[1297b]
[1]
And although it is proper that the government
should be drawn only from those who possess heavy armor, yet it is not possible
to define the amount of the property-qualification absolutely and to say that
they must possess so much, but only to consider what sort of amount is the
highest that is compatible with making those who have a share in the
constitution more numerous than those who have not, and to fix that limit.
For those who are poor and have
no share in the honors are willing to keep quiet if no one insults them or takes
away any part of their substance; but this is not easy to secure, for it does
not always happen that those who are in the governing class are gentlemen. Also
people have a way of being reluctant to serve when there is a war if they do not
get rations and are poor men but; if somebody provides food they want to fight.
In some states the
citizen-body consists not only of those who are serving as heavy-armed soldiers,
but also of those who have so served; and at Malea the citizen-body consisted of
these, while the magistrates were elected from those who were actually on
service. And indeed the earliest form of constitution among the Greeks after the
kingships consisted of those who were actually soldiers, the original form
consisting of the cavalry (for war had its strength and its
pre-eminence in cavalry, since without orderly formation heavy-armed
infantry
[20]
is useless, and the
sciences and systems dealing with tactics did not exist among the men of old
times, so that their strength lay in their cavalry); but as the states
grew and the wearers of heavy armor had become stronger, more persons came to
have a part in the government. Hence what we now call constitutional governments
the men of former times called democracies; but the constitutional governments of early days were
naturally oligarchical and royal, for owing to the smallness of the populations
their middle class was not numerous, so that because of their small numbers as
well as in conformity with the structure of the state the middle class more
readily endured being in a subject position.It
has then been said what is the reason of there being several forms of
constitution, and why there are others besides those designated by name
(for there is not one single democracy only, and similarly there are
more than one of the other forms), and also what are the differences
between them and what is the reason why these differences occur, and in addition
to these points, which is the best of the constitutions speaking generally, and
of the other constitutions which sort is suited to which sort of
people.And again, let us speak about the points that come next, both
generally and with reference to each constitution separately, taking their
appropriate starting-point. All forms of constitution then have three factors in
reference to which the good lawgiver has to consider what is expedient for each
constitution; and if these factors are well-ordered the constitution must of
necessity be well-ordered, and the superiority of one constitution over another
necessarily consists in the superiority of each of these factors. Of these three
factors one is, what is to be the body that deliberates about the common
interests,
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