In my opinion there are two fundamental things in every state, by virtue of which its principle and constitution is either desirable or the reverse.
I mean customs and laws. What is desirable in these makes men's private lives righteous and well ordered and the general character of the state gentle and just, while what is to be avoided has the opposite effect.
So just as when we observe the laws and customs of a people to be good, we have no hesitation in pronouncing that the citizens and the state will consequently be good also, thus when we notice that men are covetous in their private lives and that their public actions are unjust, we are plainly justified in saying that their laws, their particular customs, and the state as a whole are bad.
Now it would be impossible to find except in some rare instances personal conduct more treacherous or a public policy more unjust than in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>.
Holding then the Cretan constitution to be neither similar to that of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> nor in any way deserving of praise and imitation, I dismiss it from the comparison which I have proposed to make.
Nor again is it fair to introduce Plato's republic which also is much belauded by some philosophers.
For just as we do not admit to athletic contests artists or athletes who are not duly entered and have not been in training, so we have no right to admit this constitution to the competition for the prize of merit, unless it first give an exhibition of its actual working.
Up to the present it would be just the same thing to discuss it with a view to comparison with the constitutions of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Carthage&groupId=441&placeId=820">Carthage</a>, as to take some statue and compare it with living and breathing men.
For even if the workmanship of the statue were altogether praiseworthy, the comparison of a lifeless thing with a living being would strike spectators as entirely imperfect and incongruous.
Walbank Commentary