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[549a]
and to slaves such a one would be harsh,1 not scorning them as the really
educated do, but he would be gentle with the freeborn and very submissive to
officials, a lover of office and of honor,2 not basing his claim to office3 on
ability to speak or anything of that sort but on his exploits in war or
preparation for war, and he would be a devotee of gymnastics and
hunting.4” “Why, yes,” he
said, “that is the spirit of that polity.5” “And would
not such a man
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be disdainful of wealth
too in his youth, but the older he grew the more he would love it because of
his participation in the covetous nature and because his virtue is not
sincere and pure since it lacks the best guardian?”
“What guardian?” said Adeimantus.
“Reason,” said I, “blended with culture,6 which is the only
indwelling preserver of virtue throughout life in the soul that possesses
it.” “Well said,” he replied. “This
is the character,” I said, “of the timocratic youth,
resembling the city that bears his name.” “By all
means.”
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“His
origin7 is
somewhat on this wise: Sometimes he is the young son of a good father who
lives in a badly governed state and avoids honors and office and law-suits
and all such meddlesomeness8 and is willing to
forbear something of his rights9 in order to escape
trouble.10” “How does he originate?” he said.
“Why, when, to begin with,” I said, “he hears
his mother complaining11
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that her husband is not one of the
rulers and for that reason she is slighted among the other women, and when
she sees that her husband is not much concerned about money and does not
fight and brawl in private lawsuits and in the public assembly, but takes
all such matters lightly, and when she observes that he is
self-absorbed12 in his thoughts and
neither regards nor disregards her overmuch,13 and in consequence of all this
laments and tells the boy that his father is too slack14
and no kind of a man, with all the other complaints
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with which women15 nag16 in such cases.”
“Many indeed,” said Adeimantus, “and after
their kind.17”
“You are aware, then,” said I, “that the very
house-slaves of such men, if they are loyal and friendly, privately say the
same sort of things to the sons, and if they observe a debtor or any other
wrongdoer whom the father does not prosecute, they urge the boy to punish
all such when he grows to manhood
1 Cf. p. 249, note g, on 547 C, and Newman ii. p. 317. In i. p. 143, n. 3 he says that this implies slavery in the ideal state, in spite of 547 C.
2 Cf. Lysias xix. 18. Lysias xxi. portrays a typical φιλότιμος. Cf Phaedr. 256 C, Eurip.I. A. 527. He is a Xenophontic type. Cf Xen.Oecon. 14. 10, Hiero 7. 3, Agesil. 10. 4. Isoc.Antid. 141 and 226 uses the word in a good sense. Cf. “But if it be a sin to covet honor,” Shakes.Henry V. iv. iii. 28.
3 Cf. the ἀξιώματα of Laws 690 A, Aristot.Pol. 1280 a 8 ff., 1282 b 26, 1283-1284.
4 Cf. Arnold on the “barbarians” in Culture and Anarchy, pp. 78, 82, 84.
5 For the ἦθος of a state cf. Isoc.Nic. 31.
6 The Greek words λόγος and μουσική are untranslatable. Cf. also 560 B. For μουσική cf. 546 D. Newman i. p. 414 fancies that his is a return to the position of Book IV. from the disparagement of music in 522 A. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 4 on this supposed ABA development of Plato's opinions.
7 δέ γ᾽ marks the transition from the description of the type to its origin. Cf. 547 E, 553 C, 556 B, 557 B, 560 D, 561 E, 563 B, 566 E. Ritter, pp. 69-70, comments on its frequency in this book, but does not note the reason. There are no cases in the first five pages.
8 Cf. Lysias xix. 18ἐκείνῳ μὲν γὰρ ἦν τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πράττειν, with the contrasted type ἀνήλωσεν ἐπιθυμῶν τιμᾶσθαι, Isoc.Antid. 227ἀπραγμονεστάτους μὲν ὄντας ἐν τῇ πόλει. Cf.πολυπραγμοσύνη444 B, 434 B, Isoc.Antid. 48, Peace 108,30, and 26, with Norlin's note (Loeb). Cf. also Aristoph.Knights 261.
9 ἐλαττοῦσθαι cf. Thuc. i. 77. 1, Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1198 b 26-32, Pol. 1319 a 3.
10 For πράγματα ἔχειν cf. 370 A, Gorg. 467 D, Alc. I. 119 B, Aristoph.Birds 1026, Wasps 1392. Cf.πράγματα παρέχειν, Rep. 505 A, 531 B, Theages 121 D, Herod. i. 155, Aristoph.Birds 931, Plutus 20, 102.
11 Wilamowitz, Platon, i. p. 434 with some exaggeration says that this is the only woman character in Plato and is probably his mother, Perictione. Pohlenz, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1921, p. 18, disagrees. For the complaints cf. Gerard, Four Years in Germany, p. 115 “Now if a lawyer gets to be about forty years old and is not some kind of a Rat his wife begins to nag him . . .”
12 Cf. Symp. 174 D, Isoc.Antid. 227.
13 Cf. the husband in Lysias i. 6.
14 λίαν ἀνειμένος: one who has grown too slack or negligent. Cf. Didot, Com. Fr. p. 728τίς ὧδε μῶρος καὶ λίαν ἀνειμένος; Porphyry, De abst. ii. 58.
15 Cf. Phaedo 60 A. For Plato's attitude towards women Cf. What Plato Said, p. 632, on Laws 631 D.
16 ὑμνεῖν. Cf. Euthydem. 296 D, Soph.Ajax 292. Commentators have been troubled by the looseness of Plato's style in this sentence. Cf. Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. p. 385.
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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