E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

βάναυσον] Of the various kinds of population of a state, enumerated in Pol. VI (IV) 4, the first is the περὶ τὴν τροφὴν πλῆθος, τὸ γεωργικόν: the second, τὸ βάναυσον: ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο τὸ περὶ τὰς τέχνας ὧν ἄνευ πόλιν ἀδύνατον οἰκεῖσθαι: τούτων δὲ τῶν τεχνῶν τὰς μὲν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὑπάρχειν δεῖ, τὰς δὲ εἰς τρυφὴν ἢ καλῶς ζῇν, 1291 a 1. So that here the fine arts, as well as the necessary, indispensable, or mechanical arts, are all included in the class βάναυσοι. See on this subject Thirlwall, Hist. Gr. (Cab. Cycl. 2nd. ed.) c. 18, Vol. III p. 64, note. Pol. V (VIII) 2, 1337 b 8 seq., βάναυσον δ᾽ ἔργον εἶναι δεῖ τοῦτο νομίζειν καὶ τέχνην ταύτην καὶ μάθησιν, ὅσαι πρὸς τὰς χρήσεις καὶ τὰς πράξεις τὰς τῆς ἀρετῆς ἄχρηστον ἀπεργάζονται τὸ σῶμα τῶν ἐλευθέρων ἢ τὴν ψυχὴν ἢ τὴν διάνοιαν. διὸ τάς τε τοιαύτας τέχνας ὅσαι τὸ σῶμα παρασκευάζουσι χεῖρον διακεῖσθαι βαναύσους καλοῖμεν, καὶ τὰς μισθαρνικὰς ἐργασίας: ἄσχολον γὰρ ποιοῦσι τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ ταπεινήν. I 11, 1258 b 37, (τῶν ἐργασιῶν) βαναύσοταται ἐν αἷς τὰ σώματα λωβῶνται μάλιστα. Eth. Eudem. I 4, 1215 a 30, λέγω δὲ βαναύσους (τέχνας) τὰς ἑδραίας καὶ μισθαρνικάς (arts sedentary and mercenary). The ἑδραίας in this last passage explains the bodily degradation and injury of the preceding. Comp. Plato, Rep. VII 522 B, IX 590 B, Phileb. 55 C, Theaet. 176 (Heind. note § 85), (Legg. VIII 4, 846 D No native must learn or practise any handicraft. One art is enough for any man; and the natives or citizens must occupy themselves exclusively in statecraft or public duties). Arts are inferior in dignity in proportion to their necessity or utility, Arist. Metaph. A 1. Cic. de Off. I 42. 5.

ἐλευθέρου...τὸ μὴ πρὸς ἄλλον ζῆν] ‘to live with reference to, dependent upon, at the beck and call of, another’. Independence, αὐτάρκεια, is a characteristic of the ἐλεύθερος, the ‘free and independent’ citizen. Aristotle is writing at Athens, and for Athenians. So it is said of the μεγαλόψυχος, Eth. N. IV 8, 1124 b 32, καὶ πρὸς ἄλλον μὴ δύνασθαι ζῇν ἀλλ᾽ ἢ πρὸς φίλον: δουλικόν γάρ. Metaph. A 2, 982 b 25, (Vict.) of ἡ πρώτη φιλοσοφία, δῆλον ὡς δἰ οὐδεμίαν αὐτὴν ζητοῦμεν χρείαν ἑτέραν, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἄνθρωπος, φαμέν, ἐλεύθερος ὁ αὐτοῦ ἕνεκα καὶ μὴ ἄλλου ὤν, οὕτω καὶ αὕτη μόνη ἐλευθέρα οὖσα τῶν ἐπιστημῶν: μόνη γὰρ αὐτὴ αὑτῆς ἕνεκέν ἐστιν. Victorius also quotes, in illustration of πρὸς ἄλλον ζῇν, Dem. (pro Ctesiphonte, as he calls it) de F. Leg. p. 411, τοῖς δὲ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ζῶσι καὶ τῆς παρ᾽ ὑμῶν τιμῆς γλιχομένοις. The import of the phrase is, to look to another in all that you say and do, to direct your life and conduct by the will and pleasure of another; in the relation (πρός) of servant or dependent to master.

It is to be observed that the reason here assigned for avoiding all mechanical occupations as disreputable, viz. that it destroys a man's independence, so that he cannot subsist without looking to others, places the objection to it upon a different ground to that assigned in the Politics (quoted in the last note), where it is that they disqualify a man for doing his duty to the state.