Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/302

278 this to be realised at its best, the citizen body must be maintained of pure descent, and should be always ready to appear on the scene of State action in the market-place of the city itself. The best example of such a State was perhaps to be found in Sparta. Though Sparta violated some of the best Greek instincts, though her "good life" was not of the finest quality, yet in outward form and in the steady maintenance of her peculiar character, Sparta is a genuine City-State; and for this reason she often attracted the attention and admiration of reflecting Greeks. The same may also be said of Rome in the earlier stages of her history.

Now it is essential to notice the two principal ways in which Aristotle's limit of size could be exceeded, in order to understand how the City-State gradually came to suffer and to decay from external causes as well as internal. In the first place, it is obvious that if a State grew too large and powerful, and came to subordinate other States to itself, a twofold result would follow. The dominant State would be liable to lose its old State character, having to face new duties and responsibilities outside its natural sphere of action. And the conquered States would lose their true existence as, being no longer self-sufficing and self-governing, and having in fact no longer any definite State character to maintain. They would resemble a fading photograph, whose colour changes, and whose outlines lose their sharpness. Thus imperial States, in which one city rules a number of others, were clearly not contemplated in Aristotle's political