TIMOCRACY

Definitions:
A form of government in high possession of property is required in order to hold office.
(Aristotle)
A form of government in which rulers are motivated by ambition or love of honor. (Plato)
It is a state where only property owners may participate in government.
TIMOCRATS:
value power, which they seek to attain primarily by means of military conquest and the
acquisition of honors, rather than intellectual means
apply great effort in the arts of war, as well as courage
contemptuous towards manual activities and trade, and will lead a life in public communion
However, they will yearn for material wealth and will not trust thinkers to be placed in positions
of power.
have a tendency to accumulate wealth in pernicious ways, and hide their possessions from
public view
obedient towards authority, respectful to other free citizens, good at listening, and aggressive
rather than contemptuous towards slaves (according to Socrates)
Solon (an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet) introduced the ideas of timokratia as a
graded oligarchy in his Solonian Constitution for Athens in the early 6th century BC. His was the
first known deliberately implemented form of timocracy, allocating political rights and economic
responsibility depending on membership of one of four tiers of the population. Solon defined these
tiers by measuring how many bushels of produce each man could produce in a year, namely:

Pentacosiomedimni "Men of the 500 bushel", those who produced 500 bushels of produce
per year, could serve as generals in the army

Hippeis Knights, those who could equip themselves and one cavalry horse for war, valued
at 300 bushels per year

Zeugitae Tillers, owners of at least one pair of beasts of burden, valued at 200 bushels per
year, could serve as Hoplites

Thetes Manual laborers

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_five_regimes#Timocracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timocracy