ATHENIAN: Next, with the help of the Delphian oracle, we have to
institute festivals and make laws about them, and to determine what
sacrifices will be for the good of the city, and to what Gods they shall
be offered; but when they shall be offered, and how often, may be partly
regulated by us.
CLEINIAS: The number--yes.
ATHENIAN: Then we will first determine the number; and let the whole
number be 365--one for every day--so that one magistrate at least will
sacrifice daily to some God or demi-god on behalf of the city, and the
citizens, and their possessions. And the interpreters, and priests, and
priestesses, and prophets shall meet, and, in company with the guardians
of the law, ordain those things which the legislator of necessity omits;
and I may remark that they are the very persons who ought to take
note of what is omitted. The law will say that there are twelve feasts
dedicated to the twelve Gods, after whom the several tribes are named;
and that to each of them they shall sacrifice every month, and appoint
choruses, and musical and gymnastic contests, assigning them so as to
suit the Gods and seasons of the year. And they shall have festivals for
women, distinguishing those which ought to be separated from the men's
festivals, and those which ought not. Further, they shall not confuse
the infernal deities and their rites with the Gods who are termed
heavenly and their rites, but shall separate them, giving to Pluto his
own in the twelfth month, which is sacred to him, according to the
law. To such a deity warlike men should entertain no aversion, but
they should honour him as being always the best friend of man. For the
connexion of soul and body is no way better than the dissolution of
them, as I am ready to maintain quite seriously. Moreover, those who
would regulate these matters rightly should consider, that our city
among existing cities has no fellow, either in respect of leisure or
command of the necessaries of life, and that like an individual she
ought to live happily. And those who would live happily should in the
first place do no wrong to one another, and ought not themselves to be
wronged by others; to attain the first is not difficult, but there is
great difficulty in acquiring the power of not being wronged. No man can
be perfectly secure against wrong, unless he has become perfectly good;
and cities are like individuals in this, for a city if good has a life
of peace, but if evil, a life of war within and without. Wherefore the
citizens ought to practise war--not in time of war, but rather while
they are at peace. And every city which has any sense, should take
the field at least for one day in every month, and for more if the
magistrates think fit, having no regard to winter cold or summer
heat; and they should go out en masse, including their wives and their
children, when the magistrates determine to lead forth the whole people,
or in separate portions when summoned by them; and they should always
provide that there should be games and sacrificial feasts, and they
should have tournaments, imitating in as lively a manner as they can
real battles. And they should distribute prizes of victory and valour to
the competitors, passing censures and encomiums on one another according
to the characters which they bear in the contests and in their whole
life, honouring him who seems to be the best, and blaming him who is the
opposite. And let poets celebrate the victors--not however every poet,
but only one who in the first place is not less than fifty years of
age; nor should he be one who, although he may have musical and poetical
gifts, has never in his life done any noble or illustrious action; but
those who are themselves good and also honourable in the state, creators
of noble actions--let their poems be sung, even though they be not very
musical. And let the judgment of them rest with the instructor of youth
and the other guardians of the laws, who shall give them this privilege,
and they alone shall be free to sing; but the rest of the world shall
not have this liberty. Nor shall any one dare to sing a song which has
not been approved by the judgment of the guardians of the laws, not even
if his strain be sweeter than the songs of Thamyras and Orpheus; but
only such poems as have been judged sacred and dedicated to the Gods,
and such as are the works of good men, in which praise or blame has been
awarded and which have been deemed to fulfil their design fairly.
The regulations about war, and about liberty of speech in poetry, ought
to apply equally to men and women. The legislator may be supposed to
argue the question in his own mind: Who are my citizens for whom I have
set in order the city? Are they not competitors in the greatest of all
contests, and have they not innumerable rivals? To be sure, will be the
natural reply. Well, but if we were training boxers, or pancratiasts,
or any other sort of athletes, would they never meet until the hour
of contest arrived; and should we do nothing to prepare ourselves
previously by daily practice? Surely, if we were boxers, we should have
been learning to fight for many days before, and exercising ourselves
in imitating all those blows and wards which we were intending to use in
the hour of conflict; and in order that we might come as near to reality
as possible, instead of cestuses we should put on boxing-gloves, that
the blows and the wards might be practised by us to the utmost of our
power. And if there were a lack of competitors, the ridicule of fools
would not deter us from hanging up a lifeless image and practising at
that. Or if we had no adversary at all, animate or inanimate, should we
not venture in the dearth of antagonists to spar by ourselves? In what
other manner could we ever study the art of self-defence?
CLEINIAS: The way which you mention, Stranger, would be the only way.
ATHENIAN: And shall the warriors of our city, who are destined when
occasion calls to enter the greatest of all contests, and to fight for
their lives, and their children, and their property, and the whole city,
be worse prepared than boxers? And will the legislator, because he
is afraid that their practising with one another may appear to some
ridiculous, abstain from commanding them to go out and fight; will he
not ordain that soldiers shall perform lesser exercises without arms
every day, making dancing and all gymnastic tend to this end; and also
will he not require that they shall practise some gymnastic exercises,
greater as well as lesser, as often as every month; and that they shall
have contests one with another in every part of the country, seizing
upon posts and lying in ambush, and imitating in every respect the
reality of war; fighting with boxing-gloves and hurling javelins, and
using weapons somewhat dangerous, and as nearly as possible like the
true ones, in order that the sport may not be altogether without fear,
but may have terrors and to a certain degree show the man who has
and who has not courage; and that the honour and dishonour which are
assigned to them respectively, may prepare the whole city for the true
conflict of life? If any one dies in these mimic contests, the homicide
is involuntary, and we will make the slayer, when he has been purified
according to law, to be pure of blood, considering that if a few men
should die, others as good as they will be born; but that if fear is
dead, then the citizens will never find a test of superior and inferior
natures, which is a far greater evil to the state than the loss of a
few.
CLEINIAS: We are quite agreed, Stranger, that we should legislate about
such things, and that the whole state should practise them.
ATHENIAN: And what is the reason that dances and contests of this sort
hardly ever exist in states, at least not to any extent worth speaking
of? Is this due to the ignorance of mankind and their legislators?
CLEINIAS: Perhaps.
ATHENIAN: Certainly not, sweet Cleinias; there are two causes, which are
quite enough to account for the deficiency.
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: One cause is the love of wealth, which wholly absorbs men,
and never for a moment allows them to think of anything but their own
private possessions; on this the soul of every citizen hangs suspended,
and can attend to nothing but his daily gain; mankind are ready to learn
any branch of knowledge, and to follow any pursuit which tends to this
end, and they laugh at every other: that is one reason why a city will
not be in earnest about such contests or any other good and honourable
pursuit. But from an insatiable love of gold and silver, every man will
stoop to any art or contrivance, seemly or unseemly, in the hope of
becoming rich; and will make no objection to performing any action,
holy, or unholy and utterly base; if only like a beast he have the power
of eating and drinking all kinds of things, and procuring for himself in
every sort of way the gratification of his lusts.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Let this, then, be deemed one of the causes which prevent
states from pursuing in an efficient manner the art of war, or any other
noble aim, but makes the orderly and temperate part of mankind into
merchants, and captains of ships, and servants, and converts the valiant
sort into thieves and burglars, and robbers of temples, and violent,
tyrannical persons; many of whom are not without ability, but they are
unfortunate.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: Must not they be truly unfortunate whose souls are compelled
to pass through life always hungering?
CLEINIAS: Then that is one cause, Stranger; but you spoke of another.
ATHENIAN: Thank you for reminding me.
CLEINIAS: The insatiable lifelong love of wealth, as you were saying,
is one cause which absorbs mankind, and prevents them from rightly
practising the arts of war: Granted; and now tell me, what is the other?
ATHENIAN: Do you imagine that I delay because I am in a perplexity?
CLEINIAS: No; but we think that you are too severe upon the money-loving
temper, of which you seem in the present discussion to have a peculiar
dislike.
ATHENIAN: That is a very fair rebuke, Cleinias; and I will now proceed
to the second cause.
CLEINIAS: Proceed.
ATHENIAN: I say that governments are a cause--democracy, oligarchy,
tyranny, concerning which I have often spoken in the previous discourse;
or rather governments they are not, for none of them exercises a
voluntary rule over voluntary subjects; but they may be truly called
states of discord, in which while the government is voluntary, the
subjects always obey against their will, and have to be coerced; and
the ruler fears the subject, and will not, if he can help, allow him to
become either noble, or rich, or strong, or valiant, or warlike at all.
These two are the chief causes of almost all evils, and of the evils of
which I have been speaking they are notably the causes. But our state
has escaped both of them; for her citizens have the greatest leisure,
and they are not subject to one another, and will, I think, be made by
these laws the reverse of lovers of money. Such a constitution may be
reasonably supposed to be the only one existing which will accept the
education which we have described, and the martial pastimes which have
been perfected according to our idea.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Then next we must remember, about all gymnastic contests, that
only the warlike sort of them are to be practised and to have prizes
of victory; and those which are not military are to be given up. The
military sort had better be completely described and established by law;
and first, let us speak of running and swiftness.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Certainly the most military of all qualities is general
activity of body, whether of foot or hand. For escaping or for capturing
an enemy, quickness of foot is required; but hand-to-hand conflict and
combat need vigour and strength.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Neither of them can attain their greatest efficiency without
arms.
CLEINIAS: How can they?
ATHENIAN: Then our herald, in accordance with the prevailing practice,
will first summon the runner--he will appear armed, for to an unarmed
competitor we will not give a prize. And he shall enter first who is to
run the single course bearing arms; next, he who is to run the double
course; third, he who is to run the horse-course; and fourthly, he who
is to run the long course; the fifth whom we start, shall be the first
sent forth in heavy armour, and shall run a course of sixty stadia to
some temple of Ares--and we will send forth another, whom we will style
the more heavily armed, to run over smoother ground. There remains the
archer; and he shall run in the full equipments of an archer a distance
of 100 stadia over mountains, and across every sort of country, to a
temple of Apollo and Artemis; this shall be the order of the contest,
and we will wait for them until they return, and will give a prize to
the conqueror in each.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Let us suppose that there are three kinds of contests--one of
boys, another of beardless youths, and a third of men. For the youths
we will fix the length of the contest at two-thirds, and for the boys
at half of the entire course, whether they contend as archers or as
heavy-armed. Touching the women, let the girls who are not grown up
compete naked in the stadium and the double course, and the horse-course
and the long course, and let them run on the race-ground itself; those
who are thirteen years of age and upwards until their marriage shall
continue to share in contests if they are not more than twenty, and
shall be compelled to run up to eighteen; and they shall descend into
the arena in suitable dresses. Let these be the regulations about
contests in running both for men and women.
Respecting contests of strength, instead of wrestling and similar
contests of the heavier sort, we will institute conflicts in armour of
one against one, and two against two, and so on up to ten against ten.
As to what a man ought not to suffer or do, and to what extent, in order
to gain the victory--as in wrestling, the masters of the art have laid
down what is fair and what is not fair, so in fighting in armour--we
ought to call in skilful persons, who shall judge for us and be our
assessors in the work of legislation; they shall say who deserves to be
victor in combats of this sort, and what he is not to do or have done
to him, and in like manner what rule determines who is defeated; and
let these ordinances apply to women until they are married as well as
to men. The pancration shall have a counterpart in a combat of the
light-armed; they shall contend with bows and with light shields and
with javelins and in the throwing of stones by slings and by hand: and
laws shall be made about it, and rewards and prizes given to him who
best fulfils the ordinances of the law.
Next in order we shall have to legislate about the horse contests. Now
we do not need many horses, for they cannot be of much use in a country
like Crete, and hence we naturally do not take great pains about the
rearing of them or about horse races. There is no one who keeps a
chariot among us, and any rivalry in such matters would be altogether
out of place; there would be no sense nor any shadow of sense in
instituting contests which are not after the manner of our country. And
therefore we give our prizes for single horses--for colts who have not
yet cast their teeth, and for those who are intermediate, and for the
full-grown horses themselves; and thus our equestrian games will accord
with the nature of the country. Let them have conflict and rivalry
in these matters in accordance with the law, and let the colonels and
generals of horse decide together about all courses and about the armed
competitors in them. But we have nothing to say to the unarmed either in
gymnastic exercises or in these contests. On the other hand, the Cretan
bowman or javelin-man who fights in armour on horseback is useful, and
therefore we may as well place a competition of this sort among
our amusements. Women are not to be forced to compete by laws and
ordinances; but if from previous training they have acquired the habit
and are strong enough and like to take part, let them do so, girls as
well as boys, and no blame to them.
Thus the competition in gymnastic and the mode of learning it have been
described; and we have spoken also of the toils of the contest, and of
daily exercises under the superintendence of masters. Likewise, what
relates to music has been, for the most part, completed. But as to
rhapsodes and the like, and the contests of choruses which are to
perform at feasts, all this shall be arranged when the months and days
and years have been appointed for Gods and demi-gods, whether every
third year, or again every fifth year, or in whatever way or manner the
Gods may put into men's minds the distribution and order of them. At the
same time, we may expect that the musical contests will be celebrated
in their turn by the command of the judges and the director of education
and the guardians of the law meeting together for this purpose, and
themselves becoming legislators of the times and nature and conditions
of the choral contests and of dancing in general. What they ought
severally to be in language and song, and in the admixture of harmony
with rhythm and the dance, has been often declared by the original
legislator; and his successors ought to follow him, making the games and
sacrifices duly to correspond at fitting times, and appointing public
festivals. It is not difficult to determine how these and the like
matters may have a regular order; nor, again, will the alteration of
them do any great good or harm to the state. There is, however, another
matter of great importance and difficulty, concerning which God should
legislate, if there were any possibility of obtaining from Him an
ordinance about it. But seeing that divine aid is not to be had, there
appears to be a need of some bold man who specially honours plainness
of speech, and will say outright what he thinks best for the city and
citizens--ordaining what is good and convenient for the whole state amid
the corruptions of human souls, opposing the mightiest lusts, and having
no man his helper but himself standing alone and following reason only.
CLEINIAS: What is this, Stranger, that you are saying? For we do not as
yet understand your meaning.
ATHENIAN: Very likely; I will endeavour to explain myself more clearly.
When I came to the subject of education, I beheld young men and maidens
holding friendly intercourse with one another. And there naturally arose
in my mind a sort of apprehension--I could not help thinking how one is
to deal with a city in which youths and maidens are well nurtured, and
have nothing to do, and are not undergoing the excessive and servile
toils which extinguish wantonness, and whose only cares during their
whole life are sacrifices and festivals and dances. How, in such a state
as this, will they abstain from desires which thrust many a man and
woman into perdition; and from which reason, assuming the functions of
law, commands them to abstain? The ordinances already made may possibly
get the better of most of these desires; the prohibition of excessive
wealth is a very considerable gain in the direction of temperance, and
the whole education of our youth imposes a law of moderation on them;
moreover, the eye of the rulers is required always to watch over the
young, and never to lose sight of them; and these provisions do, as far
as human means can effect anything, exercise a regulating influence
upon the desires in general. But how can we take precautions against the
unnatural loves of either sex, from which innumerable evils have come
upon individuals and cities? How shall we devise a remedy and way of
escape out of so great a danger? Truly, Cleinias, here is a difficulty.
In many ways Crete and Lacedaemon furnish a great help to those who
make peculiar laws; but in the matter of love, as we are alone, I must
confess that they are quite against us. For if any one following nature
should lay down the law which existed before the days of Laius, and
denounce these lusts as contrary to nature, adducing the animals as a
proof that such unions were monstrous, he might prove his point, but
he would be wholly at variance with the custom of your states. Further,
they are repugnant to a principle which we say that a legislator should
always observe; for we are always enquiring which of our enactments
tends to virtue and which not. And suppose we grant that these loves are
accounted by law to the honourable, or at least not disgraceful, in what
degree will they contribute to virtue? Will such passions implant in the
soul of him who is seduced the habit of courage, or in the soul of the
seducer the principle of temperance? Who will ever believe this? or
rather, who will not blame the effeminacy of him who yields to pleasures
and is unable to hold out against them? Will not all men censure
as womanly him who imitates the woman? And who would ever think of
establishing such a practice by law? certainly no one who had in his
mind the image of true law. How can we prove that what I am saying is
true? He who would rightly consider these matters must see the nature of
friendship and desire, and of these so-called loves, for they are of two
kinds, and out of the two arises a third kind, having the same name; and
this similarity of name causes all the difficulty and obscurity.
CLEINIAS: How is that?
ATHENIAN: Dear is the like in virtue to the like, and the equal to the
equal; dear also, though unlike, is he who has abundance to him who is
in want. And when either of these friendships becomes excessive, we term
the excess love.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: The friendship which arises from contraries is horrible and
coarse, and has often no tie of communion; but that which arises from
likeness is gentle, and has a tie of communion which lasts through life.
As to the mixed sort which is made up of them both, there is, first of
all, a difficulty in determining what he who is possessed by this third
love desires; moreover, he is drawn different ways, and is in doubt
between the two principles; the one exhorting him to enjoy the beauty of
youth, and the other forbidding him. For the one is a lover of the
body, and hungers after beauty, like ripe fruit, and would fain satisfy
himself without any regard to the character of the beloved; the other
holds the desire of the body to be a secondary matter, and looking
rather than loving and with his soul desiring the soul of the other in
a becoming manner, regards the satisfaction of the bodily love as
wantonness; he reverences and respects temperance and courage and
magnanimity and wisdom, and wishes to live chastely with the chaste
object of his affection. Now the sort of love which is made up of the
other two is that which we have described as the third. Seeing then
that there are these three sorts of love, ought the law to prohibit and
forbid them all to exist among us? Is it not rather clear that we should
wish to have in the state the love which is of virtue and which desires
the beloved youth to be the best possible; and the other two, if
possible, we should hinder? What do you say, friend Megillus?
MEGILLUS: I think, Stranger, that you are perfectly right in what you
have been now saying.
Athenian: I knew well, my friend, that I should obtain your assent,
which I accept, and therefore have no need to analyze your custom any
further. Cleinias shall be prevailed upon to give me his assent at some
other time. Enough of this; and now let us proceed to the laws.
MEGILLUS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Upon reflection I see a way of imposing the law, which, in one
respect, is easy, but, in another, is of the utmost difficulty.
MEGILLUS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: We are all aware that most men, in spite of their lawless
natures, are very strictly and precisely restrained from intercourse
with the fair, and this is not at all against their will, but entirely
with their will.
MEGILLUS: When do you mean?
ATHENIAN: When any one has a brother or sister who is fair; and about
a son or daughter the same unwritten law holds, and is a most perfect
safeguard, so that no open or secret connexion ever takes place between
them. Nor does the thought of such a thing ever enter at all into the
minds of most of them.
MEGILLUS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Does not a little word extinguish all pleasures of that sort?
MEGILLUS: What word?
ATHENIAN: The declaration that they are unholy, hated of God, and most
infamous; and is not the reason of this that no one has ever said
the opposite, but every one from his earliest childhood has heard men
speaking in the same manner about them always and everywhere, whether in
comedy or in the graver language of tragedy? When the poet introduces
on the stage a Thyestes or an Oedipus, or a Macareus having secret
intercourse with his sister, he represents him, when found out, ready to
kill himself as the penalty of his sin.
MEGILLUS: You are very right in saying that tradition, if no breath of
opposition ever assails it, has a marvellous power.
ATHENIAN: Am I not also right in saying that the legislator who wants
to master any of the passions which master man may easily know how to
subdue them? He will consecrate the tradition of their evil character
among all, slaves and freemen, women and children, throughout the city:
that will be the surest foundation of the law which he can make.
MEGILLUS: Yes; but will he ever succeed in making all mankind use the
same language about them?
ATHENIAN: A good objection; but was I not just now saying that I had
a way to make men use natural love and abstain from unnatural, not
intentionally destroying the seeds of human increase, or sowing them in
stony places, in which they will take no root; and that I would command
them to abstain too from any female field of increase in which that
which is sown is not likely to grow? Now if a law to this effect could
only be made perpetual, and gain an authority such as already prevents
intercourse of parents and children--such a law, extending to other
sensual desires, and conquering them, would be the source of ten
thousand blessings. For, in the first place, moderation is the
appointment of nature, and deters men from all frenzy and madness of
love, and from all adulteries and immoderate use of meats and drinks,
and makes them good friends to their own wives. And innumerable other
benefits would result if such a law could only be enforced. I can
imagine some lusty youth who is standing by, and who, on hearing this
enactment, declares in scurrilous terms that we are making foolish and
impossible laws, and fills the world with his outcry. And therefore I
said that I knew a way of enacting and perpetuating such a law, which
was very easy in one respect, but in another most difficult. There is no
difficulty in seeing that such a law is possible, and in what way; for,
as I was saying, the ordinance once consecrated would master the soul of
every man, and terrify him into obedience. But matters have now come to
such a pass that even then the desired result seems as if it could not
be attained, just as the continuance of an entire state in the practice
of common meals is also deemed impossible. And although this latter is
partly disproven by the fact of their existence among you, still even in
your cities the common meals of women would be regarded as unnatural and
impossible. I was thinking of the rebelliousness of the human heart
when I said that the permanent establishment of these things is very
difficult.
MEGILLUS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Shall I try and find some sort of persuasive argument which
will prove to you that such enactments are possible, and not beyond
human nature?
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: Is a man more likely to abstain from the pleasures of love
and to do what he is bidden about them, when his body is in a good
condition, or when he is in an ill condition, and out of training?
CLEINIAS: He will be far more temperate when he is in training.
ATHENIAN: And have we not heard of Iccus of Tarentum, who, with a view
to the Olympic and other contests, in his zeal for his art, and also
because he was of a manly and temperate disposition, never had any
connexion with a woman or a youth during the whole time of his training?
And the same is said of Crison and Astylus and Diopompus and many
others; and yet, Cleinias, they were far worse educated in their minds
than your and my citizens, and in their bodies far more lusty.
CLEINIAS: No doubt this fact has been often affirmed positively by the
ancients of these athletes.
ATHENIAN: And had they the courage to abstain from what is ordinarily
deemed a pleasure for the sake of a victory in wrestling, running, and
the like; and shall our young men be incapable of a similar endurance
for the sake of a much nobler victory, which is the noblest of all, as
from their youth upwards we will tell them, charming them, as we hope,
into the belief of this by tales and sayings and songs?
CLEINIAS: Of what victory are you speaking?
ATHENIAN: Of the victory over pleasure, which if they win, they will
live happily; or if they are conquered, the reverse of happily. And,
further, may we not suppose that the fear of impiety will enable them to
master that which other inferior people have mastered?
CLEINIAS: I dare say.
ATHENIAN: And since we have reached this point in our legislation,
and have fallen into a difficulty by reason of the vices of mankind, I
affirm that our ordinance should simply run in the following terms:
Our citizens ought not to fall below the nature of birds and beasts in
general, who are born in great multitudes, and yet remain until the age
for procreation virgin and unmarried, but when they have reached the
proper time of life are coupled, male and female, and lovingly pair
together, and live the rest of their lives in holiness and innocence,
abiding firmly in their original compact: surely, we will say to them,
you should be better than the animals. But if they are corrupted by the
other Hellenes and the common practice of barbarians, and they see
with their eyes and hear with their ears of the so-called free love
everywhere prevailing among them, and they themselves are not able to
get the better of the temptation, the guardians of the law, exercising
the functions of lawgivers, shall devise a second law against them.
CLEINIAS: And what law would you advise them to pass if this one failed?
ATHENIAN: Clearly, Cleinias, the one which would naturally follow.
CLEINIAS: What is that?
ATHENIAN: Our citizens should not allow pleasures to strengthen with
indulgence, but should by toil divert the aliment and exuberance of them
into other parts of the body; and this will happen if no immodesty be
allowed in the practice of love. Then they will be ashamed of frequent
intercourse, and they will find pleasure, if seldom enjoyed, to be a
less imperious mistress. They should not be found out doing anything of
the sort. Concealment shall be honourable, and sanctioned by custom and
made law by unwritten prescription; on the other hand, to be detected
shall be esteemed dishonourable, but not, to abstain wholly. In this way
there will be a second legal standard of honourable and dishonourable,
involving a second notion of right. Three principles will comprehend all
those corrupt natures whom we call inferior to themselves, and who form
but one class, and will compel them not to transgress.
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: The principle of piety, the love of honour, and the desire of
beauty, not in the body but in the soul. These are, perhaps, romantic
aspirations; but they are the noblest of aspirations, if they could only
be realised in all states, and, God willing, in the matter of love
we may be able to enforce one of two things--either that no one shall
venture to touch any person of the freeborn or noble class except his
wedded wife, or sow the unconsecrated and bastard seed among harlots, or
in barren and unnatural lusts; or at least we may abolish altogether the
connection of men with men; and as to women, if any man has to do with
any but those who come into his house duly married by sacred rites,
whether they be bought or acquired in any other way, and he offends
publicly in the face of all mankind, we shall be right in enacting that
he be deprived of civic honours and privileges, and be deemed to be, as
he truly is, a stranger. Let this law, then, whether it is one, or ought
rather to be called two, be laid down respecting love in general, and
the intercourse of the sexes which arises out of the desires, whether
rightly or wrongly indulged.
MEGILLUS: I, for my part, Stranger, would gladly receive this law.
Cleinias shall speak for himself, and tell you what is his opinion.
CLEINIAS: I will, Megillus, when an opportunity offers; at present, I
think that we had better allow the Stranger to proceed with his laws.
MEGILLUS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: We had got about as far as the establishment of the common
tables, which in most places would be difficult, but in Crete no
one would think of introducing any other custom. There might arise a
question about the manner of them--whether they shall be such as they
are here in Crete, or such as they are in Lacedaemon--or is there a
third kind which may be better than either of them? The answer to this
question might be easily discovered, but the discovery would do no great
good, for at present they are very well ordered.
Leaving the common tables, we may therefore proceed to the means of
providing food. Now, in cities the means of life are gained in many ways
and from divers sources, and in general from two sources, whereas our
city has only one. For most of the Hellenes obtain their food from sea
and land, but our citizens from land only. And this makes the task of
the legislator less difficult--half as many laws will be enough, and
much less than half; and they will be of a kind better suited to free
men. For he has nothing to do with laws about shipowners and merchants
and retailers and inn-keepers and tax collectors and mines and
moneylending and compound interest and innumerable other things--bidding
good-bye to these, he gives laws to husbandmen and shepherds and
bee-keepers, and to the guardians and superintendents of their
implements; and he has already legislated for greater matters, as
for example, respecting marriage and the procreation and nurture of
children, and for education, and the establishment of offices--and
now he must direct his laws to those who provide food and labour in
preparing it.
Let us first of all, then, have a class of laws which shall be called
the laws of husbandmen. And let the first of them be the law of Zeus,
the God of boundaries. Let no one shift the boundary line either of a
fellow-citizen who is a neighbour, or, if he dwells at the extremity of
the land, of any stranger who is conterminous with him, considering
that this is truly 'to move the immovable,' and every one should be more
willing to move the largest rock which is not a landmark, than the
least stone which is the sworn mark of friendship and hatred between
neighbours; for Zeus, the god of kindred, is the witness of the citizen,
and Zeus, the god of strangers, of the stranger, and when aroused,
terrible are the wars which they stir up. He who obeys the law will
never know the fatal consequences of disobedience, but he who despises
the law shall be liable to a double penalty, the first coming from the
Gods, and the second from the law. For let no one wilfully remove the
boundaries of his neighbour's land, and if any one does, let him who
will inform the landowners, and let them bring him into court, and if
he be convicted of re-dividing the land by stealth or by force, let the
court determine what he ought to suffer or pay. In the next place,
many small injuries done by neighbours to one another, through their
multiplication, may cause a weight of enmity, and make neighbourhood
a very disagreeable and bitter thing. Wherefore a man ought to be very
careful of committing any offence against his neighbour, and especially
of encroaching on his neighbour's land; for any man may easily do harm,
but not every man can do good to another. He who encroaches on his
neighbour's land, and transgresses his boundaries, shall make good the
damage, and, to cure him of his impudence and also of his meanness, he
shall pay a double penalty to the injured party. Of these and the like
matters the wardens of the country shall take cognizance, and be the
judges of them and assessors of the damage; in the more important cases,
as has been already said, the whole number of them belonging to any
one of the twelve divisions shall decide, and in the lesser cases the
commanders: or, again, if any one pastures his cattle on his neighbour's
land, they shall see the injury, and adjudge the penalty. And if any
one, by decoying the bees, gets possession of another's swarms, and
draws them to himself by making noises, he shall pay the damage; or if
any one sets fire to his own wood and takes no care of his neighbour's
property, he shall be fined at the discretion of the magistrates. And
if in planting he does not leave a fair distance between his own and
his neighbour's land, he shall be punished, in accordance with the
enactments of many lawgivers, which we may use, not deeming it necessary
that the great legislator of our state should determine all the trifles
which might be decided by any body; for example, husbandmen have had of
old excellent laws about waters, and there is no reason why we should
propose to divert their course: He who likes may draw water from the
fountain-head of the common stream on to his own land, if he do not cut
off the spring which clearly belongs to some other owner; and he may
take the water in any direction which he pleases, except through a house
or temple or sepulchre, but he must be careful to do no harm beyond the
channel. And if there be in any place a natural dryness of the earth,
which keeps in the rain from heaven, and causes a deficiency in the
supply of water, let him dig down on his own land as far as the clay,
and if at this depth he finds no water, let him obtain water from his
neighbours, as much as is required for his servants' drinking, and if
his neighbours, too, are limited in their supply, let him have a fixed
measure, which shall be determined by the wardens of the country.
This he shall receive each day, and on these terms have a share of his
neighbours' water. If there be heavy rain, and one of those on the lower
ground injures some tiller of the upper ground, or some one who has a
common wall, by refusing to give them an outlet for water; or, again,
if some one living on the higher ground recklessly lets off the water on
his lower neighbour, and they cannot come to terms with one another, let
him who will call in a warden of the city, if he be in the city, or
if he be in the country, a warden of the country, and let him obtain
a decision determining what each of them is to do. And he who will not
abide by the decision shall suffer for his malignant and morose temper,
and pay a fine to the injured party, equivalent to double the value of
the injury, because he was unwilling to submit to the magistrates.
Now the participation of fruits shall be ordered on this wise. The
goddess of Autumn has two gracious gifts: one the joy of Dionysus which
is not treasured up; the other, which nature intends to be stored. Let
this be the law, then, concerning the fruits of autumn: He who tastes
the common or storing fruits of autumn, whether grapes or figs, before
the season of vintage which coincides with Arcturus, either on his own
land or on that of others--let him pay fifty drachmae, which shall be
sacred to Dionysus, if he pluck them from his own land; and if from his
neighbour's land, a mina, and if from any others', two-thirds of a mina.
And he who would gather the 'choice' grapes or the 'choice' figs, as
they are now termed, if he take them off his own land, let him pluck
them how and when he likes; but if he take them from the ground of
others without their leave, let him in that case be always punished in
accordance with the law which ordains that he should not move what
he has not laid down. And if a slave touches any fruit of this sort,
without the consent of the owner of the land, he shall be beaten with
as many blows as there are grapes on the bunch, or figs on the fig-tree.
Let a metic purchase the 'choice' autumnal fruit, and then, if he
pleases, he may gather it; but if a stranger is passing along the road,
and desires to eat, let him take of the 'choice' grape for himself and
a single follower without payment, as a tribute of hospitality. The law
however forbids strangers from sharing in the sort which is not used for
eating; and if any one, whether he be master or slave, takes of them
in ignorance, let the slave be beaten, and the freeman dismissed with
admonitions, and instructed to take of the other autumnal fruits which
are unfit for making raisins and wine, or for laying by as dried figs.
As to pears, and apples, and pomegranates, and similar fruits, there
shall be no disgrace in taking them secretly; but he who is caught, if
he be of less than thirty years of age, shall be struck and beaten off,
but not wounded; and no freeman shall have any right of satisfaction for
such blows. Of these fruits the stranger may partake, just as he may of
the fruits of autumn. And if an elder, who is more than thirty years of
age, eat of them on the spot, let him, like the stranger, be allowed to
partake of all such fruits, but he must carry away nothing. If, however,
he will not obey the law, let him run the risk of failing in the
competition of virtue, in case any one takes notice of his actions
before the judges at the time.
Water is the greatest element of nutrition in gardens, but is easily
polluted. You cannot poison the soil, or the sun, or the air, which
are the other elements of nutrition in plants, or divert them, or steal
them; but all these things may very likely happen in regard to water,
which must therefore be protected by law. And let this be the law: If
any one intentionally pollutes the water of another, whether the water
of a spring, or collected in reservoirs, either by poisonous substances,
or by digging, or by theft, let the injured party bring the cause before
the wardens of the city, and claim in writing the value of the loss;
if the accused be found guilty of injuring the water by deleterious
substances, let him not only pay damages, but purify the stream or the
cistern which contains the water, in such manner as the laws of the
interpreters order the purification to be made by the offender in each
case.
With respect to the gathering in of the fruits of the soil, let a man,
if he pleases, carry his own fruits through any place in which he either
does no harm to any one, or himself gains three times as much as
his neighbour loses. Now of these things the magistrates should be
cognizant, as of all other things in which a man intentionally does
injury to another or to the property of another, by fraud or force,
in the use which he makes of his own property. All these matters a man
should lay before the magistrates, and receive damages, supposing the
injury to be not more than three minae; or if he have a charge against
another which involves a larger amount, let him bring his suit into
the public courts and have the evil-doer punished. But if any of the
magistrates appear to adjudge the penalties which he imposes in an
unjust spirit, let him be liable to pay double to the injured party.
Any one may bring the offences of magistrates, in any particular case,
before the public courts. There are innumerable little matters relating
to the modes of punishment, and applications for suits, and summonses
and the witnesses to summonses--for example, whether two witnesses
should be required for a summons, or how many--and all such details,
which cannot be omitted in legislation, but are beneath the wisdom of an
aged legislator. These lesser matters, as they indeed are in comparison
with the greater ones, let a younger generation regulate by law, after
the patterns which have preceded, and according to their own experience
of the usefulness and necessity of such laws; and when they are duly
regulated let there be no alteration, but let the citizens live in the
observance of them.
Now of artisans, let the regulations be as follows: In the first place,
let no citizen or servant of a citizen be occupied in handicraft arts;
for he who is to secure and preserve the public order of the state, has
an art which requires much study and many kinds of knowledge, and does
not admit of being made a secondary occupation; and hardly any human
being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly, or
of practising one art himself, and superintending some one else who is
practising another. Let this, then, be our first principle in the
state: No one who is a smith shall also be a carpenter, and if he be a
carpenter, he shall not superintend the smith's art rather than his own,
under the pretext that in superintending many servants who are working
for him, he is likely to superintend them better, because more revenue
will accrue to him from them than from his own art; but let every man in
the state have one art, and get his living by that. Let the wardens of
the city labour to maintain this law, and if any citizen incline to
any other art rather than the study of virtue, let them punish him
with disgrace and infamy, until they bring him back into his own right
course; and if any stranger profess two arts, let them chastise him
with bonds and money penalties, and expulsion from the state, until they
compel him to be one only and not many.
But as touching payments for hire, and contracts of work, or in case any
one does wrong to any of the citizens, or they do wrong to any other, up
to fifty drachmae, let the wardens of the city decide the case; but if a
greater amount be involved, then let the public courts decide according
to law. Let no one pay any duty either on the importation or exportation
of goods; and as to frankincense and similar perfumes, used in the
service of the Gods, which come from abroad, and purple and other dyes
which are not produced in the country, or the materials of any art which
have to be imported, and which are not necessary--no one should import
them; nor, again, should any one export anything which is wanted in
the country. Of all these things let there be inspectors and
superintendents, taken from the guardians of the law; and they shall be
the twelve next in order to the five seniors. Concerning arms, and all
implements which are required for military purposes, if there be need
of introducing any art, or plant, or metal, or chains of any kind, or
animals for use in war, let the commanders of the horse and the generals
have authority over their importation and exportation; the city shall
send them out and also receive them, and the guardians of the law shall
make fit and proper laws about them. But let there be no retail trade
for the sake of moneymaking, either in these or any other articles, in
the city or country at all.
With respect to food and the distribution of the produce of the country,
the right and proper way seems to be nearly that which is the custom of
Crete; for all should be required to distribute the fruits of the soil
into twelve parts, and in this way consume them. Let the twelfth portion
of each as for instance of wheat and barley, to which the rest of the
fruits of the earth shall be added, as well as the animals which are for
sale in each of the twelve divisions, be divided in due proportion into
three parts; one part for freemen, another for their servants, and a
third for craftsmen and in general for strangers, whether sojourners who
may be dwelling in the city, and like other men must live, or those
who come on some business which they have with the state, or with some
individual. Let only this third part of all necessaries be required to
be sold; out of the other two-thirds no one shall be compelled to
sell. And how will they be best distributed? In the first place, we see
clearly that the distribution will be of equals in one point of view,
and in another point of view of unequals.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: I mean that the earth of necessity produces and nourishes the
various articles of food, sometimes better and sometimes worse.
CLEINIAS: Of course.
ATHENIAN: Such being the case, let no one of the three portions be
greater than either of the other two--neither that which is assigned
to masters or to slaves, nor again that of the stranger; but let the
distribution to all be equal and alike, and let every citizen take his
two portions and distribute them among slaves and freemen, he having
power to determine the quantity and quality. And what remains he shall
distribute by measure and number among the animals who have to be
sustained from the earth, taking the whole number of them.
In the second place, our citizens should have separate houses duly
ordered; and this will be the order proper for men like them. There
shall be twelve hamlets, one in the middle of each twelfth portion,
and in each hamlet they shall first set apart a market-place, and the
temples of the Gods, and of their attendant demi-gods; and if there
be any local deities of the Magnetes, or holy seats of other ancient
deities, whose memory has been preserved, to these let them pay their
ancient honours. But Hestia, and Zeus, and Athene will have temples
everywhere together with the God who presides in each of the twelve
districts. And the first erection of houses shall be around these
temples, where the ground is highest, in order to provide the safest
and most defensible place of retreat for the guards. All the rest of
the country they shall settle in the following manner: They shall make
thirteen divisions of the craftsmen; one of them they shall establish
in the city, and this, again, they shall subdivide into twelve lesser
divisions, among the twelve districts of the city, and the remainder
shall be distributed in the country round about; and in each village
they shall settle various classes of craftsmen, with a view to the
convenience of the husbandmen. And the chief officers of the wardens
of the country shall superintend all these matters, and see how many of
them, and which class of them, each place requires; and fix them
where they are likely to be least troublesome, and most useful to the
husbandman. And the wardens of the city shall see to similar matters in
the city.
Now the wardens of the agora ought to see to the details of the agora.
Their first care, after the temples which are in the agora have been
seen to, should be to prevent any one from doing any wrong in dealings
between man and man; in the second place, as being inspectors of
temperance and violence, they should chastise him who requires
chastisement. Touching articles of sale, they should first see whether
the articles which the citizens are under regulations to sell to
strangers are sold to them, as the law ordains. And let the law be as
follows: On the first day of the month, the persons in charge, whoever
they are, whether strangers or slaves, who have the charge on behalf of
the citizens, shall produce to the strangers the portion which falls to
them, in the first place, a twelfth portion of the corn--the stranger
shall purchase corn for the whole month, and other cereals, on the first
market day; and on the tenth day of the month the one party shall sell,
and the other buy, liquids sufficient to last during the whole month;
and on the twenty-third day there shall be a sale of animals by those
who are willing to sell to the people who want to buy, and of implements
and other things which husbandmen sell, (such as skins and all kinds of
clothing, either woven or made of felt and other goods of the same sort)
and which strangers are compelled to buy and purchase of others. As to
the retail trade in these things, whether of barley or wheat set apart
for meal and flour, or any other kind of food, no one shall sell them
to citizens or their slaves, nor shall any one buy of a citizen; but let
the stranger sell them in the market of strangers, to artisans and their
slaves, making an exchange of wine and food, which is commonly called
retail trade. And butchers shall offer for sale parts of dismembered
animals to the strangers, and artisans, and their servants. Let any
stranger who likes buy fuel from day to day wholesale, from those who
have the care of it in the country, and let him sell to the strangers as
much as he pleases and when he pleases. As to other goods and implements
which are likely to be wanted, they shall sell them in the common
market, at any place which the guardians of the law and the wardens
of the market and city, choosing according to their judgment, shall
determine; at such places they shall exchange money for goods, and goods
for money, neither party giving credit to the other; and he who gives
credit must be satisfied, whether he obtain his money or not, for in
such exchanges he will not be protected by law. But whenever property
has been bought or sold, greater in quantity or value than is allowed by
the law, which has determined within what limits a man may increase and
diminish his possessions, let the excess be registered in the books
of the guardians of the law; or in case of diminution, let there be an
erasure made. And let the same rule be observed about the registration
of the property of the metics. Any one who likes may come and be a metic
on certain conditions; a foreigner, if he likes, and is able to settle,
may dwell in the land, but he must practise an art, and not abide more
than twenty years from the time at which he has registered himself; and
he shall pay no sojourner's tax, however small, except good conduct,
nor any other tax for buying and selling. But when the twenty years have
expired, he shall take his property with him and depart. And if in the
course of these years he should chance to distinguish himself by any
considerable benefit which he confers on the state, and he thinks that
he can persuade the council and assembly, either to grant him delay
in leaving the country, or to allow him to remain for the whole of his
life, let him go and persuade the city, and whatever they assent to at
his instance shall take effect. For the children of the metics, being
artisans, and of fifteen years of age, let the time of their sojourn
commence after their fifteenth year; and let them remain for twenty
years, and then go where they like; but any of them who wishes to
remain, may do so, if he can persuade the council and assembly. And if
he depart, let him erase all the entries which have been made by him in
the register kept by the magistrates.