POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE

(Wang) #1
0, 32. Bobhsrar piv yhp S~pcparwbv c?uai rb xaraowcbaup ri)u uuuui&v.
It may be admitted that the common meals had a sort of level-
ling or equalizing tendency ; but this could hardly have been the
original intention of them, whether they were first instituted at
Sparta by Lycurgus or not (cp. vii. 10. 4 2 ff.). They are more
naturally connected with the life of a camp (5 I I) and the brother-
hood of arms. They may also be the survival of a patriarchal life,




    1. The remark that the office of admiral was a second royalty
      appears to be jusiified chiefly by the personal greatness of Ly-
      sander. Teleutias the brother of Agesilaus was also a distinguished
      man. It cannot be supposed that Eurybiades or Cnemus 01
      Alcidas or Astyochus were formidable rivals to the king.





    1. TO~OU 6; bpbpqpa O~K ZharTov. uopi[ovur piu yhp ylrctreat ra’yudb ~h
      7lCplpUX~TU 61’ ;PfT?S pukxOU $ KaK;US’ Kai TO&O p;U Kdi)S, &l p&Ul
      raira xpslrrw 74s aprrts A.rrohap$LLuovuiu, 06 X(LX&S.
      ‘The Spartans were right in thinking that the goods of life
      are to be acquired by virtue, but not right in thinking that they
      are better than virtue’ (cp. vii. c. 2. and c. 14). The ‘not less
      error’ is that they degrade the end into a means; they not only
      prefer military virtue to every other, but the goods for which they
      are striving to the virtue by which they are obtained.





    1. T?)U piU yhp ndhlU T€?TOilKfU a‘Xp(pUTOV, TOiE^8 i8lhS $lXOXP7)pdrOUP.
      It is quite true that many Spartans, Pausanias, Pleistoanas.
      Astyochus, Cleandridas, Gylippus and others were guilty of taking
      bribes. But it is hard to see how their crime is attributable to the
      legislator. Not the institutions of Lycurgus, but the failure of them
      vas the real source of the evil.
      The love of money to whatever cause attributable was held to be
      characteristic of Sparta in antiquity. The saying xpipura xpjpu;
      C;u+ is placed by Alcaeus (Fr. 50) in the mouth of a Spartan, and
      the oracle d $iXoXp~pria trrdpau Ihri Who 6; 066211 is quoted in the
      Aristotelian IIohireiai fr. Rei. Lac. 1559 b. 28.



  1. 1, ncipcyyus piu ;mi rabrqs.
    Polyb. vi. 45 denies the resemblance between Crete and Lace-
    daemon, ‘En; & 6u r3u Kpqriv pcr@livrss (nohirriau) @LOU hmjuai

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