Aristotle, Athenian Constitution (ed. H. Rackham)

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Fr. 1
 Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn.

The Athenians originally had a royal government. It was when Ion came to dwell with them that they were first called Ionians.

Testimonium
 Harpocration s.v. Apollôn Patrôios.

Testimonium
 Schol. Aristoph. Birds 1537

³ of Xuthus.>

Fr. 2
 Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn.

Erechtheus was succeeded as king by Pandion, who divided up his realm among his sons

Testimonium
 Schol. Aristoph. Wasps 1223

.

Fr. 3
 Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn.

And these sections were continually quarrelling; but Theseus made a proclamation and brought them together on an equal and like footing.

Testimonium
 Plut. Thes. 25

⁴ was the proclamation of Theseus made when he was instituting an assembly of the whole people.>

Fr. 4
Testimonium
 Plut. Thes. 25

⁵ in the Catalogue of Ships to the Athenians only.>

Fr. 5
Testimonium
 Lexicon Patm. p. 152 Sakkel.

< . . . As Aristotle narrates in his Athenian Constitution, where he says: 'And they were grouped in four tribal divisions in imitation of the seasons in the year, and each of the tribes was divided into three parts, in order that there might be twelve parts in all, like the months of the year, and they were called Thirds and Brotherhoods; and the arrangement of clans was in groups of thirty to the brotherhood, as the days to the month, and the clan consisted of thirty men.⁶ >

Fr. 6
 Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn.

He having come to Scyros met his end by being thrust down a cliff by Lycomedes, who was afraid that he might appropriate the island. But subsequently the Athenians after the Persian Wars brought back his bones.

Testimonium
 Schol. Vatic. ad Eur. Hipp. 11.

He came to Scyros ⁷ >

Testimonium
 Schol. Vatic. ad Eur. Hipp. 11.

Fr. 7
 Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn.

Kings were no longer chosen from the house of Codrus,⁸ because they were thought to be luxurious and to have become soft. But one of the house of Codrus, Hippomenes, who wished to repel the slander, taking a man in adultery with his daughter Leimone, killed him by yoking him to his chariot with his daughter [? emend 'with his team'], and locked her up with a horse till she died.⁹

Fr. 8
 Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn.

The associates of Cylon¹⁰ because of his tyranny were killed by the party of Megacles when they had taken refuge at the altar of Athena. And those who had done this were then banished as being under a curse.

¹ Heracleides' Epitome of the first part

² Heracleides of Lembos in the second century b.c. compiled a book called Historiai which contained quotations from Aristotle's Constitutions. Excerpts made from this book, or from a later treatise by another author based upon it, have come down to us in a fragmentary form in a Vatican MS. of the 8th century, now at Paris, under the title Ek tôn Hêrakleidou peri Politeiôn. These were edited by Schneidewin in 1847 and by others later. For a complete study of these contributions to the reconstruction of The Athenian Constitution readers must consult the standard commentators on the latter; only those fragments which belong to the lost early part of the treatise are given here. Quotations of the same passages of Aristotle made by other writers have been collected by scholars, and are inserted in the text in brackets < > where they fill gaps in Heracleides.

³ A word has perhaps been lost in the Greek, giving 'the wife of Xuthus'--unless indeed the text is a deliberate bowdlerization of the legend. Xuthus, King of Peloponnesus, married Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, after whose death he was banished; but Creusa's son Ion was recalled to aid Athens in war with Eleusis, won them victory, and died and was buried in Attica.

⁴ Perhaps the formula of the crier sent round to announce the meetings of the Ecclesia: c.f. akouete, leôi('Oyez').

⁵ Hom. Il. 2.547.

⁶ After Cleisthenes' reforms, 510 B.C., there were ten tribes, each divided into Thirds and also into ten or more Demes; each Deme was divided into Brotherhoods (number unknown), and these perhaps into Clans.

⁷ Aegeus, King of Athens, father of Theseus, is not connected in any extant myth with the Aegean island of Scyros.

⁸ King of Athens, died 1068 B.C. (by the mythical chronology).

⁹ 722 B.C.; the Attic nobles deposed him in punishment.

¹⁰ This nobleman seized the Acropolis to make himself tyrant. When blockaded he escaped. His comrades were induced to surrender by the archon, Megacles of the Alcmaeonid family, who promised to spare their lives, but then put them to death. From what follows in the text it appears that the movement to punish this sacrilege only came to a head after Megacles was dead and buried.

This text is based on the following book(s):
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.
OCLC: 3906945
ISBN: 0674993152

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