ξυγκαθιέντες
. V 467 B note
τὸ δέ γε κτλ.
‘But the extremest amount of freedom which appears in such a city is when’ etc.: lit. ‘the extreme of the amount of freedom’ etc.
τὸ—ἔσχατον is the subject to something like
ἐστιν or
γίγνεται understood: cf. such idioms as
οὗ τοι ἕνεκα ἠρόμην—ὅτι κτλ. I 330 B, where see note. The sentence is not exclamatory, as some have supposed. With
πλήθους ἐλευθερίας cf.
πολλὴν—τὴν ἐλευθερίαν 562 D, and (for
πλῆθος) IX 591 E (
πλῆθος οὐσίας),
Laws XI 913 D,
Theaet. 158 D
(
πλῆθος χρόνου) and Dem.
Phil. IV 2. This explanation is that of Schneider, and indubitably right. The English editors and translators make
τοῦ πλήθους depend on
ἐλευθερίας: but “servi servaeque non sunt pars
τοῦ πλήθους,” and
ὅσον—πόλει is not easily either separated from
πλήθους or connected with
ἔσχατον.
ὅταν ‐‐ πριαμένων
. Cf. [Xen.]
Rep. Ath. I. 10 ff.
τῶν δούλων δ’ αὖ καὶ τῶν μετοίκων πλείστη ἐστὶν Ἀθήνῃσιν ἀκολασία, καὶ οὔτε πατάξαι ἔξεστιν αὐτόθι, οὔτε ὑπεκστήσεταί σοι ὁ δοῦλος κτλ. In Arist.
Pol. E 11. 1313^{b} 35
δούλων ἄνεσις is said to be a symptom of extreme democracy.
ἐν γυναιξὶ κτλ.
Arist. l.c. goes farther and speaks of a
γυναικοκρατία περὶ τὰς οἰκίας. A German critic characteristically sees an ‘admirable’ illustration of Plato's remarks in the social life “jenes transatlantischen Staatvereins” (Steinhart
Einleitung p. 243). Some have accused Plato of already forgetting the liberalism of Book V (Krohn
Pl. St. p. 214): but an ideal city is one thing, and a lawless democracy another; and
corruptio optimi, in the relations between the sexes, as in other cases, may well be
pessima.
ὅ τι νῦν ‐‐ στόμα
: “‘what rose to our lips just now, whatever it be,’ as Aeschylus observes.” See
Aesch.
Frag. 337
Dindorf=334 Nauck. The reference in
νῦν, which here as in some other places (III 414 B note) has the meaning of ‘just now,’ is to 562 E
καὶ τελευτᾶν μέχρι τῶν θηρίων τὴν ἀναρχίαν ἐμφυομένην. Nauck restores the fragment of Aeschylus in the form
ὅτι νυν ἦλθ’ ἐπὶ στόμα: but the enclitic is unpleasing, and as
ὅτι is absent from the other two places where the quotation occurs (Plat.
Amat. 763 B
, Them.
Or. IV 52 B) Aeschylus probably wrote
νῦν γὰρ ἦλθ’ ἐπὶ στόμα (‘just come to my lips’) or something of the sort. With the general sense cf. III 394 D. Similar expressions in Greek literature are collected by Schaefer on Dion. Hal.
de comp. verb. pp. 12, 13. Jackson ingeniously proposes to connect the present passage with Arist.
Eth. Nic. III 2. 1111^{a} 9 ff., where he conjectures
οἷον λέγοντές φασιν ἐκπεσεῖν αὑτοὺς ἃ (for
ἢ)
οὐκ εἰδέναι ὅτι ἀπόρρητα ἦν, ὥσπερ Αἰσχύλος τὰ μυστικά (
Proceedings of the Camb. Phil. Soc. XIII 8 and
Journal of Philology XXVII p. 159 f.). “Is it possible” he asks “that the phrase
ἦλθ’ ἐπὶ στόμα is a proverbial survival of the plea urged by Aeschylus in plain prose on the occasion referred to in the
Ethics?” I think an Athenian speaking in plain prose would have said
ἦλθεν ἐπὶ στόμα or
ἐπὶ τὸ στόμα, not
ἦλθ’ ἐπὶ στόμα. The elision is tragic.
οὕτω
: i.e. in the spirit of the Aeschylean phrase: the idea occurred to me, and it shall out, though never so extravagant and absurd!
ἐλευθερώτερα
. For the concord cf.
Phil. 45 E
and
Laws 657 D (Ast).
τὴν παροιμίαν
. The proverb was
οἵαπερ ἡ δέσποινα, τοία χἀ κύων (Schol.), and meant
<*>τι ὁποία δέσποινα, τοιαύτη καὶ ἡ θεραπαινίς ‘like mistress, like maid.’ Plato takes
κύων literally: hence
ἀτεχνῶς. See Leutsch und Schneidewin
Paroem. Gr. II p. 44. The traveller in modern Greece will remember the ‘democratic dogs’ of Peloponnesian villages.
γίγνονταί τε δὴ κτλ.
: ‘aye, and there arise both horses and asses’ etc. This explanation—Jowett's—catches the mock-heroic humour of the passage and is at the same time easier grammatically than to supply, with Schneider,
οἷοίπερ οἱ δεσπόται or, with Campbell,
ἐλεύθεροι or the like. There is no ground for suspecting the text as some have done. Plato's humorous description brings vividly before us the anarchical condition of the Athenian streets. Foot-passengers have a poor time of it where the very beasts of burden forsooth are tainted with the spirit of democracy! “The regulation of traffic,” remarks Bosanquet, perhaps a little sententiously, “is in some degree a real test of social order.” No doubt this is what Plato means.
ἐμβάλλοντες κτλ.
See the amusing and characteristic anecdote about Alcibiades' childhood in Plut.
Alc. 2. 4
μικρὸς ὢν ἔπαιζεν ἀστραγάλοις ἐν τῷ στενωπῷ, τῆς δὲ βολῆς καθηκούσης εἰς αὐτὸν ἅμαξα φορτίων ἐπῄει. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν ἐκέλευε περιμεῖναι τὸν ἄγοντα τὸ ζεῦγος· ὑπέπιπτε γὰρ ἡ βολὴ τῇ παρόδῳ τῆς ἁμάξης· μὴ πειθομένου δὲ δἰ ἀγροικίαν, ἀλλ’ ἐπάγοντος, οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι παῖδες διέσχον, ὁ δ’ Ἀλκιβιάδης καταβαλὼν ἐπὶ στόμα πρὸ τοῦ ζεύγους καὶ παρατείνας ἑαυτὸν ἐκέλευεν οὕτως, εἰ βούλεται, διεξελθεῖν, ὥστε τὸν μὲν ἄνθρωπον ἀνακροῦσαι τὸ ζεῦγος ὀπίσω δείσαντα, τοὺς δ’ ἰδόντας ἐκπλαγῆναι καὶ μετὰ βοῆς συνδραμεῖν πρὸς αὐτον .
τὸ ἐμόν γ) ‐‐ ὄναρ
is manifestly proverbial (Schneider). For
ὄναρ cf.
Charm. 173 A
ἄκουε δὴ—τὸ ἐμὸν ὄναρ and
Theaet. 201 E
.
αὐτὸς γὰρ κτλ.
‘I frequently experience what you describe when I am on my way to the country,’ sc. through the congested streets of Athens. Jowett's ‘when I take a country walk’ is hardly accurate. The present
πορευόμενος should be taken in its full force.
κἂν ὁτιοῦν κτλ.
If the middle is to be pressed, we must translate: ‘if any man applies to himself the very least degree of slavery’ etc. That is to say, they are so sensitive that they cannot bear to see any one making himself even a
willing slave. In the sacred name of Freedom, Democracy, which is now on the verge of Tyranny, puts freedom down. The sentiment is perhaps a little exaggerated, but otherwise suitable enough; only we should rather have expected Plato to express this meaning by
αὐτὸς α<*>τῷ προσφέρῃ. If there were any well-authenticated examples of the middle of
προσφέρειν used for the active, it would be better to construe
προσφέρηται as if it were
προσφέρῃ, and suppose that the slavery is applied to others: but the instances of
προσφέρεσθαι=
προσφέρειν in Stephanus-Hase s. v. are either dubious or from late authors. The syllable
‐ται at the end of a line is sometimes abbreviated in uncial MSS (see Bond and Thompson
Public. of the Pal. Soc. I Plate 106), and this fact lends additional plausibility to W. H. Thompson's conjecture, that we should write
προσφέρῃ for
προσφέρηται. I once proposed
τισί, and the proposal is approved by a critic in
Hermathena XXIV p. 252. The citizens become so sensitive that the least degree of pressure applied to any section of them rouses them all. Meantime, as neither of these conjectures is quite convincing, I have retained the MS reading
pro tempore, although I think Thompson's conjecture represents what Plato meant to say.
τελευτῶντες γὰρ κτλ.
There is steady deterioration; and the last stage of democracy is the worst. Aristotle holds the same opinion: see
Pol.
Δ 6. 1293^{a} 1
ἡ τελευταία τοῖς χρόνοις ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι γεγενημένη along with 1291^{b} 30 —1292^{a} 37.
οὐδὲ τῶν νόμων κτλ.
Cf.
Laws. 701 B
and
Xen.
Hell. I 7. 12
ff. Such a democracy works by means of
ψηφίσματα rather than laws, and is
ἀνάλογον τῶν μοναρχιῶν τῇ τυραννίδι (Arist. l.c. Cf. also Gilbert
Beiträge zur inn. Gesch. Athens pp. 79 ff.).
αὕτη μὲν τοίνυν κτλ.
In his account of the genesis of tyranny, as in his description of the tyrant himself, Plato has borrowed several features from the career of the most conspicuous tyrant of his own age, Dionysius I of Syracuse. See on 564 A, and for other historical references 566 B al.
καλὴ καὶ νεανική
: ‘fair and proud.’ For
νεανική cf. IV 425 C.
νόσημα
: viz. the drones, as explained in 564 B (
ἐκεῖνο τοίνυν κτλ.).
ἐξουσίας κτλ.
See on 557 B. For
τῷ ὄντι cf. VI 497 D note
