This dissertation explores the use of 'ancestral constitution' arguments in Athenian political theory of the fourth century BCE. It shows how the 'patrios politeia' is invoked by authors such as Isocrates and Xenophon as a means of expressing opposition to current democratic practice, and also how the use of such arguments is explored, parodied and rejected by Plato in dialogues such as the Menexenus, Timaeus/Critias, and Laws. Submitted for the MPhil in Classics, University of Cambridge, June 2010 and awarded the Members' Classical Essay Prize
