Plato Republic 4.423

εὐδοκιμεῖν . Stallbaum and others read δοκεῖν with one inferior MS. But εὐδοκιμεῖν is at least equally good: ‘great, I do not say in fame, but great in the true sense of the word “great.”’ σωφροσύνη is a city's truest greatness, not aggression, and “the applauding thunder at its heels. Which men call Fame.”

χιλίων . Aristotle takes this seriously as fixing the number of Plato's ἐπίκουροι ( Pol. B 6. 1265^{a} 9), but it is only the minimum: see 423 B note We hear of constitutions of a thousand very frequently throughout Greek political history, especially in the Greek colonies of Italy; and Plato may have had some of these precedents in his mind, both here and in Pol. 292 E ἐν χιλιάνδρῳ πόλει. See Whibley Gk. Oligarchies pp. 134 ff. By Aristotle's time the ruling Spartans, it is interesting to notice, numbered under 1000 ( Pol. B 9. 1270^{a} 29—31). See Grote Plato III p. 206 note

καὶ πολλαπλασίας is the predicate to δοκούσας, and καί means ‘even.’ So J. and C. rightly.

μέχρι ‐‐ πέρα δὲ μή . The extent to which the city may safely increase beyond 1000 προπολεμοῦντες (and the necessary farmers etc.) is therefore left to the judgment of the guardians. Like every natural organism, it should grow to the limits prescribed for it by nature (cf. 424 A note); but Plato probably conceived of it even in its maturity as relatively small. The regulations about marriage and the interchange between the different classes would be easier to work if the State was not too large. See also on χιλίων in 423 A, and on the general subject Newman's Politics of Aristotle I pp. 313— 315.

μεγάλη δοκοῦσα : ‘seeminggreat’: see 422 E.

ἴσως points the irony, which is continued in φαυλότερον.

πρόσθεν . III 415 B, C notes

ἕκαστον : with ἕνα, not of course with ἔργον, as Hartman seems to suppose. With what follows cf. Laws 847 B ἀναγκαζόντων ἕνα μόνον ἀλλὰ μὴ πολλοὺς εἶναι and infra 443 E.

μία ‐‐ ἀλλὰ μὴ πολλαί . Aristotle's criticism ( Pol. B 2. 1261^{a} 17—^{b} 15) is interesting, but captious. Plato would entirely agree with him that τὸ ἴσον τὸ ἀντιπεπονθὸς σῴζει τὰς πολιτείας. ‘The reciprocity of services and functions’ between the three classes is the very foundation of Plato's city, which is far from being an undifferentiated unity. It is rather a ἓν ἐκ πολλῶν, the πολλά being the three divisions of the State. See Susemihl and Hicks l.c. I p. 215. φύηται should be noted; unity of this kind is κατὰ φύσιν.

σμικρότερον is still ironical. In what follows Plato speaks his real mind: cf. Laws 813 D.

ἓν μέγα . ἓν balances πολλά: we need but one regulation, ‘the proverbial one great thing, or rather not great, but adequate.’ J. and C. err in translating ἱκανόν “to a sufficient extent”; and Stallbaum in making λεγόμενον “quod dicebamus.” ἓν μέγα is illustrated by J. and C. from Pol. 297 A .

εὖ παιδευόμενοι . Does this refer to the scheme of education already given, or is it a promise of the philosopher's training in Books VI and VII? Krohn takes the former view ( Pl. St. p. 127), and (if we have regard only to the preceding discussion) it must be allowed that this is the natural interpretation of Plato's words. At the same time, it is not easy to see how the musical education of II and III would enable the guardians to grasp such a conception as the community of wives and children. And in the later books Plato expressly declares that the training necessary for the Rulers was inadequately discussed before: see VI 497 C ff., 502 D. For these reasons we must, I think, suppose that Plato when he wrote these words was thinking of the education still to be provided. Cf. also III 414 A.

τήν τε τῶν γυναικῶν κτλ. is the first mention of communism in wives and children. According to an ingenious chorizontic theory, it was this sentence which inspired the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes, to whose caricature Plato replies in Book V (Stein de Ar. Eccles. arg. etc. and Brandt Zur Entwick. d. Pl. Lehre v. d. Seelentheilen, p. 6). See on the whole subject App. I to Book V. In γάμων and παιδοποιίας there is a kind of zeugma: for κτῆσιν suits only γυναικῶν. Plato marks the difference by placing τε after τήν and not after τῶν. γάμους (conjectured by Richards) would depend on διόψονται; but διόψονται γάμους καὶ παιδοποιίας is surely an impossible expression.