Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 8.552

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[552]
τί δέ; ὃ πάλαι ἐλοιδοροῦμεν, τὸ πολυπραγμονεῖν γεωργοῦντας 552a καὶ χρηματιζομένους καὶ πολεμοῦντας ἅμα τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ τοιαύτῃ πολιτείᾳ, ἦ δοκεῖ ὀρθῶς ἔχειν;
οὐδʼ ὁπωστιοῦν.
ὅρα δή, τούτων πάντων τῶν κακῶν εἰ τόδε μέγιστον αὕτη πρώτη παραδέχεται.
τὸ ποῖον;
τὸ ἐξεῖναι πάντα τὰ αὑτοῦ ἀποδόσθαι, καὶ ἄλλῳ κτήσασθαι τὰ τούτου, καὶ ἀποδόμενον οἰκεῖν ἐν τῇ πόλει μηδὲν ὄντα τῶν τῆς πόλεως μερῶν, μήτε χρηματιστὴν μήτε δημιουργὸν μήτε ἱππέα μήτε ὁπλίτην, ἀλλὰ πένητα καὶ ἄπορον κεκλημένον. 552b
πρώτη, ἔφη.
οὔκουν διακωλύεταί γε ἐν ταῖς ὀλιγαρχουμέναις τὸ τοιοῦτον· οὐ γὰρ ἂν οἱ μὲν ὑπέρπλουτοι ἦσαν, οἱ δὲ παντάπασι πένητες.
ὀρθῶς.
τόδε δὲ ἄθρει· ἆρα ὅτε πλούσιος ὢν ἀνήλισκεν ὁ τοιοῦτος, μᾶλλόν τι τότʼ ἦν ὄφελος τῇ πόλει εἰς ἃ νυνδὴ ἐλέγομεν; ἢ ἐδόκει μὲν τῶν ἀρχόντων εἶναι, τῇ δὲ ἀληθείᾳ οὔτε ἄρχων οὔτε ὑπηρέτης ἦν αὐτῆς, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἑτοίμων ἀναλωτής; 552c
οὕτως, ἔφη· ἐδόκει, ἦν δὲ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ ἀναλωτής.
βούλει οὖν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, φῶμεν αὐτόν, ὡς ἐν κηρίῳ κηφὴν ἐγγίγνεται, σμήνους νόσημα, οὕτω καὶ τὸν τοιοῦτον ἐν οἰκίᾳ κηφῆνα ἐγγίγνεσθαι, νόσημα πόλεως;
πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη, ὦ Σώκρατες.
οὐκοῦν, ὦ Ἀδείμαντε, τοὺς μὲν πτηνοὺς κηφῆνας πάντας ἀκέντρους ὁ θεὸς πεποίηκεν, τοὺς δὲ πεζοὺς τούτους ἐνίους μὲν αὐτῶν ἀκέντρους, ἐνίους δὲ δεινὰ κέντρα ἔχοντας; καὶ ἐκ μὲν τῶν ἀκέντρων πτωχοὶ πρὸς τὸ γῆρας τελευτῶσιν, ἐκ δὲ 552d τῶν κεκεντρωμένων πάντες ὅσοι κέκληνται κακοῦργοι;
ἀληθέστατα, ἔφη.
δῆλον ἄρα, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἐν πόλει οὗ ἂν ἴδῃς πτωχούς, ὅτι εἰσί που ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τόπῳ ἀποκεκρυμμένοι κλέπται τε καὶ βαλλαντιατόμοι καὶ ἱερόσυλοι καὶ πάντων τῶν τοιούτων κακῶν δημιουργοί.
δῆλον, ἔφη.
τί οὖν; ἐν ταῖς ὀλιγαρχουμέναις πόλεσι πτωχοὺς οὐχ ὁρᾷς ἐνόντας;
ὀλίγου γʼ, ἔφη, πάντας τοὺς ἐκτὸς τῶν ἀρχόντων. 552e
μὴ οὖν οἰόμεθα, ἔφην ἐγώ, καὶ κακούργους πολλοὺς ἐν αὐταῖς εἶναι κέντρα ἔχοντας, οὓς ἐπιμελείᾳ βίᾳ κατέχουσιν αἱ ἀρχαί;
οἰόμεθα μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
ἆρʼ οὖν οὐ διʼ ἀπαιδευσίαν καὶ κακὴν τροφὴν καὶ κατάστασιν τῆς πολιτείας φήσομεν τοὺς τοιούτους αὐτόθι ἐγγίγνεσθαι;
φήσομεν.
ἀλλʼ οὖν δὴ τοιαύτη γέ τις ἂν εἴη ἡ ὀλιγαρχουμένη πόλις καὶ τοσαῦτα κακὰ ἔχουσα, ἴσως δὲ καὶ πλείω.
σχεδόν τι, ἔφη.

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).) — 8.552 focus

[552] And what of the trait we found fault with long ago¹—the fact that in such a state the citizens are busy-bodies and jacks-of-all-trades, farmers, 552a financiers and soldiers all in one? Do you think that is right? By no manner of means. Consider now whether this polity is not the first that admits that which is the greatest of all such evils. What? The allowing a man to sell all his possessions,² which another is permitted to acquire, and after selling them to go on living in the city, but as no part of it,³ neither a money-maker, nor a craftsman, nor a knight, nor a foot-soldier, but classified only as a pauper⁴ and a dependent. 552b This is the first, he said. There certainly is no prohibition of that sort of thing in oligarchical states. Otherwise some of their citizens would not be excessively rich, and others out and out paupers. Right. But observe this. When such a fellow was spending his wealth, was he then of any more use to the state in the matters of which we were speaking, or did he merely seem to belong to the ruling class, while in reality he was neither ruler nor helper in the state, but only a consumer of goods⁵? It is so, he said; he only seemed, but was 552c just a spendthrift. Shall we, then, say of him that as the drone⁶ springs up in the cell, a pest of the hive, so such a man grows up in his home, a pest of the state? By all means, Socrates, he said. And has not God, Adeimantus, left the drones which have wings and fly stingless one and all, while of the drones here who travel afoot he has made some stingless but has armed others with terrible stings? And from the stingless finally issue beggars in old age,⁷ 552d but from those furnished with stings all that are denominated⁸ malefactors? Most true, he said. It is plain, then, said I, that wherever you see beggars in a city, there are somewhere in the neighborhood concealed thieves and cutpurses and temple-robbers and similar artists in crime. Clearly, he said. Well, then, in oligarchical cities do you not see beggars? Nearly all are such, he said, except the ruling class. Are we not to suppose, then, 552e that there are also many criminals in them furnished with stings, whom the rulers by their surveillance forcibly⁹ restrain? We must think so, he said. And shall we not say that the presence of such citizens is the result of a defective culture and bad breeding and a wrong constitution of the state? We shall. Well, at any rate such would be the character of the oligarchical state, and these, or perhaps even more than these, would be the evils that afflict it. Pretty nearly these, he said.

Commentary

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

τὸ ἐξεῖναι κτλ. According to some ancient authorities (cited in Hermann-Thumser l. c. pp. 186 f.), the constitution of Lycurgus absolutely forbade the alienation of a certain minimum of the original κλῆρος, called the ἀρχαία μοῖρα. The evidence of Plato does not go far, but so far as it does go, it supports this view; for he says that oligarchy is the first polity which permits a citizen πάντα τὰ αὑτοῦ ἀποδίδοσθαι: cf. also Laws 744 D. Aristotle says nothing of the ἀρχαία μοῖρα, and states that a Spartan might legally part with his estate by gift or bequest, although to sell it was οὐ καλόν ( Pol. B 9. 1270^{a} 19 ff.). The conflict of evidence is discussed by Newman and Susemihl on Arist. l.c.: see also on the other side Hermann-Thumser l. c. pp. 259 f. In many Greek States besides Sparta it was either illegal, or at least dishonourable, to dispose of the ‘ancient lot’: see Whibley Gk Olig. pp. 113—115.

οὔκουν κτλ. Schneider was the first to give this sentence to Adimantus, and ὀρθῶς to Socrates, “qui quum paucorum gubernationem primam illud vitium recipere persuasum haberet eamque sententiam verbis ὅρα δή etc. aperte demonstrasset, suffragante Adimanto rursus in dubium sine causa rem vocare non debebat.” Cf. 554 B. Baiter and others ought not to have reverted to the old arrangement. For οὔκουν—γε see Neil's edition of the Knights of Aristophanes p. 195.

εἰς ἅ : i.e. for χρηματισμός, δημιουργία and the other purposes specified in 552 A.

ἐδόκει : sc. ἄλλο τι ἢ ἀναλωτής (Schneider). This explanation, which is, I think, neater and more pointed than to supply τῶν ἀρχόντων, makes ἦν—ἀναλωτής indispensable. Herwerden was wrong in any case when he bracketed these words.

ἐν κηρίῳ : not ‘in the hive’ (as D. and V.), but ‘in a cell.’ The drone-cell in which the drone is produced stands to the whole hive as the οἰκία to the πόλις. For κηρίον in this sense, see Bonitz Ind. Arist. s.v.

τὸν τοιοῦτον ‐‐ κηφῆνα . The comparison is frequent in Greek literature from Hesiod onwards ( O D. 304 ff.): see Ruhnken on Tim. Lex. s.v. κηφήνεσσι κοθούροισι and Blaydes on Ar. Wasps 1114 . “We would purge the land of the drones, that rob the bee of her honey” ( Pericles Prince of Tyre II 1. 50).

τελευτῶσιν : i.q. τελευτῶντές εἰσιν. ‘To the stingless belong those who die paupers in their old age.’ πρὸς τὸ γῆρας is adverbial as in VI 498 A. Stallbaum and others understand τελευτῶσιν as only ‘tandem fiunt’; but the other view— Schneider's—is better and more natural: cf. II 372 D γηραιοὶ τελευτῶντες and Symp. 179 E .

πάντες : sc. εἰσίν (understood from τελευτῶσιν) rather than γίγνονται (as J. and C. explain).

ἐν πόλει κτλ. Compare the melancholy picture of Athens in Isocrates Areop. 83 τότε μὲν οὐδεὶς ἦν τῶν πολιτῶν ἐνδεὴς τῶν ἀναγκαίων, οὐδὲ προσαιτῶν τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας τὴν πόλιν κατῄσχυνε, νῦν δὲ πλείους εἰσὶν οἱ σπανίζοντες τῶν ἐχόντων· οἷς ἄξιόν ἐστι πολλὴν συγγνώμην ἔχειν, εἰ μηδὲν τῶν κοινῶν φροντίζουσιν ἀλλὰ τοῦτο σκοποῦσιν, ὁπόθεν τὴν ἀεὶ παροῦσαν ἡμέραν διάξουσιν. The Areopagiticus was published about 354 B.C.

ὀλίγου γε ‐‐ ἀρχόντων . Plato's description may be illustrated from the state of Athens just before Solon's legislation: see Solon Fr. 36 ed. Bergk = Arist. Ath. Pol. 12. 4. The words χρησμὸν λέγοντας (in line 9 of the fragment) are certainly not, as some have thought, a corruption of χρείους φυγόντας (as in Aristotle's text), but point to a different recension. χρῃσμὸν λέγοντας ‘gathering alms’ has been suggested (cf. χρῄζω, χρησμοσύνη), and may I think be the original from which the first of the two variants comes.

μὴ οὖν οἰώμεθα : ‘are we, then, not to suppose?’ μή is not ‘num,’ but the negative and goes with οἰώμεθα: cf. I 337 B μὴ ἀποκρίνωμαι ὧν προεῖπες μηδέν; and infra 554 B with other examples cited by Stallbaum: see also Kühner Gr. Gr. II p. 187. The positive counterpart of this idiom is οἰώμεθα or βούλει οἰώμεθα: and the negative is due to the jussive idea on which the subjunctive logically depends. οἰόμεθα (see cr. n.) is retained by Schneider and others, μή being construed as ‘num.’ But ‘we do not, then, suppose, do we,’ overdoes the irony, and Stallbaum's explanation is better in every way. On the interchange of ο and ω in Paris A see Introd. § 5.

ἐπιμελείᾳ = ‘deliberately,’ ‘consulto,’ is a rare but well-established adverb: see Xen. Cyr. V 3. 47 , Mag. Eq. 7. 9 and cf. κατ’ ἐπιμέλειαν in Hell. IV 4. 8. The magistrates resign themselves to the presence of these κακοῦργοι, and instead of removing the cause— ἀπαιδευσία καὶ κακὴ τροφὴ καὶ κατάστασις τῆς πολιτείας—as they should do, they ‘deliberately hold them down by force.’ Plato emphatically believed that ‘force is no remedy.’ Cf. the corresponding account of the oligarchical man in 554 C, D κατέχει ἄλλας κακὰς ἐπιθυμίας ἐνούσας, οὐ πείθων ὅτι οὐκ ἄμεινον, οὐδ’ ἡμερῶν λόγῳ, ἀλλ’ ἀνάγκῃ καὶ φόβῳ κτλ. Schneider's translation ‘carefully’ (sorgfältig) is inaccurate; but he was right in holding that ἐπιμελείᾳ and not βίᾳ (as J. and C. suppose) is the adverb. We certainly cannot understand ἐπιμελείᾳ as = ὑπὸ τῆς ἄλλης ἐπιμελείας in spite of 554 C. The suggestions καὶ βίᾳ (Stephanus) and [ ἐπιμελεία ] βίᾳ (J. J. Hartman) are superfluous.

ἀπαιδευσίαν . ἀπαιδευσία is a feature of the oligarchical State and man: cf. 554 B, 559 D.

Plato Republic 8.552

ed. John Burnet

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