[422E]
εὐδαίμων εἶ κτλ.
: ‘you are fortunate to be able to think etc.’: cf. V 450 C.
εὐδαίμων is less common in this ironical sense than
μακάριος.
ἑκάστη γὰρ κτλ.
: ‘for each of them is, as the saying goes, no city, but a-many cities.’ The phrase
τὸ τῶν παιζόντων in Plato seems always to mean ‘as they say in the proverb’ or ‘proverbial saying’: see IX 573 C,
Laws 780 C, and cf. ib. 723 D. Now it is probable from the position of
τὸ τῶν παιζόντων that
ἀλλ’ οὐ πόλις forms part of the proverb: so that the whole saying may have run
πόλεις μέν εἰσι παμπόλεις, ἀλλ’ οὐ πόλις. (Herwerden,
more suo, cancels
ἀλλ’ οὐ πόλις, but we have of course no right to take this step.) The form
παμπόλεις for
πάμπολλαι may be allowed in a pun on
πόλεις, especially as the Epic plural of
πολύς is sometimes found with feminine nouns. It should be remarked also that the first hand in Paris A wrote
πάμπολαι (see cr. n.), though this may be merely accidental. What the ordinary application of the proverb was, we cannot say: presumably it was generally employed, as here by Plato, in speaking of a city divided against itself. The origin of the saying is to be sought in the variety of
πεττεία known as
πόλεις παίζειν, an expression which, according to the Scholiast on this passage of Plato, as well as Suidas s.v.
πόλις, and Hesychius s.v.
πόλεις παίζειν, had itself also a proverbial signification. In this game the abacus was divided into 60 spaces, each of which was called
πόλις in ancient times (Photius s.v.
πόλεις παίζειν ed. Porson. Porson's alteration of
ξ/ i.e. 60 into
ζ/ is a gratuitous change, as Schneider hints. See also Eustathius on
Od. I p. 29. 13 ff., ed. Lips., quoted by Schneider). The name
πόλις was moreover sometimes applied to the game itself (Cratinus
Δραπετίδες
Fr. 3 ed. Meineke
καὶ κύνα καὶ πόλιν ἣν παίζουσιν), as well as to the
πλινθίον or
abacus on which it was played (Pollux IX 98). There is also, I think, some reason for believing that each of the players' sides was called collectively his
πόλις. In Susemihl and Hicks
Politics of Aristotle p. 148 note, Dr Jackson remarks that the words
πάμπολλαι πόλεις, ἀλλ’ οὐ πόλις make it likely “that a compact body of pieces was called
πόλις.” If we may go further, and suppose that the
whole of a player's side was called his
πόλις, the words of Plato
δύο μὲν—πολεμία ἀλλἡλαις, ἡ μὲν πενήτων, ἡ δὲ πλουσίων· τούτων δ’ ἐν ἑκατέρᾳ πάνυ πολλαί receive additional point by becoming an exact counterpart of the game. A defeated player, gazing ruefully at his depopulated squares, each of which, as well as the whole of his side, is a ‘city,’ might therefore well exclaim, ‘Cities upon cities, but no city!’ for there can be no city without men (
ἔρημος ἀνδρῶν μὴ ξυνοικούντων ἔσω
Soph.
O. T. 57
). I have thought of other possibilities, but this hypothesis as to the origin of the proverb suits the words of Plato better than any other which I can devise. For a different view see Hoffmann in
Fl. Jahrb. 1863 pp. 240 ff. Cf. also Meineke
Fr. Com. Gr. II pp. 44 f. It should be mentioned that Stewart (
Cl. Rev. VII p. 359) thinks there need be no allusion to the game of
πόλεις in this passage, but only a jest about making one into many (cf.
Men. 77 A
παῦσαι πολλὰ ποιῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἑνός, ὅπερ φασὶ τοὺς συντρίβοντάς τι ἑκάστοτε οἱ σκώπτοντες), while Schneider finds only a “lusus in verbis atque in consociatione singularis et pluralis.” Neither of these suggestions meets the situation.
δύο ‐‐ κἂν ὁτιοῦν ᾖ
: ‘two, in any case,’ lit. ‘if there be even anything at all,’ i.e. ‘whatever there be.’ So also Schneider. The subject to
ὁτιοῦν ᾖ is impersonal, and not the city, as Jowett seems to suppose.
πολεμία
. On this—comparatively rare —termination of the dual feminine in Plato see Roeper
de dual. usu Pl. pp. 3 ff. Cf. IX 587 B note
Commentary on Plato, Republic. James Adam. ed. James Adam. Cambridge. 1926-1929.
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