Book 6 - Platonic Foundation

Laws

––––– BOOK VI –––––

ATHENIAN: Well then, after all that has just been said, your next task would presumably be the

appointment of the various office holders in the city.

CLINIAS: It would, indeed.

ATHENIAN: There are two elements involved in the ordering of our political systems. First is the

appointment of office holders and their areas of responsibility, and deciding how many

there should be and the manner of their appointment. Second, once this has been done,

comes the assignment of laws to particular officials, and deciding which laws, how many,

and what sort are appropriate to each. But before dealing with the selection, let us pause

for a moment and make a pertinent observation about this.

CLINIAS: What is it?

ATHENIAN: As follows. It is presumably obvious to everyone that although legislation is a major

undertaking, if we put unfit officials in charge of good laws in a well-equipped city, not

only would no good come of them, and not only would the city turn out to be a total laughing

stock, but a good deal of harm and damage might be done to the city by these very laws.

CLINIAS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: So we should bear this danger in mind, my friend, when dealing with your constitution

and your city. You see, then, in the first place that those who are rightly advanced to posi-

tions of power should be subjected to an adequate test, themselves and their family too in

each case, from their earliest years until the moment of their selection; and secondly, that

the selectors for their part should have been reared in lawful habits and well enough edu-

cated to be able to decide in the right way who deserves to be accepted as satisfactory, and

who merits rejection as unsatisfactory. But in our particular case, where people have come

together for the first time and don’t know one another, how would they ever be able to

choose their rulers without making mistakes?

CLINIAS: It would be well-nigh impossible.

ATHENIAN: And, yet, once the contest is underway, as the saying goes, no excuses are accepted.

And that’s the predicament in which you and I now find ourselves since, as you say, you

and your nine colleagues have eagerly promised the Cretan people to found this city, and I

for my part have promised to join in with this story we are telling. And so, as I am telling

a story, I would be most reluctant to leave it without a head, since it would look decidedly

ugly wandering about like that.

CLINIAS: Excellent, stranger. Well said.

ATHENIAN: Well, yes. But I shall also do my best to deliver on my promise.

CLINIAS: Absolutely. Let’s do as we say too.

ATHENIAN: That is what will happen, God willing, if old age does not get the better of us at this stage.

CLINIAS: God is likely to be willing.

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LAWS VI – 751a–752b | 1,135

ATHENIAN: Likely indeed. So let us follow God’s lead and take note of something.

CLINIAS: Of what?

ATHENIAN: The audacious and adventurous spirit in which this city of ours will now be founded.

CLINIAS: What are you referring to, and why exactly are you saying this?

ATHENIAN: See how glibly and confidently we are legislating for men devoid of experience in the

hope that they will eventually accept the laws we have now proposed. But this much at

least, Clinias, is obvious to almost everyone, even to those without much wisdom: none of

these men is going to accept the laws readily in the beginning. But what if we were some-

how to bide our time, until those who had tasted the laws in childhood, who had been reared

under them and become sufficiently familiar with them, were to join in the process of select-

ing officials for the entire city? Well, if we could actually arrange this, and if indeed there

were some correct manner or means of doing so, I believe that after such a period of tran-

sition, a city that had been through such an education might be well assured of survival.

CLINIAS: Yes, that sounds reasonable.

ATHENIAN: Well, let us see then if we can provide ourselves with an adequate course towards this

objective, as follows. For I maintain, Clinias, that more than any other people in Crete, the

Cnossians should not merely show due reverence for the region you are now going to settle,

but they should also be particularly careful to appoint the first office holders in the best and

safest way possible. Now, although this would not be a major undertaking in other cases,

in the case of the guardians of the law it is absolutely essential that we pay the utmost atten-

tion to their selection first.

CLINIAS: What course and what plan shall we devise for this purpose?

ATHENIAN: As follows. I declare, children of Crete, that because of your seniority over the other

cities, the Cnossians need to join the new arrivals to this colony in selecting a total of thirty-

seven individuals, nineteen from among these people, and the remainder from among the

Cnossians themselves. The Cnossians should present these eighteen to this city of yours,

including yourself as a citizen of the colony and one of the eighteen persuaded to join or

compelled to do so with a measure of force.

CLINIAS: But tell me, stranger, why do yourself and Megillus have no involvement in our consti-

tution?

ATHENIAN: Athens is a city with grand notions, Clinias, and so too is Sparta, and both cities are a

long way off. But this is an appropriate role for you in every respect, and the same applies

to your fellow founders. Let us take it for now that what is most appropriate under our pres-

ent circumstances has been dealt with. But as time passes and the civic arrangement has

stabilised, the selection of officials is to proceed somewhat as follows. All who bear arms

as foot soldiers or cavalrymen, and all who were involved in the military when they were

of age and capable of doing so, are to join in the process of selecting the officials. The selec-

tion is to be made in a sanctuary that the city holds in the greatest reverence, and each voter

should bring to the altar of the god a small tablet on which he has written the name of his

nominee, his father, his tribe, and the deme he inhabits, and he should add his own name

too, including the same details. Anyone who wishes is allowed to remove any tablet whose

details he objects to and place it on public display for at least thirty days. Those in charge

of the process shall present the three hundred top-ranked tablets for scrutiny by the entire

city, and each citizen, in like manner, is to vote once again for whomever he wishes. The

top one hundred of them, from this second vote, are to be displayed again for all to see. On

the third occasion, anyone who wishes is to vote for any one of the hundred he favours,

proceeding through sacrificial victims as he does so. The thirty-seven who receive the most

votes should then be subjected to scrutiny and appointed to positions of authority.

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But in this city of ours, Clinias and Megillus, who will make all these arrangements

relating to office holders and their scrutiny? We recognise that some such people are needed

in cities that are in the initial stages of their formation, but who would they be when no rel-

evant office holders are available? And yet, somehow or other they are needed, and these

should be no ordinary fellows, but the very pinnacle of men. For as the saying goes, “the

beginning is half of any task”, and indeed everyone always praises a good beginning. But

in my opinion the beginning is more than half the task, and no one has yet lavished sufficient

praise on a good beginning.

CLINIAS: Quite right.

ATHENIAN: Well, now that we have recognised this fact, let us not move on without discussing it

to clarify for ourselves how this beginning is to be made. However, I, for my part, do not

have much to contribute apart from one comment, which is both essential and expedient to

the current issue.

CLINIAS: Which is?

ATHENIAN: I maintain that this city we are about to settle has, as it were, no father or mother apart

from the actual city that is founding it, although I am not unaware of the fact that lots of

colonies have often been, and will be, at variance with their founding cities. Yet, at the

moment, our city is still like a helpless child who, even if he is going to fall out with his

parents some day, loves them and is loved by them, and is always running back to his rel-

atives, and necessarily finds allies in these alone. This arrangement, I maintain, is already

in place between the Cnossians and the new city, thanks to their care, and between the new

city and Cnossus. So I repeat what I said just now, for there is no harm in saying something

worthwhile twice. The Cnossians must play a role in looking after all these matters by pick-

ing at least one hundred of the new arrivals, the eldest and the best they can find, and let

there be another hundred from the Cnossians themselves. These people, I say, are to go to

the new city and join in the process of ensuring that the various officials are appointed

according to law and are subjected to scrutiny once appointed. And when this has been

done, the Cnossians should dwell thereafter in Cnossus while this new city tries to sustain

itself and thrive. As for those who belong to the thirty-seven, these should have been

appointed, now and for all time hereafter, with the following responsibilities. Firstly, they

are to be guardians of the law; secondly, of the records wherein each citizen writes down

the extent of their own wealth for the city officials, except for four minae in the case of

someone with the greatest property valuation, three minae for the second greatest, two minae

for the third, and one for the fourth. And if anyone is found to possess anything over and

above what was declared in writing, the entire sum is to become public property. What’s

more, anyone who wishes is allowed to prosecute him on a charge that involves neither

credit nor honour, but only disgrace if he is convicted because he despises the laws for the

sake of gain. So, anyone who wishes may charge him with base profiteering and prosecute

him before the guardians of the law themselves. And if the defendant is found guilty, he

may not share in the common wealth, and whenever some distribution of wealth is made

by the city, he is to get no share apart from his original lot. His conviction is to be recorded

where, for the rest of his life, anyone at all may read the details.

A guardian of the law is to hold office for no more than twenty years, and he should

be at least fifty years old when he takes on the role. If he assumes office at the age of sixty,

he is to hold office only for ten years. And based upon this principle, once a man is over

seventy, he should no longer expect to hold office alongside these officials and occupy such

an important position. Let us take it then that these are three responsibilities applicable to

the guardians of the law. As the process of legislation proceeds, each new law shall impose

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LAWS VI – 753e–755b | 1,137

further duties upon these people, for which they should be responsible in addition to those

we have mentioned.

But we should now deal with the selection of the other office holders in due order.

In fact, we should select generals next and their various assistants in warfare – those in

charge of cavalry or tribes, and commanders of companies of foot soldiers from the tribes

to whom the title ‘company commanders’ is particularly appropriate, which is indeed what

most people call them. Of these, the guardians of the law are to nominate generals from the

citizens of this very city, and everyone who is currently involved in the armed forces, or

has been involved when of age, is to make the selection from the nominees. And if anyone

thinks someone who has not been nominated is better than one of the nominees, he shall

name his candidate and the nominee who is to be replaced, swear an oath to this effect, and

nominate the other person instead, whichever of the two is decided upon by a show of hands

to be included in the selection. The three who receive the most votes are to be generals,

with responsibility for military affairs, once they have passed the same scrutiny as the

guardians of the law. The chosen generals shall nominate twelve company commanders for

themselves, one for each tribe, and the counter nomination procedure, the election, and the

scrutiny, shall be the same for the company commanders as for the generals. This gathering,

prior to the selection of a council and its presiding committee, shall be convened in the

interim by the guardians of the law, situated in the most sacred and most spacious location

available, with one place for the hoplites, another for the cavalry, and a third for any remain-

ing members of the armed forces. The generals and cavalry commanders are to be elected

by everyone present, the company commanders by those who carry a shield, and their tribal

commanders are to be chosen by the entire cavalry, while the generals are to appoint, for

themselves, the leaders of the light-armed troops, of the archers, and of any other branches

of the armed forces. So the outstanding issue is the appointment of cavalry commanders.

These are to be nominated by the same people who nominated the generals, and the selection

and counter nomination process is to be the same as it was for the generals. The cavalry are

to vote for them, in full view of the foot soldiers, and the two who receive most votes are

to be leaders of the entire cavalry. The voting may be challenged twice, at most. If anyone

issues a third challenge, those responsible for counting the votes in each case should decide

the matter by a vote among themselves.

The Council is to consist of thirty dozen members, three hundred and sixty being a

suitable number for the purposes of various subdivisions. These may be divided into four

groups of ninety, ninety council members being elected from each of the four property val-

uations. First, everyone must vote for members from the highest property valuation, and

anyone who does not co-operate is to be fined a specified amount. When these have been

voted upon, they are to be duly ratified. The next day, they should vote for members from

the second property valuation, following the same procedure as on the previous day. On

the third day, anyone who wishes may vote for members from the third property valuation,

but voting is to be compulsory for those who belong to the three highest valuations, but

anyone from the fourth and lowest valuation who does not wish to vote shall be exempt

from any fine. On the fourth day, everyone is to vote for members from the fourth valuation,

the lowest one, but those from the two lowest valuations who do not wish to vote shall be

exempt from any fine, while anyone from the first valuation who does not vote is to incur

four times the original fine, and anyone from the second valuation three times that fine. On

the fifth day, those in charge shall present the ratified names for all the citizens to see, and

everyone is to vote once more for these or be fined the original amount, thus selecting one

hundred and eighty from each of the property valuations. Half of these shall then be chosen

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1,138 | LAWS VI – 755c–756e

by lot and scrutinised, and these are to be the council members for that year.

The selection, conducted in this way, would maintain a mean between a monarchic

and democratic constitution, and a constitution should always hold to this mean. For slaves

and their masters can never become friends, nor can base folk and excellent folk, even if

they are said to be equally deserving of respect. For to the unequals, the various equalities

would become inequalities unless they hit upon the measure. Indeed, because of these two

inequalities our civic arrangements are filled with faction. For the old saying is true, and it

puts it most correctly and elegantly: “Equality gives rise to friendship”. But the saying really

confuses us, because it is not very clear which precise equality is capable of bringing this

about, for there are two equalities that have the same name but are, in practice, almost oppo-

sites in many respects. The other equality – of measure, weight and number – can be applied

through regulation by lot, by any city or legislator when awarding honours, in conducting

the various distributions. But the truest and most excellent equality is not at all easy for

anyone to see, for it is the judgement of Zeus. And although it imparts very little to human-

ity, everything it imparts to cities or to individuals produces nothing but good. For it allo-

cates more to the greater and less to the smaller, giving due measure to each according to

their own nature. And, indeed, it also dispenses what’s appropriate, in proportion, to each,

always bestowing greater honours upon those whose excellence is greater, and less upon

those in the opposite situation in terms of excellence and education. For this very justice,

indeed, always constitutes for us the statesmanship for which we hunger, Clinias, and with

this equality in view we should found the city that is now emerging. And if anyone ever

founds another city, he should enact the laws aiming at this same objective and not the inter-

ests of a few tyrants, or just one, or, indeed, some democratic power group, but what’s just

always, and this is what has now been described – the natural equality that is consistently

given to unequals.

Nevertheless, it is inevitable that every city will have to apply these principles in a

modified sense if it is going to avoid being embroiled in internal factions somewhere.

Fairness and forgiveness, you know, are always a departure from perfection and precision,

and a deviation from strict justice. Therefore, because of discontent prevalent among the

general population, it is necessary to make further use of the equality of the lot, and then

call, in prayer, upon God and good fortune to guide the fall of the lot for them in the direction

of the perfectly just outcome. And although it is indeed necessary to make use of both equal-

ities in this way, we should use the other one, the one that relies upon good fortune, as sel-

dom as possible.

This is what a city needs to do, my friends, for all these reasons, if it is going to be

saved. Since a ship sailing the seas needs to keep constant watch, day and night, so too a

city, in like manner, battered by the waves of other cities, and living in peril of being over-

taken by conspiracies of all sorts needs a day-long and night-long succession, connecting

one official to another as guardians hand over to guardians continuously without interrup-

tion. Now, it is never possible for a large number of officials to carry out any of these duties

efficiently. Rather, the city needs to allow most of the council members to remain at home

most of the time and attend to their own domestic affairs. They should appoint a twelfth

part of them to act as guardians for one month, distributing twelve parts over the twelve

months of the year. These are to meet readily with anyone who comes from some other

place, or even from the city itself, wishing either to make a statement relevant to the city’s

dealings with other cities, or, on the other hand, to obtain some information. When the city

puts questions to other cities, they are to receive the replies. And most importantly, on

account of the great variety of innovations that tend to occur in a city on a regular basis,

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LAWS VI – 757a–758c | 1,139

they are to act as guardians so that ideally these never occur, and if they do occur, whatever

has happened is remedied and the city is made aware of it as quickly as possible. For all

these purposes, this twelfth part must always be the part of the city that presides and is

responsible for convening and dissolving any meetings, be they routine or the extraordinary

ones that crop up occasionally in the city. So, a twelfth part of the council would be the

body that arranges all these matters, being off-duty for the remaining eleven months of the

year. But this part of the council must exercise its constant guardianship over the city, in

conjunction with the other officials.

Now, although this would be a reasonable way of arranging affairs within the city,

what oversight and arrangements would apply to all the rest of the territory? Since the

entire city and, indeed, the territory as a whole has been divided into twelve parts, shouldn’t

we appoint superintendents of the city’s own roads, houses, public buildings,and harbours,

of its market and springs, and, indeed, of its sacred precincts and temples, and everything

of that sort?

CLINIAS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: Let us say then that there should be servants, priests and priestesses for the temples. For

the roads and public buildings and their good order, for ensuring humans and other animals

do not act improperly both within the city boundary itself and in the suburbs, and so that

proper conditions may prevail in the city, three types of officials must be selected: those con-

cerned with the matters we just mentioned, being called city-police; those concerned with

the good order of the market, market-police; priests or priestesses of temples, who belong to

hereditary priesthoods, are to be left as they are. But if, as is likely with such matters in the

case of the initial settlers, there are priests for none or for very few of the temples, then priests

and priestesses should be appointed to act as servants of the gods for temples without an

established priesthood. Of all these appointments, some should be by election, others by lot,

thus mixing the democratic element with its opposite in every territory and city with their

mutual friendship as the objective, so that they may be like-minded as much as possible.

When it comes to the priesthoods, we should allow God to bring about what is pleas-

ing to Himself by entrusting the matter to the divine chance of the lot. But he to whom the

lot falls is to be scrutinised, first for integrity and legitimacy, and then for descent from

houses that are, as much as possible, pure and untainted by slaughter and all such trans-

gressions of divine precepts, in his own life and the lives of his father and mother. The laws

concerning all divine matters are to be brought from Delphi, and they should make use of

them once they have appointed interpreters of these oracles. Each priesthood is to be for

one year and no longer. And whoever is to perform holy rituals adequately, in accord with

our sacred laws about divine matters, should be at least sixty years old. And the same reg-

ulations should apply to the priestesses.

In the case of interpreters there are to be three: the tribes, in three sets of four, are to

elect four people each from among themselves, and after testing the three who receive the

most votes at each election, they are to send the nine names to Delphi for the oracle to des-

ignate one from each group of three. The scrutiny of these three and their age limit is to be

the same as for the priests. They are to be interpreters for life, and in the case of a vacancy

it is to be filled by the group of four tribes from which the person is missing.

There should be treasurers in charge of the sacred funds for each of the temples and

the precincts, and their products and rents. Three people are to be chosen from the greatest

property valuation for the greatest temples, two for the smaller, and one for the most modest.

Let the selection and scrutiny of these be conducted as it was for the generals. So, let these

be the regulations relating to sacred affairs.

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1,140 | LAWS VI – 758d–760a

As far as possible, let nothing be left unguarded. The guardianship of the city is to

be exercised as follows. It is to be looked after by generals, commanders, cavalry com-

manders, tribe leaders and presidents, and also by city- and market-police once we have

selected and duly appointed them. The rest of the country, as a whole, is to be guarded as

follows. Since the entire territory has been divided as best we could into twelve equal parts,

one tribe should be assigned by lot to each part on an annual basis, and the tribe should

provide five men to act as rural police and guard leaders. Each one of the five is to be

responsible for picking twelve young people from their own tribe who are over twenty-five

years of age and under thirty. The twelve parts of the territory should be assigned by lot to

these young men, one part to one group, each for one month, so that all may become expe-

rienced and knowledgeable of the entire territory. Both the guards and their leaders shall

carry out these functions for two years. Under the supervision of the guard leaders, begin-

ning with the part of the territory allocated by lot, they should always take the next portion

of land in exchange each month, proceeding in a circle to the right, from west to east. After

the first year, so that the guards for the most part do not have experience of the territory

only during a single season of the year, but as much as possible, besides the territory, they

get to know what happens in each region during each season, the leaders at the time are to

lead them once more in the opposite direction, from east to west, constantly changing loca-

tion until they have completed their second year. In the third year there is to be a fresh selec-

tion of rural police and guard leaders, five leaders, each in charge of twelve guards. Whilst

on duty in each region, they are to look after it as follows. Firstly, they are to ensure that

the territory is as well defended as possible against enemies, by building embankments and

digging trenches as needed, using fortifications to defend, as best they can, against anyone

who might attempt to despoil the territory or property. For these purposes they may employ

the beasts of burden and household servants of each locality, using the animals as instru-

ments and taking charge of the servants, while doing their best not to intrude upon their

domestic duties. In short, they are to make everywhere inaccessible to enemies and as acces-

sible as possible to friends, be they humans, beasts of burden or cattle. They are to attend

to the roads to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible, and to the rains sent by Zeus

to ensure that they benefit the land rather than doing damage. So, as the waters flow from

the high places into the mountain glens and hollows, they should channel the deluge with

dams and canals so that the valleys either retain or absorb the rains from Zeus, forming

streams and springs for the farms and the localities below, thus providing even the driest

regions with an abundance of fresh water. By enhancing and beautifying the clear waters

of a spring or a river with various plantations and structures, and by connecting streams

through underground channels, they shall ensure abundance and plenty. And if there is a

consecrated grove or enclosure in the vicinity, they may beautify it all year round by direct-

ing the flow through channels into the very temples of the gods. In all such places, the

young are to provide gymnasia for themselves and for their elders, equipped with warm

baths and plenty of dry seasoned wood for fuel, for the benefit also of those who are ailing,

bodies that are worn out by disease and the toils of farm labour, glad to receive far better

treatment than they would from an incompetent physician.

These activities, and anything of this sort, would enhance and benefit the various

regions, as well as affording a pleasant recreation. The serious aspect of their business would

be as follows. Each group of sixty is to guard its own region, not only against enemies but

also against those who claim to be friends. And if anyone, slave or free, foreign or fellow

citizen, acts unjustly towards someone else, they are to act as judges for whoever claims to

have been wronged. In minor cases, the leaders themselves, and in major cases, up to three

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LAWS VI – 760b–761e | 1,141

minae in value, the leaders plus twelve of the guards must judge whatever one person alleges

against the other. No judge or ruler should exercise judgement or authority without being

subject to review, except for those who, like kings, pass the final judgement. And, indeed,

if these rural police mistreat the people they are looking after in any way, by imposing unfair

levies, or attempting to seize or commandeer the property of those who work the land, with-

out consent, or if they accept anything given to them as an inducement or make distributions

in an unjust manner, let them bear the censure of the entire city for yielding to such cor-

rupting influences. For any other injustices they may perpetrate against the local people,

up to a value of one mina, let them submit voluntarily to trial before the villagers or for-

eigners. And if they are unwilling to submit on any occasion, convinced that they will escape

trial by continually changing their location every month, whether the offence is major or

minor, the wronged party is to pursue his case in the public courts, and if he wins he obtains

twice the amount from the fugitive defendant who was so unwilling to submit to justice.

The leaders and the rural police, during their two years in office, are to have a

lifestyle of the following sort. Firstly, in each district there is to be a common mess in which

a communal way of living is to be maintained by everyone. If someone is absent from com-

mon arrangements, even for a single day, or sleeps elsewhere at night without express orders

from the leaders, or a situation where it is absolutely necessary, and the five decide to put

him on report and display his name in the marketplace as a deserter from his post, let him

incur disgrace for personally betraying the constitution, and let him be punished with blows,

fearlessly, by anyone who comes across him and wishes to do so. And if one of the leaders

themselves does something like this himself, all of the sixty should attend to the matter,

and anyone who is aware of this, or finds out about it and takes no action, is to be held

guilty under the very same laws and be punished even more severely than the younger ones

by being stripped of all authority over the young. Let the guardians of the law pay vigilant

attention to all these matters to ensure either that lapses do not occur at all, or that they are

penalised appropriately when they do.

Indeed, everyone should keep in mind that no man alive who has not served could

ever deserve to become a master worthy of the name, and we should pride ourselves more

on serving well than on ruling well, firstly as a servant of the law, since this is service to

the gods, secondly as young folk, constantly serving their elders who have lived honourable

lives. As well as this, anyone who has joined the ranks of the rural police must have partaken

of the meagre and sparse daily diet for those two years. In fact, once the various twelves

have been selected, they should resolve at a meeting with the five leaders, that being just

like servants, they will not have other servants or slaves of their own, nor shall they make

use of servants from the farmers and villagers of the area for their own personal purposes,

but only for public purposes. And, in general, they should decide to live self-sufficiently,

serving and being served by themselves, as well as conducting a thorough exploration of

the entire territory, winter and summer long, always fully armed for security purposes, and

to ensure constant familiarity with each district. For it is surely a study as important as any

that everyone should know their own country in detail, and the young should be involved

in hunting with hounds, and by other means, for this purpose, as well as for the general

pleasure and benefit that everyone derives from this sort of thing. These are the people then,

and this is the activity, and whether someone prefers to call them secret operatives or rural

police, or anything else, any man who intends to preserve his own city competently should

turn his hand to this eagerly, as best he can.

The next step for us, in selecting the various officials, would concern the city-police

and the market-police. There should be three city-police corresponding to the sixty rural

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police, dividing the twelve parts of the city into three, imitating their rural counterparts by

looking after the roads within the city and the avenues extending into the city from the

country, and the public buildings too, to ensure that they are always constructed according

to the relevant laws, and, indeed, the water supply that the rural police channel and pass on

to them in such good condition. They must ensure that there is enough clean water flowing

in the fountains to beautify the city, and to meet its needs. But these people must also have

the ability and the leisure to look after public affairs. Therefore every citizen is to nominate

anyone he wishes, drawn from the highest property valuation, for the ranks of the city-

police. When these have been voted upon, and they have arrived at the six names who

received most votes, the responsible officials should select three of these by lot, and once

they have been duly scrutinised they are to assume office, subject to the laws prescribed

for them.

Next, there shall be a selection of five market-police, drawn from the second and

first property valuations, the selection process in general being just as it was for the city-

police. From the ten who receive most votes, they are to select five by lot, and once these

have been scrutinised, they are to declare them duly appointed. Everyone is to vote in every

case, and whoever refuses to do so is to be fined fifty drachma if he is reported to the offi-

cials, as well as acquiring a bad reputation. Anyone who wishes may attend the assembly

or a general meeting, but attendance is to be compulsory for members of the first and second

property valuations on penalty of a ten drachma fine for anyone found to have missed such

meetings. Attendance is not to be compulsory for members of the third and fourth valua-

tions, and they shall incur no penalty for non-attendance unless the officials specifically

order everyone to meet for some urgent reason. Now, the market-police are to guard the

good order of the market place, as directed by the laws, and they are to look after the temples

and fountains of the market place too so that no one commits any injustice. They are to

punish anyone who acts unjustly, with blows and bonds in the case of a slave or foreigner,

and if a local person is disorderly in these respects, they may fine the offender up to one

hundred drachma on their own authority, or twice that sum when they pass judgement along

with the city-police. Let the same powers to fine and punish also be available to the city-

police in their own jurisdiction, fining people up to one mina themselves, and twice that

sum when they act in consort with the market-police.

After this, it would be appropriate to appoint officials in charge of music and of gym-

nastics, two kinds in each case, those responsible for education and those responsible for

competitions. By education officials, the law means overseers of gymnasia and schools,

responsible for their good order and standards of education as well as the attendance and

the accommodation of the boys and girls. By competition officials, it means judges of con-

testants in both athletic and musical contests, and again there are two kinds, those concerned

with music, and those concerned with athletic competition. It would be appropriate to have

the same judges for competitions involving humans and for those involving horses, but it

is appropriate that the judges for those who perform on their own, such as rhapsodes and

those who play lyres or flutes or the like, be different from those who judge choral per-

formances. It is first necessary, then, I presume, to select the officials responsible for the

playful performance of choruses of men, boys and girls that takes place in dancing, and in

our entire system of music. One official, who should be more than forty years of age, is

enough for them. One official, who is more than thirty years of age, is also sufficient for

the solo performances, to introduce the contestants and pass adequate judgement upon them.

The official responsible for managing the choruses should be selected in the following man-

ner. Those who have a keen interest in such matters are to attend a general meeting or be

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fined if they do not go. This should be decided by the guardians of the law, but if any others

don’t wish to attend, there should be no compulsion. The elector must make his nomination

from those who have the relevant experience, and in scrutinising the candidate the one sole

criterion for acceptance or rejection should be experience or inexperience. And whoever is

selected from the ten who received most votes should, once he has been duly scrutinised,

take charge of the choruses for a year in accordance with law. In exactly the same way,

whoever is chosen from those who have been judged is to preside, for that year, over those

who perform music on their own or in groups, once he has submitted to the decision of the

judges. After these, judges must be selected for athletic competitions involving horses, and

for those involving humans too, from the third and also the second property valuations.

Attendance at the election is to be compulsory for the three top valuations, but the lowest

valuation should be exempt from any fine. Let three people favoured by the vote of the

scrutineers be chosen from the twenty who had previously been selected. If anyone does

not pass the scrutiny during any process of selection and appointment for any office what-

soever, others are to be selected instead on the same basis, and they are to be subjected to

scrutiny in exactly the same way.

In relation to the matters we have spoken of previously, we still have to appoint an

official as overseer of the education of boys and girls in its entirety. Let one person be

responsible for them, in accordance with the laws, being at least fifty years of age and the

father of legitimate children, ideally of sons and daughters, or, failing that, of one or the

other. And let the chosen person himself, and whoever chooses him, regard this office as

by far the most important of the very highest positions of authority in the city. Indeed, in

the case of anything that grows – plants, tame animals, wild animals or humans – the first

shoots of growth, well begun, are the most significant factor in achieving their own natural

and appropriate excellence. A human being is, we say, a tame animal. Nevertheless a human

who encounters the right education and has a benign nature, tends to become the most divine

and gentlest creature of all. But if he is not given an adequate and noble upbringing, he

tends to become the wildest creature that walks the earth. That is why the lawgiver must

not allow the upbringing of children to become a secondary or incidental matter. And since

it is imperative to begin by first selecting, in the right way, the person who is going to be

responsible for the children, the lawgiver must do the very best he can to appoint someone

who excels in every respect over his fellow citizens, and put him in charge of the children.

Accordingly all the officials, except for the council and its committee, are to go to the temple

of Apollo, and each must cast his vote in secret for whichever one of the guardians of the

law would, in his view, best take charge of educational matters. Whoever gets most votes

and has been duly scrutinised by the other officials who elected him, apart from the

guardians of the law, is to rule for five years, and in the sixth year there is to be a fresh elec-

tion to this office by the same procedure.

If someone holding public office dies more than thirty days before the end of his

term of office, someone else should be appointed by those who are responsible for this, fol-

lowing the same procedure. And if a trustee of orphans dies, the relatives living in the vicin-

ity, on the father’s and mother’s side, down to the children of cousins, must appoint another

within ten days or be fined one drachma per day each until they appoint a trustee.

Of course, any city in which law courts are not properly established would hardly

constitute a city at all. And a judge who does not speak to us, and has nothing to add to

what the litigants said in the preliminary hearing, as happens in mere arbitrations, would

never be good enough as a judge of legal cases. For these reasons, it is not easy for a large

number of people to judge a case well, or for a few ordinary folk to do so either. The matter

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in dispute always needs to be made clear from both sides, and time taken through slow and

repeated questioning has the advantage of shedding light upon the dispute. For these rea-

sons, those who are accusing one another should first have recourse to neighbours and

friends and those who are most familiar with the events in dispute; and if any party does

not obtain an adequate judgement before these people, let him go to another court; and if

these two courts are unable to resolve the dispute, a third court shall give a final judgement

in the case.

Now, in a way, the establishment of the courts is also an election of officials since

any official also must be a judge of something or other. And although a judge is not a ruling

official, he actually becomes, in a way, a ruling official of some significance on the day on

which he decides a case by giving his judgement. Granting, then, that judges are also ruling

officials, let’s say who the right people for the role would be, what matters they should be

judges of, and how many there should be for each particular case. Let the most authoritative

court be the one that the parties each proclaim for themselves, making their selections

together. Let there be two tribunals for the other cases, one when a private citizen accuses

another citizen of doing him an injustice and brings him to court because he wants the issue

to be decided; a second whenever someone believes that the community is being wronged

by one of its citizens, and he wishes to come to the aid of his own people. We need to say

who the judges are, and what they should be like. Firstly, however, we should have a com-

mon court for all private citizens who are in dispute with one another for the third time, set

up more or less as follows. When a new year is about to commence in the month after the

summer solstice, on the day previous to this, all the officials, whether they hold office for

one year or for longer, should come together in a single temple. Having sworn an oath to

the god, they are to dedicate, so to speak, one judge from each and every kind of office who

has the best reputation in each role, and is likely to decide the various cases of his fellow

citizens, best and most piously, for the coming year. Once these have been selected, they

must undergo scrutiny by the selectors themselves, and if anyone doesn’t pass scrutiny,

another is to be selected in the same way to replace him. Those who pass scrutiny are to act

as judges for those who are seeking refuge from other courts, and their votes are to be cast

openly. It shall be compulsory for council members, and the other officials who elected

them, to listen to the legal proceedings and watch what happens, and others may attend too

if they wish. If anyone accuses a judge of deliberately deciding a case in an unjust manner,

he should go to the guardians of the law and present his charge. A judge who is found guilty

of such a crime is to pay double damages to the victim, and if a greater penalty is deemed

appropriate, those who are judging the case may impose a further punishment that he must

suffer in addition, or some fine payable to the state or to the person who brought the case

to court.

When it comes to crimes against the state, it is necessary, in the first place, to involve

the public in deciding the case since everyone is wronged when the city is wronged, so the

people would be justified in feeling aggrieved if they had no involvement in deciding such

cases. But while the initial and final proceedings of such cases should be entrusted to the

people, the trial itself should go before the three highest officials jointly accepted by the

defendant and the prosecutor. And if the two parties are unable to agree on this together for

themselves, the council should decide between the two alternatives. In fact everyone should,

as far as possible, be involved in deciding private cases too, for anyone who is excluded

from involvement in joint decision making feels that he has no involvement at all in his

own city. That’s why there must indeed be courts based upon tribes, and judges appointed

by lot there and then, who are incorruptible in the face of personal pleadings when they

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LAWS VI – 766e–768b | 1,145

pass judgement. But the final judgement is delivered by that court which according to us

has been constituted completely free from corruption, insofar as this is humanly possible,

for the benefit of those who are unable to obtain a resolution, either before the neighbours,

or the tribal courts.

Now courts of law we maintain cannot easily be described as ruling officials, yet

they cannot be denied such a title either, without some qualification. And although we have

given a sort of outline sketch that describes some of the details, it largely omits others. For

the best place by far for any detailed regulation and classification of legal cases would be

at the end of the legislative process. So, although these details should be asked to wait until

the end of our process, the appointments to the other offices have, more or less, been leg-

islated for in full. But it is not possible to arrive confidently at a comprehensive, detailed

account of every single aspect of the administration of the city, and civic affairs in general,

before concluding a detailed description from beginning to end, encompassing everything

in between. So this stage, where we have completed our description up to the point where

the officials are elected, would be a suitable place to conclude the preceding matters and

start proposing laws. We need no further hesitation or delays.

CLINIAS: What you have said so far, stranger, is entirely acceptable to me. And now that you have

connected the start of what you are going to say with the conclusion of what has been said

already, I am even more pleased than I was before.

ATHENIAN: Well, it seems that our thoughtful old men’s amusement has been well played so far.

CLINIAS: You seem to be pointing out how well executed the work of these men is.

ATHENIAN: Quite likely. But let us see if you agree with me on the following point.

CLINIAS: What point? What are the issues?

ATHENIAN: You know how the work of painters on any of the figures they paint never seems to

come to an end. It seems to go on forever, adding finishing touches that involve ‘colouring’

or ‘decolouring’, or whatever the professionals call such processes, and never reaches a

point where the painting cannot be made more beautiful or realistic.

CLINIAS: I understand what you are saying fairly well from hearsay, although I have no direct expe-

rience of this sort of skill.

ATHENIAN: Well, that is no harm. But we may still use the example involving this skill, the one

that has just occurred to us, as follows. If anyone ever decided to paint the most beautiful

picture imaginable, one that furthermore would never deteriorate but would always improve

with the passage of time, you realise, don’t you, that since the painter is not immortal, his

huge labour will have very short-lived results unless he leaves a successor behind him who

can repair anything that happens to the picture because of its age, and is also able in future

to improve upon any deficiencies in the work due to the painter’s own artistic weaknesses?

CLINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: Well then, don’t you think that the lawgiver will want some such arrangement? Firstly,

he’ll want to frame the laws as best he can, with the utmost precision. Secondly, as time

passes and his plans are tested in practice, don’t you think any legislator who is not a fool

will realise that there must necessarily be countless deficiencies in his laws, which some

successor will have to put right, so that the civic arrangement and good order of the city he

is founding will constantly improve and never deteriorate at all?

CLINIAS: Of course. Every lawgiver will, presumably, want some such arrangement.

ATHENIAN: Now, what if someone had some means of teaching another person, somehow, by his

deeds and his words, to come to some sort of understanding of how laws should be protected

and corrected? Wouldn’t he persist in explaining this until he succeeded in his objective?

CLINIAS: Of course.

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ATHENIAN: So, isn’t that what must be done now by me and by the two of you?

CLINIAS: What do you mean?

ATHENIAN: Although we are about to make laws, we have selected guardians of those laws who

are young in comparison with ourselves, we who are in the evening of life. So, as we say,

we should pass laws ourselves, and at the same time attempt as best we can to turn these

young people into lawgivers and guardians of the law.

CLINIAS: Indeed, if we are actually up to the task.

ATHENIAN: Well, we should try with all our hearts.

CLINIAS: How could we do otherwise?

ATHENIAN: Let us address them as follows, then. Dear friends and preservers of the law, we shall

omit a great deal that is relevant to the various topics on which we pass laws, necessarily

so. Nevertheless, we shall do our best to include whatever is significant and present the

whole system in broad outline. You will have to fill in the details, and you now need to hear

what your objective should be in doing so. Megillus, Clinias and myself have stated this

objective to one another many times, and we agree that our formulation is sound.

But we want you to be of the same mind as ourselves, and to become our pupils too,

looking to those very objectives which, according to us three, should be the objectives of

the guardians of the law, and the lawgivers too. Our consensus concerned one significant

issue, how exactly someone may become a good person, possessed of the excellence of

soul that is appropriate to a human being. In the case of any of our fellow citizens, male or

female, young or old, this excellence comes from some activity or some habit or acquisition

or desire or opinion, or instruction in certain subjects. To attain the excellence we spoke of,

everyone is to exert himself to the utmost throughout his entire life, and none should be

found favouring anything else that keeps him from these activities. He should even be pre-

pared to break with his own city or abandon it by going into exile, if revolution proves

inevitable, rather than submitting to lesser folk under the yoke of slavery. Everything of

this sort must be endured rather than changing to a constitution that, by its very nature,

makes people worse. This was our earlier consensus, and you must now look to these two

objectives and pronounce your praise and censure of these laws of ours, censuring those

that are unable to achieve these objectives, while you embrace and accept those that can do

so, live by them in a spirit of friendship, and bid farewell to other activities that lead to

other so-called goods.

Let us make a start on the laws that follow these, beginning with sacred matters. In

fact, we must first take up the number 5,040 again, and how many convenient divisions we

found contained both in the number as a whole and the number based on tribes, which we

decided was one twelfth of the entire, and naturally exactly twenty times twenty-one. So

our entire number has twelve subdivisions, and the tribal number also has twelve, and each

portion should be regarded as sacred, a gift of God, corresponding to the months of the year

and the revolutions of the universe. That, indeed, is why the innate nature of every city

leads it to sanctify these divisions, although some have done their dividing more correctly

than others, or have consecrated the division more propitiously. So we may now declare

that we are perfectly right in choosing the number 5,040, which contains all divisions from

one to twelve with the exception of eleven. And there is a simple solution even to this, for

one way to solve the problem is to set two of the households aside, and it would not take a

long story to prove the truth of this, if time allowed. For now, let us place our trust in the

principle we have just stated, make this distribution, name each portion after a god or a

child of the gods, and assign altars and whatever is appropriate to them, where we should

have two gatherings per month for sacrifices, twelve per annum for the tribal division, and

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twelve for the urban division itself. The first purpose of these shall be to ensure the favour

of the gods and of all that belongs to them, and the second, according to us, is to ensure our

mutual familiarity and acquaintance with one another, and community spirit in general.

In fact, when it comes to marital contracts and connections, it is imperative that any

ignorance of the woman’s family, the woman herself, and the family she is entering, be

eliminated, making every effort as best we can to make no mistakes at all in such matters.

So even our games should be arranged to achieve this serious purpose, with dancing for

boys and girls, which also allows them to be seen, and see one another, unclothed within

reason, on occasions that afford an acceptable pretext, subject to modesty and prudence on

the part of each. Those in charge of the choruses should be the supervisors and organisers

of all this, and lawgivers too, along with the guardians of the law, in relation to any direc-

tions we omitted. And it is inevitable, as we said, in all such matters involving lots of minor

details, that the lawgiver will make omissions. So those who have ongoing experience of

the laws, year in, year out, should learn by practice to make corrections and changes annu-

ally until it seems that a point has been reached where regulations and practices of this sort

have been defined adequately.

A ten-year cycle of sacrifices and choral performances would be a reasonable and

sufficient time period to assign for experience of each and every aspect. While the relevant

lawgiver is still alive, they should work in consultation with him, but once he has died, the

officials themselves, each reporting to the guardians of the law, should correct any defi-

ciency in their own area of responsibility until it seems that every detail has been resolved,

well and truly. They should then declare the laws unalterable, and thereafter administer

these along with the other laws that the original lawgiver prescribed for them at the outset.

Nothing relating to these laws should ever be changed deliberately, but if it ever seems nec-

essary to do so, they are to consult all the officials, the general population and the divine

oracles for advice, and make the change if all are in agreement. Otherwise, they are not to

change them at all and, by law, any dissenting group shall always prevail.

Now, when any man, having turned twenty-five years of age, upon due consideration

by himself and by others, believes he has found a bride that suits him personally, and is

also suitable for companionship and for begetting children, he should marry. Indeed, every-

one should do so before they turn thirty-five. But first, he should be told how to find a suit-

able and fitting bride, for, as Clinias says, every law should be preceded by an introductory

preamble of its own.

CLINIAS: Well remembered, stranger, and you have, in my view, introduced the topic at just the

right moment.

ATHENIAN: It is nice of you to say so. Now, to a young man from a good family we should say the

following. You should enter into the sort of marriage that meets the approval of sensible

folk. These people would advise you neither to shun marriage to a poor family nor chase

eagerly after wealthy connections, and, all other considerations being equal, always prefer

to enter a union with someone who has fewer resources. For this approach would be bene-

ficial both to the city itself and to the families involved, since balance and proportion are

much more conducive to excellence than unbridled excess. And someone who realises that

he himself is too impulsive and hasty in all his actions should look for connections to a

well-behaved family, whereas someone with the opposite natural tendencies should pursue

connections of the opposite sort. And there should be one rule for all marriages: each person

is to seek a marriage that is beneficial to the city, not the one that pleases himself. Everyone

is always drawn somehow, by nature, to a person who is most like himself, and so the city

as a whole develops an imbalance of wealth and character traits. That’s how the conse-

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quences we wish to avoid in our own city certainly befall most other cities. Now, to prescribe

explicitly by law that the wealthy are not to marry the wealthy, the powerful are not to marry

the powerful, that the slower characters have to look for marital unions with the quick-wit-

ted, and the quicker with the slower, as well as being ridiculous would anger a lot of people.

For it is not easy to appreciate that a city should be blended after the manner of a wine bowl

in which the wine, when first poured, seethes madly, but when it is restrained by the good

company of another more sober god, it forms a good, duly measured drink. Now, it is vir-

tually impossible for anyone to discern that this is happening in the case of the blending of

children, and that is why we should omit such matters from our laws. We should try instead

to charm each person into placing more value upon the equipoise of their own children than

the marital property equality, which is insatiable, using words of reproach to deter anyone

who is intent upon marrying for money, rather than forcing them via a written law.

Let these, then, be our exhortations about marriage, and also, indeed, what was said

previously, that there is a need to preserve the everlasting nature by constantly leaving chil-

dren and children’s children behind us to serve God in our place. All this, and even more,

could be said as an appropriate prelude concerning marriage and the need to marry. But if

someone does not comply willingly, but keeps himself aloof and isolated in the city, and is

still unmarried at the age of thirty-five, he is to incur an annual fine of a hundred drachmas

if he belongs to the highest property valuation, seventy if he belongs to the second, sixty

for the third, and thirty for the fourth. The fine shall be dedicated to Hera. Anyone who

does not pay annually is to owe ten times the amount. This should be enforced by the treas-

urer of the goddess, who is to owe the money himself if he fails to exact it, and everyone is

to give an account of this matter at the audits. Let these be the financial penalties upon any-

one who is not prepared to marry, and he should also be shown no respect by the young

folk, and none of them should heed him at all unless they have to. And if he attempts to

punish someone, all are to come to the aid of the victim and defend him, and anyone present

who does not assist should be declared by law to be a coward and a bad citizen. We have

already dealt with dowries, but let us declare once again that it is not likely that our poorer

folk will reach old age without ever receiving a bride or bestowing one because of their

poverty, since everyone in this city has everything they need, and so there would be less

arrogance on the part of the wives, and less low and slavish servitude among the husbands,

because of wealth. Whoever obeys this precept would have one meritorious deed to his

credit, while anyone who disregards this by giving or accepting more than fifty drachmas

towards the cost of the bride’s dress, or one mina, one-and-a-half minae, or even two minae,

depending upon their property valuation, is to owe this amount to the state, while the amount

given or received is to be dedicated to Hera and Zeus. This should be enforced by the treas-

urers of these two gods, and as was said in the case of people who don’t marry, the treasurers

of Hera are to exact the sum in each instance or else pay the fine themselves.

The right of valid betrothal belongs first to the bride’s father, then to her grandfather

and thirdly to her brothers by the same father. If none of these is available, authority belongs

next to her mother’s family in like manner. And in exceptional situations her closest rela-

tives, acting along with the trustees, shall always have authority.

When it comes to the preliminary rites of marriage, or any other ritual that it is appro-

priate to enact before, during or after the event, the interpreters should be consulted, and

everyone should be of the view that all is well if he heeds their advice. As for the festivities,

no more than five friends, male and female, should be invited from each side, and the same

rule should also apply to relatives and friends from either side. The expenditure should be

proportionate to a person’s wealth: one mina for the wealthiest, and so on, as their property

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valuation reduces. Everyone should praise the person who obeys the law, and the guardians

of the law are to punish anyone who is disobedient, as a boor devoid of education in the

strains of the marital Muse. Drinking to the point of drunkenness is not appropriate any-

where except at the festivals of the god who gave us the gift of wine, nor is it safe, especially

for those who take marriage seriously, wherein it is most important for the bride and bride-

groom to be sensible as they undergo such a significant change in their lives. This also

ensures as much as possible that the offspring are always conceived from sensible parents,

since the day or night when conception takes place under God is quite unknown. What is

more, the begetting should not take place while the bodies are dissolved in drunkenness.

Rather, the new life should be fashioned in quietude, well-formed, stable and peaceful. But

when drunk with wine, a person reels about, borne hither and thither, his body and mind

out of control. The drunkard is a deranged and inept sower of seed who, in all likelihood,

would produce irregular and faithless offspring, crooked in character and in body. That is

why a person, all year round, throughout his entire life, should be careful and refrain from

any intentional exposure to disease or actions that involve violence or injustice, especially

at the time when children are begotten, for he must necessarily transfer and imprint these

onto the souls and bodies of the offspring, and produce utterly inferior children. Most impor-

tantly, he should refrain from such activities on that particular day and night, since a begin-

ning, once established, is a goddess among humans and the saviour of all, provided she is

accorded the appropriate honour by those concerned.

The bridegroom should regard one of the two homes in the allotment as a sort of

nest and nursery for his chicks, leave his father and mother, and make there his marriage, a

dwelling place, and a source of sustenance for himself and his children. For when some

element of longing is present in relationships, it binds the various characters together and

unites them, while unmoderated and uninterrupted companionship causes the longing to

ebb away with the passage of time because of the over-familiarity. That is why the married

couple should leave their own homes to the mother, father and the bride’s relatives, and

live like newly arrived colonists, visiting and being visited, begetting and rearing their chil-

dren, passing on the torch of life from one generation to another, always serving the gods

in accordance with the laws.

Next comes the question of possessions. What sort of possessions would constitute

well-proportioned wealth for the person who acquires them? Most of these are easy to ratio-

nalise and easy to acquire, but the case of household slaves presents all sorts of difficulties.

The reason is that what we say about them is somehow incorrect, but in a sense correct.

For the various pronouncements we make about slaves contradict experience, and then

again accord with experience.

MEGILLUS: What do you mean by this? We don’t yet understand the point you are making, stranger.

ATHENIAN: That is only to be expected, Megillus. For the helot system of Sparta

is well-nigh the

most puzzling and contentious issue in the Greek world, with some maintaining that it is

good, others that it is not. This is more controversial than the system of slavery by which

the people of Heraclea totally enslaved the Mariandyni,

or the situation of the serfs in

Thessaly. So, in the light of these examples and others like them, what should we do about

ownership of slaves? Now, I made a point during the course of the argument, and you quite

reasonably asked me what I meant. The point is as follows. We know, I presume, that every-

one would accept the need to acquire slaves who are as friendly and as good as possible. In

fact, for some people, slaves have already proven superior to brothers or sons in terms of

overall excellence, and have saved their own masters, his possessions and his household.

We are aware, aren’t we, that people say this sort of thing about slaves?

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MEGILLUS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: Haven’t we heard the opposite claim too, that the soul of the slave has no health in it,

and that no man of sense should ever trust them at all? And the wisest of our poets explicitly

proclaimed, speaking of Zeus, “For Zeus of the wide brows takes away one half of the

virtue from a man, once the day of slavery closes upon him.”

Everyone makes his own

decision on this issue. Some, as though they were dealing with wild animals, do not trust

the serving class at all, and with goads and whips they make the servants’ souls slavish,

three times, nay many times over, while others do the exact opposite.

MEGILLUS: Indeed.

CLINIAS: Well, stranger, in the face of such disagreement, what’s to be done about this new territory

of ours in relation to the ownership and punishment of slaves?

ATHENIAN: What, indeed, Clinias? It is evident that, since the human being is a difficult creature,

and when it comes to the inevitable distinction whereby we differentiate in practice between

slave, free man and master, humans seem to have no interest in co-operating in the process.

So this form of property presents a difficulty. The extent of its evils are often demonstrated

in practice by the frequent and familiar revolts of the enslaved Messenians, and by cities

that own lots of slaves who speak the same language, and again by the various criminal

exploits of the so-called pirates that occur in Italy. Anyone looking at all this is bound to be

at a loss as to what to do about such matters in general. Only two devices are available to

us. If the slaves are to be submissive they should not be fellow countrymen, or speak the

same language, insofar as this is practicable, and they should be properly cared for, not only

for their sake but more so for our own. The proper way to care for such people is to use no

violence towards our servants, and as best we can to do less wrong to them than we do to

our equals. For someone who naturally and genuinely reveres justice, and really hates injus-

tice, displays his true stature when dealing with people whom he can easily mistreat. The

person who remains untainted by unholiness and injustice in his conduct and behaviour

towards slaves, would be well able to sow the seed for a harvest of excellence. And the

same may rightly be said of a master, a tyrant, or anyone in a position of power, when deal-

ing with someone weaker than himself. Still, slaves should be punished when they deserve

it, rather than spoiling them by using a mere reprimand as if they were free men. Any

address to a servant should be more like a direct instruction, and there should be no light-

heartedness whatsoever with servants, male or female, whereby so many masters are

tempted most unwisely to spoil their slaves, making life difficult for the slaves as subjects,

and for themselves as rulers.

CLINIAS: That’s right.

ATHENIAN: Well, now that we have done our best to furnish the citizen with enough servants, suited

to the various tasks he needs help with, we should as a next step draw up a plan for our

houses.

CLINIAS: Yes, certainly.

ATHENIAN: Since our city is new and has no pre-existing buildings, it seems it will somehow have

to attend to every aspect of its architecture in detail in each case, including its temples and

city walls. These considerations, strictly speaking, precede the matter of marriages, Clinias,

but for now, since our city exists in words only, it is quite legitimate to proceed in this way

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The Helots were a large class of subjugated people in ancient Sparta. They substantially outnumbered the Spartans,

who were constantly concerned with how to prevent Helot uprisings.

The Mariandiyni were a people who lived in the region of Bithynia in the north-west of Asia Minor who were enslaved

for a time by the inhabitants of Heraclea Pontica, the chief city of the region.

Odyssey xvii.322 ff, Lattimore.

at the moment. Later, when our city is actually in existence, we shall at that stage, God will-

ing, make the architectural arrangements precede the marital arrangements, which shall be

the final step in the overall process. For the moment though, let’s just give a brief outline.

CLINIAS: Yes, very well.

ATHENIAN: So, the temples should be built all around the market place, and all over the city, in a

circle on the highest places for the sake of security and cleanliness. Alongside these there

should be buildings for various officials, and law courts in which judgements shall be deliv-

ered and received as though on holy ground, partly because the issues are sacred, and partly

because the temples are consecrated to such revered gods. And among these would be law

courts in which trials for murder and for crimes that carry the death penalty may properly

be held. As far as the walls are concerned, Megillus, I would agree with the Spartan position

on this, and allow the walls to lie dormant in the ground and not be erected, for the following

reasons. An oft-quoted verse from a poem puts this nicely, when it says that our walls should

be made of brass and iron rather than stone.

More to the point, we ourselves would rightly

deserve to be laughed at heartily for sending our young folk out into the countryside every

year to dig trenches and ditches and even to construct some buildings to impede the enemy,

all to prevent them from invading our country’s borders when our city is surrounded by a

wall. A wall, in the first place, is not good for the health of our cities and tends to make the

inhabitants somewhat soft of soul, encouraging them to take refuge inside their wall rather

than repulsing the enemy. Nor do they ensure their own safety by having some citizens on

continuous guard duty, day and night. They imagine that they may sleep soundly, fenced in

by security systems based upon walls and gates, as though they were born to a life of idle-

ness, ignoring the fact that a life of ease is a reward for hard work, whereas, as I see it, base

indolence and laziness tend to produce more troubles. But if it does prove necessary for

people to have a wall for some reason, then the construction of the private dwellings should

be organised with this in mind from the outset so that the entire city constitutes a single

wall, every building being rendered secure by the uniformity and regularity of its orientation

toward the streets. And it will be a pleasant sight, indeed, to see the city arranged like a sin-

gle house, easy to guard and vastly superior to any other arrangement in terms of security.

The maintenance of the original buildings would primarily be the responsibility of the inhab-

itants, but the city wardens would supervise them, and even use compulsion, by fining any-

one who was negligent. And they would also look after all aspects of city sanitation and

ensure that no private citizen encroaches upon public property with buildings or excavations.

They must also look after rainwater drainage, and any other matters, within the city or with-

out, that would be appropriate for them to manage. On all these matters, the guardians of

the law should legislate as soon as they see the need, and on anything else that was omitted

from the law code because it was unforeseen. And now that these – and the buildings of the

marketplace, the gymnasia and all the schools – are ready for use, and the theatres are ready

for the spectators, let us move on to the issues that come next after marriage, as we follow

the proper sequence of legislation.

CLINIAS: By all means.

ATHENIAN: Well, Clinias, let us assume that the wedding ceremony is over. There follows a period

of at least a year before any children are born. The lifestyle of a bride and bridegroom, in a

city that is to excel over most others, is not the easiest of topics to deal with, but it follows

naturally from our earlier discussions. We have faced a few challenges of this sort previ-

ously, but this proposal will be harder for most people to accept than any of those others.

Nevertheless, Clinias, whatever we believe to be right and true must be spoken, without

reservation.

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CLINIAS: Yes, indeed.

ATHENIAN: Suppose someone proposes to promulgate laws for our cities, dealing with the public,

communal lives of the citizens, while believing that compulsion in private matters is unnec-

essary, that everyone should be allowed to spend their day just as they please, and that there

is no need to regulate everything by law. Well, he is much mistaken in this belief that

although he leaves private matters unregulated, the citizens will still be prepared to live

their public and communal lives in accordance with his laws. Why am I saying all this? We

shall maintain that our bridegrooms should frequent the communal meals just as much as

they did before they were married. This custom was met with surprise when it was first

introduced in your countries, probably dictated by a war or pressure from some other cir-

cumstances among a small population facing extreme difficulties. But once you had been

forced to avail of communal meals and had experienced their benefits, you formed the view

that this custom was highly advantageous for the security of the city. And that is more or

less how the practice of communal meals was established among yourselves.

CLINIAS: Quite likely.

ATHENIAN: So, I am saying that although this was once seen as a surprising custom, and somewhat

daunting to impose on people, no such difficulty would face any lawgiver who wished to

legislate for this nowadays. But there is a logical sequel to this, a measure that would also

turn out well if it were implemented. But it is not implemented anywhere these days, and

this failure effectively makes the lawgiver, as the saying goes, ‘card his wool into the fire’,

and perform countless other never-ending tasks of that sort. This measure is not easy to

mention, or to implement once it has been mentioned.

CLINIAS: What is it, stranger, that you are trying to explain, and seem so reluctant to mention?

ATHENIAN: Listen then, so that we do not spend a lot of time on this issue in vain. In a city, whatever

occurs in an orderly and lawful manner produces nothing but good, while anything unreg-

ulated or ill-regulated, for the most part undoes the work of something else that is well reg-

ulated. The issue we are discussing is a case in point. Among yourselves, Clinias and

Megillus, communal meals for men have been well established, to some surprise as I said,

born of some divine necessity. But there are no corresponding regulations in place for

women, and this is simply not right. The practice of common meals for women has never

seen the light of day, and so the female sex, who are in general more susceptible to secrecy

and guile, have been abandoned to their own faults by improper indulgence on the part of

the lawgiver. Because you neglected women, you lost control of many things that would

have gone much better than they do today if only they had come under your laws. For

neglecting the good order of women’s lives is not just half of the problem, as it might seem.

To whatever extent the female nature is inferior in terms of excellence to the male nature,

to that extent the effect of its negative influence would be more than double. So it would

be better for the overall happiness of the city to revise this custom, and put things right by

arranging all the activities of men and women jointly. But nowadays the human race is so

far removed from this fortunate situation that it is impossible for a man of sense even to

mention this in other regions or cities where the very existence of communal dining as a

civic institution is totally unfamiliar. How, then, will anyone, without becoming a laughing

stock, set about forcing women to consume their food and drink in full public view? The

female sex would be more reluctant to put up with this than with anything else, accustomed

as they are to living in seclusion and obscurity. They will offer all sorts of resistance to

being led forcibly into the light of day, and will be more than a match for any lawgiver. In

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The source of this quote is unknown.

other cities, as I was saying, women would not tolerate even the mention of the correct prin-

ciple without a massive outcry, but in our city they might be tolerant. So, if you want this

account dealing with civic affairs in general to achieve its objective, in theory at least, then

I am prepared to argue that this proposal is good and appropriate, if you both agree to listen.

Otherwise, let’s drop the subject.

CLINIAS: No, stranger, we are both extremely enthusiastic about hearing you speak.

ATHENIAN: Listen to this then. But don’t be surprised if I seem to be starting from a long way back,

for we are enjoying our time together, and we are under no pressure to stop our compre-

hensive examination of every aspect of the laws.

CLINIAS: Quite right.

ATHENIAN: Well, let’s revert once more to our initial statements. Everyone would do well to bear

in mind this much at least: either the human race never had any beginning whatsoever and

will never have any end at all, but always was and always will be, or else an absolutely vast

period of time must have elapsed since the race first began.

CLINIAS: Indeed.

ATHENIAN: Well now, can’t we also assume that all over the world cities have been founded and

have perished, that there have been regimes of all sorts – some orderly, some disorderly –

and a huge variety of tastes and fashions in eating and drinking, and all sorts of revolutions

of climate too, during which the living organisms probably underwent innumerable trans-

formations?

CLINIAS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: Yes. And we also believe, I presume, that vines made their appearance at some stage

although they didn’t exist before then, and the same goes for olives and the various gifts of

Demeter and Kore,

and that some Triptolemus was the agent of all this. And we must pre-

sume, mustn’t we, that at the time when these fruits of the earth didn’t exist, the living

organisms took to feeding on one another, just as they do nowadays?

CLINIAS: Indeed.

ATHENIAN: And even today, in many regions, we see that human sacrifice still persists. And we are

also told that in other regions, by contrast, people dared not taste the flesh of oxen, and

there were no animal sacrifices but ‘pure’ sacrifices of cakes and meal soaked in honey and

the like. They refrained from the flesh of animals as it was an unholy act to eat it or to

pollute the altars of the gods with blood. In those days, a so-called Orphic lifestyle was

prevalent among us,

which held to a strictly vegetarian diet, and they refrained completely

from eating living creatures.

CLINIAS: Yes. This is referred to a lot and the reports are quite credible.

ATHENIAN: Now, someone might ask us why we are now saying all this.

CLINIAS: You’re right about that, stranger.

ATHENIAN: So, as best I can, Clinias, I will try to set out the considerations that follow from these.

CLINIAS: Please proceed.

ATHENIAN: I observe that for human beings everything depends upon three necessary desires, which

result in excellence if people are led aright, and its opposite if they are led badly. As soon

as they are born, there are the desires for food and drink. Every creature has an innate pas-

sion for all this, and it is full of frenzied defiance at the suggestion that anyone should do

anything else except gratify their pleasures and desires for everything of this sort, and be

quit of all pain. Our third and greatest need, and our most extreme passion – which emerges

later and completely inflames us humans to madness – is the burning, wanton passion for

procreation of offspring. These three disorders then must be diverted towards what is best

rather than what is said to be most pleasant. We must try to restrain them by the three mighty

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forces of fear, law and true reason, assisted by the Muses and the gods of competitions to

stem their growth and influence.

So, after the subject of marriage, let us place the procreation of children, followed

by their nurture and education. And perhaps if our discussions proceed in this way, each of

our laws will reach a conclusion. And when we come to the communal meals, and view the

issues at close quarters, perhaps we may see more clearly whether this sort of communal

activity should include women, or be confined only to men. And having arranged the pre-

liminaries to the communal meals, which are still unregulated at present, we shall place

these in front of them, and as I said just now we shall look at the communal meals with

greater precision and be better able to prescribe suitable and appropriate laws for them.

CLINIAS: Absolutely correct.

ATHENIAN: Well, let us preserve the memory of what has been said just now, since all of this may

prove useful at some stage.

CLINIAS: What are you telling us to remember?

ATHENIAN: The three factors we defined. I think we spoke first of eating, secondly of drinking,

and thirdly of an intense sort of sexual excitement.

CLINIAS: Yes, stranger, we shall certainly remember what you are telling us to remember.

ATHENIAN: Good. Let’s turn our attention to the married couple then, and teach them how, and in

what way, they should procreate children, employing legal threats if we fail to persuade

them.

CLINIAS: In what way?

ATHENIAN: The bride and bridegroom should have the intention, as best they can, of presenting

the city with the very finest and the very best progeny. Now, whenever any human beings

who are partners in any activity apply their intelligence to themselves and to the activity,

the outcome is entirely noble and good, but the outcome is the direct opposite if they do

not pay attention or are devoid of intelligence. So the bridegroom should apply his intelli-

gence to the bride and to procreation, and the bride should do the same. They should have

overseers, women whom we have appointed, their number,

more or less, and the timing of

their appointment being determined by the officials as they see fit. They are to gather every

day at the temple of Eileithyia

for at least one third of an hour. At the gathering, they should

inform one another of any man or woman of reproductive age whom they see preoccupied

with anything else besides the injunctions imposed upon them as a consequence of the sac-

rifices and solemnities of their marriage. Let this period of producing children, and oversight

of the young couples, last no more than ten years in cases where offspring are plentiful.

But if some couples are still childless after this period of time, they should separate, having

taken advice jointly as to what is advantageous for both of them from family members and

the female officials. And if some dispute arises over what is appropriate and advantageous

for each party, they should choose ten guardians of the law, accept their remit as arbiters,

and abide by the instructions they issue. The female supervisors are to put a stop to any

errors and folly of the couples by going into their homes and using admonitions or threats.

If they are unsuccessful, they should go to the guardians of the law and report the problem,

and the guardians should deal with it. If even the guardians are somehow unsuccessful, they

should bring the matter to public attention by publishing a notice, having sworn on oath

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LAWS VI – 783b–784c | 1,155

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The gifts referred to here are grains.

The Orphics, whose practices were based on the writings attributed to the legendary poet Orpheus, refrained from

killing and eating meat on the basis of their belief in the reincarnation of souls, both of humans and of animals.

This is the first mention of these women.

Eileithyia was the goddess of childbirth and midwifery.

that they are unable to reform such and such a person. Unless the person who is the subject

of the notice turns the tables on his accusers in a court of law, he is to be deprived of his

rights as follows. He may not attend weddings or thanksgivings for the birth of children,

and, if he shows up, anyone who wishes may, with impunity, punish him with blows. The

same regulations shall also apply to a woman. If she has been reported publicly in like man-

ner for disorderly behaviour, and loses her case, she shall be excluded from the processions

of women, or from any honours, and from attending weddings or celebrations of the births

of children.

Once they have produced their children, as ordained by the laws, a man who consorts

with another woman or a woman who consorts with another man, while the other party is

still of reproductive age, shall incur the same penalties as outlined for those who are still

producing children. Once this time has passed, a man or a woman who shows restraint in

such matters should be well regarded in every way, while those who do the opposite should

be honoured in the opposite way, or rather shown no respect at all. When most people are

moderate in their behaviour in such matters, the regulations can be left lie in silence, but if

disorder sets in among the general population, then regulations should be implemented

based upon the laws we have just prescribed.

For each person, their first year is the start of their entire life, and this should be

recorded in their ancestral shrines as the ‘beginning of life’ for each boy and girl. A further

record should be kept on a whitened wall in each tribe, giving the number associated with

particular archons after whom the years are numbered. Nearby, the names of those members

of the tribe who are still alive should be written, while the names of the deceased should be

erased. For marriage, the age limits shall be sixteen to twenty for a girl, the longest deter-

minate time, and thirty to thirty-five for a boy. For public office the age limit shall be forty

for a woman, thirty for a man. For military service the age limits shall be twenty to sixty

for a man. A woman, once she has borne her children, may be directed to do what she is

able to do and what’s appropriate in each case until she turns fifty, doing whatever military

duties are deemed useful.

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