ἔφησθα κτλ.
IV 445 C. On the pronouns
ὧν—αὐτῶν see II 357 B note Plato is very careful to make it clear that he does not profess, like Aristotle, to give a complete account of faulty States. From his watch-tower he can descry infinite varieties, but only four on which he need expatiate. We may take it that these are, in Plato's view, the four most conspicuous landmarks in the history of political degeneration, as well as the most important and clearly-outlined varieties of existing States. Cf. IV 445 C and infra 544 D
ἥτις καὶ ἐν εἴδει διαφανεῖ τινι κεῖται.
ἵνα πάντας κτλ.
reminds us of the thread which is the clue to the labyrinthine reasoning of the
Republic: cf. 545 A, 548 D and II 368 E note
ἔχοι
. The optative, for which Ast and Stallbaum needlessly read
ἔχει with
Ξ
q and some other inferior MSS, is due to the
oratio obliqua: cf. VII 515 D note
ἐρομένου
. V 449 A.
ὥσπερ παλαιστής
. The Scholiast remarks
ἔθος γὰρ τούτοις, ὅταν πέσωσιν ὁμοῦ—πάλιν ἐγερθέντας ἐφ’ ὁμοίῳ συμπλακῆναι σχήματι, ὅπερ τὴν αὐτὴν εἶπε λάβην. Plato, as Stallbaum points out, uses the same figure in
Phaedr. 236 B
: cf.
Phil. 13 D
,
Laws 682 E and
ἀντιλαμβανόμενος VI 505 A note
ἐπιθυμῶ ‐‐ ἀκοῦσαι
: ‘I am desirous also on my own account to hear’ sc. apart from the half-polemical motive suggested by the figure. Herwerden remarks “locus vix sanus,” but it is sound enough, although the English translators (“I shall particularly wish” etc. Jowett) miss the meaning.
ἥ τε ‐‐ ἐπαινουμένη
. The Spartan constitution in its palmy days was widely praised for
εὐνομία and discipline (pseudo-Archytas in Mullach
Frag. Philos. Gr. I p. 560,
Xen.
Mem. III 5. 15
f., IV 4. 15, Plato
Hipp. Mai. 283 E, 285 B,
Laws 692 C and elsewhere), and became on this ground a sort of political ideal in the eyes of many Greeks: see for example Isocr.
Panath. 108 ff. 200 ff. 216 ff. and the fragments of Critias'
Λακεδαιμονίων πολιτεία in Müller
Frag. Hist. Gr. II pp. 68 f. Cf. Nohle
Statslehre Plat. pp. 108 ff. and Whibley
Gk Olig. pp. 57 ff.
αὕτη
:
ista ‘that of yours,’ ‘your Cretan and Lacedaemonian constitution.’ On their connexion see Arist.
Pol. B 10. 1271^{b} 22 ff. with Susemihl and Hicks's notes. It is, I think, fanciful to see in
αὕτη an allusion to Glauco's sympathies for Sparta, in spite of 548 D below.
καὶ δευτέρως
. Hermann prints his own conjecture
ἡ δευτέρως, but the common confusion of
καί and
ἡ (Bast
Comm. Pal. p. 815) is, I believe, later than the date of Paris A, and the text is free from objection: ‘and second in order as in esteem, a constitution fraught with many evils, bearing the name of oligarchy.’
δευτέρα agrees with
πολιτεία, not with
ὀλιγαρχία.
διάφορος
: not of course ‘different’ (as Jowett), but ‘antagonistic,’
adversaria (Stallbaum).
διάφορος ‘different’ gives a poor sense, and would take the genitive, which Ast erroneously proposed to read. Greek history furnished only too many proofs of the natural feud between democracy and oligarchy: see Greenidge
Gk Const. Hist. pp. 208 ff. and Gilbert
Gr. Staatsalt. II p. 285 note 2.
ἐφεξῆς γιγνομένη
. From this and other indications it would appear on a first perusal that the sequence of commonwealths in VIII and IX is intended by Plato to be not merely logical, but historical also; but there is no question that the political evolution of Greek constitutions was far more complex than would appear from Plato's description. See on 543 A. We must above all things remember that it is in order to furnish a picture of the worst city and the worst man that the whole of this enquiry is undertaken, and Plato is at liberty to adopt whatever mode of presentation is best adapted for the object which he has in view. The form which he does in point of fact select is that of a historical narrative (see on 543 A, 548 D), but the real order of the development which he describes is a ‘logical order,’ and is primarily determined by psychological, and not by historical considerations. Although there are many points of contact between the development of Greek constitutional history and Plato's arrangement, Plato here employs narration primarily and chiefly as a vehicle or instrument for expressing the results of psychological analysis, and not because he believes that political development always and inevitably follows the same lines. See also on 543 A and infra 544 D.
διαφέρουσα κτλ.
The reading of
Ξ—see cr. n.—is confirmed by
v and two other MSS, as well as by Stobaeus (
Flor. 43. 115) and Ficinus (
ab his omnibus differens). All other MSS appear to have
διαφεύγουσα. “Errori—occasionem pronuntiatio non absimilis dedisse videtur” (Schneider). The word does not mean ‘differs’ (as Jowett) but ‘excels’ (ironically, of course, like
ἡ γενναία δή). Father Rickaby has suggested to me that we should read
καὶ ἡ πασῶν τούτων διαφέρουσα, ἡ γενναία δὴ τυραννίς, τέταρτον κτλ. The conjecture is an attractive one, both on other grounds and also because it enables us to retain the article which appears before
πασῶν (see cr. n.) in A: but it is perhaps safer to follow
Ξ.
νόσημα
. Greek political theory regards tyrants as
νοσήματα τῶν πόλεων (Isocr.
Hel. 34: cf. Henkel l. c. p. 156).
ἢ τίνα
. Ast and others write
ἤ τινα (with slight MS support), but
τίνα is perfectly good: cf. IX 573 A.
ἐν εἴδει διαφανεῖ τινι
. See on 544 A.
δυναστεῖαι
. δυναστεία is that form of polity in which the son succeeds the father
καὶ ἄρχῃ μὴ ὁ νόμος ἀλλ’ οἱ ἄρχοντες (Arist.
Pol.
Δ 5. 1292^{b} 5 ff.: cf.
Laws 680 A, B). Such a
πολιτεία might be good, but was of course generally bad: see Susemihl and Hicks on Arist.
Pol. B 10. 1272^{b} 3. Examples are pro vided by Thessaly (Thuc. IV 78. 3) and (about 480 B.C.) Thebes (Thuc. III 62. 3: cf. Gilbert
Griech. Staatsalt. II pp. 10, 46). See Whibley
Gk Olig. pp. 124— 126.
ὠνηταὶ βασιλεῖαι
: like Carthage (Arist. l.c. 11. 1273^{a} 36 with Susemihl and Hicks p. 349). Herwerden sins through ignorance when he proposes
αἱρεταί for
ὠνηταί.
τοιαῦταί τινες
: such as, for example,
αἰσυμνητεία, and the other specific varieties (as Aristotle reckons them) of Plato's typical
πολιτεῖαι: see
Pol.
Γ, Δ Ζ
passim.
εὕροι δ’ ἂν κτλ.
: whereas Plato confines himself to
Greek history throughout VIII and IX.
καὶ ἀνθρώπων κτλ.
Cf. IV 445 C, and on the principle here laid down see IV 435 E note The present passage is a clear and emphatic statement of the psychological basis on which Plato's philosophy of History rests. Political
ἀδικία, like political
δικαιοσύνη (IV 443 B note), is after all no more than
εἴδωλόν τι: injustice in the truest sense is
στάσις within the individual soul (IV 444 B), and social and political wrong-doing is but its outward manifestation. The double genitive, which is easy enough (cf. E below and V 449 A note), has led to the corruption
τρόπον τινά in several MSS. Liebhold also suggests
καὶ τρόπων instead of
τρόπων. The expression
εἴδη τρόπων (‘specific characters’) is treated as a single word, and should be repeated with
πολιτειῶν: cf. IV 445 C
ὅσοι πολιτειῶν τρόποι εἰσὶν εἴδη ἔχοντες, τοσοῦτοι κινδυνεύουσι καὶ ψυχῆς τρόποι εἶναι (a passage which proves, I think, that Schneider and Stallbaum are wrong in supplying only
εἴδη with
ὅσαπερ κτλ.)
ἐκ δρυὸς κτλ.
Hom.
Od. XIX 162 f.
ἀλλὰ καὶ ὥς μοι εἰπὲ τεὸν γένος, ὁππόθεν ἐσσί· |
οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ δρυός ἐσσι παλαιφάτου οὐδ’ ἀπὸ πέτρης, i.e. you have a
γένος (cf.
Ap. 34 D
) and are not miraculously sprung
ἀγενεαλογήτως out of tree or stone, like the fabled men of old (see Preller-Robert
Gr. Myth. p. 79 note 4). In Plato the saying is used much like the German ‘es ist doch nicht aus der Luft gefallen’ (Schück
de scholiis p. 32, where the proverb is illustrated).
ἃ ἂν κτλ.
οἶ ἄν was read till Schneider on the authority of
Ξ; but
ἃ ἄν (
ΑΠ and a large majority of MSS) is quite satisfactory. “Reipublicae formae eos dicuntur sequi mores, qui in quavis civitate veluti pondere praegravantes ad se suamque regionem attraxerint reliqua” (Schneider, comparing for
ῥέψαντα Hdt. VII 139). The word
ῥεύσαντα (
Ξ and some other MSS) is unattic (Lobeck
Phryn. p. 738): Plato's form is
ῥυέντα e.g. VI 495 B.
ὀρθῶς
is more naturally taken with
φαμέν (Jowett etc.) than with the adjectives (as Schneider). We rightly call him ‘good’ etc., because he is
ὅμοιος ἀριστο‐κρατίᾳ.
