Plato Republic 8.553

ὅταν κτλ. Plato (as suggested by Hermann Gesch. Abhandl. pp. 155 ff.) may have in view some of the generation of Athenian oligarchs who succeeded to the political party of Cimon; for Cimon was τιμοκρατικός rather than ὀλιγαρχικός (cf. V 470 C note). The description of the progress of individual degeneration from the aristocrat down to the tyrant constantly reflects Plato's own experience of Athenian society and domestic life: cf. 549 C, D notes Abundant materials for the picture were doubtless ready at hand in the παντοδαποὶ ἄνθρωποι (557 C) of the ‘bazaar of polities’ (557 D). For the construction of this sentence cf. 549 C—550 A note We ought not to understand μεταβάλλει before ὅταν, for the μεταβολή does not take place until 553 C, and ἆρ’ οὐκ—παραζωννύντα is the only apodosis which Plato thinks it necessary to provide.

πταίσαντα κτλ. For the figure cf. Aesch. Ag. 1006 and Eum. 554—565.

ὥσπερ πρὸς ἕρματι κτλ. In some other examples of this idiom (III 414 E, VII 520 E, supra 545 E, IX 573 E et al.) only the first preposition is expressed; but in Euthyph. 2 C , Phaedr. 255 D and Phaed. 67 D (according to Ven. T) we find as here both prepositions. Cobet is not justified in excising the second preposition either here or elsewhere ( V. L.^{2} pp. 54, 164 ff., 532); for while ὥσπερ πρὸς ἕρματι πρὸς τῇ πόλει (for example) is only a similitude, in ὥσπερ πρὸς ἕρματι τῇ πόλει the connexion is much closer, amounting almost to identification: see my note on Euthyph. l. c. and cf. Braun de Hyperb. Plat. II p. 9.

ἢ στρατηγήσαντα κτλ. The words ἢ στρατηγήσαντα—ἀποβαλόντα interpret the figure in ἐξαίφνης πταίσαντα—ἑαυτόν: ‘having either been a Strategus or held some other high office, and then, when brought to trial, been either put to death, or banished, or disfranchised and deprived of all his property, by the damaging evidence of lying informers.’ βλαπτόμενον ὑπὸ συκοφαντῶν might be taken as subordinate to ἐμπεσόντα, but πρὸς πόλει πταίσαντα seems rather to imply that the prosecution is not wholly vexatious, although the evidence turns out to be so. Some misfortune, such as happened for example at the battle of Arginusae (Xen. Hell. 16. 33 ff., 7. 4 ff., with Grote VII pp. 411 ff.), arouses a great wave of popular feeling, in consequence of which the general is put upon his trial, and συκοφάνται manage to secure his condemnation (cf. Xen. l.c. I 7. 11). Badham and Cobet ignominiously expel βλαπτόμενον, apparently for no better reason than that ἐμπεσόντα can be followed by ὑπό of the agent (Cobet N. L. p. 752, V. L.^{2} p. 54). If the passage is taken as I take it, βλαπτόμενον cannot be cancelled without grave inconvenience; and even if βλαπτόμενον ὑπὸ συκοφαντῶν be construed with ἐμπεσόντα, its excision is unnecessary. On the mischief wrought by συκοφάνται in Athens see Hermann-Thumser Gr. Staatsalt. p. 686 notes 2—4.

ξυλλέγεται . See cr. n. and 550 A, 553 A notes ξυλλέγηται is impossible after ὠθεῖ, and ὠθῇ would be very awkward.

τιάρας κτλ. : symbols of Oriental sovereignty—note μέγαν βασιλέα—and distinction: see Dict. Ant. s.vv. and Schück de Scholiis p. 32.

χαμαὶ ‐‐ παρακαθίσας . Plato makes them squat like servile Oriental courtiers. The picture expresses with admirable clearness the psychological basis of Plato's sequence of polities: see on 547 C and 550 C, and compare the lines of Milton Paradise Lost IX 1127 ff. “Understanding ruled not, and the will Heard not her lore; both in subjection now To sensual appetite, who from beneath Usurping, over sovran reason claimed Superior sway.” The poet Gray's note, though not, I think, correct, is worthy of quotation: “An allusion to those statues or bas-reliefs where some king, or conqueror, is represented with captive nations in chains sitting at his feet; as in that erected to the honour of Justinian, in the Hippodrome at Constantinople.”

καὶ καταδουλωσάμενος is excised by J. J. Hartmann: but see V 451 B note

μηδέν is written rather than οὐδέν owing to the infinitives θαυμάζειν καὶ τιμᾶν.

ἄλλη : i.e. other than you have just described. Jowett's translation “Of all changes, he said, there is none so speedy or so sure as the conversion of the ambitious youth into the avaricious one” is quite wrong.

εἴη . Stallbaum and some others place a mark of interrogation after εἴη: “quod ego non penitus ineptum, sed inter proxime praecedentem et proxime sequentem interrogationem minus aptum existimo” (Schneider). Cf. 550 C.

ἐργάτης : not simply ‘hardworking’ (D. and V.), but with reference to illiberalis labor.

ἀναγκαίους . This form of the feminine recurs in IV 425 D, supra 558 D, 559 A, 561 A (ter) and IX 572 C; but in 558 D we have ἀναγκαῖαι, and ἀναγκαία in 559 B, C. See Schneider on IV 425 D. There is no justification for making ἀναγκαῖος consistently an adjective of either two or three terminations (as suggested by Richards). The full meaning of ἀναγκαῖοι ἐπιθυμίαι is explained in 558 D ff.

τὰ ἄλλα ἀναλώματα “sunt pecuniae in cetera impendendae, quas hic negatur παρέχεσθαι, de suis praebere” (Schneider). With ἄλλα cf. ἄλλης 554 C, and with παρεχόμενος IV 421 D note The translation ‘not affording or allowing himself’ (J. and C.) is inaccurate. παραδεχόμενος, which was read, with slight MS authority, before Bekker, has been rightly discarded by later editors.

οὓς δή . For the plural cf. (with Stallbaum) Laws 908 D and Eur. Hel. 440 <*>λλην πεφυκώς, οἷσιν οὐκ ἐπιστροφαί. See also on I 347 A.

τυφλὸν κτλ. τὸν Πλοῦτον, οἷμαι, φησίν says a Scholiast in the margin of A. See Blaydes on Ar. Plut. 90 . Hirmer ( Entst. u. Komp. d. Pl. Pol. p. 658 note) doubts whether the god of Wealth is represented as blind earlier than Aristophanes; but a σκόλιον of Timocreon began ὤφελέν σ’ ὦ τυφλὲ Πλοῦτε (Schol. on Ar. Ach. 532 ). With the figure in τοῦ χοροῦ cf. VI 490 C and infra 560 E.

ἐτίμα μάλιστα . See cr. n. Schneider's admirable emendation is now universally accepted: cf. μάλιστα ἔντιμα above and τιμᾶν μηδὲν ἄλλο ἢ πλοῦτον 553 D. On the corruption see Introd. § 5.

κηφηνώδεις κτλ. As oligarchy has ‘drones’ (552 C), so the oligarchical man has ‘drone desires.’ The parallel is worked out with unusual completeness, even for Plato: see on 555 A.

μὴ φῶμεν . 552 D note

κατεχομένας κτλ. Cf. 552 E. ἄλλης= περὶ τὰ ἄλλα: cf. ἄλλα in 554 A. The translation ‘his general habit of carefulness’ (J. and C.) is scarcely right: cf. περὶ τῆς ἄλλης οὐσίας τρέμων in D below.

αὐτῶν : not κηφηνωδῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν, but the plural masculine, in spite of αὐτῷ above (I 347 A note).

ὥστε πολλῆς κτλ. See II 359 B ff. Socrates would say that the picture which Glauco there draws is only too true of the oligarchical man.

τούτῳ δῆλον : ‘clear by this,’ ‘clear from this,’ as in Eur. Hipp. 627 τού τῳ δὲ δῆλον and Ar. Plut. 587 ( τούτῳ δηλοῖ). Stallbaum reads τοῦτο with Ξ and a majority of the inferior MSS; but there is no reason for deserting A and II. The antecedent to τούτῳ is contained in οἶσθ’ οὖν—ἀδικεῖν. From the fact that such a person κακουργεῖ when he gets the chance, it is clear (says Socrates) that when he εὐδοκιμεῖ δοκῶν δίκαιος εἶναι, he achieves this result only by doing violence to himself.

ἐπιεικεῖ κτλ. : ‘by a sort of virtuous self-constraint’ not (as Campbell) ‘by some virtuous element in himself he forcibly restrains.’ βίᾳ is a verbal noun as in βίᾳ τῶν ἐχθρῶν (566 A) and the like. τινι qualifies ἐπιεικής: there is no real ἐπιείκεια in this sort of thing: cf. Phaed. 69 A ff.

εὑρήσεις : see cr. n. The addition of ἐν above the line by A^{2} is hardly sufficient to justify ἐνευρήσεις, especially as εὑρήσεις has much more support from the other MSS. ἐνευρίσκω has not yet been proved classical (see Jebb on Soph. Aj. 1144 ), and Schneider afterwards ( Addit. p. 65) retracted his defence of it here. The distance of τοῖς πολλοῖς from ἐνούσας ἐπιθυμίας is no real difficulty, especially after ἐπιθυμίας ἐνούσας just above.

τὰς τοῦ κηφῆνος ξυγγενεῖς κτλ. Cf. VII 519 B, C note For ἀστασίαστος see on 545 C. διπλοῦς: like the oligarchical State, which is ‘not one, but two’ (551 D).

ἡρμοσμένης τῆς ψυχῆς . Richards would omit τῆς, but the article (which is in all MSS), implies, I think, that such a soul exists and has already been described, as it has in ἕνα γενόμενον ἐκ πολλῶν, σώφρονα καὶ ἡρμοσμένον IV 443 D, E.

ἀνταγωνιστής γε κτλ. See on 551 E. Susemihl Gen. Entw. II p. 232 reminds us of the disinclination on the part of rich Athenians to undertake λειτουργίαι: see Hermann-Thumser l.c. pp. 687 ff.