The Constitution of the Athenians (or Athenaion Politeia, or The Athenian constitution) is the
name of either of two texts from Classical antiquity, one probably by Aristotle or a student
of his, the other attributed to Xenophon, but not by him.
Aristotle
The Aristotelian text is unique, because it is not a part of the Corpus
Aristotelicum. It was lost until it was discovered in Egypt in 1890 by an American missionary. The British Museum acquired it later that year, and the first edition of it by Frederic G. Kenyon was published in January, 1891. The editions of the
Greek text in widest use today are Kenyon's Oxford Classical Text of 1920 and the
Teubner edition by Mortimer H. Chambers (1986,
second edition 1994).
It contains several of the fragments quoted from Aristotle's Constitution of Athenians in other ancient writing, and is
doubtless the same work. The surviving manuscript begins in the middle of a sentence dealing with Cylon; some of the fragments deal with earlier Athenian history, and were presumably in the missing
portion of the text. Ancient accounts of Aristotle credit him with 170 Constitutions of various states; it is widely
assumed that these were research for the Politics, and that many of them
were written or drafted by his students. Athens, however, was a particularly important state, and where Aristotle was living at
the time; it is plausible that, even if students did the others, Aristotle did that one himself, and possible that it was
intended as a model for the rest. However, a number of prominent scholars doubt that it was written by Aristotle (e.g., P.
Rhodes, 1981, Commentary on the Aristotelian "Athenaion Politeia").
If it is a genuine writing of Aristotle, then it is of particular significance, because it is the only one of his extant
writings that was actually intended for publication.
Pseudo-Xenophon
Most of the manuscripts of the shorter works of Xenophon include a hostile treatise about
the Athenian Constitution. The author, who appears to be an Athenian, regards the Athenian democracy as undesirable, as giving
the mob undue voice in the state; but he argues that it is well-designed for its purpose, if you wanted so vile a thing to be
done. The author goes on to say that whilst 'the good', a description he uses to cover the rich and the aristocracy of Athens,
are better qualified to run the state due to their wealth and education, this would lead to 'the masses' being disenfranchised as
the rich would naturally act in their own interests, leading to the suppression of the lower classes. The Athenian democracy allows the poor to exert their influence, in line with the thetes' crucial role in the Athenian Navy and therefore in Athens' power.
Dating and authenticity
In the early twentieth century, evidence against Xenophon's authorship was presented, and has become the majority view. The
author is now usually called pseudo-Xenophon, or the Old Oligarch, based on the anti-democratic tone of the work. The style is
not Xenophon's, who is remarkably clear; this treatise is crabbed and inelegant.
The date of the treatise can only be estimated. The Old Oligarch says that lengthy land expeditions cannot be supplied against
a sea power; since Brasidas marched the length of Greece in 424
BC, when Xenophon was about five, the Old Oligarch presumably wrote before that date. On the other hand, he discusses the
military advantages of democracy at some length, and in listing the business of the boule puts it first; so it has been argued that he wrote in wartime. There are plausible
arguments that this was in fact the Peloponnesian War; but G.W. Bowersock, the editor of the Loeb text, is not
convinced this is certain.
External links
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