[1290b]
[1]
when the free are sovereign and an oligarchy
when the rich are, but that it comes about that the sovereign class in a
democracy is numerous and that in an oligarchy small because there are many men
of free birth and few rich. For otherwise, suppose people assigned the offices
by height, as some persons1 say is done in Ethiopia, or by beauty, that would be an
oligarchy, because both the handsome and the tall are few in number. Nevertheless it is not enough to define
these constitutions even by wealth and free birth only; but inasmuch as there
are more elements than one both in democracy and in oligarchy, we must add the
further distinction that neither is it a democracy if the free2 being few
govern the majority who are not of free birth, as for instance at Apollonia on the Ionian Gulf and at
Thera (for in each of
these cities the offices of honor were filled by the specially noble families
who had been the first settlers of the colonies, and these were few out of
many), nor is it a democracy3 if the rich rule because they are in a
majority, as in ancient times at Colophon (for there the majority of the population
owned large property before the war against the Lydians took place),
but it is a democracy when those who are free are in the majority and have
sovereignty over the government, and an oligarchy when the rich and more well
born
[20]
are few and sovereign.
It has then been stated that there are several forms of constitution, and what
is the cause of this; but let us take the starting-point that was laid down
before4 and say that there
are more forms than those mentioned, and what these forms are, and why they
vary. For we agree that every state possesses not one part but several.
Therefore just as, in case we intended to obtain a classification of animals, we
should first define the properties necessarily belonging to every animal
(for instance some of the sense organs, and the machinery for
masticating and for receiving food, such as a mouth and a stomach, and in
addition to these the locomotive organs of the various species),
and if there were only so many
necessary parts, but there were different varieties of these (I mean
for instance certain various kinds of mouth and stomach and sensory organs, and
also of the locomotive parts as well), the number of possible
combinations of these variations will necessarily produce a variety of kinds of
animals (for it is not possible for the same animal to have several
different sorts of mouth, nor similarly of ears either), so that when
all the possible combinations of these are taken they will all produce animal
species, and there will be as many species of the animal as there are
combinations of the necessary parts:—so in the same way also we shall classify the varieties of
the constitutions that have been mentioned. For states also are composed not of
one but of several parts, as has been said often. One of these parts therefore
is the mass of persons concerned with food who are called farmers,
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