Il ruolo delle staseis nella riflessione aristotelica sull'ordinamento politico di Sparta

It is well known that, unlike many fifth- and fourth-century authors who ascribed the whole Spartan constitutional system to the lawgiver Lycurgus, Aristotle has offered a more articulated vision of the institutional evolution of the city and was well aware of the civil strifes (staseis) that had marked her history. This paper aims at further exploring this theme by considering some passages from the fifth book of the Politics, and particularly the pages 1306b-07a, where five episodes of civil strife at Sparta during the Archaic and Classical periods are quoted consecutively. Moreover, since these passages are clearly dependent on Aristotle’s lost Lakedaimonion Politeia, a proposal on the structure of this work is put forward. A final appendix is devoted to the question of the identity of Pausanias “the King” quoted in two other passages of Aristotle’s Politics and responsible for the attempt to overthrow the ephors: contrary to what is accepted by most scholars nowadays, this Pausanias has necessarily to be the Regent.