Symmetric friendship and enmity served as ancient criteria for judging regimes

Evidence

Enmity and friendship, conceived along the lines of a certain equality, a symmetry, provided strict criteria for evaluating political regimes. According to Herodotus, for example, oligarchy “oftimes engenders bitter enmity; … violent enmity is the outcome, enmity brings faction [stasis] and faction brings bloodshed.” — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 385

Categorization

• XREF: The symmetry thesis-that friendship/enmity were a horizontal, symmetrical political grammar-will be overturned by the asymmetry later introduced into enmity discourse, a key move in Anidjar’s genealogy. — connects to: Classical regime mapping classifies by who rules and whether for common or private interest — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 74