[551d]
“Here, then,
is one very great defect in oligarchy.” “So it
appears.” “Well, and is this a smaller one?”
“What?” “That such a city should of necessity
be not one,1 but two, a city of the
rich and a city of the poor, dwelling together, and always plotting2 against one
another.” “No, by Zeus,” said he,
“it is not a bit smaller.” “Nor, further, can
we approve of this—the likelihood that they will not be able to
wage war, because of the necessity of either arming and employing the
multitude,3
1 For the idea that a city should be a unity Cf. Laws 739 D and on 423 A-B. Cf. also 422 E with 417 A-B, Livy ii. 24 “adeo duas ex una civitate discordia fecerat.” Aristot.Pol. 1316 b 7 comments ἄτοπον δὲ καὶ τὸ φάναι δύο πόλεις εἶναι τὴν ὀλιγαρχικήν, πλουσίων καὶ πενήτων . . . and tries to prove the point by his topical method.
2 Cf. 417 B.
3 For the idea that the rulers fear to arm the people cf. Thuc. iii. 27, Livy iii. 15 “consules et armare pIebem et inermem pati timebant.”
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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