Politics   

to have been a good legislator, who put an end to the exclusiveness of
the oligarchy, emancipated the people, established the ancient
Athenian democracy, and harmonized the different elements of the
state. According to their view, the council of Areopagus was an
oligarchical element, the elected magistracy, aristocratical, and the
courts of law, democratical. The truth seems to be that the council
and the elected magistracy existed before the time of Solon, and were
retained by him, but that he formed the courts of law out of an the
citizens, thus creating the democracy, which is the very reason why he
is sometimes blamed. For in giving the supreme power to the law
courts, which are elected by lot, he is thought to have destroyed the
non-democratic element. When the law courts grew powerful, to please
the people who were now playing the tyrant the old constitution was
changed into the existing democracy. Ephialtes and Pericles curtailed
the power of the Areopagus; Pericles also instituted the payment of
the juries, and thus every demagogue in turn increased the power of
the democracy until it became what we now see. All this is true; it
seems, however, to be the result of circumstances, and not to have
been intended by Solon. For the people, having been instrumental in
gaining the empire of the sea in the Persian War, began to get a
notion of itself, and followed worthless demagogues, whom the better
class opposed. Solon, himself, appears to have given the Athenians
only that power of electing to offices and calling to account the
magistrates which was absolutely necessary; for without it they would
have been in a state of slavery and enmity to the government. All the
magistrates he appointed from the notables and the men of wealth, that
is to say, from the pentacosio-medimni, or from the class called
zeugitae, or from a third class of so-called knights or cavalry. The
fourth class were laborers who had no share in any magistracy.
Mere legislators were Zaleucus, who gave laws to the Epizephyrian
Locrians, and Charondas, who legislated for his own city of Catana,
and for the other Chalcidian cities in Italy and Sicily. Some people
attempt to make out that Onomacritus was the first person who had any
special skill in legislation, and that he, although a Locrian by
birth, was trained in Crete, where he lived in the exercise of his
prophetic art; that Thales was his companion, and that Lycurgus and
Zaleucus were disciples of Thales, as Charondas was of Zaleucus. But
their account is quite inconsistent with chronology.
There was also Philolaus, the Corinthian, who gave laws to the
Thebans. This Philolaus was one of the family of the Bacchiadae, and a
lover of Diocles, the Olympic victor, who left Corinth in horror of
the incestuous passion which his mother Halcyone had conceived for
him, and retired to Thebes, where the two friends together ended their
days. The inhabitants still point out their tombs, whic
Politics
By Aristotle
Written 350 B.C.E Part I
He who would inquire into the essence and attributes of various kinds
of governments must first of all determine 'What is a state?' At
present this is a disputed question. Some say that the state has done
a certain act; others, no, not the state, but the oligarchy or the
tyrant. And the legislator or statesman is concerned entirely with the
state; a constitution or government being an arrangement of the
inhabitants of a state. But a state is composite, like any other whole
made up of many parts; these are the citizens, who compose it. It is
evident, therefore, that we must begin by asking, Who is the citizen,
and what is the meaning of the term? For here again there may be a
difference of opinion. He who is a citizen in a democracy will often
not be a citizen in an oligarchy. Leaving out of consideration those
who have been made citizens, or who have obtained the name of citizen
any other accidental manner, we may say, first, that a citizen is not
a citizen because he lives in a certain place, for resident aliens and
slaves share in the place; nor is he a citizen who has no legal right
except that of suing and being sued; for this right may be enjoyed