Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 6.499

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[499] ἄνδρα δὲ ἀρετῇ παρισωμένον καὶ ὡμοιωμένον μέχρι τοῦ δυνατοῦ τελέως ἔργῳ τε καὶ λόγῳ, δυναστεύοντα 499a ἐν πόλει ἑτέρᾳ τοιαύτῃ, οὐ πώποτε ἑωράκασιν, οὔτε ἕνα οὔτε πλείους. ἢ οἴει;
οὐδαμῶς γε.
οὐδέ γε αὖ λόγων, ὦ μακάριε, καλῶν τε καὶ ἐλευθέρων ἱκανῶς ἐπήκοοι γεγόνασιν, οἵων ζητεῖν μὲν τὸ ἀληθὲς συντεταμένως ἐκ παντὸς τρόπου τοῦ γνῶναι χάριν, τὰ δὲ κομψά τε καὶ ἐριστικὰ καὶ μηδαμόσε ἄλλοσε τείνοντα ἢ πρὸς δόξαν καὶ ἔριν καὶ ἐν δίκαις καὶ ἐν ἰδίαις συνουσίαις πόρρωθεν ἀσπαζομένων.
οὐδὲ τούτων, ἔφη.
τούτων τοι χάριν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, καὶ ταῦτα προορώμενοι 499b ἡμεῖς τότε καὶ δεδιότες ὅμως ἐλέγομεν, ὑπὸ τἀληθοῦς ἠναγκασμένοι, ὅτι οὔτε πόλις οὔτε πολιτεία οὐδέ γʼ ἀνὴρ ὁμοίως μή ποτε γένηται τέλεος, πρὶν ἂν τοῖς φιλοσόφοις τούτοις τοῖς ὀλίγοις καὶ οὐ πονηροῖς, ἀχρήστοις δὲ νῦν κεκλημένοις, ἀνάγκη τις ἐκ τύχης περιβάλῃ, εἴτε βούλονται εἴτε μή, πόλεως ἐπιμεληθῆναι, καὶ τῇ πόλει κατηκόῳ γενέσθαι, ἢ τῶν νῦν ἐν δυναστείαις ἢ βασιλείαις ὄντων ὑέσιν ἢ αὐτοῖς 499c ἔκ τινος θείας ἐπιπνοίας ἀληθινῆς φιλοσοφίας ἀληθινὸς ἔρως ἐμπέσῃ. τούτων δὲ πότερα γενέσθαι ἢ ἀμφότερα ὡς ἄρα ἐστὶν ἀδύνατον, ἐγὼ μὲν οὐδένα φημὶ ἔχειν λόγον. οὕτω γὰρ ἂν ἡμεῖς δικαίως καταγελῴμεθα, ὡς ἄλλως εὐχαῖς ὅμοια λέγοντες. ἢ οὐχ οὕτως;
οὕτως.
εἰ τοίνυν ἄκροις εἰς φιλοσοφίαν πόλεώς τις ἀνάγκη ἐπιμεληθῆναι ἢ γέγονεν ἐν τῷ ἀπείρῳ τῷ παρεληλυθότι χρόνῳ ἢ καὶ νῦν ἔστιν ἔν τινι βαρβαρικῷ τόπῳ, πόρρω που 499d ἐκτὸς ὄντι τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐπόψεως, ἢ καὶ ἔπειτα γενήσεται, περὶ τούτου ἕτοιμοι τῷ λόγῳ διαμάχεσθαι, ὡς γέγονεν ἡ εἰρημένη πολιτεία καὶ ἔστιν καὶ γενήσεταί γε, ὅταν αὕτη ἡ Μοῦσα πόλεως ἐγκρατὴς γένηται. οὐ γὰρ ἀδύνατος γενέσθαι, οὐδʼ ἡμεῖς ἀδύνατα λέγομεν· χαλεπὰ δὲ καὶ παρʼ ἡμῶν ὁμολογεῖται.
καὶ ἐμοί, ἔφη, οὕτω δοκεῖ.
τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὅτι οὐκ αὖ δοκεῖ, ἐρεῖς;
ἴσως, ἔφη.
ὦ μακάριε, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, μὴ πάνυ οὕτω τῶν πολλῶν κατηγόρει. 499e ἀλλοίαν τοι δόξαν ἕξουσιν, ἐὰν αὐτοῖς μὴ φιλονικῶν ἀλλὰ παραμυθούμενος καὶ ἀπολυόμενος τὴν τῆς φιλομαθείας διαβολὴν ἐνδεικνύῃ οὓς λέγεις τοὺς φιλοσόφους, καὶ διορίζῃ 500a ὥσπερ ἄρτι τήν τε φύσιν αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν ἐπιτήδευσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἡγῶνταί σε λέγειν οὓς αὐτοὶ οἴονται.

Republic. Plato. ed. John Burnet. Oxford. 1905.

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Πολιτεία (Greek) (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Translations (1)

Republic Perseus (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 5-6. Shorey, Paul, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935-37 (printing).) — 6.499 focus

[499] But the figure of a man equilibrated and assimilated to virtue’s self perfectly, so far as may be, in word and deed, and holding rule in a city of like quality, that is a thing they have never seen 499a in one case or in many. Do you think they have? By no means. Neither, my dear fellow, have they ever seriously inclined to hearken to fair and free discussions whose sole endeavor was to search out the truth¹ at any cost for knowledge’s sake, and which dwell apart and salute from afar² all the subtleties and cavils that lead to naught but opinion³ and strife in court-room and in private talk. They have not, he said. 499b For this cause and foreseeing this, we then despite our fears⁴ declared under compulsion of the truth⁵ that neither city nor polity nor man either will ever be perfected until some chance compels this uncorrupted remnant of philosophers, who now bear the stigma of uselessness, to take charge of the state whether they wish it or not, and constrains the citizens to obey them, or else until by some divine inspiration⁶ a genuine passion for true philosophy takes possession⁷ 499c either of the sons of the men now in power and sovereignty or of themselves. To affirm that either or both of these things cannot possibly come to pass is, I say, quite unreasonable. Only in that case could we be justly ridiculed as uttering things as futile as day-dreams are.⁸ Is not that so? It is. If, then, the best philosophical natures have ever been constrained to take charge of the state in infinite time past,⁹ or now are in some barbaric region¹⁰ 499d far beyond our ken, or shall hereafter be, we are prepared to maintain our contention¹¹ that the constitution we have described has been, is, or will be¹² realized¹³ when this philosophic Muse has taken control of the state.¹⁴ It is not a thing impossible to happen, nor are we speaking of impossibilities. That it is difficult we too admit. I also think so, he said. But the multitude—are you going to say?—does not think so, said I. That may be, he said. My dear fellow, 499e said I, do not thus absolutely condemn the multitude.¹⁵ They will surely be of another mind if in no spirit of contention but soothingly and endeavoring to do away with the dispraise of learning you point out to them whom you mean by philosophers, and define as we recently did their nature 500a and their pursuits so that the people may not suppose you to mean those of whom they are thinking.

Commentary

Commentary on Plato, Republic (Plato. The Republic, Vol 1-2. Adam, James, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902-1903.) focus

δόξαν is ‘seeming,’ ‘appearance’)( τὸ ἀληθές above (Schneider): cf. 505 D. The rendering ‘applause’ (D. and V.) or ‘fame,’ is, I think, less likely to be right. For ἔριν cf. V 454 A note

τότε . V 473 D.

οὔτε ‐‐ οὔτε ‐‐ οὐδέ γε is a common sequence where stress is laid on the last alternative: cf. 492 E and X 608 B. οὐδέ γ’ ἀνήρ=‘no, nor yet an individual man’ is said because even the philosopher is not τέλεος except in the philosopher's city: cf. 497 A. ὁμοίως means simply ‘in like manner,’ ‘likewise,’ and should not be construed with τέλεος in the sense of ‘equally perfect,’ as J. and C. translate.

ἀνάγκη ‐‐ παραβάλῃ . See cr. n. παραβάλλειν means accedere (not, as has been asserted, accidere): cf. VIII 556 C and Lys. 203 B . The word is not however quite appropriate here: and I should much prefer a convincing emendation of the text of Α, Π and other MSS ( ἀνάγκη—περιβάλῃ). As it stands, περιβάλῃ must either be intransitive, or else the infinitive ἐπιμεληθῆναι serves as its object in place of an accusative. Neither view is supported by any evidence. I formerly conjectured ἀνάγκην τις ἐκ τύχης περιβάλῃ ‘until some one happens to compel these philosophers’ etc., but τις ἀνάγκη—γέγονεν in C does not favour this remedy. It is perhaps safest to read παραβάλῃ provisionally and pro tempore. With ἐκ τύχης cf. IX 592 A ἐὰν μὴ θεία τις ξυμβῇ τύχη and Ep. VII 327 E.

κατηκόῳ . Schleiermacher's conjecture is accepted by Madvig, Baiter, and J. and C. Stallbaum was inclined to read κατηκόοις. If κατήκοοι is right, it must stand for κατηκόοις, the nominative being due to the interposition of εἴτε βούλονται κτλ. But the construction is difficult, and the sense unsatisfactory. We require some guarantee that the city will obey (cf. 502 B), and κατηκόῳ is the only reading which provides it.

τῶν νῦν ‐‐ ὑέσιν . “I do not doubt but that this was meant as a compliment and incitement to the younger Dionysius (see Plato Epist. 7, p. 327). And I understand what follows p. 502 in the same manner. Hence it seems that this part of the dialogue was written after his first voyage to Sicily, and probably not long before his second, about Ol. 101, 3, when the elder Dionysius was just dead” (Thomas Gray Works ed. Gosse IV p. 251). In the parallel passage V 473 D Plato speaks of kings and δυνάσται, but not yet of kings' sons. The substance of Gray's conjecture is confirmed by recent criticism (see e.g. Hirmer Entst. u. Kompos. etc. p. 668): but Dionysius I died in Ol. 103, 2 (367 B.C.) and not in Ol. 101, 3 (374 B.C.), and Plato's second visit to Sicily seems to have taken place just after the old tyrant's death (Grote X pp. 346—356). See also on V 473 D, VI 496 B and Introd. § 4.

τούτων δὲ πότερα κτλ. Grote pronounces the Platonic commonwealth impossible because “we cannot understand from whence the force is to come, tending and competent to generate” it at the first. Once begun, he holds, “there is no reason why it might not have continued.” That the real difficulty is in starting it, Plato himself clearly understands (cf. 501 A note). He would not however allow that the difficulty is insurmountable; since a θεία τις τύχη (IX 592 A) may well occur. But the true fulfilment of Plato's Ideal, as he himself foretells in IX 592 B, is to be sought, not in any single earthly commonwealth, but in its influence, direct and indirect, upon the moral, political, religious, and intellectual progress of mankind: see V 470 E note and Zeller's dissertation on Der platonische Staat in seiner Bedeutung für die Folgezeit in his Vorträgen und Abhandlungen^{2} pp. 68 ff.

ἄλλως κτλ. For ἄλλως ‘merely’ cf. Theaet. 176 D γῆς ἄλλως ἄχθη. On εὐχαῖς see V 450 D note

βαρβαρικῷ ‐‐ ἐπόψεως . Cf. Phaed. 78 A . Touches of this kind are rare in Plato and generally full of pathos, as if the hope of mankind no longer lay in Hellas. The present sentence is a confession of the fact that the foundations of Plato's city are not laid in Hellenism, but in Humanity, understood as Plato himself understands the word in 501 B. See on V 470 E.

ἕτοιμοι . The ellipse of the first person of the copula is rare, except when ἐγώ or ἡμεῖς is expressed, but ἕτοιμος is a privileged word: cf. Parm. 137 B and other examples in Schanz Nov. Comm. Pl. p. 35.

αὕτη ἡ Μοῦσα . Philosophy.

μὴ πάνυ κτλ. Plato's attitude to οἱ πολλοί (as Krohn remarks Pl. St. p. 118) has somewhat altered since 492 B ff., partly, perhaps, because his wrath has been diverted against the false philosophers. But this attempt to soothe the many-headed Beast should not be taken too seriously: see 501 E— 502 A note

ἀλλοίαν τοι κτλ. See App. IV.

ἢ καὶ κτλ. ‘Or even if they view them in this light, will you deny that they will change their opinion?’ Baiter's correction—see cr. n.—is, as I now think, the simplest, and best explains the corruption. I can see no ground for writing ἐὰν οὕτω αἴσθωνται or ἐὰν τοῦτ’ αἴσθωνται with Richards. With οὐ φήσεις cf. VII 534 B. For other views on this passage see App. IV.

πρᾶον is an allusion to the universally admitted πραότης of the Athenian δῆμος; see Arist. Ath. Pol. 22. 4 τῇ εἰωθυίᾳ τοῦ δήμου πραότητι (where Sandys quotes Dem. Timocr. 51) with Isocr. Antid. 20, 300. Hence (as Schneider points out) δημοτικόν τι καὶ πρᾶον in Euthyd. 303 D . Cf. also Soph. O. C. 1126 f.

ἐν ὀλίγοις τισίν . Dümmler ( Chr. Beit. p. 45) thinks of Isocrates, but there is nothing to suggest a specific reference here.

τοὺς ἔξωθεν κτλ. Isocrates seems to have taken this as a personal attack, as perhaps it was intended to be. His reply may be found in Antid. 260 ff. περὶ τοὺς πολιτικοὺς λόγους ἡμεῖς ὄντες, οὓς ἐκεῖνοί φασιν εἶναι φιλαπεχθήμονας (cf. φιλαπεχθημόνως ἔχοντας here), πολὺ πραότεροι τυγχάνομεν αὐτῶν ὄντες· οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀεί τι περὶ ἡμῶν φλαῦρον λέγουσιν, ἐγὼ δ’ οὐδὲν ἂν εἴποιμι τοιοῦτον, ἀλλὰ ταῖς ἀληθείαις χρήσομαι περὶ αὐτῶν κτλ. See the interesting discussion in Dümmler l.c. pp. 8 ff.

αὑτοῖς and not αὐτοῖς is certainly what Plato wrote. False philosophers, like bad scholars, are always abusing one another. The middle, which is reciprocal, is also decisive in favour of αὑτοῖς: cf. Charm. 154 A λοιδορουμένους ἀλλήλοις. J. and C. (with Stallbaum and the editors generally, except Schneider) read αὐτοῖς, remarking that “it was by no means an uncommon practice of the old philosophers to abuse the people.” Plato is not speaking of the old philosophers at all, but only of sophists and pretenders, who do not abuse, but flatter and cajole the people (493 A ff.).

ἀεὶ περὶ ἀνθρώπων κτλ. The seeker after Truth does not indulge in personalities (cf. Arist. Eth. Nic. IV 9. 1125^{a} 5 ff. and Rhet. II 4. 1381^{b} 7), or scandal ( Theaet. 173 D : cf. 174 E ff.). His singleminded pursuit of Truth leaves him neither time nor inclination to talk about people.

πολύ γε : sc. ἥκιστα. Adimantus accommodates his answer to the last clause of Socrates' question. See on V 465 E.

σχολή . Cf. Theaet. 172 D ff.

εἰς τεταγμένα ἄττα κτλ. With the general sense cf. Theaet. 174 D ff., Phaed. 79 C , D, Tim. 47 B , C and Euripides Fr. 902 ὄλβιος <*>στις τῆς ἱστορίας | ἔσχε μάθησιν | μήτε πολιτῶν ἐπὶ πημοσύνην | μήτ’ εἰς ἀδίκους πράξεις ὁρμῶν | ἀλλ’ ἀθανάτου καθορῶν φύσεως | κόσμον ἀγήρων, πῇ τε συνέστη | καὶ ὅπῃ καὶ ὅπως. | τοῖς δὲ τοιούτοις οὐδέποτ’ αἰσχρῶν | ἔργων μελέτημα προσίζει. Euripides' lines are conceived in the spirit of Plato and exactly illustrate his meaning, especially if, as is usually supposed, they refer to the philosopher Anaxagoras. An eloquent modern parallel may be found in Stevenson's ‘ Virginibus puerisque’ p. 260.

ὁρῶντας . For the change from singular to plural cf. I 347 A note

κοσμίῳ . It has been thought that there is a play on κόσμος in the sense of the Universe or Heavens. But the philosopher's gaze outsoars the Heavens, and is fixed on the ὑπερουράνιος τόπος, where the Ideas dwell ( Phaedr. 247 C ).

διαβολὴ κτλ. ἐν πᾶσι is neuter, ‘albeit misrepresentation is rife everywhere,’ “there is always detraction going on” (J. and C.).

ἂν οὖν τις κτλ. Cf. 484 C.

δημοτικῆς ἀρετῆς . Not scientific virtue, because its intellectual basis in the minds of the people is ὀρθὴ δόξα, and not ἐπιστήμη. See IV 430 C note, and on δημοτικὴ ἀρετή generally Zeller^{4} II 1, pp. 593—601, and Archer-Hind's edition of the Phaedo App. I. The ‘demotic virtue’ which the philosopher constructs is of course the best of its kind.

Plato Republic 6.499

ed. John Burnet

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