From Erasmus’ Praise of Folly (27):
For, as they point out. what is more foolish than for a candidate seeking office to flatter the people, to buy their favor with doles, to court the applause of so many fools, to be pleased by their shouts, to be carried about in parades as if he were a spectacle for the populace, to have his statue in the marketplace? To all these add the adoption of new names, and nicknames; then add those divine honors paid to very sorry fellows, and the deification, at great public ceremonies, of criminal tyrants. This sort of thing is most arrant folly. One Democritus cannot suffice for laughing at it. Who denies this?
Quid enim stultius, inquiunt, quam supplicem candidatum blandiri populo, congiariis favorem emere, venari tot stultorum applausus, acclamationibus sibi placere, in triumpho veluti signum aliquod populo spectandum circumferri, aeneum in foro stare? Adde his nominum et cognominum adoptiones. Adde divinos honores, homuncioni exhibitos, adde publicis cerimoniis in Deos relatos etiam sceleratissimos tyrannos. Stultissima sunt haec, et ad quae ridenda non unus sufficiat Democritus. Quis negat?
Extracts 