‘And those who have the same enemies, or hate the same people that we ourselves hate, and those that are hated by the same people as we are hated by: for all such persons suppose the same things to be good as we do ourselves, and therefore they wish the same things as we do; which was the definition of a friend’. § 2, βούλεσθαί τινι ἃ οἴεται ἀγαθά. These common hatreds, founded on the principle of idem velle atque idem nolle, and expressed in the proverb κοινὰ τὰ φίλων, are one of the strongest bonds of union by which religious and political parties, for example, are held together. On κοινὰ τὰ φίλων, see Plat. Legg. V 10, 739 C, a passage worth comparing on this subject of ‘communism’: Rep. IV 424 A, V 449 C, Arist. Eth. Nic. VIII 11 sub init. and the entire chapter, on this topic; καὶ ἡ παροιμία “κοινὰ τὰ φίλων” ὀρθῶς, ἐν κοινωνίᾳ γὰρ ἡ φιλία, 1159 b 32. And on the same, IX 8, 1168 b 6, καὶ αἱ παροιμίαι δὲ πᾶσαι ὁμογνωμονοῦσιν, οἷον τὸ “μία ψυχή” καὶ “κοινὰ τὰ φίλων” καὶ “ἰσότης φιλότης” καὶ “γόνυ κνήμης ἔγγιον” κ.τ.λ. τοῦ φίλου] Anglice, ‘a friend’; on the generic use of the Greek definite article see note on § 31 of this Chapter.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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