86 Material equipment of the state 



regarded. As states vary, so do the several types of citizens. In the 

 best state the qualities of good man and good citizen are identical and 

 complete. 



The aim of political science (TTO\I,TIK^) is to frame and employ the 

 machinery of states so as to promote the perfection of human excellence 

 (dperr)\ and to train the citizens on such principles as will insure the 

 effective working and permanence of their institutions. We may call 

 it Aristotle's response to the Greek yearning after a stability which 

 was in practice never attained. To design a model state was one way 

 of approaching the problem. But Aristotle was surely not the man to 

 believe that such an ideal could be practically realised. To make the best 

 of existing systems was a more promising enterprise. Now in either 

 procedure it was evident that material equipment 1 could not be left out 

 of account. Without food clothing and shelter men cannot live at all, 

 and therefore cannot live well. Experience also shewed that the means 

 of defence against enemies could not safely be neglected. It is under 

 the head of equipment (xop^ia) that we get the philosopher's view of 

 the proper position of agriculture in the life of a state. We must bear 

 in mind the general Greek conception of citizenship common to states- 

 men and theorists, present to Plato and Aristotle no less than to 

 Cleisthenes or Pericles. Residence gave no claim to it. Either it was 

 hereditary, passing from father to son on proof of citizen descent and 

 certain religious qualifications ; or it was deliberately conferred on a 

 person or persons as a privilege. That beside the citizens there should 

 be resident within the state 2 a number of persons, not citizens or likely 

 to become citizens, was a necessity generally admitted. They might 

 be free aliens, more or less legally connected with the state, or slaves 

 public or private. These alien persons were very numerous in some 

 states, such as Athens or Corinth. Subject or serf populations of Greek 

 origin, as in Laconia or Thessaly, are not to be distinguished from 

 them for the present purpose. One common mark of citizenship was 

 the right of owning land within the territory of the state. We know 

 that the Attic landowner must be an Athenian citizen, and such was 

 the general rule. Who did the actual work of cultivation, or tended 

 the flocks and herds, is another question. We have seen reason for 

 believing that personal labour 3 of the owner on his farm had at one 

 time been usual, and that the practice still in the fourth century BC 

 prevailed in those parts of Greece where there had been little develop- 

 ment of urban life. And that slave-labour was employed by farmers 



1 This xopvyl* includes a population limited in number and of appropriate qualities. 

 Politics vii 4, and 8 7-9. 



2 Pol VII 4 6. 



8 See the story of Peisistratus and the peasant in 'A.6yv TTO\ c 16. 



