([Greek: Athenaion politeia]), a work
attributed to the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), forming one of a
series of _Constitutions_ ([Greek: politeiai]), 158 in number, which
treated of the institutions of the various states in the Greek world. It
was extant until the 7th century of our era, or to an even later date,
but was subsequently lost. A copy of this treatise, written in four
different hands upon four rolls of papyrus, and dating from the end of
the 1st century A.D., was discovered in Egypt, and acquired by the
trustees of the British Museum, for whom it was edited by F. G. Kenyon,
assistant in the manuscript department, and published in January 1891.
Some very imperfect fragments of another copy had been acquired by the
Egyptian Museum at Berlin, and were published in 1880.

_Authorship._--It may be regarded as now established that the treatise
discovered in Egypt is identical with the work upon the constitution of
Athens that passed in antiquity under the name of Aristotle. The
evidence derived from a comparison of the British Museum papyrus with
the quotations from the lost work of Aristotle's which are found in
scholiasts and grammarians is conclusive. Of fifty-eight quotations from
Aristotle's work, fifty-five occur in the papyrus. Of thirty-three
quotations from Aristotle, which relate to matters connected with the
constitution, or the constitutional history of Athens, although they are
not expressly referred to the [Greek: Athenaion politeia], twenty-three
are found in the papyrus. Of those not found in the papyrus, the
majority appear to have come either from the beginning of the treatise,
which is wanting in the papyrus, or from the latter portion of it, which
is mutilated. The coincidence, therefore, is as nearly as possible
complete. It may also be regarded as established by internal evidence
that the treatise was composed during the interval between Aristotle's
return to Athens in 335 B.C. and his death in 322. There are two
passages which give us the latter year as the _terminus ad quem_, viz.
c. 42. 1 and c. 62. 2. In the former passage the democracy which is
about to be described is spoken of as the "present constitution"
([Greek: e nun katastasis tes politeias]). The democratic constitution
was abolished, and a timocracy established, on the surrender of Athens
to Antipater, at the end of the Lamian War, in the autumn of 322. At the
same time Samos was lost; it is still reckoned, however, amon