d the like, and that their numbers were ten
thousand, still all that they would have together in common would be a
tariff for trade, or an alliance for mutual defence, but not the same
city. And why? not because their mutual intercourse is not near enough,
for even if persons so situated should come to one place, and every one
should live in his own house as in his native city, and there should be
alliances subsisting between each party to mutually assist and prevent
any injury being done to the other, still they would not be admitted
to be a city by those who think correctly, if they preserved the same
customs when they were together as when they were separate.

It is evident, then, that a city is not a community of place; nor
established for the sake of mutual safety or traffic with each other;
but that these things are the necessary consequences of a city, although
they may all exist where there is no city: but a city is a society of
people joining together with their families and their children to live
agreeably for the sake of having their lives as happy and as independent
as possible: and for this purpose it is necessary that they should live
in one place and intermarry with each other: hence in ail cities there
are family-meetings, clubs, sacrifices, and public entertainments to
promote friendship; for a love of sociability is friendship itself;
so that the end then for which a city is established is, that the
inhabitants of it may live happy, and these things are conducive to that
end: for it is a community of families and villages for the sake of a
perfect independent life; that is, as we have already said, for the sake
of living well and happily. It is not therefore founded for the purpose
of men's merely [1281a] living together, but for their living as men
ought; for which reason those who contribute most to this end deserve to
have greater power in the city than those who are their equals in family
and freedom, but their inferiors in civil virtue, or those who excel
them in wealth but are below them in worth. It is evident from what
has been said, that in all disputes upon government each party says
something that is just.

CHAPTER X

It may also be a doubt where the supreme power ought to be lodged.
Shall it be with the majority, or the wealthy, with a number of proper
persons, or one better than the rest, or with a tyrant? But whichever
of these we prefer some difficulty will arise. For what? sha