94 Government and labour 



this new Utopia it is most significant to observe what he adopts from 

 historical experience and the proposals of earlier theorists, and in what 

 respects he departs from them. It is in particular his attitude towards 

 ownership and tillage of land, and labour in general, that is our present 

 concern. 



As it follows from his doctrine of the Mean that the virtue of the 

 state and its several members must be based on the avoidance of ex- 

 tremes, so it follows 1 from the moral aim of the state that its component 

 elements are not all 'parts' of the state in the same strict sense. 

 Economically, those who provide food clothing etc are parts, necessary 

 to the existence of the community. Politically (for politics have a 

 moral end) they are below the standard of excellence required for a 

 share in the government of a perfect state. They cannot have the 

 leisure or the training to fit them for so responsible a charge. There- 

 fore they cannot be citizens. To maintain secure independence and 

 internal order the citizens, and the citizens only, must bear arms. And, 

 since the land must belong to the possessors of arms, none but citizens 

 can own land. This does not imply communism. There will have to 

 be public 2 land, from the produce of which provision will be made for 

 the service of religion and for the common tables at which citizens will 

 mess. To maintain these last by individual contributions would be 

 burdensome to the poor and tend to exclude them. For rich and poor 

 there will be. But the evil of extreme poverty will be avoided. There 

 will be private land, out of which each citizen (that is evidently each 

 citizen-household) will have an allotment of land. This K\f)po$ will be 

 in two 8 parcels, one near the city and the other near the state-frontier, 

 so that issues of peace and war may not be affected by the bias of 

 local interests. The cultivation of these allotments will be the work 

 of subjects, either inhabitants of the district (irepLoncoi) or slaves; in 

 any case aliens, not Greeks; and in the case of slaves care must be 

 taken not to employ too many of the same race together or such as 

 are high-spirited. He is concerned to secure the greatest efficiency 

 and to leave the least possible facilities for rebellion. The labourers 

 will belong to the state or to individual citizens according to the pro- 

 prietorship of the land on which they are severally employed. By these 

 arrangements he has provided for the sustenance of those who in the 

 true political sense are 'parts' of the state (TTOA,*?), and for their enjoy- 

 ment of sufficient leisure 4 to enable them to conduct its government 

 in the paths of virtue and promote the good life (TO ev ^ijv) which is 

 the final cause of state existence. 



1 Pol VII 8, 9, etc. 2 Pol vii 10. 



3 This adoption of the split land-lots (see above p 91) is perhaps explained by the fact that 

 the landowners are not atrovpyol, so the difficulty of dual residence does not arise. 



4 Pol iv 8 5, 9 4, etc. 



