The Old Oligarch: The Constitution of the Athenians Attributed to Xenophon

193 Pages·2008·2.098 MB·English

by  J. L. Marr (editor), P.J. Rhodes (editor)

THE ‘OLD OLIGARCH’:
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ATHENIANS

Aris & PhilliPs ClAssiCAl TexTs
THE OLD OLIGARCH
The Constitution of the Athenians
Attributed to Xenophon
Edited with an introduction, translation and commentary by
J. L. Marr & P. J. Rhodes
Aris & Phillips is an imprint of Oxbow Books
First published in the United Kingdom in 2008. Reprinted 2014, 2015 by
OXBOW BOOKS
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW
and in the United States by
OXBOW BOOKS
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© The authors J. L. Marr & P. J. Rhodes
Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-0-85668-781-5
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
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In memory
of our friend
pETEr dEroW

CONTENTS
preface ix
references xi
introduction
1 The name ‘old oligarch’ 1
2 The title of the work 2
3 The date of the work 3
4 The authorship of the work 6
5 The author and his immediate audience 13
6 The author’s argument: the self-interest theory 16
7 The two-fold class division: the demos versus the oligoi 19
8 Class designations and class labels 24
9 other stylistic features 26
10 Structure 27
11 The text 28
dates assigned to the Constitution of the Athenians 31
Select bibliography 33
Text and Translation: ’Αθηναίων Πολίτεια/
The Constitution of the Athenians 35
Commentary 59
appendixes
1 The imagined criticisms answered in the work 169
2 occurences of the words demos / demotikoi / demokratia 170
3 Qualities and characteristics ascribed to the demos and the oligoi 170
4 Class designations and class labels 171
5 Characteristic vocabulary 172
6 Examples of verbal repetition 173
7 Generalisations 175
index 177

PREFACE
Work on this edition was begun by John Marr. He showed drafts to p. J. r.,
and after his retirement from the university of Exeter in 2004 he invited
P. J. R. to join him in finishing it. We have discussed the work on various
occasions, by meeting and by correspondence, and this final version was
produced by p. J. r. in the light of and as the agreed result of our discussions.
We accept joint responsibility for the Greek text and the English translation
and for the various opinions and interpretations offered in the book.
We thank dr. Kelly Joss and the university of St. andrews for permission
to make use of the thesis cited on p. 76; and p. J. r. thanks prof. robin
osborne for showing him in advance of publication a draft of his revised
LACTOR edition of the old oligarch. above all we thank aris & phillips for
originally agreeing to publish this book, and oxbow books as successors to
aris & phillips for waiting patiently and for publishing it now.
Two works of particular relevance have been published since our
material was sent to the publisher. V. J. Gray (ed.), Xenophon on Government
(Cup, 2007), contains the Greek text of and commentary on the Constitution
of the Athenians, together with xenophon’s Hiero and Constitution of the
Lacedaemonians: her interests are more literary than historical, and she
inclines to a date before the peloponnesian War for the treatise. a. Keen
and n. Sekunda, ‘xenophon the rhetor’ in n. Sekunda (ed.), Corolla
Cosmo Rodewald (Foundation for the Development of Gdańsk University,
2007), 25–38, rely on the assignment of the treatise in some manuscripts to
‘xenophon the rhetor’, take him to be an otherwise unknown xenophon
who associated with Socrates, and suggest that he wrote it soon after the
battle of delium (424 b.C.) as a captive in boeotia. We stand by the opinions
expressed in this book.
Exeter J. L. M.
Durham p. J. r.