surrounding the polis must be engaged with. Plato does not mention autonomia once in
Republic or Laws . 24 Aristotle mentions the word once but in reference to what he believes
to be the defining or ‘essential’ characteristic of the polis, autarkeia or ‘self - reliance’. 25
Political self- sufficiency is not “subsumed” into autarkeia , Aristotle only emphasises
economic and demographic self-sufficiency. 26 Nixon and Simon argue that Aristotle
recognises that, realistically, a polis could not be entirely self-sufficient as he admits that
“the importation of commodities that they do not happen to have in their own country and
the export of their surplus products are things indispensable” .27 Earlier in the text, Nixon
and Price argue that Aristotle “presupposes” connections between poleis in two of his
examples of employment- commerce and the sea. 28 This is supported by the prevalence of
harbour taxes that show inter-state trade was commonplace. 29 They conclude later,
however, that Aristotle’s theory of economic self -sufficiency should not be confused with
the “economic reality” of a diversity of resources and consequent interconnection between
states Athenian Tribute lists from the time of the Delian League show. 30 This sentiment is
probably unfair. It is too far to suggest that autarkeia could be mistaken for a synonym of
isolation. Not only is Aristotle often practical about the realities of running a polis making
reliance on other states for a multitude of resources inevitable, he also repeatedly highlights
that he is talking about the “best constitution”, a hypothetical. 31 This is an example of
24 Hansen, p. 37. 25 Arist. Pol . 1252b-1253a; Hansen, p. 37. 26 Hansen, p. 37.
27 Lucia Nixon and Simon Price, ‘The Size and Resources of Greek Cities’, in The Greek City. From Homer to Alexander , ed. by Oswyn Murray and Simon Price (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 137-170, (p. 163); Arist. Pol . 1327a. 28 Nixon and Price, p. 163; Arist. Pol. 1291b. 29 Nixon and Price, p. 166. 30 Nixon and Price, p. 166. 31 Arist. Pol. 1291b, “at present we are studying the best constitution, and this is the constitution under which the state would be most happy” 1328b.
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