1\38 AZi'ZSTOlLE'S I'OLZTICS.
a god, and to claim rule over him would be like claiming to rule
over Zeus.' The words ppi[oOyTcs T~S dpxhs may refer either I)* to
the Gods or 2) to men ; either I j* ' as if in making a division of
thc empire of the Gods' according to the old legend, they, i. e. the
gods, should claim to rule over Zeus ; or 2) more generally, as if
when persons were distributing ofices they should give Zeus an
inferior place.' Cp. Plat, Rep, x. 607 C, 6 T~V Aia oor#~tv o"xXor
Cppu T~V OrSv, and Herod. v. 49, T$ Art ~LO~TOU Tipi f'p'[m: also
Plat. Polit. 301 D, 303 B.
Eernays translates pfp;[obvrss ' upon the principle of rotation of
cffices,' but no such use of ptp;[fiv occurs.
KpoTiv, h'iC. Eth. Vi. 13. $ 8, o"pof0V K6Y Cr T1S T$U TOhK$U $uLq
- Krrivai yirp 06 rtip~~g, Et pi iv TLVL ~aorXti~, xuO&rfp in; T~V +x&v
iu rais Tohe-pimis C<d%ois iv ppbs v+y.
oh Apros, sc. 6 pautXr&, supplied from 4 j?naiXt$. We haye a
choice of difliculties in the interpretation of the Tvords which
follow. Either I) Iv TLVL pauihd? must be esplained 'in a certain
cxercise of the royal ofice,' Le. when the king is in command of the
mmy. This ~ay of taking the passage gives a good sense and the
fact is correct ; but such a meaning cannot be extracted from the
Greek. Or z), 'for a king hns no power to inflict death, unless
undcr a certain form of monarchy'; Aristotle, witing in a frag-
mentary manner, has reverted from the kings of Sputa to
monarchy in general. Or 3)*, possibly the words Zv TLVL pnaiXs;q,
bracketed by Bekker, are a clumsy gloss which has crept into the
test, intended to show that the remark did not apply to every
monarchy, but only to the Spartan. The conjecture of Xr.
Ilpvater, who substitutes ;vurKn GsrXias for b TLYL j?acrrXri?, though
supported by the citation from Homer, is too far removed from the
letters of the b2SS: and there is no proof that the Spartan kings
had the power of putting a soldier to death for covardice.
tu XClpIh rdpy is often translated 'by martial lam.' But the
comparison of passages in Herodotus (e.g. ix. 48) and Poly-
bius (k. 58. $ 9, etc.) shows that the word vdps is only pleonastic,
and that C'V ,ycipAs u+y=lu XF~U~U: hand to hand,' or by a sudden
blOW.'
