rather than a republic is that a particular leader have such outstanding areté (moral excellence) that a royal ruler becomes preferable to a more democratic arrangement. Aristotle was, furthermore, extremely ethnocentric. The Persians were barbarians ruled by their passions, and when Alexander conquered them, he was to rule them like a despot, while it would only be necessary to lead the Greeks. Barbaroi (a word that originally meant non-Greek-speaking peoples), reasoned Aristotle, were slaves by