Aristotle’s ‘Politics’ is not only an important source for ancient historians. Political scientists and philosophers perceive this work as a fundamental text. In the ‘Politics’, Aristotle provides key insights into the political organisation of Greek city states. His classification of constitutions is governed by a single normative criterion: the public good. According to Aristotle, oligarchies are ‘defective’, as oligarchs pursue their self-interest only.

Discourses concerning the public good play a pivotal role in the wider context of the oligarchic coups of 411/10 and 404/3 BC when democracy was abandoned in Athens. Little attention has been paid to the question to what extent these historical crises have transformed notions of the public good during the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Yet, such analysis is essential for a better understanding of the Athenian polis community beyond  the concept of citizenship.

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