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Book II Chapter 7

Correct Constitutions and Their Deviations

Cities must be ruled by either one person, a few, or all. Each arrangement is either correct or bad: correct when the rulers aim at the common advantage, bad when they aim at their own. The bad is a deviation from the correct.⁷⁵⁴ Kingship, aristocracy, and democracy accordingly aim at what is correct; tyranny, oligarchy, and mob rule at what is bad.⁷⁵⁵

Mixed Government and Constitutional Change

There also comes to be a certain best constitution mixed from the correct forms of government.⁷⁵⁶ Constitutions often change for the better and for the worse. In general, the best constitution is that ordered according to virtue, and the worst that ordered according to vice.⁷⁵⁷

The Selection of Officeholders

Those who rule, deliberate, and judge are drawn, in democracies, from all, either by election or by lot;⁷⁵⁸ in oligarchies, from the wealthy; and in aristocracies, from the best.⁷⁵⁹

The Causes of Civil Strife

Civil strife in cities arises in some cases from reason, and in others from passion. From reason, when those who are equal are compelled to have ⟨unequal shares, and those who are unequal⟩ equal shares;⁷⁶⁰ from passion, on account of honor, love of rule, gain, or wealth.⁷⁶¹

Overthrow and Stability

Constitutions are overthrown through two causes, either force or deception. They become more stable by attending to the common advantage.⁷⁶²

Courts and Public Offices

Courts, council chambers, assemblies, and offices are determined in a manner appropriate to the constitutions.⁷⁶³ The most common offices are priesthood of the gods, military command, naval command, supervision of markets, administration of gymnasia, oversight of women, oversight of children, city administration, treasury administration, guardianship of the laws, and collection of revenues.⁷⁶⁴ Some of these concern cities, some war, and others ports and trade.⁷⁶⁵

Reform and the Division of Work

The work of a statesman also includes correcting a constitution, which seems much harder than founding one, and dividing the multitude of people, some for necessary tasks and others for excellent ones.⁷⁶⁶ Craftsmen, hired laborers, farmers, and merchants serve what is necessary, for these are assistants to those engaged in civic life.⁷⁶⁷ The whole fighting and deliberating element has greater authority, because it attends to virtue and devotes itself to noble things.⁷⁶⁸

Age Groups and Civic Functions

Of these, the older element deliberates in advance, the more elderly serves the divine, and the young fights in the forefront for all.⁷⁶⁹ This arrangement is very ancient, the Egyptians having first established it.⁷⁷⁰

Sanctuaries and Allotments

No less than the other matters, it is also a political concern that sanctuaries of the gods be established in the most conspicuous places,⁷⁷¹ and that one part of the land belonging to private citizens be assigned near the outer districts and the other near the city, so that, with two allotments distributed to each person, both parts of the territory may be easily surveyed.⁷⁷²

Common Meals and Common Education

It is also useful to legislate the holding of common meals and to devote care to the common education of children;⁷⁷³

Marriage and Age

and that, for the strength and full development of bodies, marriages must be contracted neither when people are too young nor when they are too old;⁷⁷⁴ for at both ages the offspring are incompletely developed and wholly weak.⁷⁷⁵

Laws Concerning Birth

And surely it is most advantageous to legislate that no impaired child be reared, that no fully formed child be exposed, and that no abortion be induced.⁷⁷⁶ These, then, are the main points concerning politics.⁷⁷⁷

754.The numerical distinction, one, few, or all, is separate from the criterion of common or private advantage. Παρέκβασις is a deviation from the correct form. The account’s classification cannot therefore be inferred from the number of rulers alone.

755.The local epitome places δημοκρατία, democracy, among correct forms and ὀχλοκρατία, mob rule, among bad forms. In Politics III.7, Aristotle instead names πολιτεία as the correct rule of many and δημοκρατία as its deviation. Wachsmuth notes that difference. This translation preserves the epitome’s own six names and their classification.

756.The feminine μικτήν and ἀρίστην imply πολιτείαν, constitution. The mixed form is constituted from the correct forms already named. The passage gives no particular institutional mixture or historical example, and none is added.

757.Both directions of change remain, improvement and deterioration. The general criterion is an ordering according to virtue or vice, linking the political discussion with the preceding ethical exposition. No necessary progression toward a better constitution is asserted.

758.The compressed Greek supplies the people performing all three functions. Αἵρεσις is election or selection, and κλῆρος selection by lot. The alternatives concern appointment to political functions; lot does not mean fate here.

759.From all must be read within the account’s category of eligible citizens, not as a statement of modern universal suffrage. Εὔποροι are those with abundant means, while ἄριστοι are the best as judged by the aristocratic criterion. All three forms retain their different stated bases of selection.

760.Στάσις is faction or civil strife. The distinction κατὰ λόγον and κατὰ πάθος identifies the grounds assigned to it: a claim about equality, or an affective motive. The full supplied contrast between unequal shares and unequal people remains bracketed. Shares expresses the objects of ἔχειν, to have, in the equality argument.

761.All four motives remain: τιμή, honor; φιλαρχία, love of rule or office; κέρδος, gain; and εὐπορία, wealth or affluence. The printed φιλαρχία is not replaced with an apparatus proposal referring to love of money. Passion here names the motivating attachment, not a separate fifth motive.

762.Πολιτεῖαι remain constitutions or forms of government. Μονιμωτέρας is comparative, more stable, rather than a promise that any constitution will become permanent. Attention to common advantage repeats the criterion used to distinguish correct government from deviation.

763.Βουλευτήρια are council chambers or the institutions meeting in them; ἐκκλησίαι are civic assemblies. The arrangement of these institutions is said to fit the particular constitution, rather than to be identical in every city.

764.All eleven offices are retained in their printed order. A gymnasium was an institution of physical training and education. Γυναικονομία and παιδονομία designate official oversight of women and children; ἀστυνομία concerns administration of the city, not a modern police force. Ταμιεία concerns the treasury, and νομοφυλακία guardianship of laws.

765.Πρακτορεία is a rare term, rendered collection of revenues in this list of offices; LSJ gives collectorship and cites this passage. Its connection is with a πράκτωρ, a collector or official who exacts dues. The final three spheres are civic, military, and commercial; the text does not assign every listed office individually to one of them.

766.Διορθῶσαι is to correct or set right, contrasted with κτίσαι, to found. The comparative much harder and the qualification seems both remain. The division that follows distinguishes necessities from σπουδαῖα, excellent or serious pursuits, within the account’s hierarchy of civic work.

767.Δημιουργοί are craftsmen or artisans here; the same word’s cosmological use for a divine maker, demiourgos, is not relevant to this occupational list. Θῆτες are hired laborers, distinct from the δοῦλοι, slaves, named earlier. Farmers and merchants complete the four groups. Τοῖς πολιτικοῖς is dative: these groups serve those engaged in civic life.

768.Κυριώτερον means more authoritative or possessing greater control. The account privileges the fighting and deliberating element on the stated ground of its concern for virtue and noble pursuits. This is its claim about a political hierarchy; the translation does not treat the other occupations as outside the city’s population. The printed πᾶν, whole, remains.

769.The three age descriptions remain distinct: πρεσβύτερον, older; γεραρώτερον, more elderly or venerable; and νέον, young. Προβουλεύειν is to deliberate beforehand, and προπολεμεῖν to fight in front or in defense of others. Θεραπεύειν τὸ θεῖον concerns religious service or worship.

770.The assertion that Egyptians first established this arrangement belongs to the ancient exposition. Wachsmuth compares Politics VII.10, 1329b1–4. It is not presented as an independently demonstrated chronology of the origins of civic institutions.

771.Ἱερά are sanctuaries or sacred places. Ἐπιφανέστατοι means most conspicuous or prominent; the text does not specify a particular height, architectural plan, or dedication. The phrase no less than the other matters retains the comparative emphasis of οὐχ ἧττον.

772.Ἐσχατιαί are the outer or border districts of the territory. Each person receives two κλῆροι, allotments, one in each part. The stated purpose is εὐσύνοπτα, easily surveyed or overseen. That local wording remains, rather than being replaced with a different political motive from Aristotle’s parallel account. Ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ, to each person, is the reading printed in the text.

773.Συσσίτια are common or communal meals, an organized institution of shared dining. Κοινὴ παιδεία is common education; the source gives no curriculum or detailed educational organization here. The semicolon continues the sequence of political provisions into the following marriage rule.

774.This clause continues the preceding list of useful political provisions. The two comparative age terms are governed by the sense of excess expressed by ἄγαν, too much. The epitome gives no numerical ages, and none are supplied from Aristotle’s fuller discussion.

775.Ἀτελῆ is incompletely developed and τελείως ἀσθενῆ wholly weak. Both descriptions remain as the ancient account’s physiological claim. The play between τελειότητα, full development, and τελείως, wholly, is grammatical rather than an additional medical explanation.

776.Πεπηρωμένον denotes a child with bodily impairment, while τέλειον here denotes one fully formed or whole. Ἐκτρέφειν is to rear, ἐκτιθέναι to expose or abandon an infant, and ἐξαμβλοῦν to cause an abortion. All three injunctions, including the account’s discriminatory rule against rearing impaired children, remain as historical text. The final prohibition differs from the qualified provision concerning abortion in Aristotle, Politics VII.16, 1335b19–26; it is not replaced with that parallel wording.

777.Συμφορώτατον is most advantageous, and δήπου adds the force surely or presumably. The close ends both section 26 and the Peripatetic exposition in Chapter 7. The source begins Chapter 8 on printed p. 153; there is no omitted section 27.