The Composition of Aristotle's Athenaion Politeia This page intentionally left blank The Composition of Aristotle's Athenaion Politeia Observation and Explanation JOHN J. KEANEY NEW YORK OXFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1992 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1992 by John J. Keaney Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keaney, John J. The composition of Aristotle's Athenaion politeia: observation and explanation / John J. Keaney. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-507032-1 1. Aristotle. Athenaion politeia. I. Title. JC71.A41K43 1992 320.938'5—dc20 91-26295 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Memoriae matris Bridget e per le graziose Edwina M. Anne M. Laura C. This page intentionally left blank Preface During the gestation of this book, portions of it were delivered as lectures or colloquia at McGill University, Rutgers University and, on several occasions, at my own university. I am grateful for the reactions of these audiences. Par- ticular gratitude is owed to the members of an informal (i.e., not-for-credit) colloquium with graduate students at Princeton in the fall term of 1989, in which most of the contents were exposed to critical discussion: for their partic- ipation I thank C. Champion, R. Ganiban, A. Lardinois, L. Maurizio, K. McCarthy of the Department of Classics, and S. Monoson of the Department of Politics. Nearly all of the Greek has been translated, and for this I have used (with minor modifications) the renderings of M. Dilts (Heracleides Lembos), P.J. Rhodes (for the 'A and T. Saunders (Plato, Laws and Aristotle, Politics). See Bibliography. The dedication records four generations. Princeton J.J.K. August 1991 This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction, xi 1. The Origin and Authorship of the Politeiai, 3 2. The "Cultural" Origin of the , 20 3. The Genre and Its Origin, 35 4. The Unity of the 'A , 43 5. Observation and Explanation, 50 6. Methods and Purposes, 54 7. Structure and Meaning, 64 8. Vertical Structure: Ring Composition, 72 9. Horizontal Structure: Chiasmus, 90 10. The Politics of Institutions versus the Politics of Personality, 106 11. The Formula, 117 12. A Constitutional Formula, 122 13. Aristotle and Theopompus, 126 14. Aristotle and Theramenes, 133 15. The Series in Chapter 41, 153 16. , , and , 156 17. The Dating Formula, 167 18. Chapter 45: , 174 19. The Other , 178 Bibliography, 185 General Index, 187 Index locorum, 191