[497c]
it finds the best
polity as it itself is the best, then will it be apparent1 that this was in truth divine and all the others human
in their natures and practices. Obviously then you are next, going to ask
what is this best form of government.”
“Wrong,” he said2 “I was going to ask not
that but whether it is this one that we have described in our establishment
of a state or another.” “In other respects it is this
one,” said I; “but there is one special further point
that we mentioned even then, namely that there would always have to be
resident in such a state an element
1 For the idiom cf.αὐτὸ δείξειPhileb. 20 C, with Stallbaum's note, Theaet. 200 E, Hipp. Maj. 288 B, Aristoph.Wasps 994, Frogs 1261, etc., Pearson on Soph. fr. 388. Cf.αὐτὸ σημανεῖ, Eurip.Bacch. 476, etc.
2 Plato similarly plays in dramatic fashion with the order of the dialogue in 523 B, 528 A, 451 B-C, 458 B.
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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