That is why, for all its flaws, Aristotle loved the polis. Correctly constructed, it could be the home of happiness itself. And yet the Politics is an essentially nostalgic work. By the time he wrote it, the age of the independent Greek city-state was past, and the age of empire had arrived. The conquerors were his friends; he was practically one of them. When Macedon made of proud Athens a vassal, Aristotle was still teaching Alexander at Mieza. The ironies haunt the book.
