[1278a]
[1]
for slaves also are not in one
of the classes mentioned, nor are freedmen. For it is true that not all the persons indispensable for
the existence of a state are to be deemed citizens, since even the sons of
citizens are not citizens in the same sense as the adults: the latter are
citizens in the full sense, the former only by presumption1—they are
citizens, but incomplete ones. In ancient times in fact the artisan class in
some states consisted of slaves or aliens, owing to which the great mass of
artisans are so even now; and the best-ordered state will not make an artisan a
citizen. While if even the artisan is a citizen, then what we said to be the
citizen's virtue must not be said to belong to every citizen, nor merely be
defined as the virtue of a free man, but will only belong to those who are
released from menial occupations. Among menial occupations those who render such services to an individual are
slaves, and those who do so for the community are artisans and hired laborers.
The state of the case about them will be manifest from what follows when we
consider it a little further[, for what has been said when made known
itself makes it clear].2 As there are several forms
of constitution, it follows that there are several kinds of citizen, and
especially of the citizen in a subject position; hence under one form of
constitution citizenship will necessarily extend to the artisan and the hired
laborer, while under other forms this is impossible, for instance in any
constitution that is of the form entitled aristocratic and in which
[20]
the honors are bestowed according to
goodness and to merit, since a person living a life of manual toil or as a hired
laborer cannot practise the pursuits in which goodness is exercised. In oligarchies on the other hand, though it
is impossible for a hired laborer to be a citizen (since admission to
office of various grades is based on high property-assessments), it is
possible for an artisan; for even the general mass of the craftsmen are rich. At
Thebes there was a law that no
one who had not kept out of trade for the last ten years might be admitted to
office. But under many constitutions the law draws recruits even from
foreigners; for in some democracies the son of a citizen-mother is a citizen,
and the same rule holds good as
to base-born sons in many places. Nevertheless, inasmuch as such persons are
adopted as citizens owing to a lack of citizens of legitimate birth
(for legislation of this kind is resorted to because of
under-population), when a state becomes well off for numbers it
gradually divests itself first of the sons of a slave father or mother, then of
those whose mothers only were citizens, and finally only allows citizenship to
the children of citizens on both sides. These facts then show that there are various kinds of
citizen, and that a citizen in the fullest sense means the man who shares in the
honors of the state, as is implied in the verse of Homer3: “
Like to some alien settler without honor,—
” since a native not admitted to a share in the public honors is like an alien domiciled in the land. But in some places this exclusion is disguised, for the purpose of deceiving those who are a part of the population.4 The answer therefore to the question,
” since a native not admitted to a share in the public honors is like an alien domiciled in the land. But in some places this exclusion is disguised, for the purpose of deceiving those who are a part of the population.4 The answer therefore to the question,
1 Or, with Casaubon's probable correction of the Greek, ‘only with a qualification.’
2 The ill-expressed clause ‘for what—clear’ seems almost certainly to be an interpolation.
3 Hom. Il. 9.648, Hom. Il. 16.59
4 The MSS. give ‘But where such exclusion is disguised, it (this concealment) is for the purpose of deceiving’ etc.
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