Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 8.553

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[553] 553a
ἀπειργάσθω δὴ ἡμῖν καὶ αὕτη, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἡ πολιτεία, ἣν ὀλιγαρχίαν καλοῦσιν, ἐκ τιμημάτων ἔχουσα τοὺς ἄρχοντας· τὸν δὲ ταύτῃ ὅμοιον μετὰ ταῦτα σκοπῶμεν, ὥς τε γίγνεται οἷός τε γενόμενός ἐστιν.
πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
ἆρʼ οὖν ὧδε μάλιστα εἰς ὀλιγαρχικὸν ἐκ τοῦ τιμοκρατικοῦ ἐκείνου μεταβάλλει;
πῶς;
ὅταν αὐτοῦ παῖς γενόμενος τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ζηλοῖ τε τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὰ ἐκείνου ἴχνη διώκῃ, ἔπειτα αὐτὸν ἴδῃ ἐξαίφνης 553b πταίσαντα ὥσπερ πρὸς ἕρματι πρὸς τῇ πόλει, καὶ ἐκχέαντα τά τε αὑτοῦ καὶ ἑαυτόν, ἢ στρατηγήσαντα ἤ τινʼ ἄλλην μεγάλην ἀρχὴν ἄρξαντα, εἶτα εἰς δικαστήριον ἐμπεσόντα βλαπτόμενον ὑπὸ συκοφαντῶν ἢ ἀποθανόντα ἢ ἐκπεσόντα ἢ ἀτιμωθέντα καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν ἅπασαν ἀποβαλόντα.
εἰκός γʼ, ἔφη.
ἰδὼν δέ γε, ὦ φίλε, ταῦτα καὶ παθὼν καὶ ἀπολέσας τὰ ὄντα, δείσας οἶμαι εὐθὺς ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν ὠθεῖ ἐκ τοῦ θρόνου 553c τοῦ ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῇ φιλοτιμίαν τε καὶ τὸ θυμοειδὲς ἐκεῖνο, καὶ ταπεινωθεὶς ὑπὸ πενίας πρὸς χρηματισμὸν τραπόμενος γλίσχρως καὶ κατὰ σμικρὸν φειδόμενος καὶ ἐργαζόμενος χρήματα συλλέγεται. ἆρʼ οὐκ οἴει τὸν τοιοῦτον τότε εἰς μὲν τὸν θρόνον ἐκεῖνον τὸ ἐπιθυμητικόν τε καὶ φιλοχρήματον ἐγκαθίζειν καὶ μέγαν βασιλέα ποιεῖν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, τιάρας τε καὶ στρεπτοὺς καὶ ἀκινάκας παραζωννύντα;
ἔγωγʼ, ἔφη. 553d
τὸ δέ γε οἶμαι λογιστικόν τε καὶ θυμοειδὲς χαμαὶ ἔνθεν καὶ ἔνθεν παρακαθίσας ὑπʼ ἐκείνῳ καὶ καταδουλωσάμενος, τὸ μὲν οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐᾷ λογίζεσθαι οὐδὲ σκοπεῖν ἀλλʼ ἢ ὁπόθεν ἐξ ἐλαττόνων χρημάτων πλείω ἔσται, τὸ δὲ αὖ θαυμάζειν καὶ τιμᾶν μηδὲν ἄλλο ἢ πλοῦτόν τε καὶ πλουσίους, καὶ φιλοτιμεῖσθαι μηδʼ ἐφʼ ἑνὶ ἄλλῳ ἢ ἐπὶ χρημάτων κτήσει καὶ ἐάν τι ἄλλο εἰς τοῦτο φέρῃ.
οὐκ ἔστʼ ἄλλη, ἔφη, μεταβολὴ οὕτω ταχεῖά τε καὶ ἰσχυρὰ ἐκ φιλοτίμου νέου εἰς φιλοχρήματον. 553e
ἆρʼ οὖν οὗτος, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὀλιγαρχικός ἐστιν;
ἡ γοῦν μεταβολὴ αὐτοῦ ἐξ ὁμοίου ἀνδρός ἐστι τῇ πολιτείᾳ, ἐξ ἧς ἡ ὀλιγαρχία μετέστη.
σκοπῶμεν δὴ εἰ ὅμοιος ἂν εἴη.

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

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).) — 8.553 focus

[553] 553a Then, I said, let us regard as disposed of the constitution called oligarchy, whose rulers are determined by a property qualification.¹ And next we are to consider the man who resembles it—how he arises and what after that his character is. Quite so, he said.
Is not the transition from that timocratic youth to the oligarchical type mostly on this wise? How? When a son born to the timocratic man at first emulates his father, and follows in his footsteps² and then sees him 553b suddenly dashed,³ as a ship on a reef,⁴ against the state, and making complete wreckage⁵ of both his possessions and himself perhaps he has been a general, or has held some other important office, and has then been dragged into court by mischievous sycophants and put to death or banished⁶ or outlawed and has lost all his property— It is likely, he said. And the son, my friend, after seeing and suffering these things, and losing his property, grows timid, I fancy, and forthwith thrusts headlong⁷ from his bosom’s throne⁸ 553c that principle of love of honor and that high spirit, and being humbled by poverty turns to the getting of money, and greedily⁹ and stingily and little by little by thrift and hard work collects property. Do you not suppose that such a one will then establish on that throne the principle of appetite and avarice, and set it up as the great king in his soul, adorned with tiaras and collars of gold, and girt with the Persian sword? I do, he said. And under this domination he will force the rational 553d and high-spirited principles to crouch lowly to right and left¹⁰ as slaves, and will allow the one to calculate and consider nothing but the ways of making more money from a little,¹¹ and the other to admire and honor nothing but riches and rich men, and to take pride in nothing but the possession of wealth and whatever contributes to that? There is no other transformation so swift and sure of the ambitious youth into the avaricious type. 553e Is this, then, our oligarchical man? said I. He is developed, at any rate, out of a man resembling the constitution from which the oligarchy sprang. 554a Let us see, then, whether he will have a like character.

Commentary

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

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.

Plato Republic 8.553

ed. John Burnet

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Commentary

Stable identifiers