Literary Record Details

Author: ARISTOTELES et CORPUS ARISTOTELICUM Phil.

Opus: Rhetorica
Reference: Arist.Rhet.1393b

Period: Late Classical

Genre: prose
Subgenre: philosophy
Object:
Gender: m
Context: office

Greek Text: εἴ τις λέγοι ὅτι οὐ δεῖ κληρωτοὺς ἄρχειν: ὅμοιον γὰρ ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις τοὺς ἀθλητὰς κληροίη μὴ οἳ δύνανται ἀγωνίζεσθαι ἀλλ᾽ οἳ ἂν λάχωσιν, ἢ τῶν πλωτήρων ὅντινα δεῖ κυβερνᾶν κληρώσειεν, ὡς δέον τὸν λαχόντα ἀλλὰ μὴ τὸν ἐπιστάμενον.

English Text: if one were to say that magistrates should not be chosen by lot, for this would be the same as choosing as representative athletes not those competent to contend, but those on whom the lot falls; or as choosing any of the sailors as the man who should take the helm, as if it were right that the choice should be decided by lot, not by a man's knowledge