Excerpt from The Old Oligarch: Being the Constitution of the Athenians It is clear from the very first that we have to deal with one who is no democrat (c. I, and the admission of adherence to the anti-democratic cause is repeatedly rein forced by the nature of his references to his political oppo nents and friends (e. G., c. I, Hence the name of The Old Oligarch, ' with which title our ignorance of the identity of the author has to be content. That the Old Oligarch was an Athenian citizen seems to be probable from the use of we' in c. I, 12, and though certainty is precluded on this point by the curious confusion of persons in c. I, 11, the full acquaintance of the writer with the Athe nian constitution may support the conclusion. C. II, 7-8 and 11-12 have been taken as proof that the Old Oligarch was a merchant, and while once again it is doubtful if much stress can be laid upon 'my' (c. II, II), which may be merely rhetorical, the inference may gain support from the mercantile and geographical knowledge displayed in these passages, though it is difficult to point out anything in them which an ordinarily intelligent Athenian might not have thought out for himself. That he was absent from Athens when he wrote has been inferred from his frequent use of az'rreoi, there, ' and from his references to the Athenians and to the oligarchs in the third person, but here again it has been suggested that these latter uses would be ex plained if this is an oration delivered to a political club in session at Athens, under which circumstances such an orientation would not be irrational. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.