[503a]
that they must approve themselves lovers of the
state when tested1 in pleasures and
pains, and make it apparent that they do not abandon2 this
fixed faith3 under stress of labors or fears or any
other vicissitude, and that anyone who could not keep that faith must he
rejected, while he who always issued from the test pure and intact, like
gold tried in the fire,4 is to be established as
ruler and to receive honors in life and after death and prizes as well.5 Something of this sort we said while the argument slipped
by with veiled face6
1 Cf. 412 D-E, 413 C-414 A, 430 A-B, 537, 540 A, Laws 751 C.
2 Cf. on 412 E, 513 C, Soph. 230 B.
3 τὸ δόγμα τοῦτο is an illogical idiom. The antecedent is only implied. Cf. 373 C, 598 C. See my article in Transactions of the American Phil. Assoc. xlvii., (1916) pp. 205-236.
4 Cf. Theognis 417-318παρατρίβομαι ὥστε μολίβδῳ χρυσός, ibid., 447-452, 1105-1106, Herod. vii. 10, Eurip. fr. 955 (N.). Cf. Zechariah xii. 9 “ . . . will try them as gold is tried,” Job xxiii. 10 “When he hath tried me I shall come forth as Gold.” Cf. also 1Peter i. 7, Psalm xii. 6, lxvi. 10, Isaiah xlviii. 10.
5 The translation preserves the intentional order of the Greek. For the idea cf. 414 A and 465 D-E and for ἆθλα cf. 460 B. Cobet rejects καὶ ἆθλα, but emendations are needless.
6 Cf. Phaedr. 237 A, Epist. vii. 340 A. For the personification of the λόγος Cf. What Plato Said, 500 on Protag. 361 A-B. So too Cic.Tusc. i. 45. 108 “se ita tetra sunt quaedam, ut ea fugiat et reformidet oratio.”
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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