a, who both now are and formerly
were called Ausonians. The Chones inhabited the part toward Iapigia and
the Ionian Sea which is called Syrtis. These Chones were descended
from the AEnotrians. Hence arose the custom of common meals, but the
separation of the citizens into different families from Egypt: for the
reign of Sesostris is of much higher antiquity than that of Minos. As
we ought to think that most other things were found out in a long, nay,
even in a boundless time (reason teaching us that want would make us
first invent that which was necessary, and, when that was obtained, then
those things which were requisite for the conveniences and ornament of
life), so should we conclude the same with respect to a political state;
now everything in Egypt bears the marks of the most remote antiquity,
for these people seem to be the most ancient of all others, and to have
acquired laws and political order; we should therefore make a proper
use of what is told us of them, and endeavour to find out what they have
omitted. We have already said, that the landed property ought to belong
to the military and those who partake of the government of the state;
and that therefore the husbandmen should be a separate order of people;
and how large and of what nature the country ought to be: we will first
treat of the division of the land, and of the husbandmen, how many and
of what sort they ought to be; since we by no means hold that property
ought to be common, as some persons have said, only thus far, in
friendship, it [1330a] should be their custom to let no citizen want
subsistence. As to common meals, it is in general agreed that they are
proper in well-regulated cities; my reasons for approving of them shall
be mentioned hereafter: they are what all the: citizens ought to partake
of; but it will not be easy for the poor, out of what is their own, to
furnish as much as they are ordered to do, and supply their own house
besides. The expense also of religious worship should be defrayed by the
whole state. Of necessity therefore the land ought to be divided into
two parts, one of which should belong to the community in general, the
other to the individuals separately; and each of these parts should
again be subdivided into two: half of that which belongs to the public
should be appropriated to maintain the worship of the gods, the other
half to support the common meals. Half of that which belongs to the
individuals should be at the ex