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[521a] for your future rulers, a well-governed city becomes a possibility. For only in such a state will those rule who are really rich,1 not in gold, but in the wealth that makes happiness—a good and wise life. But if, being beggars and starvelings2 from lack of goods of their own, they turn to affairs of state thinking that it is thence that they should grasp their own good, then it is impossible. For when office and rule become the prizes of contention,3 such a civil and internecine strife4 destroys the office-seekers themselves and the city as well.”

1 Cf. Phaedrus in fine, supra 416 E-417 A, 547 B.

2 Stallbaum refers to Xen.Cyr. viii. 3. 39οἴομαί σε καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἥδιον πλουτεῖν, ὅτι πεινήσας χρημάτων πεπλούτηκας, “for you must enjoy tour riches much more, I think, for the very reason that it was only after being hungry for wealth that you became rich.” (Loeb tr.) Cf. also 577 E-578 A, and Adam ad loc.

3 Cf. 347 D, Laws 715 A, also 586 C and What Plato Said, p. 627, on Laws 678 E, Isoc.Areop. 24, Pan. 145 and 146.

4 Cf. Eurip.Heracleidae 415οἰκεῖος ἤδη πόλεμος ἐξαρτεύεται.

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