t. The Ideal State should be a size such as the citizens can live a life of a free man where he is adequately provided for, but not a life where he lives through a vice of extravagance. (Aristotle made a clear distinction as to who should and should not be a citizen of the state. His ideal state is certainly not a democratic one that enables all who live there to be a citizen.) The main city of the state should be positioned so that it is easily accessible from both sea and land. Aristotle also felt that walls and other such defensive protections should guard the town itself. The defenders of the town must always seek additional means of defense by the aid of scientific inquiry. He believed that the proper positioning of the city between sea and land will give way to three distinct advantages: first it will be equally well-placed for the operations in all direction; also it will form and entrepot for the receipt of incoming foodstuffs; and it will have access to timber and other raw materials the land may be able to produce.Aristotles Ideal State should be situated in such a place so that it would be hard for an enemy to attract and easy for an expeditionary force to depart from. The city should be developed on a slope. This will allow for good health when combined with being faced east, with the winds blowing from the direction of the sunrise. The town should be organized in a quincunx (the same pattern used to plant vines), and make sure that the whole city is not laid out in geometric intervals. This will allow for both safety and good appearance of the city.Plato, in his Republic, expressed a great disapproval of seaports, navies, foreign trade, and foreign travel in his writings on the political ideal. Aristotle on the other hand felt that seaports are a necessary part of the Ideal State. He believed that it was necessary for people to import things that they do not produce themselves, and export those products of which...
