Political Science Of The State

ARISTOCRACY. 39
later authors.* Another aristocratic characteristic of this
polity is that the offices of government are without salary
and not drawn by lot (^ 4), as well as that all cases at law are
decided by the same magistrates, and not by judges of differ-
ent orders,f In this polity the tendency appears towards
selections for office according to a man's wealth as well as his
merit. " This is a fault derived from the original fault of the
legislator, who ought to have provided leisure for the citizens
of greatest merit, and to have seen to Jt that poverty should
never be disgraceful for private or public persons.'* Aristotle
also blames that part of the polity which allows employments,
even those of a king or of a general, to be purchased, for " it
is absurd to suppose that, if a poor but worthy man will wish
to enrich himself, a worse kind of man will not wish to pay
for his expenses in buying an employment," He blames
also the Carthaginians for allowing a person to hold more
than one office at the same time, since one work is best done
by one man. The dangers of the oligarchic polity at Carthage
are avoided by sending out a part of the people into the
colonies, and so giving them an opportunity to acquire riches.
*' But this/' says he, 4I is a matter of chance. The lawgiver,
by the polity itself, ought to prevent sedition. But now, if
misfortune falls on the people, and the lower class revolts
against the magistrates, there is no medicine provided by the
laws for securing quiet," ($$ 5-9.)
The most important organ of government at Carthage was
the senate, from which probably the *' hundred
Senate. M *
judges ("ex numerosenatorum, Justm, xix,,
2) are to be distinguished, who were first created out of jeal-
ousy of the family of Mago, as has already been mentioned.
I accede to the view of Heeren (Ideen, ii,, I, ch. 3), that
this body is the same with t\icg£rusiat which, in several pas*
sages, is to be distinguished from the senate properly so
* Comp. Schneider's note ii., p, 145, and Barth^lemy-St-Hiklre,
in his translation. Perhaps the "hundred** chose the pentar-
Mi * *
ernes,
f This Aristotle repeats is ill, ?, 7,