same end in life — the fulfilment of the "good life" of the State.[1]
These, then, are Aristotle's two prescriptions for stasis; the mean in the distribution of wealth, and education directed to the true end of the State. It would be tempting to go one step further, and to compare these maxims with the actual facts of Greek life; but my object is not so much to set out on a task of this kind as to suggest that it should be attempted. Every student of Greek or Roman history who will bear in mind these Aristotelian principles, and apply them as criteria as he advances in his study, will not only find his work become more interesting and instructive, but will gain a deeper insight into the problems of social and national life, at all times and in every kind of State. I will content myself by taking a single State, and that the greatest of all City-States, and briefly testing it by these criteria in the days when it was most sorely afflicted by stasis.
We have as yet seen Rome only in the days of her growth and her prosperity, overcoming perils of faction and perils of war by her political good sense and her tenacity of purpose, and working up to a certain perfection of government, — not the best form of government (for oligarchy can never be the best), but one well adapted, when used in a moderate spirit, to carry out those ends for which Rome seemed destined. We left her towards the end of the sixth century of her existence, at the time when Polybius was describing her political
- ↑ Politics, 1337 A; cf. 1332 A.
