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[544a]
but
at any rate you were saying that the others are aberrations,1 if this city is right. But regarding the other constitutions,
my recollection is that you said there were four species2 worth speaking
of3 and observing their
defects4 and the corresponding types of men,
in order that when we had seen them all and come to an agreement about the
best and the worst man, we might determine whether the best is the happiest
and the worst most wretched or whether it is otherwise.5 And when I was asking what were
[544b]
the four constitutions you had in mind,
Polemarchus and Adeimantus thereupon broke in, and that was how you took up
the discussion again and brought to this point.6”
“Your memory is most exact,” I said. “A second
time then, as in a wrestling-match, offer me the same hold,7 and when I repeat my question try to tell me what you were then
about to say.” “I will if I can,” said I.
“And indeed,” said he, “I am eager myself to
hear what four forms of government you meant.”
[544c]
“There will be no difficulty about
that,” said I. “For those I mean are precisely those
that have names8 in common
usage: that which the many praised,9 your10 Cretan and Spartan
constitution; and the second in place and in honor, that which is called
oligarchy, a constitution teeming with many ills, and its sequent
counterpart and opponent, democracy ; and then the noble11 tyranny
surpassing them all, the fourth and final malady12 of a state.
[544d]
Can you mention any other type13 of government, I mean any other that constitutes a distinct
species14?
For, no doubt, there are hereditary principalities15 and purchased16 kingships, and
similar intermediate constitutions which one could find in even greater
numbers among the barbarians than among the Greeks.17” “Certainly many strange ones
are reported,” he said.“Are you aware, then,” said I, “that there
must be as many types of character among men as there are forms of
government18? Or
do you suppose that constitutions spring from the proverbial oak or
rock19 and not
from the characters20 of the
citizens,
[544e]
which, as it were, by their
momentum and weight in the scales21 draw other things after
them?” “They could not possibly come from any other
source,” he said. “Then if the forms of government are
five, the patterns of individual souls must be five also.”
“Surely.” “Now we have already described the
man corresponding to aristocracy22 or the government of the best, whom we aver to be the truly
good and just man.”
1 Cf. Aristot.Pol. 1285 b 1-2, 1289 b 9.
2 Aristot.Pol. 1291-1292 censures the limitation to four. But Cf. supra,Introd. p. xlv. Cf. Laws 693 D, where only two mother-forms of government are mentioned, monarchy and democracy, with Aristot.Pol. 1301 b 40δῆμος καὶ ὀλιγαρχία. Cf. also Eth. Nic. 1160 a 31 ff. The Politicus mentions seven (291 f., 301 f.). Isoc.Panath. 132-134 names three kinds—oligarchy, democracy, and monarchy—adding that others may say much more about them. See note ad loc. in Loeb Isocrates and Class. Phil. vol. vii. p. 91. Cf. Hobbes, Leviathan 19 “Yet he that shall consider the particular commonwealths that have been and are in the world will not perhaps easily reduce them to three . . . as, for example, elective kingdoms,” etc.
3 For ὧν καὶ πέρι λόγον ἄξιον εἴη Cf. Laws 908 Bἃ καὶ διακρίσεως ἄξια, Laches 192 Aοὗ καὶ πέρι ἄξιον λέγειν, Tim. 82ἓν γένος ἐνὸν ἄξιον ἐπωνυμίας. Cf. also Euthydem. 279 C, Aristot.Pol. 1272 b 32, 1302 a 13, De part. an. 654 a 13, Demosth. v. 16, Isoc. vi. 56. and Vol. I. p. 420, note f, on 445 C.
4 For the relative followed by a demonstrative cf. also 357 B.
5 Plato's main point again. Cf. 545 A, 484 A-B and Vol. I. p.xii, note d.
6 Cf. on 572 b, p. 339, note e.
7 Cf. Phileb. 13 Dεἰς τὰς ὁμοίαςPhaedr. 236 B, Laws 682 E, Aristoph.Clouds 551 (Blaydes), Knights 841, Lysist. 672.
8 Cf. What Plato Said, p. 596, on Sophist 267 D.
9 Cf. Crito 52 E, Norlin on Isoc.Nicocles 24 (Loeb), Laws 612 D-E, Aristot.Pol. 1265 b 32, Xen.Mem. iii. 5. 15.
10 ἡ . . . αὔτη, “ista.” Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream,I. ii.ad fin. and Gorg. 502 B, 452 E.
11 Of course ironical. Cf. 454 A, and What Plato Said, p. 592, on Soph. 231 B.
12 Cf. 552 C, Protag. 322 d, Isoc.Hel. 34, Wilamowitz on Eurip.Heracles 542. For the effect of surprise Cf. Rep. 334 A, 373 A, 555 A, Theaet. 146 A, Phileb. 46 Aκακόν and 64 Eσυμφορά.
14 Cf. 445 C. For διαφανεῖ Cf. Tim. 60 A, 67 A, Laws 634 C, and on 548 C, p. 253, note g.
15 δυναστεῖαι Cf. Laws 680 B, 681 D. But the word usually has an invidious suggestion. See Newman on Aristot.Pol. 1272 b 10. Cf. ibid. 1292 b 5-10, 1293 a 31, 1298 a 32; also Lysias ii. 18, where it is opposed to democracy, Isoc.Panath. 148, where it is used of the tyranny of Peisistratus, ibid. 43 of Minos. Cf. Panegyr. 39 and NorIin on Panegyr. 105 (Loeb). Isocrates also uses it frequently of the power or sovereignty of Philip, Phil. 3, 6, 69, 133, etc. Cf. also Gorg. 492 B, Polit. 291 D.
16 Newman on Aristot.Pol. 1273 a 35 thinks that Plato may have been thinking of Carthage. Cf. Polyb. vi. 56. 4.
17 Plato, as often is impatient of details, for which he was rebuked by Aristotle. Cf. also Tim. 57 D, 67 C, and the frequent leaving of minor matters to future legislators in the Republic and Laws,Vol. I. p. 294, note b, on 412 B.
18 For the correspondence of individual and state cf. also 425 E, 445 C-D, 579 C and on 591 E. Cf. Laws 829 A, Isoc.Peace 120.
19 Or “stock or stone,” i.e. inanimate, insensible things. For the quotation ἐκ δρυός ποθεν ἢ ἐκ πέτρας Cf. Odyssey xix. 163, Il. xxii. 126aliter, Apol. 34 D and Thompson on Phaedrus 275 B; also Stallbaum ad loc.
20 The “mores,” 45 E, 436 A. Cf. Bagehot, Physics and Politics, p. 206: “A lazy nation may be changed into an industrious, a rich into a poor, a religious into a profane, as if by magic, if any single cause, though slight, or any combination of causes, however subtle, is strong enough to change the favorite and detested types of character.”
21 For the metaphor cf. also 550 E and on 556 E.
22 ἀριστοκρατία is used by both Plato and Aristotle some times technically, sometimes etymologically as the government of the best, whoever they may be. Cf. 445 D, and Menex. 238 C-D (What Plato Said, p. 539).
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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