Very true, he replied.
Who answers to this form of government — how did he
come into being, and what is he like ?
I think, said Adeimantus, that in the spirit of contention
which characterizes him, he is not unlike our friend Glaucon.
Perhaps, I said, he may be like him in that one point ; but
there are other respects in which he is very different.
In what respects ?
He should have more of self-assertion and be somewhat less
favored by the Muses, yet not other than a lover of the Muses ;
and he should be a good listener, but not a speaker. A man of
this sort may be imagined to be rough with slaves, not
like the educated man, who is too proud for that ; and he 4
will also be courteous to freemen, and remarkably obedient to
authority ; he is a lover of power and a lover of honor ; claim-
ing to be a ruler, not because he is a speaker, or on any ground
of that sort, but because he is a soldier, and, as a soldier, has
performed feats of arms : he is also a lover of gymnastic exer-
cises and of the chase.
Yes, he said, that is the character of timocracy.
Such an one will despise riches only when he is young;
but as he gets older he will be more and more attracted to
them, because he has a piece of the avaricious nature in him,
and is not single-minded towards virtue, having lost his best
guardian.
Who is that ? said Adeimantus.
Philosophy, I said, tempered with music, 8 who comes and
i See Book IV. , 439 and following.
6 This sentence embraces Plato's entire scheme of education. In early
life the soul should be compassed by influences in art form, which have been
determined in accordance with absolute truth by the philosopher. Later,
the soul which is properly educated through such influences should rise to
clear knowledge of the absolute truth by means of philosophic reflection.
348 PLATO THE TEACHER
takes up her abode in a man through life, and is the only sa-
viour of his virtue.
Good, he said.
Such, I said, is the timocratical youth, and he is like the
timocratical State.
Exactly.
His origin is as follows : He is often the son of a brave father,
who dwells in an ill-governed city, the honors and offices of
which he declines, and will not go to law, but is ready to
waive his rights in order that he may escape trouble.
And how does the son come into being ?
The character of the son begins to develop when he hears
his mother grumbling at her husband for not having a seat in
the government, the consequence of which is that she loses
precedence among other women. Further, when she sees her
husband not very eager about money, and instead of battling
and railing in the law courts or assembly, taking everything
of that sort quietly ; and when she observes that his thoughts
always centre in himself, while he treats her with very con-
siderable indifference, she is annoyed at all this, and says to
her son that his father is only half a man and far too easy-
going : not to mention other similar complaints which women
love to utter.
Yes, said Adeimantus, they give us plenty of them, and in
their own characteristic style.
And you know, I said, that the old servants of the family,
who are supposed to be attached, talk privately in the same
strain to the sons ; and if they see any one who owes money
to their father, or is wronging him in any way, and he fails to
prosecute them, they tell the youth that when he grows up he
must retaliate upon his injurers, and be more of a man
than his father. He has only to walk abroad and he
hears and sees the same sort of thing: those who do their own
business in the city are called simple, and held in no esteem,
while the busybodies are honored and applauded. The result
is that the young man, hearing and seeing all these things, —
hearing, too, the words of his father, and having a nearer
view of his way of life, and making comparisons of him and
others, — is drawn opposite ways : while his father is watering
and nourishing the rational principle in his soul, the others
are encouraging the passionate and appetitive ; and he being
THE REPUBLIC 349
not originally of a bad nature, but having kept bad company,
is brought by their joint influence to a middle point, and
gives up the kingdom which is within him to the middle prin-
ciple of contentiousness and passion, 9 and becomes proud and
ambitious.
You seem to me to have described his origin perfectly.
Then we have now, I said, the second form of government
and the second type of character ?
We have.
Next, let us look at another man who, as ^Eschylus says, is
set over against another State ; or rather, as our plan requires,
begin with the State.
By all means.
I believe that oligarchy follows next in order.
And what manner of government do you term oligarchy ?
A government resting on a valuation of property, in which
the rich have power and the poor are deprived of power.
I understand, he replied.
Shall I describe how the change from timocracy to oligarchy
arises ?
Yes.
Well, I said, no eyes are required in order to see how that
comes about.
How?
That private hoard of theirs is the source of the evil ; the
accumulation of gold ruins timocracy : they invent some ex-
travagance which is in open contravention of the law, but
neither they nor their wives care about this.
That might be expected.
And then one seeing another prepares to rival him, and thus
the whole body of the citizens acquires a similar character.
Likely enough.
After that they get on in trade, and the more they think of
this the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue
are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always
rises as the other falls.
True.
And in proportion as riches and rich men are honored
in the State, virtue and the virtuous are dishonored.
Clearly.
• See Book IV., 435-442-
350 PLATO THE TEACHER
And what is honored is cultivated, and that which has no
honor is neglected.
That is the case.
And so at last, instead of loving contention and glory, men
become lovers of trade and money, and they honor and rever-
ence the rich man, and make a ruler of him, and dishonor the
poor man.
Certainly.
Then they proceed to make a law which fixes a sum of
money as the qualification of citizenship j the money fixed is
more or less as the oligarchy is more or less exclusive ; and
they forbid any one whose property is below the amount fixed
to share in the government ; these changes in the constitution
they effect by force of arms, if intimidation has not already
done the work.
Very true.
And this, speaking generally, is the way in which oligarchy
is established.
Yes, he said ; but what are the characteristics of this form
of government, and what are the supposed defects ?
First of all, I said, consider the nature of the qualification.
Just think what would happen if the pilots were to be chosen
according to their property, and a poor man refused permission
to steer, even though he were a better pilot?
You mean that they would shipwreck ?
Yes ; and is not this true of the government of anything ?
Yes, that is what I should imagine.
And would you say this of a city also, or do you make an
exception in favor of a city?
Nay, he said, the case of a city is still stronger, in propor-
tion as the rule of a city is greater and more difficult.
This, then, will be the first great defect of oligarchy ?
Clearly.
And here is another defect which is quite as bad.
What defect ?
The inevitable division ; such a State is not one, but two
States, the one of poor men, the other of rich men, who are
living on the same spot and ever conspiring against one an-
other.
Yes, that is equally bad.
^Another discreditable feature is the impossibility of carrying
THE REPUBLIC 35 1
on any war, because if they arm and use the multitude they
are more afraid of them than of the enemy: that is unavoida-
ble. If they do not use them, then, in the hour of battle,
they appear oligarchs indeed, few to fight and few to rule :
and at the same time their fondness for money makes them
unwilling to pay taxes.
That is not creditable.
And what do you say of our former charge that, under such
a constitution, the same persons are busy at many things,
and are husbandmen, tradesmen, warriors, all in one?
Does that seem well ?
Anything but well.
There is another evil which is, perhaps, the greatest of all,
and to which this State first begins to be liable.
What is the evil?
The evil is that a man may sell all that he has, and another
may possess his property, yet after the sale he may dwell in the
city of which he is no longer a part, being neither trader, nor
artisan, nor horseman, nor hoplite, 10 but only poor and helpless.
Yes, that begins in this State.
An oligarchy offers no security against this ; for oligarchies
have both the extremes of great wealth and utter poverty.
True.
But think again : what sort of a gentleman is this ? In his
wealthy days, while he was spending his money, was he a whit
more good to the State for the purposes of which we were just
now speaking? Or did he only seem to be a member of the
ruling body, being really no more a ruler than he was a sub-
ject, but just a spendthrift?
As you say, he seemed to be a ruler, but was only a spend-
thrift.
May we not say that this is the drone in the house who is
like the drone in the honeycomb, and that the one is the
plague of the city as the other is of the hive?
Just so, Socrates.
And God has made the flying drones, Adeimantus, all with-
out stings, whereas of the walking drones he has made some
without stings and others with dreadful stings : of the stingless
class are those who in their old age end by dying paupers ; of
the stingers come all the criminal class, as they are termed.
10 Heavy-armed soldier.
352 PLATO THE TEACHER
Most true, he said.
Clearly then, whenever you see paupers in a State, some-
where in that neighborhood there are hidden away thieves and
cut purses, and robbers of temples, and other malefactors.
That is clear.
Well, I said, and in oligarchical States do you not find pau-
pers?
Yes, he said ; nearly everybody is a pauper who is not a ruler.
And may we be so bold as to suppose that there are also
many criminals to be found in them, rogues who have stings,
and whom the authorities are careful to restrain by force?
Certainly, we may be so bold.
The existence of such persons is to be attributed to want
of education, ill-training, and an evil constitution of the State?
True.
Such, then, is the form and such are the evils of oligarchy ;
and there may be other evils.
That is pretty much the truth.
Then now oligarchy, or the form of government in which
the rulers are elected for their wealth, may be regarded
as dismissed. Let us next proceed to consider the nat-
ure and origin of the individual who answers to the State.
Yes, by all means.
Is not this the manner of the change from the timocratical to
the oligarchical ? Suppose the representative of timocracy to
have a son : at first he begins by emulating his father and
walking in his footsteps, but presently he sees him strike all in
a moment on a sunken reef, which is the State, and he and all
that he has are lost ; he may have been a general or some other
high officer who is brought to trial under a prejudice raised by
informers, and either put to death, or exiled, or deprived of
the privileges of a citizen, and all his property taken from him.
That is very likely to happen.
And the son has seen and known all this — he is a ruined
man, and his fear has taught him to knock ambition and pas-
sion headforemost from his bosom's throne : humbled by pov-
erty he takes to money-making, and by mean and small sav-
ings and doings gets a fortune together. Is not this man
likely to seat the concupiscent and covetous elements on that
vacant throne ? They will play the great king within him,
and he will array them with tiara and collar and scimitar.
THE REPUBLIC 353
Likely ! Yes, he replied.
And when he has made the reasoning and passionate facul-
ties sit on the ground obediently on either side, and taught
them to know their place, he compels the one to think only
of the method by which lesser sums may be converted into
larger ones, and schools the other into the worship and admi-
ration of riches and rich men ; no ambition will he tolerate
except the ambition of getting rich and the means which
lead to this.
Of all conversions, he said, there is none so speedy or so
sure as when the ambitious youth changes into the avaricious
one.
And the avaricious, I said, is the oligarchical youth?
Yes, he said j at any rate the individual out of whom he
came is like the State out of which oligarchy came.
Let us then consider whether there is any likeness between
them.
Very good.
First, then, they resemble one another in the value 0i>4
which they set upon wealth ?
Certainly.
Also in their penurious, laborious character ; the individual
only satisfies his necessary appetites, and confines his expendi-
ture to them ; his other desires he subdues, under the idea
that there is no use in them ?
True.
He is a shabby fellow, I said, who saves something out of
everything and makes a purse for himself ; and this is the sort
of man whom the vulgar applaud. Is he not like the State
which he represents ?
That would be my view of him, he replied ; at any rate,
money is highly valued by him as well as by the State.
Why, he is not a man of cultivation, I said.
I imagine not, he said ; had he been educated he would
never have made a blind god director of his chorus, or given
him chief honor. 11
Excellent ! I said. Yet consider this : Will there not be
» Plutus, god of wealth (identified with Hades or Pluto, god of the lower
world) : according to one myth blinded by Zeus in order that he might dis-
tribute his wealth impartially. Jowett paraphrases the passage thus : "He
would never have allowed the blind god of riches to lead the dance within
him."
23
354 PLATO THE TEACHER
found in him, owing to his want of cultivation, dronelike de-
sires as of pauper and rogue, which are forcibly kept down by
his general habit of life ?
True.
Do you know where you will have to look if you want to
discover his rogueries ?
Where must I look ?
Let him be the guardian of an orphan, or have some other
great opportunity of acting dishonestly, and then he will
show that, in sustaining the reputation of uprightness which
attaches to him in his dealings generally, he coerces his other
bad passions by an effort of virtue ; not that he convinces
them of evil, or exerts over them the gentle influence of reason,
but he acts upon them by necessity and fear, and because he
trembles for his possessions.
That is clear.
Yes, indeed, I said, my dear friend, you will find that the
natural desires of the drone commonly exist in him all the same,
whenever he has the spending of another's goods.
No mistake about that.
This sort of man, then, will be at war with himself; he
will be two men, and not one ; but, in general, his better de-
sires will be found to prevail over his inferior ones.
True.
For these reasons such an one will be more decent than
many are ; yet the true virtue of a unanimous and harmonious
soul will be far out of his reach.
That I believe.
And surely, in his private capacity, the miser will be an
ignoble competitor in a State for any prize of victory, or
other object of honorable ambition ; he is too much
afraid of awakening his expensive appetites and inviting
them to help and join in the struggle ; in true oligarchical
fashion he fights with a small part only of his resources, and
the result commonly is that he loses the prize and saves his
money.
Very true.
Can we any longer doubt, then, that the miser and money-
maker answers to the oligarchical State ?
Certainly not.
Next comes democracy and the democratical man : the
THE REPUBLIC
origin and nature of them we have still to learn, that we may
compare the individual and the State, and so pronounce upon
them.
That, he said, is our method.
Well, I said, is not this the way in which the change from
oligarchy into democracy arises ? — they are insatiable of
wealth which they propose to themselves as their end ; and
the rulers, who are aware that their own power rests upon
property, refuse to curtail by law the extravagance of the
spendthrift youth because they will gain by their ruin ; they
lend them money, and buy them out of their land, and grow
in wealth and honor ?
Exactly.
There can be no doubt that in a State you cannot have in
the citizens the love of wealth and the spirit of moderation j
one or the other will have to be disregarded.
That is tolerably clear.
And in oligarchical States, from carelessness and the indul-
gence of their extravagance, men of good family have often
been reduced to beggary ?
Yes, often.
And still they remain in the city ; there they are, and they
have stings and arms, and some of them owe money, some are
no longer citizens 12 : a third class are in both predicaments,
and they hate and conspire against those who have got their
property, and anybody else, and are eager for revolution.
That is true.
On the other hand, the men of business, stooping as they
walk, and pretending never so much as to see those whom they
have already ruined, insert the sting — that is, their money —
into anybody else who is not on his guard against them, and
recover the parent or principal sum many times over multi-
plied into a family of children : this is the way in which they
make drone and pauper to abound in the State.
Yes, he said, there are plenty of them, that is cer- ,
tain.
The evil is like a fire which is blazing up, and which they
will not extinguish either by placing restriction on the dis-
position of property or —
What is the other solution of the difficulty ?
12 Literally some are dishonored, i.e. , officially deprived of citizenship.
356 PLATO THE TEACHER
One which is about as good, and has the advantage of com-
pelling the citizens to look to their characters : Let there be
an ordinance that every one shall enter into voluntary con-
tracts at his own risk, and there will be less of this scandalous
money-making, and the evils of which we were speaking will
be greatly lessened in the State.
Yes, they will be greatly lessened.
At present the governors, induced by the motives which I
have named, treat their subjects badly ; while they and their
adherents, especially the young men of the governing class,
lead a life of luxury and idleness both of body and mind ;
they do nothing, and are incapable of holding out against
pleasure and pain.
Very true.
They care only for making money, and are as indifferent
as the pauper to the cultivation of virtue.
Yes, quite indifferent.
Now in this state of things the rulers and their subjects
come in one another's way, whether on a journey or some
other occasion of meeting, or on a pilgrimage or march as
fellow-soldiers or fellow-sailors ; they observe each other in
the moment of danger (and where danger is there is no fear
that the poor will be despised by the rich), and very likely
the wiry, sunburnt poor man may be placed in battle at the
side of a wealthy one who has never spoilt his complexion,
and has plenty of superfluous flesh — when he sees such an one
puffing and at his wits' -end, can he avoid drawing the con-
clusion that men of this sort are only rich because no one has
the courage to despoil them ? And when they meet in private
will they not be saying to one another that our " warriors are
nothing worth? "
Yes, he said, I am quite aware that this is their way of talking.
And, as where a body is weak the addition of a touch from
without may bring on illness, and sometimes even when there
is no external provocation a commotion may arise within, in
the same way where there is weakness in the State there is also
likely to be illness, the occasion of which may be very slight,
one party introducing their democratical, the other their
oligarchical allies, and the State may fall sick, and be
at war with herself and in a state of distraction, even when
there is no external cause.
THE REPUBLIC 357
Yes, surely.
And then democracy comes into being after the poor have
conquered their opponents, slaughtering some and banishing
some, while to the remainder they give an equal share of
freedom and power j and this is the form of government in
which the magistrates are commonly elected by lot. 13
Yes, he said, that is the nature of democracy, whether es-
tablished by arms or by fear, and the withdrawal of the
opposite party.
And now what is their manner of life, and what sort of a
government is this? For as the government is, such will be
the man.
Clearly, he said.
In the first place, are they not free ? and the city is full of
freedom and frankness — there a man may do as he likes.
Yes, that is often said, he replied.
And where this freedom is, there every man is clearly able to
order his life as he pleases?
Clearly.
Then in this kind of State there will be the greatest variety
of human natures ?
There will.
This, then, is likely to be the fairest of States, and may be
compared to an embroidered robe which is spangled with
flowers ; and being in like manner spangled with the manners
and characters of mankind will appear to be the fairest of them
all. And just as women and children think variety charm-
ing, so there are many men who will deem this the fairest of
States.
Yes.
Yes, I said, my noble sir, and a good place in which to go
and look for a government.
Why?
Because of the liberty which reigns there: they have a com-
plete assortment of constitutions ; and if a man has a mind to
establish a State, as we are doing, he must go to a democracy
as he would go to a bazaar, where they sell them, and pick out
one that suits him ; then, when he has made his choice, he may
lay the foundation of his State.
He will be sure, he said, to have patterns enough.
18 In Athens at that time many offices were assigned by lot.
358 PLATO THE TEACHER
And there being no necessity, I said, for you to govern in
this State, even if you have the capacity, or to be governed
unless you like, or to go to war when the others go to war, or
to be at peace when others are at peace, unless you are dis-
posed — there being no necessity also because some law forbids
you to hold office or be a dicast, 14 that you should not hold
£ office or be a dicast, if you have a mind yourself — is not
5 that a way of life which for the moment is supremely
delightful ?
Yes, for the moment, that is true.
And is not the calmness of those against whom sentence has
been given often quite charming? Under a government of
this sort there are men who, when they have been condemned
to death or exile, stay where they are and walk about the
world ; the gentleman parades like a hero, as though nobody
saw or cared.
Yes, he replied, I have often remarked that.
Yes, I said ; and the forgiving spirit of democracy, and the
" don't care" about trifles, and the disregard which she shows
of all the fine principles which we were solemnly affirming at
the foundation of the city — as when we said that, except in
the case of some rare natures, never will there be a good man
who from his early youth has not made things of beauty an
amusement and also a study — how grandly does she trample
all that under foot, never giving a thought to the pursuits
which make a statesman, and is satisfied to honor a man who
says that he is the people's friend.
Yes, he said, that is glorious.
These and other kindred characteristics are proper to democ-
racy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety
and diversity, and dispensing equality to equals and unequals
alike.
That, he said, is sufficiently well-known.
Consider now, I said, what manner of man the individual
is, or rather consider, as in the case of the State, how he is
created.
Very good, he said.
Is not this the way, — he is the son of the miserly and oli-
garchical father who has trained him in his own habits ?
Exactly.
14 An Athenian judicial officer corresponding somewhat to our juryman.
THE REPUBLIC 359
And, like his father, he keeps under the pleasures which are
of the spending and not of the getting sort, being those which
are called by us unnecessary. The argument will be clearer if
we here distinguish which are the necessary and which are the
unnecessary pleasures.
I should like to do that.
Necessary pleasures are those of which we cannot get rid,