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The ''Constitution of the Athenians'' (''The Athenian constitution''; (ギリシア語:Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία) ''Athenaion Politeia'') is the name given to two texts from Classical antiquity: one probably by Aristotle or a student of his, the second attributed to Xenophon, but not thought to be his work. The Aristotelian text is contained in two leaves of a papyrus codex discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1879. The other work was traditionally included among the shorter works of Xenophon. ==Aristotle== The Aristotelian text is unique, because it is not a part of the Corpus Aristotelicum. It was lost until two leaves of a papyrus codex carrying part of the text were discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1879 and published in 1880.〔F. Blass, in ''Hermes'' 15 (1880:366-82); the text was identified as Aristotle's ''Athenaion Politeia'' by T. Bergk in 1881.〕 A second, more extensive papyrus text was purchased in Egypt by an American missionary in 1890. E. A. Wallis Budge of the British Museum acquired it later that year, and the first edition of it by Frederic G. Kenyon was published in January, 1891.〔Peter John Rhodes. ''A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia'' (Oxford University Press), 1981, 1993: introduction, pp. 2–5.〕 The editions of the Greek text in widest use today are Kenyon's Oxford Classical Text of 1920 and the Teubner edition by Mortimer H. Chambers (1986, second edition 1994). The papyrus text is now held in the British Library. Ancient accounts of Aristotle credit him with 170 ''Constitutions'' of various states; it is widely assumed that these were research for the ''Politics'', and that many of them were written or drafted by his students. Athens, however, was a particularly important state, and where Aristotle was living at the time, therefore it is plausible that, even if students composed the others, Aristotle had composed that one himself as a model for the rest. On the other hand, a number of prominent scholars doubt that it was written by Aristotle.〔e.g., Rhodes, ''A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia''.〕 If it is a genuine writing of Aristotle, then it is of particular significance, because it is the only one of his extant writings that was actually intended for publication. Because it purports to supply us with so much contemporary information previously unknown or unreliable, modern historians have claimed that "the discovery of this treatise constitutes almost a new epoch in Greek historical study."〔J. Mitchell and M. Caspari (eds.), p. xxvii, ''A History of Greece: From the Time of Solon to 403 B.C.", George Grote, Routledge 2001.〕 In particular, 21–22, 26.2–4, and 39–40 of the work contain factual information not found in any other extant ancient text.〔Rhodes, 1981, pp. 29–30.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Constitution of the Athenians」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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