James Adam, Commentary on Plato, Republic, ed. James Adam, 8.547B

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[547B] εἱλκέτην κτλ. The logical object of εἱλκέτην and ἠγέτην (in line 13) is τὴν πολιτείαν. For the omission of the object with ἕλκω and ἄγω cf. 560 B, X 604 A, 604 D et al. It is only another way of expressing oneself to say that the verbs are practically intransitive. The sedition which arises is not between rulers and ruled, but between the rulers among themselves, as is clear from 545 D and elsewhere: hence τὸ μὲν σιδηροῦν καὶ χαλκοῦν does not refer to the farmers and artisans, who probably possessed οἰκίαι from the first (III 417 A note), but to the section of the rulers who have become σιδηροῦν and χαλκοῦν by the intermixture of different breeds. Cf. the oracle foretelling the destruction of the city ὅταν αὐτὴν ὁ σίδηρος ἢ ὁ χαλκὸς φυλάξῃ (III 415 C). γῆς κτῆσιν κτλ. means ‘the possession of land and a private dwelling-place as well as of gold and silver,’ all of which were forbidden to Plato's rulers. ἔγκτησις γῆς καὶ οἰκίας was a familiar expression to the Greeks, and one of the well-recognised privileges of μέτοικοι at Athens (Gilbert Gr. Staatsalt. II p. 295). On the reading χρυσοῦ see cr. n. It is usual to read χρυσίου, but ἀργύρου immediately following favours χρυσοῦ, whose authority is not much inferior to that of χρυσίου. Cf. χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον 548 A. Herwerden, retaining χρυσίου, would write ἀργυρίου instead of ἀργύρου with some MSS of little value: but the reading printed above has much more MS support. His further proposal ἐπὶ χρηματισμὸν χρυσίου τε καὶ ἀργυρίου καὶ γῆς κτῆσιν καὶ οἰκίας will not find favour among scholars.

φύσει ‐‐ ψυχάς . They are not rich in worldly possessions, but they have the true riches—the riches of the soul. Cf. the prayer of Socrates in Phaedr. 279 C πλούσιον δὲ νομίζοιμι τὸν σοφόν, and see also on III 416 E. The usual view, which makes τὰς ψυχάς depend on ἠγέτην (Schneider, J. and C., D. and V., etc.) is surely wrong. Jowett from his translation appears to have caught the meaning.

εἰς μέσον ὡμολόγησαν κτλ. The change is effected, as in the case of the corresponding man (550 B), by a peaceful compromise. In the later stages of political decay, when ἀνομοιότης has gathered strength, revolution is attended by civil war (557 A), and the tyrant wades through bloodshed to his throne (565 E ff.).

περιοίκους τε καὶ οἰκέτας . We meet with περίοικοι not only in Sparta, of which city Plato is chiefly thinking, but also in Crete, Thessaly and Argos: see Gilbert Gr. Staatsalt. II pp. 16, 74, 220. In each of these States there was also an inferior grade, in Sparta the Helots, in Crete the vοικέες of the Gortynian inscription, sometimes also spoken of as οἰκέται, in Thessaly the πενέσται, and in Argos the γυμνῆτες or γυμνήσιοι (Gilbert l.c.). It is clear, I think, that in οἰκέτας Plato is thinking of this lowest order. The Spartan Helots had to perform the duties of domestic servants, as appears from Plut. Lyc. et Num. comp. 2. 4 ἦν ἡ περὶ τὰ χρήματα κατασκευὴ δεδομένη δούλοις καὶ Εἵλωσιν, ὥσπερ ἡ περὶ τὸ δεῖπνον καὶ ὄψον διακονία.

φυλακῆς αὐτῶν : the duty of watching and guarding— sensu inimico— the περίοικοι and οἰκέται. The institutions and history of Sparta are a sufficient commentary on the phrase.

οὐκοῦν ‐‐ πολιτεία . Cf. 547 C note

Commentary on Plato, Republic. James Adam. ed. James Adam. Cambridge. 1926-1929.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

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

Editions (1)

Πολιτεία Perseus (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 8.547 focus

[547] ὁμοῦ δὲ μιγέντος σιδηροῦ ἀργυρῷ καὶ χαλκοῦ χρυσῷ ἀνομοιότης ἐγγενήσεται καὶ ἀνωμαλία ἀνάρμοστος, ἃ γενόμενα, οὗ ἂν ἐγγένηται, ἀεὶ τίκτει πόλεμον καὶ ἔχθραν.

ταύτης τοι γενεῆς

Hom. Il. 6.211 χρὴ φάναι εἶναι στάσιν, ὅπου ἂν γίγνηται ἀεί.
καὶ ὀρθῶς γʼ, ἔφη, αὐτὰς ἀποκρίνεσθαι φήσομεν.
καὶ γάρ, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἀνάγκη μούσας γε οὔσας. 547b
τί οὖν, ἦ δʼ ὅς, τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο λέγουσιν αἱ Μοῦσαι;
στάσεως, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, γενομένης εἱλκέτην ἄρα ἑκατέρω τὼ γένει, τὸ μὲν σιδηροῦν καὶ χαλκοῦν ἐπὶ χρηματισμὸν καὶ γῆς κτῆσιν καὶ οἰκίας χρυσίου τε καὶ ἀργύρου, τὼ δʼ αὖ, τὸ χρυσοῦν τε καὶ ἀργυροῦν, ἅτε οὐ πενομένω ἀλλὰ φύσει ὄντε πλουσίω, τὰς ψυχὰς ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ τὴν ἀρχαίαν κατάστασιν ἠγέτην· βιαζομένων δὲ καὶ ἀντιτεινόντων ἀλλήλοις, εἰς μέσον ὡμολόγησαν γῆν μὲν καὶ οἰκίας κατανειμαμένους 547c ἰδιώσασθαι, τοὺς δὲ πρὶν φυλαττομένους ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ὡς ἐλευθέρους φίλους τε καὶ τροφέας, δουλωσάμενοι τότε περιοίκους τε καὶ οἰκέτας ἔχοντες, αὐτοὶ πολέμου τε καὶ φυλακῆς αὐτῶν ἐπιμελεῖσθαι.
δοκεῖ μοι, ἔφη, αὕτη ἡ μετάβασις ἐντεῦθεν γίγνεσθαι.
οὐκοῦν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἐν μέσῳ τις ἂν εἴη ἀριστοκρατίας τε καὶ ὀλιγαρχίας αὕτη ἡ πολιτεία;
πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
μεταβήσεται μὲν δὴ οὕτω· μεταβᾶσα δὲ πῶς οἰκήσει; ἢ 547d φανερὸν ὅτι τὰ μὲν μιμήσεται τὴν προτέραν πολιτείαν, τὰ δὲ τὴν ὀλιγαρχίαν, ἅτʼ ἐν μέσῳ οὖσα, τὸ δέ τι καὶ αὑτῆς ἕξει ἴδιον;
οὕτως, ἔφη.
οὐκοῦν τῷ μὲν τιμᾶν τοὺς ἄρχοντας καὶ γεωργιῶν ἀπέχεσθαι τὸ προπολεμοῦν αὐτῆς καὶ χειροτεχνιῶν καὶ τοῦ ἄλλου χρηματισμοῦ, συσσίτια δὲ κατεσκευάσθαι καὶ γυμναστικῆς τε καὶ τῆς τοῦ πολέμου ἀγωνίας ἐπιμελεῖσθαι, πᾶσι τοῖς τοιούτοις τὴν προτέραν μιμήσεται;
ναί. 547e
τῷ δέ γε φοβεῖσθαι τοὺς σοφοὺς ἐπὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς ἄγειν, ἅτε οὐκέτι κεκτημένην ἁπλοῦς τε καὶ ἀτενεῖς τοὺς τοιούτους ἄνδρας ἀλλὰ μεικτούς, ἐπὶ δὲ θυμοειδεῖς τε καὶ ἁπλουστέρους ἀποκλίνειν, τοὺς πρὸς πόλεμον μᾶλλον πεφυκότας ἢ πρὸς 548a εἰρήνην, καὶ τοὺς περὶ ταῦτα δόλους τε καὶ μηχανὰς ἐντίμως ἔχειν, καὶ πολεμοῦσα τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον διάγειν, αὐτὴ ἑαυτῆς αὖ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἴδια ἕξει;

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).) — 8.547 focus

[547] And this intermixture of the iron with the silver and the bronze with the gold will engender unlikeness¹ and an unharmonious unevenness, things that always beget war and enmity wherever they arise.

Of this lineage, look you,

Hom. Il. 6.211 we must aver the dissension to be, wherever it occurs and always. And rightly too, he said, we shall affirm that the Muses answer. They must needs, I said, since they are² Muses. 547b Well, then, said he, what do the Muses say next? When strife arose, said I, the two groups were pulling against each other, the iron and bronze towards money-making and the acquisition of land and houses and gold and silver, and the other two, the golden and silvern, not being poor, but by nature rich in their souls,³ were trying to draw them back to virtue and their original constitution, and thus, striving and contending against one another, they compromised⁴ on the plan of distributing and taking for themselves the land and the houses, 547c enslaving and subjecting as perioeci and serfs⁵ their former friends⁶ and supporters, of whose freedom they had been the guardians, and occupying themselves with war and keeping watch over these subjects. I think, he said, that this is the starting-point of the transformation. Would not this polity, then, said I, be in some sort intermediate between aristocracy and oligarchy ? By all means.
By this change, then, it would arise. But after the change 547d what will be its way of life? Is it not obvious that in some things it will imitate the preceding polity, in some the oligarchy, since it is intermediate, and that it will also have some qualities peculiar to itself? That is so, he said. Then in honoring its rulers and in the abstention of its warrior class from farming⁷ and handicraft and money-making in general, and in the provision of common public tables⁸ and the devotion to physical training and expertness in the game and contest of war—in all these traits it will copy the preceding state? Yes. But in its fear 547e to admit clever men to office, since the men it has of this kind are no longer simple⁹ and strenuous but of mixed strain, and in its inclining rather to the more high-spirited and simple-minded type, who are better suited for war 548a than for peace, and in honoring the stratagems and contrivances of war and occupying itself with war most of the time—in these respects for the most part its qualities will be peculiar to itself?

James Adam Commentary on Plato, Republic 8.547B

ed. James Adam

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers