_Authorship._--It may be regarded as now established that the treatise
discovered in Egypt is identical with the work upon the constitution of
Athens that passed in antiquity under the name of Aristotle. The
evidence derived from a comparison of the British Museum papyrus with
the quotations from the lost work of Aristotle's which are found in
scholiasts and grammarians is conclusive. Of fifty-eight quotations from
Aristotle's work, fifty-five occur in the papyrus. Of thirty-three
quotations from Aristotle, which relate to matters connected with the
constitution, or the constitutional history of Athens, although they are
not expressly referred to the [Greek: Athenaion politeia], twenty-three
are found in the papyrus. Of those not found in the papyrus, the
majority appear to have come either from the beginning of the treatise,
which is wanting in the papyrus, or from the latter portion of it, which
is mutilated. The coincidence, therefore, is as nearly as possible
complete. It may also be regarded as established by internal evidence
that the treatise was composed during the interval between Aristotle's
return to Athens in 335 B.C. and his death in 322. There are two
passages which give us the latter year as the _terminus ad quem_, viz.
c. 42. 1 and c. 62. 2. In the former passage the democracy which is
about to be described is spoken of as the "present constitution"
([Greek: e nun katastasis tes politeias]). The democratic constitution
was abolished, and a timocracy established, on the surrender of Athens
to Antipater, at the end of the Lamian War, in the autumn of 322. At the
same time Samos was lost; it is still reckoned, however, among the
Athenian possessions in the latter passage. On the other hand, the
foreign possessions of Athens are limited to Lemnos, Imbros, Scyros,
Delos and Samos. This could only apply to the period after Chaeronea
(338 B.C.). In c. 61. 1, again, mention is made of a special Strategus
[Greek: epi tas symmorias]; but it can be proved from inscriptions that
down to the year 334 the generals were _collectively_ concerned with the
symmories. Finally, in c. 54. 7 an event is dated by the archonship of
Cephisophon (329). We thus get the years 329 and 322 as fixing the
limits of the period to which the composition of the work must be
assigned. It follows that, whether it is by Aristotle or not, its date
is later than that of the _Politics_, in which there is no reference to
any event subsequent to the death of Philip in 336.
The only question as to authorship that can fairly be raised is the
question whether it is by Aristotle or by a pupil; i.e. as to the sense
in which it is "Aristotelian." The argument on the two sides may be
summarized as follows:--
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