Lawgivers and theorists 65 



Greek mercenaries whose services all contemporary kings were eager 

 to secure. In short, to the onlooker it seemed a fine thing to be 

 bred a healthy rustic, but the rustic himself was apt to prefer a less 

 monotonous and more remunerative career. 



XIV. EARLY LAWGIVERS AND THEORISTS. 



The treatises of the two great philosophers on the state (and there- 

 fore on the position of agriculture in the state) did not spring suddenly 

 out of nothing; nor was it solely the questionings of Socrates 1 that 

 turned the attention of Plato and Aristotle to the subject. Various 

 lawgivers had shewn in their systems a consciousness of its importance, 

 and speculative thinkers outside 2 the ranks of practical statesmen had 

 designed model constitutions in which a reformed land-system played 

 a necessary part. It is to Aristotle, the great collector of experience, 

 that we owe nearly all our information of these attempts. It is con- 

 venient to speak of them briefly together. All recognize much the same 

 difficulties, and there is a striking similarity in the means by which they 

 propose to overcome them. The lawgivers 3 referred to are Pheidon 

 of Corinth and Philolaus, also a Corinthian though his laws were 

 drafted for Thebes, and thirdly 4 Solon. The dates of the first two are 

 uncertain, but they belong to early times. The two constitution-framers* 

 are Hippodamus of Miletus, whose birth is placed about 475 BC, and 

 Phaleas of Chalcedon, probably somewhat later. Both witnessed the 

 growth of imperial Athens, and Phaleas at least is thought to have 

 been an elder contemporary of Plato. Very little is known about them. 

 If we say that the attempt to design ideal state systems shews that 

 they were not satisfied with those existing, and that the failure of past 

 legislation may have encouraged them to theorize, we have said about 

 all that we are entitled to infer. 



On one point there was general agreement among Greek states: all 

 desired to be 'free' or independent of external control. For some 

 special purpose one people might for a time be recognized as the 

 Leaders (ijyefjuoves) of a majority of states, or more permanently as 

 Representatives or Patrons (irpoo-rdrai). But these unofficial titles only 

 stood for a position acquiesced in under pressure of necessity. Each 

 community wanted to live its own life in its own way, and the extreme 

 jealousy of interference remained. Side by side with this was an 



1 Stobaeusyfor LVI 16 preserves an utterance of Socrates on labour, especially agricultural 

 labour, as the basis of wellbeing, in which he remarks that fr rfj yewpylq. ir&vra tvevriv dv 



3 Idiuruv Aristotle Pol n 7 i. 3 Arist Pol n 6 13, 12 10. 



4 Arist Pol II 7 6 and Newman's note. 5 Arist Pol II 7, 8. 

 H.A. 



