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In what way?Athenian
O friends, we will say, for you, who are literally but creatures of a day, it is hard at present to know your own possessions and, as the Pythian oracle declares,1 your own selves, to boot. So I, as lawgiver, make this ruling—that both yourself and this your property are not your own, but belong to the whole of your race, both past and future, and that still more truly does all your race and its property belong to the State;
1 Alluding to the dictum “Know thyself”; cp. Plat. Prot. 343b ff
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