Kitap 4
1289a
And inasmuch as in our first inquiryBook 3.5. about the forms of the constitution we classified the right constitutions as three, kingship, aristocracy and constitutional government, and the deviations from these as three, tyranny from kingship, oligarchy from aristocracy and democracy from constitutional government, and about aristocracy and kingship we have spoken (for to study the best constitution is the same thing as to speak about the forms that bear those names, since each of them means a system based on the qualification of virtue equipped with means), and as also the question what constitutes the difference between aristocracy and kingship and when a royal government is to be adopted has been decided before, it remains to discuss the form of constitution designated by the namei.e. πολιτεία, polity, which denotes not only a constitution of any form, but also (like our term constitutional government) a particular form, viz., a republic, cf. Book 3.5.2. common to them all, and the other forms, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. Now it is manifest also which of these deviationsThe three forms of constitution last mentioned. is the worst and which the second worst. For necessarily the deviation from the first and most divine must be the worst, Corruptio optimi pessima, a Socratic notion: the men of the best natural gifts, when educated, are the worst, Xen. Mem. 4.1.3. and kingship must of necessity either possess the name only, without really being kingship,
