1. For the Platonic reminiscences in these books, see also E. Barker, Greek Political Theory, Plato and His Predecessors (London, 1918), pp. 380–82; 5th ed. (1960), pp. 443–4.

2. These ‘Constitutions’, and other collections of facts on a wide variety of topics, are the ancient forerunners of our modern surveys based on systematic fieldwork and/or questionnaires. Aristotle’s conclusions about Creek politics are sometimes so familiar that they seem true to the point of triteness; yet given the state of communications in the ancient world, and the paucity of reliable records, the ability to base even obvious conclusions, let aloneunobvious ones, on a survey of the relevant facts is in itself a tremendous achievement. Not that Aristotle himself, in all probability, wrote more than a few of the ‘Constitutions’; presumably most were compiled by persons we should today call ‘research assistants’ or ‘research students’, who could cut their scholarly teeth in this manner, much as a modern research student writes his dissertation. Perhaps Aristotle laid down a certain standard pattern of presentation and supervised the day-to-day work; certainly he exploited the results: see ‘Preface to Book I’. One ‘Constitution’ has survived, but in incomplete form; there is a translation of it in Penguin by P. J. Rhodes (The Athenian Constitution, 1984).