ABSTRACT
In the second book of his great work entitled ‘Matters relating to the polls’ (our Politics) Aristotle first examines and rejects the ideal states of Plato, Phaleas and Hippodamos and then turns to consider the three polities which had commonly been accounted the best of those actually existing: Sparta, Crete and Carthage. He prefaces his detailed discussion of Sparta with the general observation that any law shall be adjudged good or bad according as it is or is not consonant first with the laws of the truly ideal state (as conceived by Aristotle) and second with the idea and character of the polity proposed to the citizens by their lawgiver.
