A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Limitations 99
for strangers to get out of a town and for assailants to
find their way in, is preferable. A city should therefore
adopt both plans of building; it is possible to arrange the
houses irregularly, as husbandmen plant their vines in
what are called "clumps." The whole town should not
be laid out in straight lines, but only certain quarters and
regions; thus security and beauty will be combined. . . .
III.
Population and Territory should be Limited
A state, then, only begins to exist when it has attained What should
a population sufficient for a good life in the poHtical ® ^ °"^
community; it may indeed somewhat exceed this number.
Aristotle, ^
But, as I was saying, there must be a Umit. What should ^i,
' '
be the limit will be easily ascertained by experience.
For
both governors and governed have duties to perform;
the special functions of a governor are to command and
to judge. But if the citizens of a state are to judge and
distribute offices according to merit, then they must know
each other's characters; where they do not possess this
knowledge, both the election to offices and the decision of
lawsuits will go wrong. When the population is very large,
these things are manifestly settled at haphazard, which
clearly ought not to be.
Besides, in an overpopulous state
foreigners and metics will readily acquire the rights of
citizens, for who will find them out? Clearly then the best
limit of the population of a state is the largest number
which suffices for the purposes of life, and can be taken in
at a single view. Enough concerning the size of a city.
Much the same principle will apply to the territory Selfof
the state; every one would agree in praising the state
which is most entirely self-sufficing; and that must be the
state which is all producing, for to have all things, and to
want nothing is sufficiency. In size and extent it should
^" '^^^'