[1267b]
[1]
and also the
baseness of human beings is a thing insatiable, and though at the first a dole
of only two obols1 is enough,
yet when this has now become an established custom, they always want more, until
they get to an unlimited amount; for appetite is in its nature unlimited, and
the majority of mankind live for the satisfaction of appetite. The starting-point in such matters
therefore, rather than levelling estates, is to train those that are respectable
by nature so that they may not wish for excessive wealth, and to contrive that
the base may not be able to do so, and this is secured if they are inferior in
number and not unjustly treated. And also we cannot approve what Phaleas has
said about equality of property, for he makes the citizens equal in respect of
landed estate only, but wealth also consists in slaves and cattle and money, and
there is an abundance of property in the shape of what is called furniture; we
must therefore either seek to secure equality or some moderate regulation as
regards all these things, or we must permit all forms of wealth. And it is clear from Phaleas's legislation
that he makes the citizen-population a small one, inasmuch as all the artisans
are to be publicly owned slaves and are not to furnish any complement of the
citizen-body. But if it is proper to have public slaves, the laborers employed
upon the public works ought to be of that status (as is the case at
Epidamnus and as Diophantus once
tried to institute at Athens).These remarks
may serve fairly well to indicate such merits
[20]
and defects as may be contained in the constitution of
Phaleas.Hippodamus2 son of Euryphon, a Milesian
(who invented the division of cities into blocks and cut up Piraeus, and who also became somewhat
eccentric in his general mode of life owing to a desire for distinction, so that
some people thought that he lived too fussily, with a quantity of hair3 and expensive ornaments, and also a quantity of cheap yet warm
clothes not only in winter but also in the summer periods, and who wished to be
a man of learning in natural science generally), was the first man not
engaged in politics who attempted to speak on the subject of the best form of
constitution. His system was for a
city with a population of ten thousand, divided into three classes; for he made
one class of artisans, one of farmers, and the third the class that fought for
the state in war and was the armed class. He divided the land into three parts,
one sacred, one public and one private: sacred land to supply the customary
offerings to the gods, common land to provide the warrior class with food, and
private land to be owned by the farmers. He thought that there are only three
divisions of the law, since the matters about which lawsuits take place are
three in number—outrage, damage, homicide. He also proposed to establish one supreme court of
justice, to which were to be carried up all the cases at law thought to have
been decided wrongly, and this court he made to consist of certain selected
elders.
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