Book 7
1329a
We have therefore stated the things indispensable for the constitution of a state, and the things that are parts of a state: tillers of the soil, craftsmen and the laboring class generally are a necessary appurtenance of states, but the military and deliberative classes are parts of the state; and moreover each of these divisions is separate from the others, either permanently or by turn.i.e. the appurtenances are permanently separate form the army and the deliberative, which are the parts, and which are separate from each other only by turn, i.e. a citizen passes on from one to the other.
1329a
And that it is proper for the state to be divided up into castes and for the military class to be distinct from that of the tillers of the soil does not seem to be a discovery of political philosophers of today or one made recently.Perhaps to be read as denying the originality of Plato’sRepublic.
