ARISTOBULUS OF CASSANDRIA, ancient Greek historian: b. Chalcidice, about the middle of the 4th century B.C. In about 316 B.C. he went to Cassandria and became a citizen there. He accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaign into Asia. With this experi ence as a basis he wrote an historical work, the title of which remains unknown. Its text is preserved through the quotations of later writers, among them being Strabo, Plutarch and Arrian.
(Greek iipiaroicparia from di narof best, and KParoe, power).
Etymologically, the rule of the best, but in its more usual significance, any system of govern ment in which the right to govern is vested in a few; an oligarchy. From its strict political meaning and the fact that most aristocracies have been hereditary, it has taken on the secondary significance of any hereditary caste which has claimed or has been accorded a su perior rank in social matters. The ancient Spartan state, the Athenian state before the Persian wars, the Roman republic are good examples of communities where the aristocratic tendencies predominated. Though medimval feudalism involved the existence of privileged classes, the dominating aspect of the system was a graduated hierarchy of absolute mon archs. It is on the break-up of feudalism and
the origin of the Italian city-state or the subor dination of the French and British petty lords to the king that we see the nobles again assume power by virtue of their membership of a privi leged class and not by virtue of their territorial rule. When a weak monarch or dynasty came on the throne, as was the case with the house of Valois in France or the four Georges in i England, it became easy for vigorous noble families to assume the real control of the state. At present the aristocratic system of rule sur vives in greatest measure in Germany and Aus tria-Hungary; in Great Britain the aristocracy has political power not so much through its constitutional position in the House of Lords as through the custom in many noble families of standing as candidates for seats in the House of Commons and the political prestige which attaches to their rank. See GOVERNMENT.