BOOK VI.

ATHENIAN: And now having made an end of the preliminaries we will

proceed to the appointment of magistracies.

CLEINIAS: Very good.

ATHENIAN: In the ordering of a state there are two parts: first, the

number of the magistracies, and the mode of establishing them; and,

secondly, when they have been established, laws again will have to be

provided for each of them, suitable in nature and number. But before

electing the magistrates let us stop a little and say a word in season

about the election of them.

CLEINIAS: What have you got to say?

ATHENIAN: This is what I have to say;--every one can see, that

although the work of legislation is a most important matter, yet if a

well-ordered city superadd to good laws unsuitable offices, not only

will there be no use in having the good laws,--not only will they be

ridiculous and useless, but the greatest political injury and evil will

accrue from them.

CLEINIAS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: Then now, my friend, let us observe what will happen in

the constitution of out intended state. In the first place, you will

acknowledge that those who are duly appointed to magisterial power, and

their families, should severally have given satisfactory proof of what

they are, from youth upward until the time of election; in the next

place, those who are to elect should have been trained in habits of law,

and be well educated, that they may have a right judgment, and may be

able to select or reject men whom they approve or disapprove, as they

are worthy of either. But how can we imagine that those who are brought

together for the first time, and are strangers to one another, and also

uneducated, will avoid making mistakes in the choice of magistrates?

CLEINIAS: Impossible.

ATHENIAN: The matter is serious, and excuses will not serve the turn. I

will tell you, then, what you and I will have to do, since you, as

you tell me, with nine others, have offered to settle the new state on

behalf of the people of Crete, and I am to help you by the invention

of the present romance. I certainly should not like to leave the tale

wandering all over the world without a head;--a headless monster is such

a hideous thing.

CLEINIAS: Excellent, Stranger.

ATHENIAN: Yes; and I will be as good as my word.

CLEINIAS: Let us by all means do as you propose.

ATHENIAN: That we will, by the grace of God, if old age will only permit

us.

CLEINIAS: But God will be gracious.

ATHENIAN: Yes; and under his guidance let us consider a further point.

CLEINIAS: What is it?

ATHENIAN: Let us remember what a courageously mad and daring creation

this our city is.

CLEINIAS: What had you in your mind when you said that?

ATHENIAN: I had in my mind the free and easy manner in which we are

ordaining that the inexperienced colonists shall receive our laws. Now

a man need not be very wise, Cleinias, in order to see that no one can

easily receive laws at their first imposition. But if we could anyhow

wait until those who have been imbued with them from childhood, and have

been nurtured in them, and become habituated to them, take their part in

the public elections of the state; I say, if this could be accomplished,

and rightly accomplished by any way or contrivance--then, I think that

there would be very little danger, at the end of the time, of a state

thus trained not being permanent.

CLEINIAS: A reasonable supposition.

ATHENIAN: Then let us consider if we can find any way out of the

difficulty; for I maintain, Cleinias, that the Cnosians, above all the

other Cretans, should not be satisfied with barely discharging their

duty to the colony, but they ought to take the utmost pains to establish

the offices which are first created by them in the best and surest

manner. Above all, this applies to the selection of the guardians of the

law, who must be chosen first of all, and with the greatest care; the

others are of less importance.

CLEINIAS: What method can we devise of electing them?

ATHENIAN: This will be the method:--Sons of the Cretans, I shall say to

them, inasmuch as the Cnosians have precedence over the other states,

they should, in common with those who join this settlement, choose

a body of thirty-seven in all, nineteen of them being taken from the

settlers, and the remainder from the citizens of Cnosus. Of these latter

the Cnosians shall make a present to your colony, and you yourself shall

be one of the eighteen, and shall become a citizen of the new state; and

if you and they cannot be persuaded to go, the Cnosians may fairly use a

little violence in order to make you.

CLEINIAS: But why, Stranger, do not you and Megillus take a part in our

new city?

ATHENIAN: O, Cleinias, Athens is proud, and Sparta too; and they are

both a long way off. But you and likewise the other colonists are

conveniently situated as you describe. I have been speaking of the

way in which the new citizens may be best managed under present

circumstances; but in after-ages, if the city continues to exist, let

the election be on this wise. All who are horse or foot soldiers, or

have seen military service at the proper ages when they were severally

fitted for it (compare Arist. Pol.), shall share in the election of

magistrates; and the election shall be held in whatever temple the state

deems most venerable, and every one shall carry his vote to the altar

of the God, writing down on a tablet the name of the person for whom he

votes, and his father's name, and his tribe, and ward; and at the side

he shall write his own name in like manner. Any one who pleases may take

away any tablet which he does not think properly filled up, and exhibit

it in the Agora for a period of not less than thirty days. The tablets

which are judged to be first, to the number of 300, shall be shown by

the magistrates to the whole city, and the citizens shall in like manner

select from these the candidates whom they prefer; and this second

selection, to the number of 100, shall be again exhibited to the

citizens; in the third, let any one who pleases select whom he pleases

out of the 100, walking through the parts of victims, and let them

choose for magistrates and proclaim the seven-and-thirty who have the

greatest number of votes. But who, Cleinias and Megillus, will order for

us in the colony all this matter of the magistrates, and the scrutinies

of them? If we reflect, we shall see that cities which are in process of

construction like ours must have some such persons, who cannot possibly

be elected before there are any magistrates; and yet they must be

elected in some way, and they are not to be inferior men, but the

best possible. For as the proverb says, 'a good beginning is half the

business'; and 'to have begun well' is praised by all, and in my opinion

is a great deal more than half the business, and has never been praised

by any one enough.

CLEINIAS: That is very true.

ATHENIAN: Then let us recognize the difficulty, and make clear to our

own minds how the beginning is to be accomplished. There is only

one proposal which I have to offer, and that is one which, under our

circumstances, is both necessary and expedient.

CLEINIAS: What is it?

ATHENIAN: I maintain that this colony of ours has a father and mother,

who are no other than the colonizing state. Well I know that many

colonies have been, and will be, at enmity with their parents. But in

early days the child, as in a family, loves and is beloved; even if

there come a time later when the tie is broken, still, while he is in

want of education, he naturally loves his parents and is beloved by

them, and flies to his relatives for protection, and finds in them his

only natural allies in time of need; and this parental feeling already

exists in the Cnosians, as is shown by their care of the new city; and

there is a similar feeling on the part of the young city towards Cnosus.

And I repeat what I was saying--for there is no harm in repeating a

good thing--that the Cnosians should take a common interest in all these

matters, and choose, as far as they can, the eldest and best of the

colonists, to the number of not less than a hundred; and let there

be another hundred of the Cnosians themselves. These, I say, on their

arrival, should have a joint care that the magistrates should be

appointed according to law, and that when they are appointed they should

undergo a scrutiny. When this has been effected, the Cnosians

shall return home, and the new city do the best she can for her own

preservation and happiness. I would have the seven-and-thirty now, and

in all future time, chosen to fulfil the following duties:--Let them,

in the first place, be the guardians of the law; and, secondly, of the

registers in which each one registers before the magistrate the amount

of his property, excepting four minae which are allowed to citizens of

the first class, three allowed to the second, two to the third, and a

single mina to the fourth. And if any one, despising the laws for the

sake of gain, be found to possess anything more which has not been

registered, let all that he has in excess be confiscated, and let him be

liable to a suit which shall be the reverse of honourable or fortunate.

And let any one who will, indict him on the charge of loving base gains,

and proceed against him before the guardians of the law. And if he be

cast, let him lose his share of the public possessions, and when there

is any public distribution, let him have nothing but his original lot;

and let him be written down a condemned man as long as he lives, in

some place in which any one who pleases can read about his offences. The

guardian of the law shall not hold office longer than twenty years, and

shall not be less than fifty years of age when he is elected; or if he

is elected when he is sixty years of age, he shall hold office for ten

years only; and upon the same principle, he must not imagine that he

will be permitted to hold such an important office as that of guardian

of the laws after he is seventy years of age, if he live so long.

These are the three first ordinances about the guardians of the law; as

the work of legislation progresses, each law in turn will assign to them

their further duties. And now we may proceed in order to speak of the

election of other officers; for generals have to be elected, and these

again must have their ministers, commanders, and colonels of horse,

and commanders of brigades of foot, who would be more rightly called by

their popular name of brigadiers. The guardians of the law shall propose

as generals men who are natives of the city, and a selection from the

candidates proposed shall be made by those who are or have been of the

age for military service. And if one who is not proposed is thought by

somebody to be better than one who is, let him name whom he prefers in

the place of whom, and make oath that he is better, and propose him;

and whichever of them is approved by vote shall be admitted to the final

selection; and the three who have the greatest number of votes shall

be appointed generals, and superintendents of military affairs, after

previously undergoing a scrutiny, like the guardians of the law. And let

the generals thus elected propose twelve brigadiers, one for each tribe;

and there shall be a right of counter-proposal as in the case of the

generals, and the voting and decision shall take place in the same way.

Until the prytanes and council are elected, the guardians of the law

shall convene the assembly in some holy spot which is suitable to

the purpose, placing the hoplites by themselves, and the cavalry by

themselves, and in a third division all the rest of the army. All are

to vote for the generals (and for the colonels of horse), but the

brigadiers are to be voted for only by those who carry shields (i.e. the

hoplites). Let the body of cavalry choose phylarchs for the generals;

but captains of light troops, or archers, or any other division of the

army, shall be appointed by the generals for themselves. There only

remains the appointment of officers of cavalry: these shall be proposed

by the same persons who proposed the generals, and the election and the

counter-proposal of other candidates shall be arranged in the same

way as in the case of the generals, and let the cavalry vote and the

infantry look on at the election; the two who have the greatest number

of votes shall be the leaders of all the horse. Disputes about the

voting may be raised once or twice; but if the dispute be raised a third

time, the officers who preside at the several elections shall decide.

The council shall consist of 30 x 12 members--360 will be a convenient

number for sub-division. If we divide the whole number into four parts

of ninety each, we get ninety counsellors for each class. First, all

the citizens shall select candidates from the first class; they shall

be compelled to vote, and, if they do not, shall be duly fined. When the

candidates have been selected, some one shall mark them down; this shall

be the business of the first day. And on the following day, candidates

shall be selected from the second class in the same manner and under the

same conditions as on the previous day; and on the third day a selection

shall be made from the third class, at which every one may, if he likes

vote, and the three first classes shall be compelled to vote; but the

fourth and lowest class shall be under no compulsion, and any member of

this class who does not vote shall not be punished. On the fourth day

candidates shall be selected from the fourth and smallest class; they

shall be selected by all, but he who is of the fourth class shall suffer

no penalty, nor he who is of the third, if he be not willing to vote;

but he who is of the first or second class, if he does not vote shall be

punished;--he who is of the second class shall pay a fine of triple

the amount which was exacted at first, and he who is of the first class

quadruple. On the fifth day the rulers shall bring out the names noted

down, for all the citizens to see, and every man shall choose out of

them, under pain, if he do not, of suffering the first penalty; and

when they have chosen 180 out of each of the classes, they shall choose

one-half of them by lot, who shall undergo a scrutiny:--These are to

form the council for the year.

The mode of election which has been described is in a mean between

monarchy and democracy, and such a mean the state ought always to

observe; for servants and masters never can be friends, nor good and

bad, merely because they are declared to have equal privileges. For to

unequals equals become unequal, if they are not harmonised by measure;

and both by reason of equality, and by reason of inequality, cities are

filled with seditions. The old saying, that 'equality makes friendship,'

is happy and also true; but there is obscurity and confusion as to what

sort of equality is meant. For there are two equalities which are called

by the same name, but are in reality in many ways almost the opposite

of one another; one of them may be introduced without difficulty, by any

state or any legislator in the distribution of honours: this is the rule

of measure, weight, and number, which regulates and apportions them. But

there is another equality, of a better and higher kind, which is not so

easily recognized. This is the judgment of Zeus; among men it avails

but little; that little, however, is the source of the greatest good

to individuals and states. For it gives to the greater more, and to the

inferior less and in proportion to the nature of each; and, above all,

greater honour always to the greater virtue, and to the less less;

and to either in proportion to their respective measure of virtue

and education. And this is justice, and is ever the true principle of

states, at which we ought to aim, and according to this rule order the

new city which is now being founded, and any other city which may be

hereafter founded. To this the legislator should look,--not to the

interests of tyrants one or more, or to the power of the people, but to

justice always; which, as I was saying, is the distribution of natural

equality among unequals in each case. But there are times at which every

state is compelled to use the words, 'just,' 'equal,' in a secondary

sense, in the hope of escaping in some degree from factions. For

equity and indulgence are infractions of the perfect and strict rule of

justice. And this is the reason why we are obliged to use the equality

of the lot, in order to avoid the discontent of the people; and so we

invoke God and fortune in our prayers, and beg that they themselves will

direct the lot with a view to supreme justice. And therefore, although

we are compelled to use both equalities, we should use that into which

the element of chance enters as seldom as possible.

Thus, O my friends, and for the reasons given, should a state act which

would endure and be saved. But as a ship sailing on the sea has to be

watched night and day, in like manner a city also is sailing on a sea

of politics, and is liable to all sorts of insidious assaults; and

therefore from morning to night, and from night to morning, rulers must

join hands with rulers, and watchers with watchers, receiving and giving

up their trust in a perpetual succession. Now a multitude can never

fulfil a duty of this sort with anything like energy. Moreover, the

greater number of the senators will have to be left during the greater

part of the year to order their concerns at their own homes. They will

therefore have to be arranged in twelve portions, answering to the

twelve months, and furnish guardians of the state, each portion for a

single month. Their business is to be at hand and receive any foreigner

or citizen who comes to them, whether to give information, or to put one

of those questions, to which, when asked by other cities, a city should

give an answer, and to which, if she ask them herself, she should

receive an answer; or again, when there is a likelihood of internal

commotions, which are always liable to happen in some form or other,

they will, if they can, prevent their occurring; or if they have already

occurred, will lose no time in making them known to the city, and

healing the evil. Wherefore, also, this which is the presiding body of

the state ought always to have the control of their assemblies, and of

the dissolutions of them, ordinary as well as extraordinary. All this

is to be ordered by the twelfth part of the council, which is always

to keep watch together with the other officers of the state during one

portion of the year, and to rest during the remaining eleven portions.

Thus will the city be fairly ordered. And now, who is to have the

superintendence of the country, and what shall be the arrangement?

Seeing that the whole city and the entire country have been both of

them divided into twelve portions, ought there not to be appointed

superintendents of the streets of the city, and of the houses, and

buildings, and harbours, and the agora, and fountains, and sacred

domains, and temples, and the like?

CLEINIAS: To be sure there ought.

ATHENIAN: Let us assume, then, that there ought to be servants of the

temples, and priests and priestesses. There must also be superintendents

of roads and buildings, who will have a care of men, that they may do no

harm, and also of beasts, both within the enclosure and in the suburbs.

Three kinds of officers will thus have to be appointed, in order that

the city may be suitably provided according to her needs. Those who have

the care of the city shall be called wardens of the city; and those who

have the care of the agora shall be called wardens of the agora; and

those who have the care of the temples shall be called priests. Those

who hold hereditary offices as priests or priestesses, shall not be

disturbed; but if there be few or none such, as is probable at the

foundation of a new city, priests and priestesses shall be appointed to

be servants of the Gods who have no servants. Some of our officers shall

be elected, and others appointed by lot, those who are of the people and

those who are not of the people mingling in a friendly manner in every

place and city, that the state may be as far as possible of one mind.

The officers of the temples shall be appointed by lot; in this way their

election will be committed to God, that He may do what is agreeable to

Him. And he who obtains a lot shall undergo a scrutiny, first, as to

whether he is sound of body and of legitimate birth; and in the second

place, in order to show that he is of a perfectly pure family, not

stained with homicide or any similar impiety in his own person, and also

that his father and mother have led a similar unstained life. Now

the laws about all divine things should be brought from Delphi, and

interpreters appointed, under whose direction they should be used. The

tenure of the priesthood should always be for a year and no longer; and

he who will duly execute the sacred office, according to the laws of

religion, must be not less than sixty years of age--the laws shall

be the same about priestesses. As for the interpreters, they shall be

appointed thus:--Let the twelve tribes be distributed into groups of

four, and let each group select four, one out of each tribe within the

group, three times; and let the three who have the greatest number of

votes (out of the twelve appointed by each group), after undergoing

a scrutiny, nine in all, be sent to Delphi, in order that the God may

return one out of each triad; their age shall be the same as that of the

priests, and the scrutiny of them shall be conducted in the same manner;

let them be interpreters for life, and when any one dies let the four

tribes select another from the tribe of the deceased. Moreover, besides

priests and interpreters, there must be treasurers, who will take charge

of the property of the several temples, and of the sacred domains, and

shall have authority over the produce and the letting of them; and

three of them shall be chosen from the highest classes for the greater

temples, and two for the lesser, and one for the least of all; the

manner of their election and the scrutiny of them shall be the same as

that of the generals. This shall be the order of the temples.

Let everything have a guard as far as possible. Let the defence of the

city be commited to the generals, and taxiarchs, and hipparchs, and

phylarchs, and prytanes, and the wardens of the city, and of the agora,

when the election of them has been completed. The defence of the country

shall be provided for as follows:--The entire land has been already

distributed into twelve as nearly as possible equal parts, and let the

tribe allotted to a division provide annually for it five wardens of the

country and commanders of the watch; and let each body of five have

the power of selecting twelve others out of the youth of their own

tribe,--these shall be not less than twenty-five years of age, and not

more than thirty. And let there be allotted to them severally every

month the various districts, in order that they may all acquire

knowledge and experience of the whole country. The term of service

for commanders and for watchers shall continue during two years. After

having had their stations allotted to them, they will go from place to

place in regular order, making their round from left to right as their

commanders direct them; (when I speak of going to the right, I mean that

they are to go to the east). And at the commencement of the second

year, in order that as many as possible of the guards may not only get

a knowledge of the country at any one season of the year, but may also

have experience of the manner in which different places are affected

at different seasons of the year, their then commanders shall lead them

again towards the left, from place to place in succession, until they

have completed the second year. In the third year other wardens of

the country shall be chosen and commanders of the watch, five for each

division, who are to be the superintendents of the bands of twelve.

While on service at each station, their attention shall be directed

to the following points:--In the first place, they shall see that the

country is well protected against enemies; they shall trench and dig

wherever this is required, and, as far as they can, they shall by

fortifications keep off the evil-disposed, in order to prevent them from

doing any harm to the country or the property; they shall use the beasts

of burden and the labourers whom they find on the spot: these will be

their instruments whom they will superintend, taking them, as far

as possible, at the times when they are not engaged in their regular

business. They shall make every part of the country inaccessible to

enemies, and as accessible as possible to friends (compare Arist. Pol.);

there shall be ways for man and beasts of burden and for cattle, and

they shall take care to have them always as smooth as they can; and

shall provide against the rains doing harm instead of good to the land,

when they come down from the mountains into the hollow dells; and shall

keep in the overflow by the help of works and ditches, in order that the

valleys, receiving and drinking up the rain from heaven, and providing

fountains and streams in the fields and regions which lie underneath,

may furnish even to the dry places plenty of good water. The fountains

of water, whether of rivers or of springs, shall be ornamented with

plantations and buildings for beauty; and let them bring together the

streams in subterraneous channels, and make all things plenteous; and if

there be a sacred grove or dedicated precinct in the neighbourhood,

they shall conduct the water to the actual temples of the Gods, and so

beautify them at all seasons of the year. Everywhere in such places the

youth shall make gymnasia for themselves, and warm baths for the

aged, placing by them abundance of dry wood, for the benefit of those

labouring under disease--there the weary frame of the rustic, worn with

toil, will receive a kindly welcome, far better than he would at the

hands of a not over-wise doctor.

The building of these and the like works will be useful and ornamental;

they will provide a pleasing amusement, but they will be a serious

employment too; for the sixty wardens will have to guard their several

divisions, not only with a view to enemies, but also with an eye to

professing friends. When a quarrel arises among neighbours or citizens,

and any one whether slave or freeman wrongs another, let the five

wardens decide small matters on their own authority; but where the

charge against another relates to greater matters, the seventeen

composed of the fives and twelves, shall determine any charges which one

man brings against another, not involving more than three minae. Every

judge and magistrate shall be liable to give an account of his conduct

in office, except those who, like kings, have the final decision.

Moreover, as regards the aforesaid wardens of the country, if they do

any wrong to those of whom they have the care, whether by imposing upon

them unequal tasks, or by taking the produce of the soil or implements

of husbandry without their consent; also if they receive anything in

the way of a bribe, or decide suits unjustly, or if they yield to the

influences of flattery, let them be publicly dishonoured; and in regard

to any other wrong which they do to the inhabitants of the country,

if the question be of a mina, let them submit to the decision of the

villagers in the neighbourhood; but in suits of greater amount, or in

case of lesser, if they refuse to submit, trusting that their monthly

removal into another part of the country will enable them to escape--in

such cases the injured party may bring his suit in the common court, and

if he obtain a verdict he may exact from the defendant, who refused to

submit, a double penalty.

The wardens and the overseers of the country, while on their two years'

service, shall have common meals at their several stations, and shall

all live together; and he who is absent from the common meal, or sleeps

out, if only for one day or night, unless by order of his commanders, or

by reason of absolute necessity, if the five denounce him and inscribe

his name in the agora as not having kept his guard, let him be deemed

to have betrayed the city, as far as lay in his power, and let him

be disgraced and beaten with impunity by any one who meets him and is

willing to punish him. If any of the commanders is guilty of such an

irregularity, the whole company of sixty shall see to it, and he who

is cognisant of the offence, and does not bring the offender to trial,

shall be amenable to the same laws as the younger offender himself, and

shall pay a heavier fine, and be incapable of ever commanding the young.

The guardians of the law are to be careful inspectors of these matters,

and shall either prevent or punish offenders. Every man should remember

the universal rule, that he who is not a good servant will not be a

good master; a man should pride himself more upon serving well than upon

commanding well: first upon serving the laws, which is also the service

of the Gods; in the second place, upon having served ancient and

honourable men in the days of his youth. Furthermore, during the two

years in which any one is a warden of the country, his daily food ought

to be of a simple and humble kind. When the twelve have been chosen, let

them and the five meet together, and determine that they will be

their own servants, and, like servants, will not have other slaves and

servants for their own use, neither will they use those of the villagers

and husbandmen for their private advantage, but for the public

service only; and in general they should make up their minds to live

independently by themselves, servants of each other and of themselves.

Further, at all seasons of the year, summer and winter alike, let them

be under arms and survey minutely the whole country; thus they will at

once keep guard, and at the same time acquire a perfect knowledge of

every locality. There can be no more important kind of information than

the exact knowledge of a man's own country; and for this as well as for

more general reasons of pleasure and advantage, hunting with dogs and

other kinds of sports should be pursued by the young. The service to

whom this is committed may be called the secret police or wardens of

the country; the name does not much signify, but every one who has

the safety of the state at heart will use his utmost diligence in this

service.

After the wardens of the country, we have to speak of the election of

wardens of the agora and of the city. The wardens of the country were

sixty in number, and the wardens of the city will be three, and will

divide the twelve parts of the city into three; like the former, they

shall have care of the ways, and of the different high roads which lead

out of the country into the city, and of the buildings, that they may be

all made according to law;--also of the waters, which the guardians of

the supply preserve and convey to them, care being taken that they may

reach the fountains pure and abundant, and be both an ornament and

a benefit to the city. These also should be men of influence, and at

leisure to take care of the public interest. Let every man propose as

warden of the city any one whom he likes out of the highest class, and

when the vote has been given on them, and the number is reduced to the

six who have the greatest number of votes, let the electing officers

choose by lot three out of the six, and when they have undergone a

scrutiny let them hold office according to the laws laid down for them.

Next, let the wardens of the agora be elected in like manner, out of the

first and second class, five in number: ten are to be first elected, and

out of the ten five are to be chosen by lot, as in the election of the

wardens of the city:--these when they have undergone a scrutiny are to

be declared magistrates. Every one shall vote for every one, and he who

will not vote, if he be informed against before the magistrates, shall

be fined fifty drachmae, and shall also be deemed a bad citizen. Let any

one who likes go to the assembly and to the general council; it shall

be compulsory to go on citizens of the first and second class, and they

shall pay a fine of ten drachmae if they be found not answering to their

names at the assembly. But the third and fourth class shall be under no

compulsion, and shall be let off without a fine, unless the magistrates

have commanded all to be present, in consequence of some urgent

necessity. The wardens of the agora shall observe the order appointed

by law for the agora, and shall have the charge of the temples and

fountains which are in the agora; and they shall see that no one injures

anything, and punish him who does, with stripes and bonds, if he be a

slave or stranger; but if he be a citizen who misbehaves in this way,

they shall have the power themselves of inflicting a fine upon him to

the amount of a hundred drachmae, or with the consent of the wardens of

the city up to double that amount. And let the wardens of the city

have a similar power of imposing punishments and fines in their own

department; and let them impose fines by their own department; and let

them impose fines by their own authority, up to a mina, or up to two

minae with the consent of the wardens of the agora.

In the next place, it will be proper to appoint directors of music

and gymnastic, two kinds of each--of the one kind the business will be

education, of the other, the superintendence of contests. In speaking

of education, the law means to speak of those who have the care of order

and instruction in gymnasia and schools, and of the going to school, and

of school buildings for boys and girls; and in speaking of contests,

the law refers to the judges of gymnastics and of music; these again

are divided into two classes, the one having to do with music, the other

with gymnastics; and the same who judge of the gymnastic contests of

men, shall judge of horses; but in music there shall be one set of

judges of solo singing, and of imitation--I mean of rhapsodists, players

on the harp, the flute and the like, and another who shall judge of

choral song. First of all, we must choose directors for the choruses of

boys, and men, and maidens, whom they shall follow in the amusement of

the dance, and for our other musical arrangements;--one director will be

enough for the choruses, and he should be not less than forty years of

age. One director will also be enough to introduce the solo singers, and

to give judgment on the competitors, and he ought not to be less than

thirty years of age. The director and manager of the choruses shall be

elected after the following manner:--Let any persons who commonly take

an interest in such matters go to the meeting, and be fined if they do

not go (the guardians of the law shall judge of their fault), but those

who have no interest shall not be compelled. The elector shall propose

as director some one who understands music, and he in the scrutiny may

be challenged on the one part by those who say he has no skill, and

defended on the other hand by those who say that he has. Ten are to be

elected by vote, and he of the ten who is chosen by lot shall undergo a

scrutiny, and lead the choruses for a year according to law. And in like

manner the competitor who wins the lot shall be leader of the solo and

concert music for that year; and he who is thus elected shall deliver

the award to the judges. In the next place, we have to choose judges

in the contests of horses and of men; these shall be selected from

the third and also from the second class of citizens, and three first

classes shall be compelled to go to the election, but the lowest may

stay away with impunity; and let there be three elected by lot out of

the twenty who have been chosen previously, and they must also have the

vote and approval of the examiners. But if any one is rejected in the

scrutiny at any ballot or decision, others shall be chosen in the same

manner, and undergo a similar scrutiny.

There remains the minister of the education of youth, male and female;

he too will rule according to law; one such minister will be sufficient,

and he must be fifty years old, and have children lawfully begotten,

both boys and girls by preference, at any rate, one or the other. He who

is elected, and he who is the elector, should consider that of all the

great offices of state this is the greatest; for the first shoot of any

plant, if it makes a good start towards the attainment of its natural

excellence, has the greatest effect on its maturity; and this is not

only true of plants, but of animals wild and tame, and also of men.

Man, as we say, is a tame or civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires

proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he

becomes the most divine and most civilized (Arist. Pol.); but if he

be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly

creatures. Wherefore the legislator ought not to allow the education of

children to become a secondary or accidental matter. In the first place,

he who would be rightly provident about them, should begin by taking

care that he is elected, who of all the citizens is in every way

best; him the legislator shall do his utmost to appoint guardian and

superintendent. To this end all the magistrates, with the exception of

the council and prytanes, shall go to the temple of Apollo, and elect by

ballot him of the guardians of the law whom they severally think will be

the best superintendent of education. And he who has the greatest number

of votes, after he has undergone a scrutiny at the hands of all the

magistrates who have been his electors, with the exception of the

guardians of the law,--shall hold office for five years; and in the

sixth year let another be chosen in like manner to fill his office.

If any one dies while he is holding a public office, and more than

thirty days before his term of office expires, let those whose business

it is elect another to the office in the same manner as before. And if

any one who is entrusted with orphans dies, let the relations both on

the father's and mother's side, who are residing at home, including

cousins, appoint another guardian within ten days, or be fined a drachma

a day for neglect to do so.

A city which has no regular courts of law ceases to be a city; and

again, if a judge is silent and says no more in preliminary proceedings

than the litigants, as is the case in arbitrations, he will never be

able to decide justly; wherefore a multitude of judges will not easily

judge well, nor a few if they are bad. The point in dispute between the

parties should be made clear; and time, and deliberation, and repeated

examination, greatly tend to clear up doubts. For this reason, he who

goes to law with another, should go first of all to his neighbours and

friends who know best the questions at issue. And if he be unable to

obtain from them a satisfactory decision, let him have recourse to

another court; and if the two courts cannot settle the matter, let a

third put an end to the suit.

Now the establishment of courts of justice may be regarded as a choice

of magistrates, for every magistrate must also be a judge of some

things; and the judge, though he be not a magistrate, yet in certain

respects is a very important magistrate on the day on which he is

determining a suit. Regarding then the judges also as magistrates, let

us say who are fit to be judges, and of what they are to be judges,

and how many of them are to judge in each suit. Let that be the supreme

tribunal which the litigants appoint in common for themselves, choosing

certain persons by agreement. And let there be two other tribunals: one

for private causes, when a citizen accuses another of wronging him and

wishes to get a decision; the other for public causes, in which some

citizen is of opinion that the public has been wronged by an individual,

and is willing to vindicate the common interests. And we must not forget

to mention how the judges are to be qualified, and who they are to be.

In the first place, let there be a tribunal open to all private persons

who are trying causes one against another for the third time, and let

this be composed as follows:--All the officers of state, as well annual

as those holding office for a longer period, when the new year is about

to commence, in the month following after the summer solstice, on the

last day but one of the year, shall meet in some temple, and calling God

to witness, shall dedicate one judge from every magistracy to be their

first-fruits, choosing in each office him who seems to them to be

the best, and whom they deem likely to decide the causes of his

fellow-citizens during the ensuing year in the best and holiest manner.

And when the election is completed, a scrutiny shall be held in the

presence of the electors themselves, and if any one be rejected another

shall be chosen in the same manner. Those who have undergone the

scrutiny shall judge the causes of those who have declined the inferior

courts, and shall give their vote openly. The councillors and other

magistrates who have elected them shall be required to be hearers and

spectators of the causes; and any one else may be present who pleases.

If one man charges another with having intentionally decided wrong, let

him go to the guardians of the law and lay his accusation before them,

and he who is found guilty in such a case shall pay damages to the

injured party equal to half the injury; but if he shall appear to

deserve a greater penalty, the judges shall determine what additional

punishment he shall suffer, and how much more he ought to pay to the

public treasury, and to the party who brought the suit.

In the judgment of offences against the state, the people ought to

participate, for when any one wrongs the state all are wronged, and may

reasonably complain if they are not allowed to share in the decision.

Such causes ought to originate with the people, and the ought also to

have the final decision of them, but the trial of them shall take place

before three of the highest magistrates, upon whom the plaintiff and the

defendant shall agree; and if they are not able to come to an agreement

themselves, the council shall choose one of the two proposed. And in

private suits, too, as far as is possible, all should have a share; for

he who has no share in the administration of justice, is apt to imagine

that he has no share in the state at all. And for this reason there

shall be a court of law in every tribe, and the judges shall be

chosen by lot;--they shall give their decisions at once, and shall be

inaccessible to entreaties. The final judgment shall rest with

that court which, as we maintain, has been established in the most

incorruptible form of which human things admit: this shall be the court

established for those who are unable to get rid of their suits either in

the courts of neighbours or of the tribes.

Thus much of the courts of law, which, as I was saying, cannot be

precisely defined either as being or not being offices; a superficial

sketch has been given of them, in which some things have been told and

others omitted. For the right place of an exact statement of the laws

respecting suits, under their several heads, will be at the end of the

body of legislation;--let us then expect them at the end. Hitherto our

legislation has been chiefly occupied with the appointment of offices.

Perfect unity and exactness, extending to the whole and every particular

of political administration, cannot be attained to the full, until the

discussion shall have a beginning, middle, and end, and is complete in

every part. At present we have reached the election of magistrates, and

this may be regarded as a sufficient termination of what preceded. And

now there need no longer be any delay or hesitation in beginning the

work of legislation.

CLEINIAS: I like what you have said, Stranger; and I particularly like

your manner of tacking on the beginning of your new discourse to the end

of the former one.

ATHENIAN: Thus far, then, the old men's rational pastime has gone off

well.

CLEINIAS: You mean, I suppose, their serious and noble pursuit?

ATHENIAN: Perhaps; but I should like to know whether you and I are

agreed about a certain thing.

CLEINIAS: About what thing?

ATHENIAN: You know the endless labour which painters expend upon their

pictures--they are always putting in or taking out colours, or whatever

be the term which artists employ; they seem as if they would never cease

touching up their works, which are always being made brighter and more

beautiful.

CLEINIAS: I know something of these matters from report, although I have

never had any great acquaintance with the art.

ATHENIAN: No matter; we may make use of the illustration

notwithstanding:--Suppose that some one had a mind to paint a figure in

the most beautiful manner, in the hope that his work instead of losing

would always improve as time went on--do you not see that being a

mortal, unless he leaves some one to succeed him who will correct

the flaws which time may introduce, and be able to add what is left

imperfect through the defect of the artist, and who will further

brighten up and improve the picture, all his great labour will last but

a short time?

CLEINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: And is not the aim of the legislator similar? First,

he desires that his laws should be written down with all possible

exactness; in the second place, as time goes on and he has made an

actual trial of his decrees, will he not find omissions? Do you imagine

that there ever was a legislator so foolish as not to know that many

things are necessarily omitted, which some one coming after him must

correct, if the constitution and the order of government is not to

deteriorate, but to improve in the state which he has established?

CLEINIAS: Assuredly, that is the sort of thing which every one would

desire.

ATHENIAN: And if any one possesses any means of accomplishing this by

word or deed, or has any way great or small by which he can teach a

person to understand how he can maintain and amend the laws, he should

finish what he has to say, and not leave the work incomplete.

CLEINIAS: By all means.

ATHENIAN: And is not this what you and I have to do at the present

moment?

CLEINIAS: What have we to do?

ATHENIAN: As we are about to legislate and have chosen our guardians of

the law, and are ourselves in the evening of life, and they as compared

with us are young men, we ought not only to legislate for them, but to

endeavour to make them not only guardians of the law but legislators

themselves, as far as this is possible.

CLEINIAS: Certainly; if we can.

ATHENIAN: At any rate, we must do our best.

CLEINIAS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: We will say to them--O friends and saviours of our laws, in

laying down any law, there are many particulars which we shall omit,

and this cannot be helped; at the same time, we will do our utmost to

describe what is important, and will give an outline which you shall

fill up. And I will explain on what principle you are to act. Megillus

and Cleinias and I have often spoken to one another touching these

matters, and we are of opinion that we have spoken well. And we hope

that you will be of the same mind with us, and become our disciples, and

keep in view the things which in our united opinion the legislator and

guardian of the law ought to keep in view. There was one main point

about which we were agreed--that a man's whole energies throughout life

should be devoted to the acquisition of the virtue proper to a man,

whether this was to be gained by study, or habit, or some mode of

acquisition, or desire, or opinion, or knowledge--and this applies

equally to men and women, old and young--the aim of all should always be

such as I have described; anything which may be an impediment, the good

man ought to show that he utterly disregards. And if at last necessity

plainly compels him to be an outlaw from his native land, rather than

bow his neck to the yoke of slavery and be ruled by inferiors, and he

has to fly, an exile he must be and endure all such trials, rather than

accept another form of government, which is likely to make men worse.

These are our original principles; and do you now, fixing your eyes

upon the standard of what a man and a citizen ought or ought not to

be, praise and blame the laws--blame those which have not this power

of making the citizen better, but embrace those which have; and with

gladness receive and live in them; bidding a long farewell to other

institutions which aim at goods, as they are termed, of a different

kind.

Let us proceed to another class of laws, beginning with their foundation

in religion. And we must first return to the number 5040--the entire

number had, and has, a great many convenient divisions, and the number

of the tribes which was a twelfth part of the whole, being correctly

formed by 21 x 20 (5040/(21 x 20), i.e., 5040/420 = 12), also has them.

And not only is the whole number divisible by twelve, but also the

number of each tribe is divisible by twelve. Now every portion should be

regarded by us as a sacred gift of Heaven, corresponding to the months

and to the revolution of the universe (compare Tim.). Every city has a

guiding and sacred principle given by nature, but in some the division

or distribution has been more right than in others, and has been more

sacred and fortunate. In our opinion, nothing can be more right than the

selection of the number 5040, which may be divided by all numbers from

one to twelve with the single exception of eleven, and that admits of a

very easy correction; for if, turning to the dividend (5040), we deduct

two families, the defect in the division is cured. And the truth of this

may be easily proved when we have leisure. But for the present, trusting

to the mere assertion of this principle, let us divide the state; and

assigning to each portion some God or son of a God, let us give them

altars and sacred rites, and at the altars let us hold assemblies for

sacrifice twice in the month--twelve assemblies for the tribes, and

twelve for the city, according to their divisions; the first in honour

of the Gods and divine things, and the second to promote friendship

and 'better acquaintance,' as the phrase is, and every sort of good

fellowship with one another. For people must be acquainted with those

into whose families and whom they marry and with those to whom they give

in marriage; in such matters, as far as possible, a man should deem

it all important to avoid a mistake, and with this serious purpose let

games be instituted (compare Republic) in which youths and maidens shall

dance together, seeing one another and being seen naked, at a proper

age, and on a suitable occasion, not transgressing the rules of modesty.

The directors of choruses will be the superintendents and regulators

of these games, and they, together with the guardians of the law, will

legislate in any matters which we have omitted; for, as we said, where

there are numerous and minute details, the legislator must leave out

something. And the annual officers who have experience, and know what is

wanted, must make arrangements and improvements year by year, until

such enactments and provisions are sufficiently determined. A ten years'

experience of sacrifices and dances, if extending to all particulars,

will be quite sufficient; and if the legislator be alive they shall

communicate with him, but if he be dead then the several officers shall

refer the omissions which come under their notice to the guardians of

the law, and correct them, until all is perfect; and from that time

there shall be no more change, and they shall establish and use the new

laws with the others which the legislator originally gave them, and of

which they are never, if they can help, to change aught; or, if some

necessity overtakes them, the magistrates must be called into counsel,

and the whole people, and they must go to all the oracles of the Gods;

and if they are all agreed, in that case they may make the change, but

if they are not agreed, by no manner of means, and any one who dissents

shall prevail, as the law ordains.

Whenever any one over twenty-five years of age, having seen and been

seen by others, believes himself to have found a marriage connexion

which is to his mind, and suitable for the procreation of children, let

him marry if he be still under the age of five-and-thirty years; but

let him first hear how he ought to seek after what is suitable and

appropriate (compare Arist. Pol.). For, as Cleinias says, every law

should have a suitable prelude.

CLEINIAS: You recollect at the right moment, Stranger, and do not miss

the opportunity which the argument affords of saying a word in season.

ATHENIAN: I thank you. We will say to him who is born of good parents--O

my son, you ought to make such a marriage as wise men would approve. Now

they would advise you neither to avoid a poor marriage, nor specially

to desire a rich one; but if other things are equal, always to honour

inferiors, and with them to form connexions;--this will be for the

benefit of the city and of the families which are united; for the

equable and symmetrical tends infinitely more to virtue than the

unmixed. And he who is conscious of being too headstrong, and carried

away more than is fitting in all his actions, ought to desire to become

the relation of orderly parents; and he who is of the opposite temper

ought to seek the opposite alliance. Let there be one word concerning

all marriages:--Every man shall follow, not after the marriage which is

most pleasing to himself, but after that which is most beneficial to the

state. For somehow every one is by nature prone to that which is likest

to himself, and in this way the whole city becomes unequal in property

and in disposition; and hence there arise in most states the very

results which we least desire to happen. Now, to add to the law an

express provision, not only that the rich man shall not marry into the

rich family, nor the powerful into the family of the powerful, but that

the slower natures shall be compelled to enter into marriage with the

quicker, and the quicker with the slower, may awaken anger as well as

laughter in the minds of many; for there is a difficulty in perceiving

that the city ought to be well mingled like a cup, in which the

maddening wine is hot and fiery, but when chastened by a soberer God,

receives a fair associate and becomes an excellent and temperate drink

(compare Statesman). Yet in marriage no one is able to see that the same

result occurs. Wherefore also the law must let alone such matters, but

we should try to charm the spirits of men into believing the equability

of their children's disposition to be of more importance than equality

in excessive fortune when they marry; and him who is too desirous of

making a rich marriage we should endeavour to turn aside by reproaches,

not, however, by any compulsion of written law.

Let this then be our exhortation concerning marriage, and let us

remember what was said before--that a man should cling to immortality,

and leave behind him children's children to be the servants of God in

his place for ever. All this and much more may be truly said by way of

prelude about the duty of marriage. But if a man will not listen, and

remains unsocial and alien among his fellow-citizens, and is still

unmarried at thirty-five years of age, let him pay a yearly fine;--he

who of the highest class shall pay a fine of a hundred drachmae, and he

who is of the second class a fine of seventy drachmae; the third class

shall pay sixty drachmae, and the fourth thirty drachmae, and let the

money be sacred to Here; he who does not pay the fine annually shall owe

ten times the sum, which the treasurer of the goddess shall exact; and

if he fails in doing so, let him be answerable and give an account of

the money at his audit. He who refuses to marry shall be thus punished

in money, and also be deprived of all honour which the younger show to

the elder; let no young man voluntarily obey him, and, if he attempt to

punish any one, let every one come to the rescue and defend the injured

person, and he who is present and does not come to the rescue, shall be

pronounced by the law to be a coward and a bad citizen. Of the marriage

portion I have already spoken; and again I say for the instruction of

poor men that he who neither gives nor receives a dowry on account of

poverty, has a compensation; for the citizens of our state are provided

with the necessaries of life, and wives will be less likely to be

insolent, and husbands to be mean and subservient to them on account of

property. And he who obeys this law will do a noble action; but he who

will not obey, and gives or receives more than fifty drachmae as the

price of the marriage garments if he be of the lowest, or more than a

mina, or a mina-and-a-half, if he be of the third or second classes,

or two minae if he be of the highest class, shall owe to the public

treasury a similar sum, and that which is given or received shall be

sacred to Here and Zeus; and let the treasurers of these Gods exact the

money, as was said before about the unmarried--that the treasurers of

Here were to exact the money, or pay the fine themselves.

The betrothal by a father shall be valid in the first degree, that by a

grandfather in the second degree, and in the third degree, betrothal by

brothers who have the same father; but if there are none of these alive,

the betrothal by a mother shall be valid in like manner; in cases

of unexampled fatality, the next of kin and the guardians shall have

authority. What are to be the rites before marriages, or any other

sacred acts, relating either to future, present, or past marriages,

shall be referred to the interpreters; and he who follows their advice

may be satisfied. Touching the marriage festival, they shall assemble

not more than five male and five female friends of both families; and

a like number of members of the family of either sex, and no man shall

spend more than his means will allow; he who is of the richest class

may spend a mina,--he who is of the second, half a mina, and in the same

proportion as the census of each decreases: all men shall praise him who

is obedient to the law; but he who is disobedient shall be punished

by the guardians of the law as a man wanting in true taste, and

uninstructed in the laws of bridal song. Drunkenness is always improper,

except at the festivals of the God who gave wine; and peculiarly

dangerous, when a man is engaged in the business of marriage; at such

a crisis of their lives a bride and bridegroom ought to have all their

wits about them--they ought to take care that their offspring may be

born of reasonable beings; for on what day or night Heaven will give

them increase, who can say? Moreover, they ought not to begetting

children when their bodies are dissipated by intoxication, but their

offspring should be compact and solid, quiet and compounded properly;

whereas the drunkard is all abroad in all his actions, and beside

himself both in body and soul. Wherefore, also, the drunken man is bad

and unsteady in sowing the seed of increase, and is likely to beget

offspring who will be unstable and untrustworthy, and cannot be expected

to walk straight either in body or mind. Hence during the whole year

and all his life long, and especially while he is begetting children, he

ought to take care and not intentionally do what is injurious to health,

or what involves insolence and wrong; for he cannot help leaving the

impression of himself on the souls and bodies of his offspring, and he

begets children in every way inferior. And especially on the day

and night of marriage should a man abstain from such things. For the

beginning, which is also a God dwelling in man, preserves all things,

if it meet with proper respect from each individual. He who marries is

further to consider, that one of the two houses in the lot is the nest

and nursery of his young, and there he is to marry and make a home

for himself and bring up his children, going away from his father and

mother. For in friendships there must be some degree of desire, in order

to cement and bind together diversities of character; but excessive

intercourse not having the desire which is created by time, insensibly

dissolves friendships from a feeling of satiety; wherefore a man and

his wife shall leave to his and her father and mother their own

dwelling-places, and themselves go as to a colony and dwell there, and

visit and be visited by their parents; and they shall beget and bring up

children, handing on the torch of life from one generation to another,

and worshipping the Gods according to law for ever.

In the next place, we have to consider what sort of property will be

most convenient. There is no difficulty either in understanding or

acquiring most kinds of property, but there is great difficulty in what

relates to slaves. And the reason is, that we speak about them in a way

which is right and which is not right; for what we say about our slaves

is consistent and also inconsistent with our practice about them.

MEGILLUS: I do not understand, Stranger, what you mean.

ATHENIAN: I am not surprised, Megillus, for the state of the Helots

among the Lacedaemonians is of all Hellenic forms of slavery the most

controverted and disputed about, some approving and some condemning

it; there is less dispute about the slavery which exists among the

Heracleots, who have subjugated the Mariandynians, and about the

Thessalian Penestae. Looking at these and the like examples, what ought

we to do concerning property in slaves? I made a remark, in passing,

which naturally elicited a question about my meaning from you. It was

this:--We know that all would agree that we should have the best and

most attached slaves whom we can get. For many a man has found his

slaves better in every way than brethren or sons, and many times they

have saved the lives and property of their masters and their whole

house--such tales are well known.

MEGILLUS: To be sure.

ATHENIAN: But may we not also say that the soul of the slave is utterly

corrupt, and that no man of sense ought to trust them? And the wisest of

our poets, speaking of Zeus, says:

'Far-seeing Zeus takes away half the understanding of men whom the day

of slavery subdues.'

Different persons have got these two different notions of slaves in

their minds--some of them utterly distrust their servants, and, as if

they were wild beasts, chastise them with goads and whips, and make

their souls three times, or rather many times, as slavish as they were

before;--and others do just the opposite.

MEGILLUS: True.

CLEINIAS: Then what are we to do in our own country, Stranger, seeing

that there are such differences in the treatment of slaves by their

owners?

ATHENIAN: Well, Cleinias, there can be no doubt that man is a

troublesome animal, and therefore he is not very manageable, nor likely

to become so, when you attempt to introduce the necessary division of

slave, and freeman, and master.

CLEINIAS: That is obvious.

ATHENIAN: He is a troublesome piece of goods, as has been often shown

by the frequent revolts of the Messenians, and the great mischiefs which

happen in states having many slaves who speak the same language, and the

numerous robberies and lawless life of the Italian banditti, as they are

called. A man who considers all this is fairly at a loss. Two remedies

alone remain to us,--not to have the slaves of the same country, nor if

possible, speaking the same language (compare Aris. Pol.); in this way

they will more easily be held in subjection: secondly, we should tend

them carefully, not only out of regard to them, but yet more out of

respect to ourselves. And the right treatment of slaves is to behave

properly to them, and to do to them, if possible, even more justice

than to those who are our equals; for he who naturally and genuinely

reverences justice, and hates injustice, is discovered in his dealings

with any class of men to whom he can easily be unjust. And he who in

regard to the natures and actions of his slaves is undefiled by impiety

and injustice, will best sow the seeds of virtue in them; and this may

be truly said of every master, and tyrant, and of every other having

authority in relation to his inferiors. Slaves ought to be punished as

they deserve, and not admonished as if they were freemen, which will

only make them conceited. The language used to a servant ought always

to be that of a command (compare Arist. Pol.), and we ought not to jest

with them, whether they are males or females--this is a foolish way

which many people have of setting up their slaves, and making the life

of servitude more disagreeable both for them and for their masters.

CLEINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: Now that each of the citizens is provided, as far as possible,

with a sufficient number of suitable slaves who can help him in what he

has to do, we may next proceed to describe their dwellings.

CLEINIAS: Very good.

ATHENIAN: The city being new and hitherto uninhabited, care ought to be

taken of all the buildings, and the manner of building each of them,

and also of the temples and walls. These, Cleinias, were matters which

properly came before the marriages;--but, as we are only talking,

there is no objection to changing the order. If, however, our plan of

legislation is ever to take effect, then the house shall precede the

marriage if God so will, and afterwards we will come to the regulations

about marriage; but at present we are only describing these matters in a

general outline.

CLEINIAS: Quite true.

ATHENIAN: The temples are to be placed all round the agora, and the

whole city built on the heights in a circle (compare Arist. Pol.), for

the sake of defence and for the sake of purity. Near the temples are to

be placed buildings for the magistrates and the courts of law; in these

plaintiff and defendant will receive their due, and the places will be

regarded as most holy, partly because they have to do with holy things:

and partly because they are the dwelling-places of holy Gods: and in

them will be held the courts in which cases of homicide and other trials

of capital offences may fitly take place. As to the walls, Megillus, I

agree with Sparta in thinking that they should be allowed to sleep in

the earth, and that we should not attempt to disinter them (compare

Arist. Pol.); there is a poetical saying, which is finely expressed,

that 'walls ought to be of steel and iron, and not of earth;' besides,

how ridiculous of us to be sending out our young men annually into

the country to dig and to trench, and to keep off the enemy by

fortifications, under the idea that they are not to be allowed to set

foot in our territory, and then, that we should surround ourselves

with a wall, which, in the first place, is by no means conducive to the

health of cities, and is also apt to produce a certain effeminacy in

the minds of the inhabitants, inviting men to run thither instead of

repelling their enemies, and leading them to imagine that their safety

is due not to their keeping guard day and night, but that when they are

protected by walls and gates, then they may sleep in safety; as if they

were not meant to labour, and did not know that true repose comes from

labour, and that disgraceful indolence and a careless temper of mind

is only the renewal of trouble. But if men must have walls, the private

houses ought to be so arranged from the first that the whole city may

be one wall, having all the houses capable of defence by reason of their

uniformity and equality towards the streets (compare Arist. Pol.). The

form of the city being that of a single dwelling will have an agreeable

aspect, and being easily guarded will be infinitely better for security.

Until the original building is completed, these should be the principal

objects of the inhabitants; and the wardens of the city should

superintend the work, and should impose a fine on him who is negligent;

and in all that relates to the city they should have a care of

cleanliness, and not allow a private person to encroach upon any public

property either by buildings or excavations. Further, they ought to

take care that the rains from heaven flow off easily, and of any other

matters which may have to be administered either within or without the

city. The guardians of the law shall pass any further enactments which

their experience may show to be necessary, and supply any other points

in which the law may be deficient. And now that these matters, and the

buildings about the agora, and the gymnasia, and places of instruction,

and theatres, are all ready and waiting for scholars and spectators,

let us proceed to the subjects which follow marriage in the order of

legislation.

CLEINIAS: By all means.

ATHENIAN: Assuming that marriages exist already, Cleinias, the mode

of life during the year after marriage, before children are born, will

follow next in order. In what way bride and bridegroom ought to live in

a city which is to be superior to other cities, is a matter not at all

easy for us to determine. There have been many difficulties already,

but this will be the greatest of them, and the most disagreeable to the

many. Still I cannot but say what appears to me to be right and true,

Cleinias.

CLEINIAS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: He who imagines that he can give laws for the public conduct

of states, while he leaves the private life of citizens wholly to take

care of itself; who thinks that individuals may pass the day as they

please, and that there is no necessity of order in all things; he, I

say, who gives up the control of their private lives, and supposes that

they will conform to law in their common and public life, is making a

great mistake. Why have I made this remark? Why, because I am going to

enact that the bridegrooms should live at the common tables, just as

they did before marriage. This was a singularity when first enacted by

the legislator in your parts of the world, Megillus and Cleinias, as

I should suppose, on the occasion of some war or other similar danger,

which caused the passing of the law, and which would be likely to occur

in thinly-peopled places, and in times of pressure. But when men had

once tried and been accustomed to a common table, experience showed that

the institution greatly conduced to security; and in some such manner

the custom of having common tables arose among you.

CLEINIAS: Likely enough.

ATHENIAN: I said that there may have been singularity and danger in

imposing such a custom at first, but that now there is not the same

difficulty. There is, however, another institution which is the natural

sequel to this, and would be excellent, if it existed anywhere, but at

present it does not. The institution of which I am about to speak is not

easily described or executed; and would be like the legislator 'combing

wool into the fire,' as people say, or performing any other impossible

and useless feat.

CLEINIAS: What is the cause, Stranger, of this extreme hesitation?

ATHENIAN: You shall hear without any fruitless loss of time. That which

has law and order in a state is the cause of every good, but that

which is disordered or ill-ordered is often the ruin of that which is

well-ordered; and at this point the argument is now waiting. For with

you, Cleinias and Megillus, the common tables of men are, as I said, a

heaven-born and admirable institution, but you are mistaken in leaving

the women unregulated by law. They have no similar institution of public

tables in the light of day, and just that part of the human race

which is by nature prone to secrecy and stealth on account of their

weakness--I mean the female sex--has been left without regulation by

the legislator, which is a great mistake. And, in consequence of this

neglect, many things have grown lax among you, which might have been

far better, if they had been only regulated by law; for the neglect of

regulations about women may not only be regarded as a neglect of half

the entire matter (Arist. Pol.), but in proportion as woman's nature

is inferior to that of men in capacity for virtue, in that degree the

consequence of such neglect is more than twice as important. The careful

consideration of this matter, and the arranging and ordering on a

common principle of all our institutions relating both to men and women,

greatly conduces to the happiness of the state. But at present, such

is the unfortunate condition of mankind, that no man of sense will even

venture to speak of common tables in places and cities in which they

have never been established at all; and how can any one avoid being

utterly ridiculous, who attempts to compel women to show in public

how much they eat and drink? There is nothing at which the sex is more

likely to take offence. For women are accustomed to creep into dark

places, and when dragged out into the light they will exert their

utmost powers of resistance, and be far too much for the legislator. And

therefore, as I said before, in most places they will not endure to have

the truth spoken without raising a tremendous outcry, but in this state

perhaps they may. And if we may assume that our whole discussion about

the state has not been mere idle talk, I should like to prove to you,

if you will consent to listen, that this institution is good and proper;

but if you had rather not, I will refrain.

CLEINIAS: There is nothing which we should both of us like better,

Stranger, than to hear what you have to say.

ATHENIAN: Very good; and you must not be surprised if I go back a

little, for we have plenty of leisure, and there is nothing to prevent

us from considering in every point of view the subject of law.

CLEINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: Then let us return once more to what we were saying at first.

Every man should understand that the human race either had no beginning

at all, and will never have an end, but always will be and has been; or

that it began an immense while ago.

CLEINIAS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: Well, and have there not been constitutions and destructions

of states, and all sorts of pursuits both orderly and disorderly, and

diverse desires of meats and drinks always, and in all the world, and

all sorts of changes of the seasons in which animals may be expected to

have undergone innumerable transformations of themselves?

CLEINIAS: No doubt.

ATHENIAN: And may we not suppose that vines appeared, which had

previously no existence, and also olives, and the gifts of Demeter

and her daughter, of which one Triptolemus was the minister, and that,

before these existed, animals took to devouring each other as they do

still?

CLEINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: Again, the practice of men sacrificing one another still

exists among many nations; while, on the other hand, we hear of other

human beings who did not even venture to taste the flesh of a cow and

had no animal sacrifices, but only cakes and fruits dipped in honey,

and similar pure offerings, but no flesh of animals; from these they

abstained under the idea that they ought not to eat them, and might not

stain the altars of the Gods with blood. For in those days men are said

to have lived a sort of Orphic life, having the use of all lifeless

things, but abstaining from all living things.

CLEINIAS: Such has been the constant tradition, and is very likely true.

ATHENIAN: Some one might say to us, What is the drift of all this?

CLEINIAS: A very pertinent question, Stranger.

ATHENIAN: And therefore I will endeavour, Cleinias, if I can, to draw

the natural inference.

CLEINIAS: Proceed.

ATHENIAN: I see that among men all things depend upon three wants and

desires, of which the end is virtue, if they are rightly led by them, or

the opposite if wrongly. Now these are eating and drinking, which begin

at birth--every animal has a natural desire for them, and is violently

excited, and rebels against him who says that he must not satisfy

all his pleasures and appetites, and get rid of all the corresponding

pains--and the third and greatest and sharpest want and desire breaks

out last, and is the fire of sexual lust, which kindles in men every

species of wantonness and madness. And these three disorders we must

endeavour to master by the three great principles of fear and law and

right reason; turning them away from that which is called pleasantest

to the best, using the Muses and the Gods who preside over contests to

extinguish their increase and influx.

But to return:--After marriage let us speak of the birth of children,

and after their birth of their nurture and education. In the course

of discussion the several laws will be perfected, and we shall at

last arrive at the common tables. Whether such associations are to be

confined to men, or extended to women also, we shall see better when we

approach and take a nearer view of them; and we may then determine what

previous institutions are required and will have to precede them. As I

said before, we shall see them more in detail, and shall be better able

to lay down the laws which are proper or suited to them.

CLEINIAS: Very true.

ATHENIAN: Let us keep in mind the words which have now been spoken; for

hereafter there may be need of them.

CLEINIAS: What do you bid us keep in mind?

ATHENIAN: That which we comprehended under the three words--first,

eating, secondly, drinking, thirdly, the excitement of love.

CLEINIAS: We shall be sure to remember, Stranger.

ATHENIAN: Very good. Then let us now proceed to marriage, and teach

persons in what way they shall beget children, threatening them, if they

disobey, with the terrors of the law.

CLEINIAS: What do you mean?

ATHENIAN: The bride and bridegroom should consider that they are to

produce for the state the best and fairest specimens of children which

they can. Now all men who are associated in any action always succeed

when they attend and give their mind to what they are doing, but when

they do not give their mind or have no mind, they fail; wherefore

let the bridegroom give his mind to the bride and to the begetting of

children, and the bride in like manner give her mind to the bridegroom,

and particularly at the time when their children are not yet born. And

let the women whom we have chosen be the overseers of such matters, and

let them in whatever number, large or small, and at whatever time the

magistrates may command, assemble every day in the temple of Eileithyia

during a third part of the day, and being there assembled, let them

inform one another of any one whom they see, whether man or woman, of

those who are begetting children, disregarding the ordinances given at

the time when the nuptial sacrifices and ceremonies were performed. Let

the begetting of children and the supervision of those who are begetting

them continue ten years and no longer, during the time when marriage is

fruitful. But if any continue without children up to this time, let them

take counsel with their kindred and with the women holding the office

of overseer and be divorced for their mutual benefit. If, however,

any dispute arises about what is proper and for the interest of either

party, they shall choose ten of the guardians of the law and abide

by their permission and appointment. The women who preside over

these matters shall enter into the houses of the young, and partly by

admonitions and partly by threats make them give over their folly and

error: if they persist, let the women go and tell the guardians of

the law, and the guardians shall prevent them. But if they too cannot

prevent them, they shall bring the matter before the people; and let

them write up their names and make oath that they cannot reform such and

such an one; and let him who is thus written up, if he cannot in a court

of law convict those who have inscribed his name, be deprived of the

privileges of a citizen in the following respects:--let him not go to

weddings nor to the thanksgivings after the birth of children; and if he

go, let any one who pleases strike him with impunity; and let the same

regulations hold about women: let not a woman be allowed to appear

abroad, or receive honour, or go to nuptial and birthday festivals, if

she in like manner be written up as acting disorderly and cannot obtain

a verdict. And if, when they themselves have done begetting children

according to the law, a man or woman have connexion with another man

or woman who are still begetting children, let the same penalties be

inflicted upon them as upon those who are still having a family; and

when the time for procreation has passed let the man or woman who

refrains in such matters be held in esteem, and let those who do not

refrain be held in the contrary of esteem--that is to say, disesteem.

Now, if the greater part of mankind behave modestly, the enactments of

law may be left to slumber; but, if they are disorderly, the enactments

having been passed, let them be carried into execution. To every man the

first year is the beginning of life, and the time of birth ought to

be written down in the temples of their fathers as the beginning of

existence to every child, whether boy or girl. Let every phratria have

inscribed on a whited wall the names of the successive archons by whom

the years are reckoned. And near to them let the living members of the

phratria be inscribed, and when they depart life let them be erased. The

limit of marriageable ages for a woman shall be from sixteen to twenty

years at the longest,--for a man, from thirty to thirty-five years; and

let a woman hold office at forty, and a man at thirty years. Let a man

go out to war from twenty to sixty years, and for a woman, if there

appear any need to make use of her in military service, let the time of

service be after she shall have brought forth children up to fifty years

of age; and let regard be had to what is possible and suitable to each.