Plato, Laws

[848a] in each district)—must be divided proportionately into three shares, of which the first shall be for the freeborn citizens, and the second for their servants; the third share shall be for craftsmen and foreigners generally, including any resident aliens who may be dwelling together and in need of necessary sustenance, and all who have come into the country at any time to transact either public or private business; and this third share of all the necessaries shall be the only one liable to compulsory sale,¹ it being forbidden to sell any portion of the other two shares compulsorily. What, then, will be the best way of making these divisions? [848b] It is plain, to begin with, that our division is in one way equal, in another, unequal.

Clinias
How do you mean?

Athenian
Of each of these products of the soil, necessarily some parts are worse and some better.

Clinias
Of course.

Athenian
In respect of this, no one of the three shares shall have an undue advantage,—neither that given to the masters, nor that of the slaves, nor that of the foreigners,—but the distribution shall assign to all the same equality of similarity. [848c] Each citizen shall take two shares and have control of the distribution of them to slaves and free men respectively, in the quantity and of the quality he desires to distribute. The surplus over and above this must be distributed by weight and number as follows,—the owner must take the number of all the animals that have to be fed on the produce of the soil, and make his distribution accordingly. In the next place, there must be dwellings for the citizens separately arranged. A suitable arrangement for them will be this. There should be twelve villages, one in the middle [848d] of each of the twelve districts; and in each village we shall first select temples and a market-place for the gods and demigods; and if there exist any local deities of the Magnetes² or any shrines of other ancient gods whose memory is still preserved, we shall pay to them the same worship as did the men of old; and everywhere we shall erect temples to Hestia and Zeus and Athena, and whatever other deity is the patron of the district concerned. First, buildings shall be erected round about these temples, and wherever the ground is highest, [848e] to form a stronghold, as well fenced as possible, for the garrison; and all the rest of the land we shall provide for by dividing the craftsmen into thirteen sections, of which one shall settle in the city (and this section shall be subdivided again into twelve parts, like the whole city itself, and distributed round about it in the suburbs); and in each village we shall settle the classes of craftsmen that are serviceable to farmers. Of all these the chiefs of the land-stewards shall be the supervisors, determining how many and what craftsmen each place requires, and where they shall dwell so as to be of least trouble and greatest use