[557a]
apart from any external impulse faction arises1?”
“Most emphatically.” “And a democracy, I
suppose, comes into being when the poor, winning the victory, put to death
some of the other party, drive out2 others, and grant the rest of
the citizens an equal share3 in
both citizenship and offices—and for the most part these offices
are assigned by lot.4” “Why, yes,” he said,
“that is the constitution of democracy alike whether it is
established by force of arms or by terrorism5 resulting in the withdrawal of one of the
parties.”“What,
then,” said I, “is the manner of their life
1 στασιάζει is applied here to disease of body. Cf. Herod. v. 28νοσήσασα ἐς τὰ μάλιστα στάσι, “grievously ill of faction.” Cf. on 554 D, p. 276, note c.
2 Cf. 488 C, 560 A, Gorg. 466 C, 468 D, Prot. 325 B. Exile, either formal or voluntary, was always regarded as the proper thing for the defeated party in the Athenian democracy. The custom even exists at the present time. Venizelos, for instance, has frequently, when defeated at the polls, chosen to go into voluntary exile. But that term, in modern as in ancient Greece, must often be interpreted cum grano salis.
3 ἐξ ἴσου: one of the watchwords of democracy. Cf. 561 B and C, 599 B, 617 C, Laws 919 D, Alc. I. 115 D, Crito 50 E, Isoc.Archid. 96, Peace 3.
4 But Isoc.Areop. 22-23 considers the lot undemocratic because it might result in the establishment in office of men with oligarchical sentiments. See Norlin ad loc.For the use of the lot in Plato Cf. Laws 759 B, 757 E, 690 C, 741 B-C, 856 D, 946 B, Rep. 460 A, 461 E. Cf. Apelt, p. 520.
5 Cf. 551 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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