator Temporis Acti

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 6.61.3-4 (tr. Earnest Cary):

[3] Otherwise you would be the most foolish of all men if, after regarding it as intolerable to be governed by one tyrant, you should now deliver yourselves up to the populace, a many-headed tyranny, and grant these things to them, not as a gracious concession to their pleading, but constrained by necessity and, on the assumption that it is not in our power to do anything else now, yielding against your will. [4] And when this senseless multitude, instead of being punished for its offences, even obtains honours as a reward for those offences, how headstrong and arrogant do you think it will become? For do not encourage yourselves with the hope that the people will moderate their demands if it becomes known to them that you all concurred in this resolution.

[3] ἢ πάντων ἂν εἴητε ἀφρονέστατοι, εἰ πρὸς ἑνὸς ἄρχεσθαι τυραννικοῦ ἀνδρὸς οὐκ ἀνασχετὸν ἡγησάμενοι δήμῳ τυραννίδι πολυκεφάλῳ νῦν ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς παραδώσετε, καὶ ταῦτ᾽ οὐ μετὰ χαρίτων αὐτῷ πείθοντι συγχωρήσετε ὑπό τ᾽ ἀνάγκης κρατηθέντες καὶ ὡς οὐκ ἐξὸν ἄλλο τι δρᾶν νῦν ἡμῖν παρὰ γνώμην εἴξαντες. [4] ὅταν δὲ τὸ ἀνόητον ἀντὶ τοῦ κολάζεσθαι ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἂν πλημμελήσῃ καὶ τὸ τιμᾶσθαι δι᾽ αὐτὰ προσλάβῃ, πῶς δοκεῖτε αὔθαδες ἔσται καὶ ὑπερήφανον; μὴ γὰρ δὴ ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἐλπίδι ἐπαίρεσθε, ὡς μετριάσει περὶ τὰς ἀξιώσεις ὁ δῆμος, ἐὰν φανερὸν αὐτῷ γένηται, ὅτι ὑμεῖς ἅπαντες ἐψηφίσασθε οὕτως.

Id. 7.22.2:

And if we are under the tyranny, not of one man, but of a whole populace, what is the difference? For the effect of both is the same.

εἰ δ᾽ οὐχ ὑφ᾽ ἑνὸς ἀνδρός, ἀλλ᾽ ὑφ᾽ ὅλου τυραννούμεθα δήμου, τί τοῦτο διαφέρει; τὸ γὰρ ἔργον ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ταὐτό.