Heraclides’ Epitome of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia

Aristotle’s Constitutions gathered information on the history and organisation of reportedly 158 Greek states. Of these, only the Athenaion Politeia survives more or less in its entirety. Many of the other constitutions are known only through the epitome written by the second-century BC scholar Heraclides Lembus. This paper commemorates P.J. Rhodes by assessing the reliability of Heraclides’ text as a witness to the Athenaion Politeia. Comparing Heraclides’ epitome with the original Aristotelian text sheds light onto the filter through which the other Aristotelian Constitutions are now known to us. A major problem is that Heraclides’ epitome is itself only preserved through excerpts. Because of this double process of abbreviation and the random cut-and-paste technique of the later excerptor, the epitome is no accurate summary of the original text. It juxtaposes isolated details without much coherence and often connects information with the wrong person. It also heavily focuses on the historical section and reports only few details from the descriptive section of the Athenaion Politeia. Furthermore, Heraclides seems to show no interest in Aristotle’s main argument, viz. that the constitution goes through various metabolai. In its current form, the epitome thus gives a heavily distorted picture of the original.