CONTENTS Preface Chronology Introduction Aristotle: Saving Politics from Philosophy Selections A Note on the Selections Nicomachean Ethics Politics Also by Alan Ryan PREFACE I N THE INTRODUCTION TO On Politics, I suggested that one measure of the book’s success would be the readers who went and read the works of the authors I discussed. Some readers suggested that I might encourage them to do so by taking chapters of On Politics and adding to them substantial extracts from the works I hoped they would read. What follows is exactly that, with a short introduction to provide some of the context that the chapter’s original placement in On Politics would have provided. As before, I am grateful to Bob Weil and William Menaker at Liveright, as well as to the Norton production team, for their help in making an author’s life as easy as it can plausibly be made. CHRONOLOGY ca. Solon’s reforms; creation of first coinage 594 Peisistratus becomes tyrant 561 Peisistratus succeeded by his sons 527 Birth of Aeschylus (d. 456) 525 Expulsion of the Peisistratid tyrants 510 508/6 Institution of Athenian democracy by Cleisthenes Revolt of Miletus and other cities in Asia Minor (crushed 494) 499 Birth of Sophocles (d. 406) 496 Invasion of Greece by the great king Darius Invasion of Greece by the great king Darius 490 Athenian hoplites defeat Persians in Battle of Marathon 490 Birth of Euripides (d. 406) 485 Ostracism of Aristides “the Just” 482 Invasion of Greece by the Persian great king Xerxes; Battle of Thermopylae; 480Battle of Salamis Battle of Plataea; end of Persian invasion 479 Expansion of democracy under Ephialtes 461 Intermittent warfare between Athens and Sparta (to 445) 461 Ascendancy of Pericles (d. 429); birth of Thucydides (d. 400) 460 Treasury of the Delian League moved to Athens 454 Beautification of the Acropolis; Parthenon begun 447 447 Thirty Years’ Peace agreed between Athens and Sparta 445 Beginning of Peloponnesian War 431 Plague in Athens 430 Birth of Plato 427 Peace of Nicias agreed for fifty years 421 Massacre and enslavement of the Melians 416 Sicilian expedition; ends in disaster in 413 415 Oligarchy of the four hundred 411 Peloponnesian War ends in Athenian defeat; installation of Thirty Tyrants 404 Restoration of democracy 403 403 Execution of Socrates 399 Birth of Aristotle at Stagira in Macedon 384 Plato establishes the Academy 380 Theban victory in Battle of Leuctra breaks Sparta’s grip on central Greece 371 Aristotle arrives at Athens and enrolls in Plato’s Academy 367 Battle of Mantinea further weakens Sparta; death of Epaminondas disables 362Theban attempts at hegemony Republic written by Plato 360 Philip II becomes king of Macedon 359 Birth of Alexander the Great 356 Laws written shortly before the death of Plato; Aristotle leaves Athens 347 347 Aristotle becomes tutor to Alexander 343 Philip II defeats Greek alliance at Chaeronea, becomes hegemon over Greece 338 Philip of Macedon murdered; Alexander prepares invasion of Persia 336 Aristotle returns to Athens and founds the Lyceum 335 Alexander dies at Babylon 323 Aristotle dies on island of Euboea; Athenian fleet defeated at Battle of Amorgos; 322Demosthenes commits suicide