PSCI 3301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Retributive Justice, Mixed Government, Croesus
27 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Cyrus corrupted the persian commoners in his army by introducing equality with the peers, and in doing so, he ended up transforming the persian regime. Aristotle"s idea of proportional justice essentially meant that people receive what is appropriate according to their merit or their worth. It"s basically the understanding that not everyone is equal and therefore can"t be treated exactly the same. An early example of this is when cyrus is beaten because of he exercised a kind of proportional justice with the two boys, in book i of the education. Cyrus believed that the larger boy should have the larger coat and smaller boy, the smaller coat. Another example is when cyrus told his generals to distribute the spoils of war to the soldiers that were most deserving. Before its corruption, the persian regime is a mixed republic and could be considered a pale imitation of aristotle"s polity.
