He, therefore, who beholds things rising into existence, as in other things, so likewise in these, will thus survey them in the most beautiful manner. Hence, in the first place, it is necessary that those should be joined together which cannot exist without each other; such for instance as the female and male, for the sake of generation; and this not from deliberate choice, but from natural impulse, in the same manner as in other animals and plants, in order that they may leave behind them others like themselves. But it is from nature that one thing governs and another is governed, for the purpose of procuring safety to each. For that which is able by the discursive energy of reason to foresee [what will happen] governs naturally, and naturally possesses despotic power; but that which is able to effect through the body [what reason commands], is formed to be governed, and is by nature a slave. Hence this same thing is advantageous both to a master and a slave. By nature, therefore, the female and the slave are distinguished from each other. For nature does not at all act like those artists who make the Delphic swords for the use of the poor, but she makes one thing for one. For thus every instrument will accomplish the most beautiful purposes, when it is not subservient to many works, but to one work. But among the Barbarians a female and a slave have the same rank. The cause of this, however, is that they have not among them that which naturally governs, but their society consists of a female and a male slave. Hence the poets say, It is fit the Greeks should govern the Barbarians, as if a Barbarian and a slave were one and the same by nature. Of these two societies, therefore, a family first consists; and Hesiod rightly says, “That a house, a wife, and an ox for the plough, are among the first of things.” For an ox to the poor is instead of a servant. The society, therefore, which is established according to nature for daily association, is that of a family; and those who compose it are called by Chacondas, ομοσιπυοι, but by Epimenides the Cretan, ομοκαπνοι. The society, however, which consists of many families, which was first established not for the sake of daily use, is called a village. But a village seems to be most naturally a colony of one family, and those who compose it are by some persons called ομογαλακτες, the children and the children’s children thereof. Hence at first cities were governed by kings, as the [barbarous] nations even now are; for they are composed of those who had been accustomed to the kingly government. For every family is governed by the eldest, as also are the colonies derived from it, on account of their consanguinity. And this is what Homer says [of the Cyclops],
Each ruled his children and his wife.
For in this scattered manner they formerly lived. All men, likewise, on this account, say, that the gods themselves have a kingly government¹, because all men formerly were, and some are now, subject to this government. And as men assimilate the forms, so likewise the lives of the gods to their own. The perfect society, however, which consists of many villages, is a city, which possesses, as I may say, the boundary or end of a condition of being sufficient to itself, first instituted for the sake of living, but continuing in existence for the purposes of a happy life. Hence every city has a natural subsistence, since also the first societies were founded by nature; for a city is the end of the first societies; and nature is an end. For such as every thing is when the generation of it is completed, such we say is the nature of every thing, as of a man, a horse, and a house. Again, that for the sake of which a thing subsists [or the final cause] and the end, are that which is best. But a condition of being sufficient to itself is the end and that which is best. From these things, therefore, it is evident that a city ranks among things which have a natural subsistence, and that man is naturally a political animal; and he who has no city [i.e. who lives without any connection with a city] naturally, and not from fortune, is either a bad man, or is superior to man. Thus the man in Homer is reviled for being without a tribe, without law, and without a family. For at the same time he must be a man of this description naturally, and must be desirous of war, as being unconnected with society, and [as rapacious] as birds [that are not gregarious].
It is evident, therefore, that man is more a political [or social] animal than any bee, or every gregarious animal. For, as we say, nature does nothing in vain. But man is the only animal that has speech. Voice, therefore, is an indication of the pleasing and the painful; and on this account, it is also imparted to other animals. For the nature of them proceeds thus far, so that they have a sensation of the painful and the pleasing, and they are able to indicate these sensations to each other. Speech, however, was given for the purpose of manifesting what is advantageous and what is hurtful, and consequently what is just and what is unjust. For this is peculiar to man besides other animals, that he alone has a perception of good and evil, of the just and the unjust, and of other things of the like kind. And the communion of these forms a family and a city. A city, likewise, is by nature prior to a family, and to each of us; for the whole is necessarily prior to a part. For the whole [body] being taken away, there will not be a foot or a hand, except equivocally, as if any one should call a hand of stone a hand; since a thing of this kind [i.e. a real hand] will be corrupted. But all things are defined by work and power; so that when they are no longer such, they cannot be said to be the same things, but to be homonymous. It is evident, therefore, that a city is prior to an individual; for if an individual is not sufficient to himself when separated [from the whole] he will have a subsistence [with respect to the whole city] similar to that of other parts to the whole. He, however, who is unable to associate, or who is not in want of any society, in consequence of being sufficient to himself, is no part of a city; so that he is either a brute or a god. In all men, therefore, there is a natural impulse to such a communion or association as this; and he who first established it was the cause of the greatest good. For as man when he has obtained the perfection of his nature [by a life according to virtue] is the best of animals; so likewise when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all animals. For injustice when it has arms is a thing of the most noxious nature. But man is born with arms through prudence and virtue; which he may especially employ to contrary purposes. Hence man without virtue is most impious and most savage, and is the worst of all animals with respect to venery and gluttony. But justice is a political thing; for it is the order of political communion, and is the judgement of that which is just.
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