Plutarch, Ad principem ineruditum, Harold North Fowler (Translator), 1

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[1] Plato was asked by the Cyrenaeans¹ to compose a set of laws and leave it for them and to give them a well-ordered government; but he refused, saying that it was difficult to make laws for the Cyrenaeans because they were so prosperous.

For nothing is so haughty

harsh, and ungovernable

by nature as a man,²

when he possesses what he regards as prosperity. And that is why it is difficult to give advice to rulers in matters of government, for they are afraid to accept reason as a ruler over them, lest it curtail the advantage of their power by making them slaves to duty. For they are not familiar with the saying of Theopompus, the King of Sparta who first made the Ephors³ associates of the Kings; then, when his wife reproached him because he would hand down to his children a less powerful office than that which he had received he said: Nay, more powerful rather, inasmuch as it is more secure. For by giving up that which was excessive and absolute in it he avoided both the envy and the danger. And yet Theopompus, by diverting to a different body the vast stream of his royal authority, deprived himself of as much as he gave to others. But when philosophical reason derived from philosophy has been established as the ruler’s coadjutor and guardian, it removes the hazardous element from his power, as a surgeon removes that which threatens a patient’s health and leaves that which is sound.

Ad principem ineruditum. Plutarch. Harold North Fowler (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

To an Uneducated Ruler (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. X. Fowler, Harold North, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πρὸς ἡγεμόνα ἀπαίδευτον Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. V. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.) — 1 focus

[1] 779d Πλάτωνα Κυρηναῖοι παρεκάλουν νόμους τε γραψάμενον αὐτοῖς ἀπολιπεῖν καὶ διακοσμῆσαρ τὴν πολιτείαν, ὁ δὲ παρῃτήσατο φήσας χαλεπὸν εἶναι Κυρηναίοις 5 νομοθετεῖν οὕτως εὐτυχοῦσιν οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω γαῦρον καὶ τραχὺ καὶ δύσαρκτον ὡς ἀνὴρ ἔφυ¹ εὐπραγίας δοκούσης ἐπιλαμβανόμενος. διὸ τοῖς ἄρχουσι 779e χαλεπόν ἐστι σύμβουλον περὶ ἀρχῆς; γενέσθαι τὸν γὰρ λόγον ὥσπερ ἄρχοντα παραδέξασθαι φοβοῦνται, 10 μὴ τῆς ἐξουσίας αὐτῶν τἀγαθὸν² κολούσῃ τῷ καθήκοντι δουλωσάμενος;. οὐ γὰρ ἴσασι τὰ Θεοπόμπου τοῦ Σπαρτιατῶν βασιλέως, ὃς πρῶτος ἐν Σπάρτῃ τοῖς βασιλεύουσι καταμίξας τοὺς Ἐφόρους, εἶτʼ ὀνειδιζόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς γυναικός, εἰ τοῖς παισὶν 15 ἐλάττονα παραδώσει τὴν ἀρχὴν ἧς παρέλαβε, μείζονα μὲν οὖν εἶπεν ὅσῳ καὶ βεβαιοτέραν τὸ γὰρ σφοδρὸν ἀνεὶς καὶ ἄκρατον αὐτῆς ἅμα τῷ φθόνῳ 779f διέφυγε τὸν κίνδυνον. καίτοι Θεόπομπος μὲν εἰς ἑτέρους τὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς ὥσπερ ῥεύματος μεγάλου παροχετευσάμενος, 20 ὅσον ἄλλοις ἔδωκεν, αὑτοῦ περιέ πρινξιπεμ Ἰνεριιδιτιιμ. κοψεν· ὁ δʼ ἐκ φιλοσοφίας τῷ ἄρχοντι πάρεδρος καὶ φύλαξ ἐγκατοικισθεὶς λόγος, ὥσπερ εὐεξίας τῆς δυνάμεως τὸ ἐπισφαλὲς ἀφαιρῶν, ἀπολείπει τὸ ὑγιαῖνον. 5

Translations (1)

A discourse to an unlearned prince Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; Kersey, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 1 focus

[1] PLATO, being desired by the Cyreneans to prescribe to them good laws and to settle their government, refused to do it, saying that it was a hard matter to give them any law whilst they enjoyed so much prosperity, since nothing is so fierce, arrogant, and untamable, as a man that thinks himself to be in a happy condition. Wherefore it is very difficult to give counsel to princes in matters of government; for they fear to receive advice as a thing seeming to command them, lest the force of reason should seem to lessen their power, by obliging it to submit to truth. And they consider not the saying of Theopompus, king of Sparta, who, being the first in that country that joined the Ephori with the Kings, was reproached by his wife, because by this means he would leave the kingdom to his children less than he found it; to whom he replied, that he should render it so much the greater, the firmer it was. For, by holding the reins of government somewhat loose, he avoided envy and danger; nevertheless, since he permitted the stream of his power to flow so freely into other channels, what he gave to them must needs be a loss to himself. Though philosophy possessing a prince as his assistant and keeper, by taking away the dangerous part of fulness of power (as if it were fulness of body), leaves the sound part.

Notes on the current edition

To an Uneducated Ruler

1. That Plato in his extensive travels visited Cyrene is attested by Diogenes Laertius, Vit. Phil. iii. 6.

2. A quotation from some tragic poet; see Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 617.

3. The five Ephors at Sparta, representing the five local tribes, were in charge of civil law and public order. Whether they were established by Lycurgus or by Theopompus (about 757 b.c. or later) is uncertain. In the sixth and fifth centuries b.c. they seem to have had more power than the kings.

Plutarch Ad principem ineruditum 1

Harold North Fowler (Translator)

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