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[562a]
“Shall we definitely assert, then, that such a
man is to be ranged with democracy and would properly be designated as
democratic?” “Let that be his place,” he
said.“And now,” said
I, “the fairest1 polity and the fairest man
remain for us to describe, the tyranny and the tyrant.”
“Certainly,” he said. “Come then, tell me,
dear friend, how tyranny arises.2 That it is an
outgrowth of democracy is fairly plain.” “Yes,
plain.” “Is it, then, in a sense, in the same way in
which democracy arises out of oligarchy that tyranny arises from
democracy?”
[562b]
“How is
that?” “The good that they proposed to themselves3 and that was the cause of
the establishment of oligarchy—it was wealth,4 was it not?” “Yes.”
“Well, then, the insatiate lust for wealth and the neglect of
everything else for the sake of money-making was the cause of its
undoing.” “True,” he said. “And is
not the avidity of democracy for that which is its definition and criterion
of good the thing which dissolves it5 too?” “What do you say its
criterion to be?” “Liberty,6” I replied;
“for you may hear it said that this is best managed in a
democratic city,
[562c]
and for this reason
that is the only city in which a man of free spirit will care to live.7” “Why,
yes,” he replied, “you hear that saying
everywhere.” “Then, as I was about to observe,8 is it
not the excess and greed of this and the neglect of all other things that
revolutionizes this constitution too and prepares the way for the necessity
of a dictatorship?” “How?” he said.
“Why, when a democratic city athirst for liberty gets bad
cupbearers
[562d]
for its leaders9 and is
intoxicated by drinking too deep of that unmixed wine,10 and then, if its
so-called governors are not extremely mild and gentle with it and do not
dispense the liberty unstintedly,it chastises them and accuses them of being
accursed11
oligarchs.12” “Yes, that is
what they do,” he replied. “But those who obey the
rulers,” I said, “it reviles as willing slaves13 and men of
naught,14 but it commends and honors in
public and private rulers who resemble subjects and subjects who are like
rulers.
[562e]
Is it not inevitable that in
such a state the spirit of liberty should go to all lengths15?” “Of
course.” “And this anarchical temper,” said I,
“my friend, must penetrate into private homes and finally enter
into the very animals.16” “Just what do
we mean by that?” he said. “Why,” I said,
“the father habitually tries to resemble the child and is afraid
of his sons, and the son likens himself to the father and feels no awe or
fear of his parents,17
1 For the irony cf. 607 Eτῶν καλῶν πολιτειῶν, 544 Cγενναία, 558 Cἡδεῖα.
2 τίς τρόπος . . . γίγνεται is a mixture of two expressions that need not be pressed. Cf. Meno 96 D, Epist. vii. 324 B. A. G. Laird, in Class. Phil., 1918, pp. 89-90 thinks it means “What τρόπος(of the many τρόποι in a democracy) develops into a τρόπος of tyranny; for that tyranny is a transformation of democracy is fairly evident.” That would be a recognition of what Aristotle says previous thinkers overlook in their classification of polities.
3 Their idea of good. Cf. 555 b προκειμένου ἀγαθοῦ. Cf. Laws 962 E with Aristot.Pol. 1293 b 14 ff. Cf. also Aristot.Pol. 1304 b 20αἱ μὲν οὖν δημοκρατίαι μάλιστα μεταβάλλουσι διὰ τὴν τῶν δημαγωγῶν ἀσέλγειαν. Cf. also p. 263, note e on 551 B (ὅρος) and p. 139, note c on 519 C (σκοπός).
4 Cf. 552 B, and for the disparagement of wealth p. 262, note b, on 550 E.
5 Zeller, Aristot. ii. p. 285, as usual credits Aristotle with the Platonic thought that every form of government brings ruin on itself by its own excess.
6 Cf. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, p. 43 “The central idea of English life and politics is the assertion of personal liberty.”
7 Aristot.Pol. 1263 b 29 says life would be impossible in Plato's Republic.
8 ᾖα . . . ἐρῶν: cf. 449 A, Theaet. 180 C.
9 Or “protectors,” “tribunes,”προστατούντων. Cf. on 565 C, p. 318, note d.
10 Cf. Livy xxxix. 26 “velut ex diutina siti nimis avide meram haurientes libertatem,” Seneca, De benefic. i. 10 “male dispensata libertas,” Taine, Letter,Jan. 2, 1867 “nous avons proclamé et appliqué l’égalité . . . C’est un vin pur et généreux; mais nous avons bu trop du nôtre.”
11 μιαρούς is really stronger, “pestilential fellows.” Cf. Apol. 23 D, Soph.Antig. 746. It is frequent in Aristophanes.
12 For the charge of oligarchical tendencies cf. Isoc.Peace 51 and 133, Areop. 57, Antid. 318, Panath. 158.
13 Cf. Symp. 184 C, 183 A. Cf. the essay of Estienne de la Boétie, De la servitude volontaire. Also Gray, Ode for Music, 6 “Servitude that hugs her chain.”
14 For οὐδὲν ὄντας cf. 341 C, Apol. 41 E, Symp. 216 E, Gorg. 512 C, Erastae 134 C, Aristoph.Eccles. 144, Horace, Sat. ii. 7. 102 “nil ego,” Eurip.I. A. 371, Herod. ix. 58οὐδένες ἐόντες.
15 Cf. Laws 699 Eἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἐλευθερίαν, Aristoph.Lysistr. 543ἐπὶ πᾶν ἰέναι, Soph.El. 615εἰς πᾶν ἔργον.
16 Cf. 563 C, Laws 942 D.
17 A common conservative complaint. Cf. Isoc.Areop. 49, Aristoph.Clouds, 998, 1321 ff., Xen.Rep. Ath. 1. 10, Mem. iii. 5. 15; Newman i. pp. 174 and 339-340. Cf. also Renan, Souvenirs, xviii.-xx., on American vulgarity and liberty; Harold Lasswell, quoting Bryce, “Modern Democracies,” in Methods of Social Science, ed. by Stuart A. Rice, p. 376: “The spirit of equality is alleged to have diminished the respect children owe to parents, and the young to the old. This was noted by Plato in Athens. But surely the family relations depend much more on the social, structural and religious ideas of a race than on forms of government”; Whitman, “Where the men and women think lightly of the laws . . . where children are taught to be laws to themselves . . . there the great city stands.
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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