The Politics of Aristotle, Volume II: Prefatory Essays. Books I and II

494 Pages·1887·15.4 MB·English

by  Aristotle

THE
POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE
NEWMAN
VOL. II. a
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.C.
THE
POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE
WITH AN INTRODUCTION, TWO PREFATORY ESSAYS
AND NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY
BY
W. L. NEWMAN, M.A.
FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, AND FORMERLY READER IN ANCIENT HISTORY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
VOLUME II
PREFATORY ESSAYS
BOOKS I AND II—TEXT AND NOTES
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1887
[ All rights rcsewed ]

CONTENTS.
PACE
THE POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE i
ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE POLITICS AND THE LATIN TRANSLA­
TION OF WILLIAM OF MOERBEKE . . · . .. xll
TEXT OF BOOK I . ι
TEXT OF BOOK II 22
CRITICAL NOTES 57
NOTES TO BOOK I 97
NOTES TO BOOK II . 226
APPENDICES :—
APPENDIX A. On the relation of the teaching of the Nicomachean
Ethics to that of the Politics . . .. · · 3 85
APPENDIX B. On the Carthaginian Constitution . . .. 401
APPENDIX C. Various readings of MS. Phillipps S91 (z) of
William of Moerheke's Latin Translation (Books i, ii) . . 408

THE POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE.
Μ
A TREATISE on Politics in eight books, probably The Poli-
identical with that known to us as ' the Politics/ finds a ]||^£[
ώ
place in all the three catalogues of Aristotle's works which all the
have been handed down to us—that given by Diogenes Aristotle's
Laertius in his life of Aristotle, that of the anonymousworks·
writer first published by Menage in his commentary on
Diogenes Laertius, and that of ' Ptolemy the philosopher/
which exists only in an Arabic translation*.
It is described in the first thus (No. 75)—ήςκιτιλοπ ακροά­
σεως ως η Θεοφράστου αβγδεςζη: in the second (No. 7°)
—ήςκιτιλοπ ακροάσεως ϊ\: in the third (No. 32)—if we follow
Steinschneider's Latin translation (Aristot. Fragm. 1469
sqq.)—liber de regimine civitatum et nominatur bulitikun
(s. bolitikun) tractatus viii.
The list of the Anonymus Menagianus is thought by
Heitz2 not to be copied from that of Diogenes, but to
be drawn from a common source. Some of its variations
from the text of Diogenes, in fact, are too considerable to
have arisen in the process of copying. It omits works
named by Diogenes, but also names some which we
do not find in his list3. We see that the words ως η
Θεοφράστου do not appear in its version of the title
of the Politics. They may probably not have existed
in the document copied. We cannot tell how they came
1 The three catalogues will be translation by Steinschneider.
found at the commencement of 2 Die verlorenen Schriften des
the fifth volume of the Berlin Aris- Aristoteles, p. 17.
totle—the third of them in a Latin 8 Heitz, ibid. p. 15.
ii THE POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE.
to appear in the list of Diogenes1- Did he find them
in the source from which he copied his list, or did he add
them himself? Or are they a gloss which has crept from
the margin of Diogenes into his text ? Their meaning is
as doubtful as their origin. They may merely mean that
the Political Teaching both of Theophrastus and of Aris­
totle was arranged in eight books: more probably they
mean that the work was identical with one which was
ascribed to Theophrastus as its author. Cicero some­
times cites, as from Theophrastus, statements the like of
which we find in the Politics; but it does not follow that
he may not owe them to Theophrastus, for Theophrastus
may well have repeated remarks originally made by Aris­
totle, and we know that Cicero distinguishes between the
works of Aristotle and Theophrastus on the best con­
stitution2, so that one part of the Politics at all events
cannot have been ascribed by him to Theophrastus.
The term άκρόασις perhaps implies that the work was
delivered in the form of oral lectures3, and to associates4,
not to ol ί,ολλοπ but Galen speaks of Aristotle c writing'
his άκροάσ-eis, and makes no distinction in this respect be­
tween them and the rest of his works5- In the Rhetoric
(i. 8. 1366 a 21)—a reference which may well have been
inserted by some later hand—we find the Politics called
1 See on this subject Zeller, Gr. by Heitz, ibid. p. 210 η.)
Ph. 2. 2. 678. 1. * Cp. Galen, de Subst. Facult.
2 De Fin. 5. 4. 11: cumque 4. p. 758 Kiihn (quoted by Heitz,
uterque eorum docuisset qualem ibid. p. 138), 'υς ολέτοτσιρΑ καϊ
in re publica principem esse con- Θεοφράστου τα μϊν TOLS πολλοίς
veniret, pluribus praeterea con- γεγραφότων, τάς δε ακροάσεις τοις
scripsisset, qui esset optimus rei εταίροι*.
publicae status, hoc amplius Theo- 6 See the passage of Galen
phrastus, quae essent in re publica quoted in the last note. It seems
rerum inclinationes et momenta to have been a common practice
temporum, quibus esset moder- for the author of a book to read it
andum, utcumque res postularet. aloud to an audience : cp. Cic.
3 Aristox. Elem. Rhythm. 2. p. Brutus c. 51. 191: (Antimachus)
30 Meibom., καθάπερ *Αριστοτέλης cum, convocatis auditoribus, lege­
nd διηγεϊτο το ΰοτ πλείστους των ret eis magnum illud quod novistis
άκονσάντων παρά. Πλάτωνος την περί volumen suum, et eum legentem
τάγαθοΰ άκρόασιν παθείν' προσιεναι omnes praeter Platonem reliquis-
yap εκαστον -απολαμβάνοντα λη- sent, Megam,' inquit, 'nihilo minus,
ψςσθαί TL των νομιζομένων τούτων Plato enim mihi unus instar est
ανθρωπίνων aya6a>v κ.τ.λ. (Quoted omnium.'
INCLUDED IN EARLY LISTS OF HIS WORKS, iii
by the name by which we know it (τα πολιτικά) 1. The
Politics itself speaks of its inquiries as being ircpl πολιτεία?
και τις έκαστη κα\ ττοια TLS (Pol. 3· ΐ· 1274 b 32: Cp. Pol. 6
(4). 8. 1293 b 29, ημίν be την μέθοδον clvai ττ€ρ\ 7roXtTetas), and
refers at the close of the first book to succeeding portions
of the work as τα irepl ras α?ίετιλοπ (χ. 13. 1260 b 12). It is
also implied to be ρί επ των ών ιετιλοπin 6 (4). 2. 1289 a 26 2.
References of any kind to the Politics, especially before Probable
the time of Cicero, are scarce, and therefore the question of ^jn of
or
the probable date and origin of the two first of these lists— the lists
the oldest, apparently, of the three—is an interesting one, Diogenes
for, as we have seen, they mention the work by name. Laertius
Diogenes Laertius himself lived no earlier than the Anonymus
second century of our era and possibly much later, but, as ^ ena"
is well-known, he derives much of his information from far
more ancient authorities now lost, and his list of Aristotle's
works has been thought by many to have come to him
through some intermediate compiler or other from Her-
mippus of Smyrna, the disciple of Callimachus of Alexan­
dria3, or at all events to precede the rearrangement of
Aristotle's works by Andronicus of Rhodes, who lived in
the first century before Christ. A short review of the
grounds for this opinion will perhaps not be out of place
here.
We are told by Plutarch (Sulla c. 26) that when the
MSS. of' most of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus,'
after being rescued from their long seclusion in careless
hands at Scepsis4, had been carried off by Sulla to Rome
1 So Alexander of Aphrodisias from the Politics, uses the ex-
(in Aristot. Metaph. p. 15. 6 pression iv rats ι?αιτιλοΠ (lege
Bonitz), iv TOLS ί?οκιτιλοΠ : Julian *αίετιλοΠ?), and Eustathius, iv
(Ep. ad Themist. p. 260 D), iv rots *αίετιλοΠ? (Sus. 1 p. xlv, note 85).
ί?οκιτιλοπ συγγράμμασιν. I take s Hermippus lived till about
these references from Sus.1 p. xlv, the close of the third century De­
note 85. TheworkofthePlatonist fore Christ.
Eubulus also was entitled Έπι- 4 See the story in Strabo,p. 608-
a-K€\lris των νπ υ?ολετοτσιρΆ iv 9. Strabo speaks of 'the library
bevripto των ών κιτιλοΠ προς την of Theophrastus, which included
Ώλάτωνος UoKtreiav δνπιρημενων that of Aristotle/ passing to
(Sus.1 p. xlv : Zeller, Gr. Ph. 2. 2. Neleus, and forgets to make it
678. 1). clear whether Apelliconpurchased
* Michael Ephesius, quoting the libraries as a whole, or only