Plato's Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws 0691024847

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PLATO'S CRETAN CITY A HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION

OF THE LAWS

:

g^ot^8 ^

PLATO'S CRETAN CITY ^A Historical Interpretation of the

BY

GLENN

laws

R.

MORROW

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,

New

Princeton, In the United

Copyright the

Jersey 08540

Kingdom: Princeton University Chichester, West Sussex

©

Press,

i960 by Princeton University Press;

new foreword

for the 1993 edition

is

copyright

©

1993

by Princeton University Press All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging -in -Publication Data

Morrow, Glenn Plato's

Cretan

city: a historical

Raymond), 1 895-1973. interpretation of the Laws / by Glenn R. (Glenn

p.

R.

Morrow.

cm.

Originally published: i960.

With new

introd.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1.

0-691-02484-7 (pbk.: acid-free paper)

Plato.

Laws.

The.

2. State,

JC71.P6M6

—dc20

Title.

1993

321 '.07

First Princeton

I.

93-2271

Paperback printing, 1993

Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper

and meet the guidelines

for

permanence and durability of the

Committee on Production Guidelines

for

Book Longevity of the

Council on Library Resources

3579

10

864

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO GEORGE HOLLAND SABINE 'qyeyiocrvva

CONTENTS Analytical Table of Contents

Foreword

(1993), by Charles

ix

H. Kahn

xvii

xxix

Preface Bibliographical Abbreviations

xxxiii

Introduction

3

PART ONE: THREE HISTORICAL STATES I.

Crete

17

Excursus A. II.

The Minos

35

Sparta

40

Excursus B. Plato's Version of Peloponnesian History 63 III.

Athens

74

PART TWO: PLATO'S CITY IV.

Property and the Family

The Allotment

V.

of the

95

Land

103

Citizenship and the Family

112

Property Classes

131

Industry and Trade

138

Slaves

148

Government

^

153

The Assembly and the Council The Magistrates The Guardians of the Laws The Scrutiny and the Audit

215

"Aristocracy with the Approval of the People"

229

157 178 195

Excursus C. Atpecrt?, /cX^paxri?, and TrpoKpucns Excursus D.

The Double Version vii

in

Book

vi

233 238

CONTENTS VI.

VII.

The Administration

242

The Courts

251

Procedure

274

Education

297

Music and the Dance The Training of the Young

318

Festivals

352

Meals

302

389

Religion

Apollo and the Sacred

Law

399 402

Religious Officials

411

The Gods and their Worship The Law Against Impiety

434

The

Excursus E. IX.

241

Justice Before the Magistrates

Common VIII.

of Justice

Election of the Exegetes

470 496

The Nocturnal Council

500

Excursus F. Philippus of Opus

515

PART THREE: PLATO'S PRINCIPLES X.

The Mixed

Constitution

Law

XI.

The Rule

of

XII.

The Rule

of Philosophy

521

544 573

Retrospect

591

General Index

597

Index of Passages

609

Index of Modern Authors Cited

620

vm

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction

3

The theme

of the

Laws\

its

appropriateness to the fourth century

and to the interests of the Academy, 3. Plato's knowledge of Plato's influence, through Greek law and political institutions, 5 the Academy, upon fourth-century states and statesmen, 7. The legislator a craftsman who knows both the ideal and the materials in which it is to be realized, 10. Knowledge of Plato's historical materials necessary for an accurate understanding of his political ;

theory,

12.

part one: three historical states Chapter

I.

Crete

17

Apparent unimportance but great prestige of Crete in the fourth Plato's part in the revival of interest in Crete, 20.

century, 17.

Evidences of his familiarity with Cretan

tween Cretan and Spartan laws,

common Dorian Excursus A.

Chapter

life,

25.

Similarity be-

Importance for Plato of their

32.

basis, 34.

The Minos

35

Sparta

II.

40

Plato's interest in Sparta often attributed to his aristocratic con-

nections, 41

but certainly also due to the admiration for Spartan

which he shared with

evvofxia 43.

;

practically all his contemporaries,

Plato's admiration, like that of his contemporaries, not un-

critical,

Sparta, 46.

The grounds

of the

as Plato sees

admiration of Sparta as

The

causes of Spartan euno-

them; (a) the Spartan

aycoyrj, 52; (b) the self-

limiting character of the executive in the 54;

(c) the

Dorian

the Dorians to

basis of

Greek

idealization of

common

reflected in the ancient writers, 48.

mia

Laws an

neither the Republic nor the

45;

Spartan

life,

government of Sparta,

58.

The

contribution of

culture, 62.

Excursus B. Plato's Version of Peloponnesian History

Chapter

III.

Athens

74

The Athenian Stranger the teacher of his two companions, 75. The fame of the ancient Athenian laws, 76. The "ancestral constitution" of

63

Solon and Cleisthenes, ix

78. Plato's

admiration of Solon

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS and the ancient Solon in his

Athens 86;

as

own still

His admiration Greeks,

His judgment of fourth-century the moderation that characterized her past,

legislation, 83.

having

but as

Evidences of his imitation of

constitution, 80.

lost

retaining traces of her ancient constitution, 87. for his native city as a leader #

and teacher of the

89.

part two: plato's city Chapter IV. Property and the Family

95

Physical features and advantages of the proposed sources

from which the

of regulating property

The Allotment

colonists will

come,

101.

of the Land. Private ownership a departure

the Republic, 103.

Conditions of land tenure in Plato's

of land

in.

restricted to citizens,

membership

from

city, 105;

Ownership

historical precedents for Plato's system, 107.

Citizenship

The importance

100.

from the beginning,

The

site, 95.

and the Family. One

qualification

in a land-owning family, 113;

for citizenship

hence descent from

118.

Importance of the family in Platonic law, Other subdivisions of the citizen body: tribes, 121; demes,

124;

phratries, 126.

citizen parents, 115.

of Plato's

The meaning

Another qualification

state, 128.

The

of citizenship, 128.

size

for citizenship educa-

tion by the state, 130.

Property Classes. Four in number, 131. Their purpose to bring

about proportionate equality, 132.

termining access to in Plato's law, 134.

office,

133.

Their unimportance in de-

Their relevance

Their relation

to the four

at other points

Solonian

classes,

135-

Industry and Trade. Trade and handicraft prohibited to citizens, 138.

Greek

attitude

toward trade and handicraft,

140.

Plato's

and concern for the prior obligations of citizenship, 143. The moral hazards of trade and Plato's attempt to diminish them for his metics, 144. The protection of the artisan, 145. The metic status in Greek and in Plato's law, 146; Plato's modifications of current law and their attitude a mixture of aristocratic disdain

probable

effects, 147.

Slaves. Public

and privately owned

slaves, 148.

The

status of the

agricultural slave, 149. The historical parallel to Plato's the Attica of an earlier time, 151.

economy

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS Chapter V. Government

The

153

three principles: (a) the rule of philosophy, 153; (b) the rule

of law, 154;

The Assembly and

constitution, 155.

Its

its

,

assembly an assembly of

functions as described chiefly electoral,

Electoral procedures, 160; the unimportance of the

Other functions of the assembly, the

The

the Council.

citizen soldiers, 157. 159.

mixed

the

(c)

The

164.

council:

its

lot, 161.

prototype

Athenian "popular council" of Solon and Cleisthenes, 165; constitution and mode of election, 166. Plato's reasons for

proposing

organized by property

a council

The

classes, 170.

divi-

Rela-

sion of the council into prytanies, 172; their functions, 173.

The

tion of the council to the assembly left undetermined, 174.

range of competence assigned to the assembly and council, 176.

The

The

Magistrates. Generals and other military officers, 178.

and dyopavofiot, 181; their functions analogous to those of such officers at Athens and elsewhere, 182. The aypo-

ao-Tvvofxoi

their organization, their duties, their

vo/jlol:

their relation to the Spartan KpvTrreia 189.

to the

The

The Guardians officers,

The manner

cial functions, 203.

206.

i^rjfiia,

and sources

state

to supervise the

(a)

(c) to act as administrators in special areas, 202;

version,

The

election procedure

in fourth-century Greece, 209.

(d) their judi-

of their election given in

Qualifications for this

office,

Plato's

215;

and

law, 219.

208.

institution

Nojito^vXaKe?

an imitation

number,

The hoKLfjLao-ia in Athenian law, The evSvva in common Greek 217.

Plato's introduction of a special

duties,

it,

220.

The

and honors, 223;

officers,

body of peculiar

election of the evOvvou, 222;

for abuse of their powers, 226.

other high

211.

the Audit.

in Plato's law,

nity to conduct

two

described in the earlier

and adaptation of the Athenian Council on the Areopagus,

The Scrutiny and

186;

(b) to act as a legislative commission, 200;

196;

versions, 204.

life,

omission of archons, 194.

Laws. Their duties:

of the

of

Athenian

Probable needs of the treasury in Plato's

of public revenue, 191.

other

and

mode

Relation of the euthynoi to the

227.

ness of Plato's constitutional law, 229;

nian experience, 231.

their

their liability to prosecution

"Aristocracy with the Approval of the People." tions are clear, 230.

dig-

The

incomplete-

yet Plato's basic inten-

Plato's innovations based largely

upon Athe-

Possible explanation for the incompleteness

of his constitutional law, 232. xi

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS Excursus C. Atpecris,

and

tfX^pcocris,

TrpoKpicriq

233

*

Excursus D.

The Double Version

in

Book

vi

238

Chapter VI. The Administration of Justice and court proceedings,

Distinction between magisterial

Justice Before the Magistrates. Judicial

Collegial action

cers, 242.

tures in other respects

241 241.

powers of the minor

offi-

assumed with, however, some depar-

from Attic law,

244.

Plato's

remedy

magisterial injustice a civil suit against the magistrate, 246; a novel provision, but

The

247.

for this

with analogies and prototypes in Greek law,

powers of the euthynoi, 248; and of the All magistrates responsible without exception,

judicial

guardians, 249. 250.

The

Courts.

justice, 251.

The supremacy

of the popular courts in Athenian

Plato's criticism, 253; yet acceptance of

pressing one of the prerogatives of citizenship, 254. a

mixture of popular and

instance: neighbors

and

The

The

arbitrators, 256.

His system

The courts of first The courts of second

Athenian popular

courts,

court of third instance: the court of select judges, 261.

court of the demos, 264;

clesia,

as ex-

select courts, 255.

instance: tribal courts, analogous to the 257.

them

265.

The

analogy with the Athenian ec-

court for capital offenses, 267;

relation to the court of the courts, 270.

its

demos, 269.

its

uncertain

Military and family

General estimate of Plato's system of courts, 271.

Procedure. Private prosecutors the chief agency for bringing offenders to account, 274;

but the distinction between private and

The

public suits clearly marked, 276.

filing of suits, 279.

The

preliminary examination by the magistrate, 279. Trial procedure: (a)

the presiding magistrate to have greater control over pro-

ceedings, 280; (b) an inquisitorial examination of charges

dence to be

made

at

some

stage of every case, 281;

oath, the challenge to the oath,

prohibited, 283. 286.

289.

Open

A

and the challenge

Witnesses, 285;

voting, 288.

and

evi-

(c) the party

to the torture

the suit for false testimony,

Discretion of judges in fixing penalties,

judge's decision to be rendered under oath, 290.

sponsibility of the state in the execution of

judgments, 291.

vices for discouraging excessive litigation, 292.

of Plato's procedural law, 295. xii

The

re-

De-

General estimate

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS Chapter VII. Education

The

education of

its

297 citizens the responsibility of the city, 297.

and modification of the Spartan

Plato's adoption

(£70)777, 298.

Music and the Dance. Importance of choral singing and dancing in Greek life, 302; especially at Sparta, 303. Value of music and the dance as means of molding the character, 304. Their mimetic function to be consciously directed towards the presentation

The procedure

of the good, 307.

chorus of elders, and

its

educated

musical

taste in the

this chorus, 315.

Its

of "enchantment," 309.

The

function as guardian of philosophically

Dionysus the patron of

arts, 313.

difference

from

its

alleged Spartan proto-

type, 317.

The Training

Young. Education in music, gymnastics, and letters common at Athens and elsewhere, 318. In Plato's state such education to be compulsory for all, and directed by the state, 322.

The

of the

educator, 324;

office of

Training of the infant, 327. 329.

336;

other educational

Equal education

officers, 326.

for boys

and

girls,

The program (c)

of studies: (a) gymnastics, 332; (b) dancing, (d) playing the lyre, 340; (e) mathe337;

letters,

Com-

astronomy, 347. Higher studies, 348. parison with the content of the Spartan agoge, 350. matics, 343;

Festivals.

(f)

Importance of

festivals

as

educational influences, in

Greek cities generally and in Plato's state, 352. Canons of songs and dances necessary, 354. Tradition and change in music, 355.

A

variety of dances to be permitted, 358:

(a) the pyrrhic

especially favored, 359; (b) certain kinds of Bacchic dances

dance

viewed

with disfavor but not actually excluded, 362; (c) €/u,/*e\€«u, (d) comic dances, 370. Comedy to be witnessed by citizens 365; but performed only by foreigners, 373. Tragedy to be permitted, if its teaching does not contradict the law, 374. The organization of musical contests, 377. in running, 381;

for

The

women

officers of athletics, 380.

as well as

men,

382.

Contests

Omission of

and substitution of hoplomachy and peltastic contests, 386. Races on horseback, 386. Comparison of Plato's program with the Olympic program and wrestling, boxing,

and the pancratium, 383;

with Spartan customs, 388.

Common life,

389;

Meals. relics

moral and

A

of

characteristic feature of Spartan

them found elsewhere

and Cretan

in Greece, 391.

Their

importance as seen by ancient writers, 392. Their existence taken for granted in Plato's city, but no explicit social

xiii

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS bringing them into

difficulty of

legislation in Plato's text, 393;

accord with the other institutions of Plato's

city, 396.

Chapter VIII. Religion

399

and reinterpretation of the religion

Plato's adoption

of his coun-

trymen, 400.

Apollo and the Sacred Law.

The

necessity of preserving ancient

Importance of the oracles as interpreters of the

traditions, 402.

The supremacy of Delphi, 405. Distinction from secular law, 407. The recognition of the author-

will of the gods, 403.

of religious ity

of Delphi not an abdication of the legislator's function, but

an aid in accomplishing

it,

409.

Religious Officials. Temples and their treasurers, 411.

and

priestesses,

413;

and

of secular officers, 416.

caretakers,

The

exegetes in Plato's

city,

toward their professed abuses of

it,

Expert interpretation of religious law

445;

Pythioi at Sparta, 423. Soothsayers, 427;

423.

art,

429;

and

his

Duties of the Plato's attitude

measures for preventing

Worship. The Olympians, 434: Athena, 438; Apollo, 438; Hera, 439;

Dionysus, 441.

Did

Exegetes in fourth-cen-

430.

The Gods and Zeus, 436;

Religious functions

415.

to be provided by official exegetes, 418.

tury Athens, 420.

Priests

their

Plato's

censorship

of

Hestia, 435; others, 440;

current mythology,

443.

The astral gods, The Chthonioi, 449.

Plato regard the Olympians as gods? 444. their relation to the

Olympians, 447.

Plato's admission but segregation of chthonic rites, 450.

Pluto

admitted to "the twelve," 451. Demeter and Persephone, 452. The afterlife not to be dreaded, 454; except by the wicked, 455. The worship of daemons, 457; and heroes, 459. The cult of ancestors, 461.

the living, 465.

Funeral

462.

rites,

Influence of the dead

Reverence to be paid

ligion to penetrate all areas of

life,

state the religion of his people, into

to living parents, 467.

468.

The

471;

Re-

religion of Plato's

which he has infused a deeper

conception of the meaning of worship, 469; of the divine nature, 470.

The Law Against

upon

and a

loftier idea

Impiety. \A.cre/3€ia a serious offense

at

Athens,

covering a wide variety of offenses in words and actions,

472. Offenses against religious

The law

law punishable

against impious opinions designed to

in Attic law, 475.

The

in Plato's state, 474. fill

prelude to this law, 477. xiv

a noticeable

The

gap

fallacious

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS doctrine of the soul in nature,

"modern wise men," and of rational 481;

478.

The primacy

of the

soul in the heavens, 482.

Refutation of the denial of the gods' providence, 484; and of the belief that the gods can be bribed, 486. The ignoratio elenchi

argument, 487.

in Plato's

Statement of the law against impiety,

488; impiety a delict of opinion, 488.

with those of Attic law, 490. Plato's

The

compared

Plato's penalties

prohibition of private

law follows the law of Athens, 494;

and

is

rites, 492.

an attempt to

stay degeneration in the religious life of his time, 495.

Excursus E.

The

Election of the Exegetes

496

Chapter IX. The Nocturnal Council Its

500

intimate relation to the rest of Plato's plan, 500.

Its constitu-

and educational purpose, 505. Its archetype Academy, 509. Its powers primarily moral, not legal, 510; tion, 503;

its

existence not inconsistent with the rule of law, 511;

it is

an important agency

Plato's

hence instead

in supporting the rule of law, 513.

Excursus F. Philippus of Opus

515

part three: plato's principles The Mixed

Chapter X.

The

political

of

as a

Constitution

521

mean, 521; a mixture of two extremes, 523; viz. monarchy and democracy, 525. The monarchical element in Plato's constitution, 526. Inadequacy of Aristotle's interpretation it

omy

a

mixture of oligarchy and democracy, 528.

mean between wealth and

poverty, 530.

Plato's econ-

The middle

and in religion, 532. The mixture of Dorian and Ionian, 533. Other evidences of mixture, 535. The doctrine of mixture in the Philebus as the secret of excellence and stability, 535; in politics the proper mixture a balance between authority and liberty, 537. The special doctrine: the mixed constitution a balance of powers within the executive, 538. Confusion of the

way

in education

—

special

Chapter

with the general doctrine in

XL The

Rule of

Basic conditions

from Attic law:

544 it

state,

544;

but

difficult to

make

presupposes taken over by Plato

(a) written law, 546;

ity of magistrates,

higher

thought, 540.

Law

This principle the salvation of the effective, 545.

later

548.

officers responsible

(b) courts, 547; (c) liabilPlato's special devices for making the

through mutual checks, 549.

xv

— Institu-

ANALYTICAL CONTENTS tions for

producing eunomia in the

citizens, 552.

Persuasive pre-

which often include nonrational means Morality and law two species of a comof persuasion, 557. mon genus, 560. The end of law to produce virtue in the citiDistinction between "right zen and order in the state, 561. law" and positive law, 563; right law to be discerned by nous, ambles

to the laws, 553;

—

—

564.

— The

formulation of the laws

art of legislation involves the

and systematic form, 565; and insight into the end of law, 567; and is dependent upon the lessons of history and experience, 567. The sovereignty of right law, and of all law that imitates it, 569. The process of amendment to be under the in rational

—

guidance of nous, 570.

—

The

scope and profundity of Plato's

doctrine, 571.

Chapter XII. The Rule of Philosophy Philosophy present in the Plato's city, 573.

573

Laws and intended

to

be important in

Philosophy and law interdependent, exercising

a joint sovereignty in philosophically formulated law, 576.

Com-

parison of this conception with the teaching of the Republic, law

not excluded from Plato's earlier work, as

is

sometimes

said, 577.

The

philosopher-guardians to be "guardians of the laws," 582; hence their rule implies the rule of law, 582. But the Republic

and an orderly process for amending the law, 583. The antithesis between science and law in the Politicus, 584. But law is necessary in any form of rule, however scientific, 586. The distinction between positive law and right law implied, 587; science antithetical to lacks legal devices for holding rulers responsible,

—

much

positive law, but not to right law, 588.

losophy implies the presence of law, not

its

— The rule of phi-

abolition, 589.

Retrospect

591

an irrelevant creation of philosophical imagination, but rooted in the soil of Greek history, 591; and of Athenian history in particular, 592. The Laws a. message Plato's political ideal not

prepared for Plato's intended

own

people, but delivered too late to have

efTect, 592.

xvi

its

FOREWORD Charles

(1993)

H. Kahn

The publication in i960 of Morrow's work on the Laws was a landmark in Platonic scholarship. For the first time it was possible for the modern reader to appreciate the nature of Plato's achievement in his last and longest dialogue. The Laws is so different from the had been largely neglected; the interest in Plato's political philosophy was focused almost exclusively on the Laws' more brilliant sibling. If the situation has changed in the last thirty years, that is in good measure due to Morrow's work, seconded ten years later by Trevor Saunders's excellent Penguin translation. What Morrow succeeded in doing was to clarify the sense of Plato's proposals in the Laws by comparing them at every

Republic in every respect that

it

1

point with the historical institutions of Greece. This has

what

made

it

from what is traditional in this mass of detailed legislation. Morrow's work was done so well that it will in all probability never need to be done again. Every informed interpretation of Plato's Laws in the last thirty years has built on the foundation that he provided. What I propose to do here, by way of introduction, is first to summarize the insights which Morrow's study gives us into Plato's design of political institutions in the Laws, and then apply these insights to the controversial question of the relation between the scheme of the Laws and that of the Republic. Finally, I will indicate what I take to be the limitations of Morrow's account of Plato's possible for us to distinguish

is

specifically Platonic

political philosophy.

Morrow

interprets the

rather than as a

upon

work of

Laws

primarily as a system of legislation

theoretical philosophy.

He

the concrete nature of the proposed constitution

rightly insists

and upon the

thought as a whole. Unlike the Republic, the Laws does not describe a Utopia but a Cretan city with a definite location in time and space, not an ideal state but as good an imitapractical bent of Plato's

Plato: The Laws, translated with an introduction by T. J. Saunders (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1970). See also Saunders's Notes on the Laws of Plato (London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1972). Saunders's translation in turn inspired R. F. Stalley to produce a very lucid philosophical Introduction to Plato's Laws (Oxford: Black. well, 1983). Morrow's work also serves as the basis for G. Klosko's discussion of the Laws in chapters 12 and 13 of The Development of Plato's Political Theory (New York and London: Methuen, 1986). For further literature, see the Bibliographical Note. 1

xvii

FOREWORD By making material Plato was working with, see how Plato transformed this ma-

tion as Plato thought possible in fourth-century Greece. clear exactly

what

historical

Morrow's study permits us terial to his

own

to

purpose.

was an Athenian first and last, that Athens is the city he has constantly in mind, and that the Spartan influence on his political scheme was secondary and subordinate. The Athenian quality of the Laws is borne out in detail by Morrow's comparison of nearly every institution in this Cre-

The

central thesis of the

book

is

that Plato

tan city with the historical legislation of Athens.

Morrow

does not

deny, of course, that Sparta (and, to a lesser extent, Crete) provided the model for the state control of education and marriage, the conservative system of music

lotments, and the

Sparta by

its

and gymnastics, the

common

meals.

Above

all,

long freedom from tyranny and

an unparalleled example of constitutional law, which Plato sought to reproduce in

minimum

land

al-

he emphasizes that civil

stability

war presented and respect for

own

But the devices by which Plato does so, and the legal forms in which his proposals are expressed, are nearly always drawn from an Athenian precedent, even where the Platonic institution itself is an original creation.

Thus

aliens), the

his

state.

the property classes, the presence of metics (resident

system of private slavery, the education in

mathematics, the law against impiety, the

letters

civic tribes, the

and

popular

and minor officials, the courts appointed by lot all these and a hundred more features of Plato's city are based upon an Athenian model, not on Sparta. Morrow points out that even the inalienability of the family lot, which is at first sight a Spartan feature, probably had its counterpart in archaic Athens, that the Athenian family system so dominates Plato's council, the elected generals

—

imagination that the institution of

common

meals

is

never fully

and that the more barbaric aspects of the Spartan educational program the youth packs, the organized thievery and floggings are entirely absent from Plato's state. In some cases, of course, the lack of parallels outside of Athens may be due to the scarcity of information concerning other Greek cities. But the cumulative weight of Morrow's documentation seems overwhelming: "It is not a Hellenic city in general that Plato draws for us, but an idealized Athens" (p. 592). Morrow makes clear that this is an idealization based more often on archaic than on contemporary Athens. In this respect the Laws integrated within his social scheme,

—

xviii

—

FOREWORD and constructive way the flattering portrait of early Athens which the Timaeus and Critias had sketched. The attitude of Plato in these last dialogues reflects the fact that Athens is not only the home of extreme democracy, but also the city of Solon and Socrates, and of Plato's own Academy. It is, of all carries out in a detailed

Greece, the land best suited for the production of philosopherkings.

And

Plato's last

comment on

his native city

is

the figure of

an "Athenian stranger" legislating to two Dorians. Complications begin when we ask what Morrow means by an idealized Athens. By insisting that Plato's ideal itself is rooted in the soil

in

of Greek history, and that his political craftsmanship consists

"divining within the historical materials the

which they imperfectly serve"

(p.

591),

immanent purpose

Morrow

runs the risk of

underestimating the great originality and boldness of Plato's political

thought. In a sense, of course, Plato's ideal

conditioned. But

its

also historically

shows up precisely at the legislation and the Greek material

essential novelty

point of contrast between his

out of which

is

composed. The relationship between Plato's city and Athens is perhaps clearest and most decisive in the field of government. The political organs and offices of the Laws fall into two distinct categories. On the one hand are the institutions that parallel those of Athens: the popular assembly, the popular council, the municipal officials (astynomoi and agoranomoi), and the rural officials (agronomoi). On the other hand are the institutions that are not Athenian at all, but entirely Platonic: the law-guardians, the superintendent of education (chosen

it is

from the guardians), the examiners

(euthynoi),

and the

Nocturnal Council. Plato's innovations can be seen in the treatment of the first group of offices, but above all in the addition of the new elective magistracies, characterized

age: the guardians

by long tenure and advanced

and examiners are both

to be over 50,

and

to

and 75 years of age respectively. Plato's transformation of the Athenian offices consists primarily in clipping the power of assembly and council (by transferring much of their competence to the guardians) and in adding an oligarchical element in the form of property qualifications. The use of four classes based on wealth is clearly oligarchic, or plutocratic, and Morrow's partial denial (pp. i7of.) does not carry conviction. But it is certainly not true to say (as Barker does) that Plato turns serve until 70

xix

FOREWORD the rule of

wisdom

2 into the rule of the rich.

The

council and the

market-wardens do not rule Plato's city. On the other hand, property qualifications play no part whatsoever in election to the higher offices, or in appointment to the rural police, which may be considered as the preparation for high erty classes, Plato's class hostility

is

limited use of prop-

what he

to be

says

it is:

to avoid

by balancing the factor of wealth against that of mere

number (V.744C Plato

motive seems

office. In his

free to

offices precisely

VI.757E 4, 759B 6-7). reconcile democracy with oligarchy

3; cf.

in his

lower

because they will not be the object of any real

struggle for power.

The

essentially aristocratic character of the

guaranteed by the concentration of supreme authority in the hands of the law-guardians and examiners. The guardians exercise the principal executive power; the examiners stand above state

is

them,

power

at the

summit of the

civic structure,

with overriding negative

check and punish all other magistrates for misconduct. Morrow has perhaps not made sufficiently clear this hierarchical superiority of the examiners. It is marked not only by some unspeto

cified legal

power over

the guardians, 3 by the unique honors asso-

ciated with their election all

and

their

memory

after death, but

by their automatic inclusion in the Nocturnal Council, a privi-

lege granted to only ten out of the thirty-seven guardians. periority of the examiners

is

due

to the rule

of law.

The

su-

all

human

rulers

negative character of their supreme powers

a guarantee that these will not be abused.

less a special

The

precisely to the fact that they are

the final device for assuring the subordination of

is

above

And

there

is

neverthe-

provision for the "examination" or answerability even

of an examiner: any private citizen

may

bring a suit against

him

for abuse of his office (XII.947E-948A).

Such

"mixed constitution" can be described only in terms of paradox. Morrow suggests Plato's own formula from the Menexa

enus: "aristocracy with the approval of the people."

More

precisely,

an elective oligarchy. The long tenure of the guardians and examiners will make them unresponsive to the popular will and is

it

give

them

the fixed status of a governing class.

Ernest Barker, Greeks Political Theory. Plato and His Predecessors (Methuen/Barnes and Noble, 1950), p. 397. Klosko {Development, p. 217) complains that the law-guardians "are virtually immune from examination." But he himself recognizes that the examiners "are given the power to pass sentence on offending magistrates" (p. 216). See XII.945C-D; 946C 6: "They will examine ... all offices of the state" {pasas tas archas elenchonton). 2

?

.

XX

.

.

FOREWORD As

element of democracy in Plato's mixture, it is real though limited. The election of even the highest magistrates and the existence of popular, lot-appointed courts show that Plato has gone as far as he could to make a place for the Athenian tradition for the

"freedom" with wisdom (represented by the higher magistrates) and friendship (i.e., class harmony) in the three-fold goal of his legislation. But farther he cannot go. The popular courts must be reviewed by the select judges, just as the popular assembly and council must be supervised by the venerable guardians and examiners. For otherwise the second-best city would not even be an imitation of the first. We see, therefore, in what sense the government of the Laws represents an idealized Athens: it represents a compromise between Athens and the Republic. The rule of philosopher-kings has been integrated within the traditional framework of the polis. But Plato has not abandoned the central tenet of his earlier doctrine, as the institution of the Nocturnal Council makes perfectly clear. in his city,

It

and

to unite

has often been

felt

that the reappearance of these philosophic

councillors in the twelfth

book of the Laws forms an inorganic ap-

pendix, an afterthought ultimately incompatible with the eleven

preceding books. 4

have resolved

to

It is

one of the greatest merits of Morrow's work

this contradiction.

He

has

shown

that, far

from

undermining the other institutions of the city, the Nocturnal Council completes them by giving them their specifically Platonic sense. It is not the task of the Nocturnal Council as such to govern or control the city. Its members do in fact exercise such control, for the inner they include the examiners and the senior guardians circle of the ruling class. As a council, however, their function is not so much government as education and research. The Council constitutes the device by which an elective aristocracy is transformed into something that resembles the rule of philosopherkings. 5 The true model for this council, as Morrow says, is Plato's

—

G. H. Sabine, A History of Political Thought, 3d ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961), p. 85: in the last few pages of the Laws Plato "adds to the state another institution which contradicts the purpose of planning a state in which the law is supreme." Similarly, Barker, pp. 406-8: "Plato, when he wrote the last book of the Laws, was not of the same mind as when he wrote the earlier books" (p. 408, n. 1). Cf. T. A. Sinclair, A History ofGreel( Political Thought (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951), 4

.

.

.

.

.

.

pp. 205f.

This is what Plato implies by his concluding remark that "the city should be entrusted Council" (XII.969B 3). Their practical decisions (including the completion and possible revision of the law code) will be informed by their philosophical studies in the 5

to the

XXX

FOREWORD own Academy:

advanced study of philosophy 6 as the source of rational law. What distinguishes it from all other schools or learned societies is that its membership is drawn from the supreme magistrates of the city, and that it has some (not fully specified) responsibility for the completion and possible revision of it is

a school for the

the law code.

no question of the Nocturnal Council being set above the laws. Legally, its powers are largely defined by the individual duties of the officials who compose it. The only two legal

There

is

really

prerogatives explicitly granted to the council itself are:

(i)

the ad-

monishment of atheists, and (2) the hearing and judging of citizen travellers returning from abroad. Not everyone will agree with Morrow that these responsibilities "are obviously of minor imporand most tance" (p. 510). They constitute in fact the most delicate alarming

—

stitute rule

—

feature of Plato's entire legislation. But they

of the

city.

On

do not con-

the contrary, they confirm the philo-

sophic rather than governmental competence of the Council.

It is

precisely because these questions involve matters of theology

and

comparative legislation that the guardians and examiners are called

upon

to deal

with them as members of the Council, rather than in

their usual capacity as magistrates.

Thus Morrow

has succeeded, against nearly

all

previous writers,

showing that there is no fissure in the system of the Laws, no sudden reversion from the second-best to the first constitution. We in

same way

as the philosopher-kings' political insight

is

keener

when

they return to the

cave.

Cf. Klosko, Development, p. 218: "The nocturnal council is envisioned as a kind of ongoing seminar. Its main purpose is to achieve a theoretical understanding of the laws of the state." In his 1988 paper, however (see Bibliographic Note below), Klosko has emphasized the loose threads and inconsistencies in Plato's reference to the Nocturnal Council and in his suggestions for revision of the lawcode. I think it is an exaggeration to speak of "a fundamental break in the argument of the Laws" as Klosko does in his later paper (p. 85). The inconsistencies do point to an unresolved tension in Plato's thought, but it is not a tension between the rule of law and the unfettered rule of philosophy (i.e., between the scheme of the Laws and the scheme of the Republic). That tension, characteristic of the Statesman, has been resolved in the Laws by the decision against any form of uncontrolled power. (Even the examiners can be called to account.) What Plato has not tully worked out is a balance between (a) the need for a fixed and stable body of legislation, and (b) the possibility of rational improvements in the light of new knowledge and deeper understanding. This is a genuine dilemma and an enduring problem, as we can see from contemporary debates about the "strict interpretation" of the United States Constitution. Now a modern constitution will specify a formal procedure for amendment. But the problem is more complicated for Plato, since he can in principle approve of a process of amendment only if it is guided bv philosophic wisdom. (Compare Statesman 300D-E.) 6

xxii

FOREWORD are

second

in the

still

city,

but the philosophic training of the rulers

simply not a principle that Plato

is

fact that this training

prepared to

is

sacrifice.

The

not clearly specified until the very end of

is

might be omitted, at least temporarily, if conditions were unsuitable. There is no mention of it, for instance, in the constitution which Plato proposes for Syracuse in the Eighth Epistle, and which otherwise bears such a close resemblance to the scheme of the Laws. This is presumably what the exposition suggests, of course, that

Plato

means by

it

the statement that he

is

ready to propose not

only a second-best but even a third-best constitution

if

necessary

(V 739B, E). 7 But only a philosophic council, authorized to improve the lawcode in the light of further knowledge, can provide the link that will

draw

Morrow

is

these copies as close as possible to their original.

obviously right in emphasizing the connections be-

—

tween the Laws and the Republic in looking, for example, to Republic VII rather than to the un-Platonic Epinomis for a fuller statement of the higher education of the rulers. In fact, all of the most controversial features of the Republic (with the exception of the

form proposed again, though

system of three classes) reappear in the Laws, at of aspirations.

The

equality of

women

is

never fully worked out (VIII.804D-805D).

community of

women, and

property,

On

least in the

the other hand, the

children

is

given up as un-

and Plato accepts the family with its land allotment as of his social order (V.745C and passim). Yet the vision of where everything is common where not even sensations

realizable,

the basis a society

—

or actions or thoughts are private

model, which Plato

now

—

still

stands before

admits to be beyond

human

him

as a

nature in

its

present form, but conceives of as a city of "gods or children of gods"

(V.739D-740A). The perfect unity of such a heavenly city is mirrored in his Cretan polis only by the symmetrical proportions of the number of land allotments. Morrow's utilitarian explanation of the

number

5,040 (pp. 129^)

is

correct as far as

it

goes, but fails to

take account of Plato's symbolic use of this unchanging

with

its

symmetrical subdivisions as an imitation of unity, "as close

immortality as possible" (739E

to

number

4).

In the case of property and the family, Plato's retreat from the position of the Republic gret. If the city 7

For

parallels

is

obviously

of the Laws

is

between the second-best

made with

a second-best, state

it

reluctance and reis

because Plato

is

of the Laws and Plato's proposals for Syr-

acuse in Epistles VII and VIII, see Klosko, Development,

xxiii

p. 239.

FOREWORD now

prepared to widen the gap between the model and its realization: the model itself has not changed (V.739E 1). That is equally true in the case of the other chief contrast with the Republic, the

from the discretion of the philosopher-king to the supremacy of written law. On this point, Morrow's dissent from the usual interpretation seems to blur an essential distinction. He points to the passages in the Republic which imply the sovereignty of law, and suggests that the only difference in the Laws is that what had been a moral desideratum has now been made into an enforceable rule shift

by the provision of legal safeguards against the irresponsible use of power (pp. 582^). But this statement of the case does not reflect the

profound change in spirit between the two dialogues. The Republic is built around the figure of the philosophic ruler, freely molding the state in the image of his own vision of the Good. The Laws, on the other hand, consists of one prolonged endeavor to restrict the future discretion of the guardians by the whole body of written law. Plato himself is aware of this contrast: he suggests that the final decision in favor of the rule of law is due to the "keener vision to an insight not unlike Lord Acton's of old age" (IV.715E 1)

—

principle of the corrupting influence of

power upon

The

to the rule

transition

pared

at

from the

rule of

Reason

its

of

possessor. 8

Law

length by the discussion in the Statesman, which

gues for Reason, but hints at the

new

is

pre-

still

ar-

solution in the cosmic myth:

unchecked rule of Reason belongs to an earlier world period, when the rulers of men were of more divine nature than at present. Characteristically, however, Plato's statement of the new principle is combined with a reaffirmation of the old ideal: if the right man could be found, he would have no need of laws above him; neither law nor any other arrangement deserves to rule over true knowledge and reason (IX.875C-D). Plato has reconciled himself to the weakness of human nature, not to the rejection of his original idethe

als.

Morrow's book, it is a full statement of these ideals in all their naked and shocking originality. It is, I think, misleading to suggest that most of us would accept the If there

is

something lacking

in

have been conscious of the debt. He writes that in "the history of and the largest place would belong to Plato and Aristotle. The Laws of the one, the Politics of the other, are, if I may trust my own experience, the hooks from which we may learn the most about the principles of politics." See "The History of Freedom in Antiquity," in J.E.E.D. Acton, Essays on Freedom and Power, ed. Himmelfarb (New York: Meridian, 1955), p. 74. 8

Acton seems

to

political science, the highest

(

.

xxiv

FOREWORD validity of the principles that Plato wishes his citizens to live by,

do not

most of

moral doctrine is completely obvious (p. 559). It is true that there is a large measure of overlap between Plato's moral principles and those of any civilized society. And in certain important respects Plato's proposals for reform are more democratic (in our sense) and more liberal than the corresponding institutions of Athenian democracy. (Thus Plato's law courts come much closer to what we count as "due process," and his preference for election over the choice of magistrates by lot is more in line with modern notions of democratic rule.) 9 But what is specifically and uniquely Platonic is the foundation of all morality and all politics upon a metaphysical vision of what is really true and good a vision which, in concrete terms, is expressed by a community whose members all think and feel and act and speak 10 Because of its concreteness, the Laws shows even more alike. clearly than the Republic the dangers inherent in using such a ce-

and

1

see that

his

—

model

lestial

as a blueprint for political action. If the state

ceived of as a realization of supreme goodness and truth

other words, often

comes

it is

—

con-

is

if,

in

treated as an instrument for saving souls or (what

same thing)

to the

for saving society

vention into every corner of the individual's

matter of course.

The

life

—then

its

inter-

will follow as a

and depends

existence of privacy, of free thought

speech, of autonomous creativity in literature

and the

arts,

upon a conception of the state which need not be merely negative, but must at least be limited. The liberal conception of government requires that there be a place beside the common good for other goods personal, private, and social with an independent status.

—

—

In the political sphere, Plato's unitary conception of the

means

monism

but his teleological

political theory that are

view.

swallow up all the metaphysical dualism

in practice that the public interest will

Paradoxically enough,

rest.

Good

As Rawls and

it

is

not Plato's

that accounts for the elements in his

most unacceptable from

a

modern

point of

others have emphasized, the liberal conception

of the state ultimately depends upon respect for normative diversity,

that

is

to say,

upon pluralism with regard

to

judgments con-

cerning the good. It

would be

difficult to

exaggerate the importance of this unitary

conception of the good in Plato's thought, since the very rule of 9 10

For Plato

as a "democratic elitist," see Stalley, Introduction, pp. 120-22. Republic V.462A-E; Laws V.739C-D.

XXV

FOREWORD based upon

modified and reinforced by another principle, the nostalgia for an archaic, stratified, unchanging social order, exemplified by Plato's admiration for the fixed canons philosophy

is

it.

It is

These two principles, archaism and the unitary Good, account for most of the repugnant features of Plato's legislation. The law of slavery may serve as a case in point. There can scarcely be any doubt of Plato's natural humaneness: this is evident, of Egyptian

for

art.

example, in

form of

play,

his

conception of the early stages of education as a

and even Yet

slaves (VI.777D).

in his general

his

humane

remarks on the treatment of

sentiments are so utterly over-

ruled by his sense for order and hierarchy that he proposes a slave

and more retrograde than that of his own time. In this connection, one wishes that Morrow had drawn more freely on his own admirable study of Plato's Law of Slavery. There is almost no mention in the present work of those passages in the slave law which, as Morrow put it, "do not make pleasant readlegislation harsher

ing.

11

Nor

is

there

much

said here about the preliminary population

purges, nor the implications for

home

life

of Plato's system of

"marriage inspectors." On the other hand, in regard to education, literature, and freedom of expression, Morrow does not hesitate to underline the features of Plato's constitution which are most in-

compatible with our

more concerned ality:

own

conceptions of a liberal society. But he

to reveal another side of Plato's political person-

the student of comparative jurisprudence

rational reform.

is

and the advocate of

Never before has Plato appeared

so clearly as the

spiritual heir of Solon, in the application of philosophic

wisdom

to

reform of the institutions of his ancestral city. When Morrow wrote, the controversy surrounding Karl Popper's attack on Plato as father of totalitarian ideology was still in its polemical stage, and Morrow preferred to avoid the quarrel. 13 From our perspective today it is easier to separate what was insightful in Popper's critique from what was exaggerated or distorted by Popper's fixation on the very real totalitarian threats in 12

a radical

G. R. Morrow, Plato's Law of Slavery in Its Relation to Greeks Law, Illinois Studies in Language and Literature 25 (Urbana, 111.: University of Illinois Press, 1939), p. 126. 12 In this connection Saunders cites "the complex arrangements for a 'mixed' constitu"

reforms of legal procedure, the enlightened theory of punishment, the persuasive and the provision for a continuing review of the legal code by a specially trained body" as constituting "an impressive program for the reform of society by the rule of law, informed by the insights of research and philosophy" {Plato: The Laws, p. 37). ,J Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1: The Spell of Plato. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950. tion, the

legal preambles,

xxvi

— FOREWORD own

No

one today would regard Plato as an apostle of liberalism, but we might be more inclined to emphasize his unparalleled insistence on the equality of women in education and politics. And we might well prefer Plato's class system in the Rehis

lifetime.' 4

public to Aristotle's modifications of class

of producers

to's city

rights,

—

—

the largest

and

in Politics VII,

it

where the

richest class of citizens in Pla-

are disenfranchised by Aristotle, deprived of property

and transformed

into slaves or serfs.

How

progressive or

upon

reactionary Plato's politics appear will largely depend gle selected for comparison. as his nostalgia for the

His

more

gift for

innovation

stratified society

is

the an-

just as radical

of pre-imperial Ath-

ens.

Morrow's book has the great merit of reminding us of the centrality of politics in Plato's conception of philosophy. It is no accident that Plato's three longest dialogues

—

Gorgias, the Republic,

and the Laws are devoted to the impact of moral philosophy upon the life of the polis. The Seventh Epistle tells us that Plato, until the age of forty, had aspired to a public career of political reform.

He

ultimately chose the

of politics by other means.

The

of philosophy as a continuation

life

vision in the Republic of a

nious society enlightened and governed by

wisdom

is

harmo-

the climax of

The Laws, coming at the end, stands as his legacy mankind. With the death of Dion and Plato's own approaching

Plato's lifework. to

death, the prospects for a philosopher-king were

Under

these circumstances Plato's

the cause for

which he had

construction of a second-best

lived

no longer

realistic.

most effective contribution to became the detailed, mundane

city. 15

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE

We arc indebted to Trevor

comprehensive Bibliography on Plato's May igy^ (New York: Arno Press, 1976). The second edition (1979) covers 1920-1976, and has additional citations through March 1979.

Laws

Saunders for

a

i()20-jo, with additional citations through

R. F. Stalley's Introduction to Plato's

Laws (Oxford: Blackwell,

1983), pp. 190-

See the balanced survey in Stalley, chap. 16: "The Closed Society of the Laws." See Development, pp. 134-36, 1491^, 166-68. 15 Major portions of this commentary on Morrow's work were originally published in my review of Plato's Cretan City in the Journal of the History of Ideas 22 (1961): 418-24. Reprinted by permission of the Johns Hopkins University Press. 14

also Klosko,

xxv a

FOREWORD 97, has a

more

selective

list

The Development of Plato's

of suggested readings on specific topics. G. Klosko, Political

1986), has a useful bibliography (pp.

known

to

me

is

in

T.

J.

(New York and London: Methuen, 245-55). The most up-to-date bibliography

Theoiy

Saunders, Plato's Penal Code: Tradition, Controversy and

Gree\ Penology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991). Plato bibliographies are also published regularly by L. Brisson in Lustrum (1977, 1983, 1988, 1989). Other relevant recent publications (kindly brought to my attention by Trevor

Reform

in

Saunders) include:

D. Cohen, "The Legal Status and Political Role of

Revue Internationale G. Klosko,

Women

in Plato's

Laws"

des Droits de I'Antiquite 34 (1987): 27-40.

"The Nocturnal Council

in Plato's

Laws"

Political Studies

36 (1988):

74-88.

K. Schopsdau, "Der Staatsentwurf der Nomoi zwischen Ideal und Wirklichkeit:

Zu

Plato leg. 739

A

i-E 7 und 745E 7-746D

2," Rheinische

Museum

134 (1991):

136-52. T.

J.

Saunders, "Penal

1990: Papers on Gree\

Law and and

Family

Law

Magnesia," in Symposion

in Plato's

Hellenistic Legal History, ed.

M. Gagarin (Bohlau Ver-

lag, 1991), 115-32.

For general discussions of

Plato's

tion to Saunders's introduction to

Laws

Morrow's book appeared, in addithe Penguin translation and the works of Stalsince

and Klosko mentioned above, we have substantial chapters in P. Fnedlander, and W.K.C. Guthrie, A History of Gree\ Philosophy 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978). For three quite different approaches see A. B. Hentschke, Politi^ und Philosophic bei Plato und Aristoteles (Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1971), M. Pierart, Platon et la Cite grecque (Brussels: Academie royale de Belgique, 1973), and L. Strauss, The Argument and Action of Plato's Laws (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975). There is also a somewhat eccentric translation and interpretation by T. Pangle, The Laws of Plato (New York: Basic Books, 1980). ley

Plato III (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969),

XXVlll

PREFACE No work

more intimately connected with its time and with the world in which it was written than the Laws. The other dialogues deal with themes magnificently independent of time and place, and Plato's treatment of them has been recognized as important wherever

of Plato's

human

is

beings have thought about the problems of knowl-

edge, or conduct, or

human

destiny.

But the Laws

Greek

the portrayal of a fourth-century

city

—a

city that existed,

it is

only in Plato's imagination, but one whose establishment he

true,

The

could well imagine as taking place in his day. it is

concerned with

is

composed are the

political

and

materials of

which

social institutions characteristic

more than two thousand years ago in the eastern Mediterranean; and it is pervaded throughout by the concepts and incentives that guided their actions and gave meaning to their lives. With the passing away of this people for whom it of a small but talented people living

was intended, and the substitution of other horizons for those within which they lived, the Laws has tended to become a closed book, formidable in effort

its

contents,

and

involved in mastering them.

But the interpreter of Plato cannot afford of account. that

reward for the

at first sight offering little

may

There are many aspects of

well be understood without

it

;

to leave the

Laws

out

Plato's thought, to be sure,

but

we

cannot really under-

stand Plato the philosopher without recognizing the central position

he assigned to the guidance of in

which

life is

life

and the molding of the

lived; political philosophy

him not an apthought. Nor can we

was

pendage, but the crown and goal of philosophic

institutions

for

be content to rely upon the Republic alone for understanding his political philosophy.

The

very bulk of the

importance Plato himself attached to cal aims.

Whether

it is

Laws

this later

is

evidence of the

statement of his

politi-

a repudiation of his earlier principles, or a

development and exemplification of them, can be determined only after a careful analysis of the later work. Compared with the Republic, the

Laws

has the special value of presenting

its

in the abstract, but in their concrete reality, as Plato

principles not

imagined they

might be embodied in an actual Greek city. But these details of constitution making and legislation cannot themselves be rightly understood apart from their setting, the life of fourth-century Greece from which they are drawn or adapted. The significance of some casual phrase, some detail of election procedure, xxix

PREFACE some prescription regarding sacrifices and dances, can escape us if we do not know as Plato's readers did the practices to which he is referring or which he is modifying. Still less can we grasp the larger features of his construction without knowing the common institutions of the Greek city-state and the motives that actuated the citizen a knowledge that Plato takes for granted. Unfortunately even the best-informed reader of today is unable to do more than approach the understanding that Plato could assume without question in his readers. This means that the Laws will always remain in some respects obscure to us, just as many passages in Thucydides or Herodotus defy understanding; but no Platonist should rest content until he has diminished the obscurity as much as he can. And anyone who attempts to do so will be rewarded by discovering that much in the Laws which has hitherto been condemned as confused, or contradictory to something Plato has said elsewhere, turns out upon examination in its historical context to be lucid and in order. This book, then, attempts to set forth in some detail the main institutions of the state described in Plato's Laws, and to interpret them by comparing or contrasting them with the historical laws and social institutions of Plato's Greece, and in the light of the concepts and traditions current in his day. Part One examines the nature and extent of the major historical influences upon Plato's design, following for example, or

—

—

—

the clue provided by the dramatic structure of the dialogue; in Part

Three

I

venture an interpretation of his political principles in terms

of the concrete legislation that embodies

vides the confirmation of

my

my interpretation of was my former teacher

basis for

them; and Part

Two

interpretation of the influences

pro-

and the

the principles.

and lifelong friend, George Holland Sabine, who first suggested to me, more than thirty years ago, the value of such a comparison of Plato's Laws and the historical institutions with which Plato and his readers were familiar; and the inIt

quiry proved to be so fascinating that

it

has been the center of

my

and publications during almost all the intervening years. This book is therefore fittingly, and affectionately, dedicated to him; though it must be added that he would probably, nay certainly, dissent strongly from some of my interpretations. He cannot, therefore, be held responsible for anything here expounded; but only for the ideal of sober and dispassionate inquiry which has guided me, and to which I hope I have been faithful. scholarly interests

xxx

I

PREFACE In a study that ranges as widely as this over almost

Greek

life I

cannot hope to have avoided

of fact or emphasis that will be

—corrected.

I

My

aspects of

But the mistakes have unwittingly made can be and I hope

It will

be gratifying

if

errors.

—

this effort at synthesis acts

as a challenge to others to set the picture right

gone

all

where

my

hand has

astray.

indebtedness

me who

ars before

is

great, as

my footnotes

show, to the

have dealt with portions of

this task,

many

schol-

and without

whose individual labors this undertaking would have been impossible. I acknowledge also the help of the many friends who have read parts of this work in manuscript and have given me the benefit of their advice

Lloyd

W.

—my

colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania,

Daly, Paul Schrecker, and Francis P. Clarke; A. E.

Raubitschek of Princeton University; L. A. Post of Haverford College; and Sir David Ross, Richard Robinson,

and A. Andrewes

Oxford University. None of these men can be held responsible for the work as it stands, or for any part of it; but it is certainly less imperfect than it would have been without their counsel, and for their interest, their corrections, and their suggestions I record my sincere gratitude. I am grateful also to my former secretary, Mrs. Richard Parker, for valuable aid during the early stages of this work. But above all I am indebted to my wife, who has been my constant ally and aid from the beginning, in editing, in criticizing, in typing and retyping my numerous drafts, and in keeping a watchful eye on all of

the other

humdrum

details involved in a

work

of this sort.

Guggenheim Foundation I express my sincere thanks for the interest shown in this project from its beginning, and for the financial assistance without which it could not have been undertaken

To

the

nor carried through and also to the Fulbright Commission, on both ;

sides of the Atlantic,

who made

it

possible for

me

to

spend

a year at

Oxford among colleagues especially sympathetic toward my study. Finally, I acknowledge with deep appreciation the hospitality and facilities afforded me by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where this book was begun, and by Oriel College, of Oxford University, where it was brought to completion.

GLENN Philadelphia, Pennsylvania July 7959

XXX

R.

MORROW

ADDITIONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS acknowledge the permission of the University of Illinois Press to reprint in Chapter iv several pages of my earlier monograph on Plato's Law of Slavery. I am indebted also to James L. Celarier, who rendered valuable help in checking references and in the preparation of the indices; to the anonymous readers of the Princeton University Press for important suggestions and corrections contained in their reports; to the officers and staff of the Press for their work in designing and producing this book; and to Miss Miriam Brokaw, in particular, for her warm interest, her sage advice, and her competent superintendence of the progress of the work through the press. I

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS following abbreviations have been used in the footnotes, and oc-

The

and works frequently

casionally in the text, for authors

American Journal

AJP.

of Philology.

Otto Apelt, Platons Gesetze. 2

Apelt.

cited.

vols. Leipzig, 191 6.

Ernest Barker, Gree\ Political Theory: Plato and his Prede-

Barker.

cessors.

London,

Bonner and Smith.

191 8.

Robert

tration of Justice

J.

Bonner and Gertrude Smith, The Adminis-

Homer

from

to Aristotle. 2 vols. University of Chi-

cago Press, 1930, 1938. Burnet. John Burnet, Platonis Opera. Oxford, 1901-1906. R. G. Bury, Plato: Laws. Loeb Classical Library. 2 vols.

Bury.

and Cambridge (Mass.), 1942. Busolt-Swoboda. Georg Busolt, Griechische Staatsfande, Pt. 1920; Pt. 11 edited by Heinrich Swoboda, Munich, 1926. Cassara. Antonino Cassara, Platone: Le Legge. Padua, 1947.

CQ. Classical Quarterly. Des Places. Edouard des Places, Platon: Les Bude edition of Plato, Paris, 1951. Diels-Kranz.

Hermann

Diels,

Lois, Bks.

i-vi.

1,

London Munich,

Vol. xi of the

Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. 6th

edn. by Walther Kranz. 3 vols. Berlin, 1951-1952.

Auguste Dies, Platon: Les Lois, Bks.

Dies.

vii-xii.

Vol.

xn

of the

Bude

edition of Plato. Paris, 1956.

DS.

Daremberg and E.

Charles

grecques

England.

et

Saglio,

Dictionnaire

des antiquites

romaines. 10 vols. Paris, 1877-1919.

E. B. England,

The Laws

of Plato. 2 vols. Manchester Univer-

sity Press, 1921.

FGH.

Felix Jacoby,

Die Fragmente der Griechischen Histori\er> Berlin

and Leiden, 1923-1958. FHG. Karl and Theodor

Miiller,

Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum.

4 vols. Paris, 1841-1851.

Gernet.

Louis Gernet, "Les Lois

Vol. xi of the Gilbert.

Vol. Hignett.

Bude

et le droit positif," in the Introduction to

edition of Plato. Paris, 1951.

Gustav Gilbert, Handbuch der Griechischen Staatsalterthiimer. 1,

2nd

edn., Leipzig, 1893; Vol.

C. Hignett,

A

11,

Leipzig, 1885.

History of the Athenian Constitution to the

End

of the Fifth Century B. C. Oxford, 1952.

IG.

Inscriptiones Graecae.

JHS.

Journal of Hellenic Studies. Jowett. Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato. 3rd edn. 5 vols. Oxford, 1892.

xxxiii

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS Lipsius.

Hermann

Justus

Lipsius,

Das

Attische Recht

fahren. Leipzig, 191 5.

Liddell and Scott, Gree\-English Lexicon.

LSJ.

New

und

edn. by

Rechtsver-

H.

S. Jones,

Oxford, 1925-1940. Marrou. Henri-Irenee Marrou, Histoire de Veducation dans Vantiquite, 2nd. edn. Paris, 1950.

Martin P. Nilsson, Geschichte der Griechischen Religion. 2

Nilsson.

Munich, .1941,

vols.

1950.

PR.

Philosophical Review.

RE.

Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Realencyclopddie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.

REG. Revue

des Etudes Grecques.

O. Reverdin, La Religion de

Reverdin.

la cite platonicienne. Paris, 1945.

Constantin Ritter, Platons Gesetze: Darstellung des Inhalts

Ritter.

Kommentar. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1896. Robin. Leon Robin, Platon: Oeuvres Completes. Stallbaum.

Gottfried

und

2 vols. Paris, 1950.

Stallbaum, Platonis Leges et Epinomis. 3 vols.

Gotha, 1859-1860. Stengel.

Paul

Munich,

W.

Syll.

Die Griechischen Kultusaltertumer. 8th edn.

Stengel,

1920.

Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum. 3rd edn. 4 vols.

Leipzig, 1915-1923.

TAPA.

Transactions of the American Philological Association.

A. E. Taylor, The Laws of Plato, London, 1934. Tod. Marcus Tod, A Selection of Gree\ Historical Inscriptions. Vol. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1946; Vol. 11, 1948.

Taylor.

Wilamowitz.

1,

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorfr".

Abbreviations of the names of ancient authors will in most cases be clear,

but the following should perhaps be mentioned to avoid confusion.

Aeschines or Aeschylus, the former

Aesch.

numeral, the

latter

when followed by

Diod.

Diodorus Siculus.

Diog.

Diogenes Laertius.

Aristotle

is

cited

by the pages and

when

the

followed by a

title

Roman

of a play.

lines of Bekker's (the Berlin) edition,

except for the Constitution of Athens and the Fragments, and Plato by the pages of Stephanus'

and the

line

numbers of Burnet's

xxxiv

edition.

PLATO'S CRETAN CITY A HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE LAWS

INTRODUCTION The scene is Crete, and the characters in the dialogue are three old men — Cleinias, a Cretan; Megillus, a Spartan; and an unnamed Athenian—who have started out from Gnossos on a pilgrimage and sanctuary of Zeus. The distance is considerable, and the Athenian suggests that it would be a pleasant pastime during their tedious walk to discourse about government and laws (7repl 7ro\u-€ia5 re koll v6fjLG)v) and the others readily agree. The conversation begins with an inquiry by the Athenian regarding the purpose of the common meals and the gymnastic and military exercises prescribed by the Spartan and Cretan legislators; and from to the cave

,

there

it

proceeds to more general considerations concerning the pur-

pose of law, the importance of education, and the secret of stability in a constitution.

The

conclusions they reach turn out to be peculiarly

timely; for at this point (the end of the third book) Cleinias reveals that he

a

is

a

member

new Cretan

of a commission charged with

city that

Cnossos and other

is

cities

which they

for

to be established

under the sponsorship of

He

therefore urges that they

in the island.

pursue their inquiry by imagining themselves city of

making laws

are the founders; in this

as legislating for

way

a

their theoretical

and he will perhaps be able to use their results in the colony with which he is concerned. The remainder of the Laws is an exposition, in sometimes elaborate detail, of the institutions and laws that it would be appropriate to establish in this interest will

be

satisfied,

new city. The establishment

of colonies

was

a habit of long standing

the Greeks, less evident in Plato's century than days, but

still

lation (707c)

regarded 1

as the best

way

to deal

it

had been

among

in earlier

with a surplus of popu-

or with a discordant faction in a city (7o8bc).

The

which the Greeks had spread themselves and their culture all over the Mediterranean area, from the northern shore of the Black Sea to the western coast of Spain, was a thing of the past; but the tradition was kept alive by the Athenian cleruchies and other more pretentious establishments in the fifth and fourth centuries, and another era of colonization was to begin soon 2 after Plato's time with the conquests of Alexander. Such new cities

great age of colonization during

name

1

References unaccompanied by the

2

H. Bengtson, Griechische Geschichte, Munich,

s

of a dialogue are to the Laws. 1940, 338.

plato's Cretan city always started their political for them,

and

competent

a

vise the founder, or the

The

life

great Protagoras

with a

legislator

sponsoring

was asked

to

set

of laws especially designed

was often

city, in

called

upon

to ad-

the task of legislation.

draw up

the laws for Pericles'

ambitious colony of Thurii in southern Italy; and Plato himself,

according to one tradition, was invited to legislate for the

Megalopolis in Arcadia

We

set

up

that the

see, therefore,

new

city of

after the defeat of Sparta at Leuctra.

Athenian Stranger

is

3

in a historically

on with his companions is but an idealized version of the discussions that must have taken place on countless occasions among persons responsible for and the conversation he

familiar situation,

new

establishing a

carries

colony.

might confront Plato or a member of the Academy at any time. Plato's deep and lifelong interest in politics, in the broadest sense of the term, is evident from the large place that the problems of political and social philosophy occupy in his writings. His theories of education, of law, and of social justice are inquiries carried on not merely for their speculative inFurthermore,

terest,

was

it

a situation that

but for the purpose of finding solutions to the problems of the

statesman and the educator. Plato's

work

as a

than with theory. Epistle he

tells

It

may

well be affirmed,

when we view

whole, that he was more concerned with practice 4

In the autobiographical passage of the Seventh

us that in his youth

it

was

his intention to enter public

young man of his high connections and great abilities (324b). But he was disillusioned by the excesses of the Thirty, a revolutionary movement for which he had at first had considerable hope, and later by the unjust action of the restored democracy in condemning Socrates on a charge of impiety, "which he of all men least deserved." The disillusionment with contemporary politics increased as he came to know better the men active in public life and saw more clearly the instability of the laws and customs of his own and other cities; and although he did

life,

a career that seemed the obvious one to a

3

For Protagoras and Thurii see Diog. ix, 50. For Megalopolis see below, Note 11. "Platon est en effet, contrairement a ce qu'on croit souvent, beaucoup plus preoccupe de pratique que de theorie." Robin, Platon, Paris, 1935, 254. Similarly Dies, in the Introduction to the Bude edn. of the Republic, v: "Platon n'est venu en fait a la philosophic que par la politique ... La philosophic ne fut originellement, chez Platon, que de Taction entravee." But we must not suppose that for Plato theory was a substitute for action. Indeed the scientific statesman, he says in Polit. 26oab, cannot be content with theoretical principles alone, but must supplement them with 4

directions for Phil. 623b.

action

— the

iiriTaKTtKov

}iepot8trta by the Spartans but dvSpeta in Crete, and that the Cretan tables are supported by the public treasury, not by private contributions, as at Sparta. Both allege a similarity in function between the Cretan kosmoi and the Spartan ephors, and both point out that the former are ten in number, whereas the latter are five. Both point out that there are "elders" in both constitutions, elected in one case from previous kosmoi, in the other from former ephors, and note that this body is called the council (fiovkr)) among the Cretans. Both also believe the Cretan customs to be the older and in many cases the archetype of the Spartan. But Aristotle refers to the perioikoi of Crete and explains why they are not a source of danger as are the Helots at Sparta, a point passed over without mention by Ephorus. Furthermore, Aristotle's account of the powers of the Cretan kosmoi, council, and assembly (not even mentioned by Ephorus) is much fuller and more critical, and culminates in a severe judgment on the irresponsible power of the kosmoi. On the other hand, Ephorus pays much more attention to the education of the young, a subject completely omitted by Aristode, and describes at length the peculiar Cretan 26

customs of love, again a topic that Aristotle passes over. Van EfTenterre {op.cit. 77-78) seems to me to overstate the similarity between Ephorus' and Aristode's account, but he comes to much the same conclusion as I do. "It looks as if the major outlines of Cretan studies had already been laid down in previous literature, or as if the principal themes for discussion had already become fixed, constituting so many conventional topics to which one would be expected to make at least some reference, more or less forced, in passing. Aristode and Ephorus are independent of one another only in the sense that it is impossible to trace all the information one of them gives to what is found in the other. But there is no doubt that both made use of previous works."

22

CRETE able in the

Academy

and

there are features of both Ephorus'

make

On

Academy, but

be definitely established. Strabo

specifically tells

ference of opinion between Ephorus

character of Minos.

The

stories of

on

Plato's teaching,

was

us that there

can

a sharp dif-

and "the ancients" regarding the

him

ancient writers pictured

as a tyrannical

tribute,

Theseus and Daedalus.

28

None

of these fifth-century tragedies deal-

ing with Minos has been preserved, but their able, to

27

and they constructed tragedies based the Minotaur and the labyrinth and the adventures

and violent collector of of

a bare possibility.

one point the dependence of Aristotle and Ephorus,

not merely on the

on the

indeed

Aristotle's accounts that

upon them more than

Plato's influence at least

And

to others interested in the subject.

judge from the

titles

Attic historians, Pherecydes

that have

number was

come down

and Hellanicus,

also

to us.

29

consider-

The

emphasized,

early it

ap-

30

Minos as an enemy of ancient Athens. But the reputation of Minos underwent a complete change in the fourth century henceforth he is the great and wise legislator instructed by Zeus, and this is the opinion that Ephorus held, according to Strabo. 31 This is also the view that Plato, and presumably many others,

pears, the role of

;

espoused in the fourth century as a result of the tan customs

and the

belief in their great antiquity.

ing in Ephorus' position

with one

we

new

is

that he uses a curious

But what

argument

find in the Platonic writings. Strabo

quoted Homer's

interest in Cre-

tells

is

strik-

identical

us that he

lines

ev0a re Mlvcjs ivvicopos fiacrikeve A165 ^leydkov SapLcrTrjs. 27

Plato attaches great importance to the

common

meals, the

first

point about

which the Athenian Stranger enquires (625c). These are mentioned early in both Aristotle's and Ephorus' accounts and are treated as a fundamental institution. Aristotle is interested in the division of powers among t^e organs of government, the very point of constitutional theory to which Plato gives special attention in the third book of the Laws, and Aristotle's criticism of the Cretan constitution because the "elders" (yepovre?) are irresponsible seems an echo of Plato's repeated warning that no officials should be awrrevSwoL. Ephorus, on the other hand, treats other matters that engaged Plato's attention: the gymnastic and military exercises of the youth, the use of the pyrrhic dance and Cretic rhythms, and the customs of boy love. 28

Strabo x, iv, 8. Sophocles wrote a Theseus, a Daedalus and a Camicii, which must have dealt with the death of Minos at Camicus in his vain attempt to recapture Daedalus after 29

his flight from Crete (Herod, vn, 170). These works may have constituted a trilogy. Euripides wrote a Cretans, and one of the dramas of the politician-poet, Plato's cousin Critias, was entitled Rhadamanthys. For these and other titles of lost works, see Poland in 30 31

re s.v. Minos, 1891. For Pherecydes see fgh Pt. 1, 3, F148-F150; for Hellanicus Isocrates, for example (xn, 205).

23

Pt.

1, 4,

F164.

THREE HISTORICAL STATES This appeal

to

Homer

Platonic Mi?20s. oapLo-rrjs

The

is

exactly the defense

lines

an unfamiliar word

uncertain whether

The

or with oapLcrrrj^.

find in the pseudo-

quoted are highly obscure. Not only was

but the meaning of evviupos it is

we

it is

to the

Greeks of the fourth century,

ambiguous j and whatever it means, be taken with fiacrikeve, with Mi^cos,

is

to

Socrates in the

Minos explains

that oaptcrn]?

meaning "associate in discourse" (crvvovo-Lao-Trjs iv Xoyois), i.e. a pupil; and that ivvicopos means "every ninth year." The meaning of the passage, therefore, is that Minos went every is

to be taken as

ninth year to be tutored of Zeus, the great master of

This

is

wisdom

(3i9b-e).

obviously not the only possible interpretation of this passage,

nor even the most plausible. Socratic exegesis.

32

It

is

a

For our purpose

whether or not the Minos of the interpretation

is

is

good specimen of ingenious it

is

not necessary to decide

a genuine Platonic dialogue, for the gist

contained in the Athenian's question on the

opening page of the Laws: "And do you, Cleinias,

say, as

Homer

Minos used to go every ninth year and converse with his father Zeus and that he was guided by his oracles in making laws for your cities ?" The agreement of Ephorus with Plato in this strained Homeric exegesis is too much to be a coincidence. If Ephorus' history began to appear, as is now generally believed, about 350 or a little 33 later, the fourth book, in which he dealt with Crete, could hardly does, that

have appeared before Plato's death; so that Plato could not have been influenced by

it,

even

if

we assume

that he

was willing

to

make

such

an undisguised borrowing from another author. Ephorus' interpretation of Homer points definitely, therefore, to his acquaintance with this picturesque bit of Platonic

of the

The

teaching and possibly also to a reading

Laws and

the Minos.

evidence

therefore considerable that the

is

s*

Academy, and Plato

in particular, played an important part in the revival of interest in

Crete that took place in the fourth century. Plato's discussion of the island in the

Laws

is

the earliest of the fourth-century accounts about

32

Odyss. xix, 178-179. For the four interpretations of this passage in later antiquity The effrontery of Socrates is evident elsewhere in this defense of Minos. He cites Hesiod's characterization of Minos as the "kingliest of kings," and Odyss. xi, 569, where Minos, not Rhadamanthys, is said to wield the see Poland, loc.cit. 1902-1903.

But he refrains from mentioning the Mi'vcoo? 6\o6povo?

IttI

rrpoa-

rjKovra irpayixara). These acquaintances included Critias, and possibly also

Theramenes, the leader of the moderate party, whose

mem-

ory continued to be held in great respect by Aristotle and others in later days,

and who was

the extremists with

later to

whom

come

to his death at the

hands of

2

he had collaborated. Plato confesses that

Diels-Kranz, n, 378-380, 391-394; Wilamowitz, Platon 1, u6f., 122. They may also have included Socrates. Diod. xiv, 5, 1-3 reports that he was present at the meeting (presumably a meeting of the council; cf. Xen. Hell. 11, iii, 1

2

when Theramenes was condemned

to death, and endeavored to save him. The he was ordered to carry out under the Thirty (Plato, Apol. 32c; Ep. VII. 324c) may have been a commission assigned to him as a councillor; we know that he had been a member of the council under the democracy a year or

50)

illegal arrest that

THREE HISTORICAL STATES in his youthful enthusiasm for reform he at

first

entertained high

change of government, though he seems not to have taken any part in it; but that in a short time he was shocked and disillusioned by its excesses. Evidently he could not stomach, any hopes for

this

more than could Socrates and the majority of his fellow high handed and violent actions of his cousin.

citizens, the

Besides Critias there were other Laconizing influences on Plato's

youth.

He

probably served in the cavalry; only rich young

men

could

equipment for this branch of the armed forces. There is evidence that these young cavaliers affected Spartan manners and a de3 cided preference for the Spartan "aristocratic" constitution. Such associations have their effect undoubtedly: but how much they affected Plato, and in what way, we do not know. There are humorous remarks in the dialogues about the affectations of these Laconizers, an afford the

indication that Plato did not take

member

them very

seriously.

of the older generation in this group

was, at some periods at

least,

4

One

notorious

was Alcibiades, who

pro-Spartan; but this sentiment probably

sat as tightly to his self-interest as

did his occasional loyalty to Athens,

and Plato, though fascinated by him, shows no great respect for his memory. 5 Was Socrates also a Laconizer? We can hardly assume that he belonged to the group of shallow admirers whom Plato satirizes, but the evidence of both Xenophon and Plato shows that he had a high admiration of the Spartans' obedience to their magis6 trates and the laws. But such praise of Sparta had become commonplace by this time.

The only

tophanes, and his testimony

other witness is

we

can

summon

is

Aris-

ambiguous.

There was a Spartan mania, and people went Stalking about the streets, with Spartan staves, two before (Apol. 32b).

probably true that Critias in power "hated" him, as 3 iff-)) Dut if Theramenes had studied philosophy with him, as Diodorus says, he might well have been selected by Theramenes during the early period of the regime. The alternative reading "Isocrates" in Diodorus' text does not seem plausible; for

Xenophon

Isocrates

reports

was

a

It is

(Mem.

ii,

1,

young man

of thirty at this time,

whereas Theramenes was in

his

fifties. 3

See Albert Martin, Les Cavaliers Atheniens, Paris, 1886, 519^. Prot. 342DC; Gorg. 515c 5 The purpose of Alcibiades I (whoever is its author) cannot have been to honor Alcibiades; he appears in a very unpleasing garb of egoism and pretence. In the 4

Symposium

the picture of the

drunken Alcibiades

is

tering. 6

Xen.

Mem.

in, v, 15; iv, iv, 15; Plato Crito

52c

brilliant,

but certainly not

flat-

SPARTA With

their

many

Like so Is this

more than

long hair, unwashed and slovenly,

a

Socrates's.

7

comparison of Socrates' well-known appearance

with the affected austerity of the Laconizers

Clouds Aristophanes attacks Socrates as a

?

We

cannot

say.

In the

scientific disturber of the

and an unscrupulous teacher of rhetoric, but there is no hint of pro-Spartan leanings. Such a charge would hardly jibe with Aristophanes' main indictment; for of all the Greeks the Spartans were the most devoted to the existing order and least likely to take 8 up with the new science and rhetoric. old order

It is

evident that these inquiries into the personal influences that

may have molded any sure

thought do not carry us very

Plato's

result. Plato's interest in

far,

nor to

Sparta can easily be explained on

Eunomia had been the term had become

other grounds.

so often asserted of the Lacedae-

monians that a popular synonym for the Spar9 tan way. Both Herodotus and Thucydides record that at one time the Lacedaemonians had been almost the most lawless of all the Greeks, but at some ancient date (Thucydides puts it in the ninth century) had undergone a drastic reorganization of their lives which 10

had brought about ivvofiia. Almost a century later Aristotle echoes this judgment: as the aim of the physician is to cure, and of the orator to persuade, so the genuine statesman tries to bring about evvofiia, 11 and of this the Lacedaemonian "legislator" is an example. He puts the Lacedaemonian constitution at the head of his list of historical states that

experiences and intellectual qualities

and

Aristotle's, shares their

12

Xenophon, whose personal were so different from Plato's

he thinks worth examination.

admiration of Sparta;

13

so did Plato's

and the orator Lysias, not a man of Athenian birth 14 a loyal Athenian metic. Aristotle's pupil Dicaearchus

rival Isocrates,

but certainly 7

Birds 1281-1283, Frere's trans. Socrates' association, if it be a fact, with Theramenes and the Thirty might indicate only that he advocated a return to the "ancestral constitution," the professed purpose of this group. Cf. Arist. Const. Ath. xxxiv, 3; Xen. Mem. in, v, 14. 8

9

The

on eunomia

Andrewes, in cq xxxii, 1938, 89-102; Victor Ehrenberg, "Eunomia," in Aspects of the Ancient World, Oxford, 1946, 70-95; Wade-Gery, cq xxxviii, 1944, 1-9, 1 15-126; A. W. Gomme, Historical Commentary on Thucydides, Oxford, 1945, 1, 128-131. Herod. 1, 65: ix€re/3aXov cts evvoixirjv', Thuc. 1, 18, 1: rfvvofx-qdrj. literature

is

extensive. See especially

11

Mr.

12

Pol. 1269a 29fT.; cf. 1272b 24-29, 1273b 24-26.

13

Eth. 1102a

Const. Lac.

1

9,

1112b

14.

and passim.

14 Isoc. vii, 61; viii, 95; xii, 41, 109, 2ioff.; Lysias

43

xxxin,

7.

THREE HISTORICAL STATES wrote a

on Spartan laws which

treatise

so pleased the Spartans them-

provided for annual public readings of

selves that they

it.

15

Ephorus

regarded the Spartan constitution as one of the sources from which Zaleucus drew his famed legislation for the Locrians.

16

Of

men of the fourth century, Demosthenes seems one who had nothing good to say of Sparta. But the

all

the

eminent

to

only

chorus of

praise

the

is

continued in

first to

man

state,

Romans

later times.

be the

Polybius praised Lycurgus for being

draw up a mixed constitution, thus anticipating the Rowhich was to him the acme of political wisdom; 17 the

themselves, according to Strabo, held the Spartan constitu-

tion in high honor.

And

18

dramatized the virtues of

Plutarch, that echo of ancient thought,

its

men and

the excellence of

its

laws for

generations of later readers.

This

is

an impressive chorus.

as Oilier thinks,

it is

an

19

If this

picture of Sparta

which

illusion to

is

a "mirage,"

a great variety of ancient

and nonphilosophers alike, were subject. But to make the record complete we should add that this universal acclaim was by no means uncritical, at least not in the early period. The writers of the fifth and fourth centuries, in a better position than observers, philosophers

the later ones to see the reverse of the medallion, are unsparing in their

their

condemnation of certain traits of the Spartans. Herodotus notes 20 susceptibility to bribes. Thucydides points out their secrecy and

dissimulation, their lack of initiative, their harshness to foreigners, their brutality in

combat, and their lack of culture.

with

fairly bristle

critical

women,

of the Spartan

21

Aristotle's pages

comments on the unwholesome

the great inequality of property

influence

among

the

Lacedaemonians, the corruptibility of the ephors, the irresponsibility of the gerontes, and the warlike tendency of their educational sys22

Even Xenophon sorrowfully mentions the respects in which the Spartan harmosts failed to live up to the traditions he had so

tem.

grandly presented. 15

Suidas,

23

It is

Dicaearchus

s.v.

=

only in later times that the "idealization" Fr.

I,

Fritz Wehrli, Die Schule des Aristoteles

Basel, 1944.

De

i,

16

Strabo,

vi,

18

Strabo

ix,

19

For further details see F. Oilier, he Mirage Spartiate, Paris, 1933. Herod, in, 148; Cf. Aristoph. Peace 623-624, and the Delphic oracle reported in

20

i,

8.

ii,

17

Polyb.

vi, 3; cf. Cic.

Rep.

11,

41-42.

39.

Arist. Fr. 544, Rose. 21

Secrecy and dissimulation:

viii, 96, 5;

1, 90, 1-2; v, 68, 2; 74, 3; lack of initiative: 1, 118, 2; injustice to foreigners: in, 93; brutality in combat: n, 67, 4; in, 32, 68;

lack of culture: 22

1,

10, 2; 84, 3.

Pol. 1269b i2-i27ib 19.

23

Xen. Const. Lac. xiv,

u

1-5.

SPARTA which modern

of Sparta occurs

derstand.

The admiration

critics rightly

find

of Plato's contemporaries

it

un-

difficult to

was neither blind

nor uncritical.

was equally

Plato's attitude

The

dialogues contain

a

many

mixture of admiration and criticism.

echoes of the conventional praise of

Sparta for the excellence of her laws and the character of her

citi-

These commonplaces of popular thought are used to good effect the Hippias Major. Spartan concern for the right education of

zens. in

their

young men

since

he admits that the Spartans refused to put their sons under his

is

used to discredit Hippias' claims as a teacher,

(283^). Again Hippias' claim to be able to improve Spartan education is shown to imply that the Spartans are "lawless" {irapaan obvious reductio ad absurdutn otherwise, since vofioc, 285b) education produces evvofxia, they would have wanted to become tutelage

—

—

evvofjLMrepoL

through

his teaching. Similarly in the First Alcibiades

the Spartans are described as possessing the full

(122c)

;

but these virtues are paraded

Alcibiades can as yet

as excellences

make no claim

suggests that Plato (if Plato

is

popular opinion for dramatic

panoply of virtues

to possess,

the author)

is

which the young and the situation

here merely using a

effect.

But there seems to be a serious tribute in the Symposium

"Who would

not prefer," asks Diotima, "to leave behind him, rather

than any children of his

flesh,

Sparta, to be the saviors of

Greece?" There in

is

the offspring that Lycurgus

Lacedaemon and, we can even

left

in

say, of all

also a subtle tribute in the Protagoras, in a passage

which the underlying

satire.

(209/!).

seriousness

veiled, as so often in Plato,

is

Socrates contends that of all the Greeks, the Spartans

by

and the

Cretans have cultivated philosophy the most seriously and for the longest time (342a-343c).

The

irony

is

obvious; the Spartans were

generally regarded as uncultivated (they were even proud of this)

and

as interested

this

pretense

is

only in gymnastics and in military exercises. But

part of their cleverness, says Socrates.

Laconizers into thinking that of gymnastics,

conquer the

rest of the

that

shows

misleads the

they practise boxing and other forms

and wear short cloaks

the Spartans' superiority

dom

if

It

in the Spartan fashion, they can

Greeks, like the Spartans. But the truth is

due to

their

(crocfria)

—not

a wis-

and eloquent discourse, but such some pithy saying, like the "Nothing

itself in fluent

comes out unexpectedly in

wisdom

45

is,

as

in

THREE HISTORICAL STATES Lacedaemonian member

excess" attributed to Chilon, the

Seven Sages.

24

The wisdom meant

cal or intellectual cro(f)La

ment

of education;

superficial

is

of course not the dialecti-

which Plato regards

as the

maxims

that illustrate this

in Excess"; "Excellence

an attempt

crowning achieve-

rather a sturdy moral sense, unpolished by

is

undertone beneath Socrates' irony. as

is

accomplishments, and unaffected by

choice of the

"Nothing

it

here

of the

reflective doubts.

wisdom ("Know Thyself";

Hard") shows

One can

to correct the current

The

clearly the serious

even take

this

passage

misconception about the Spar-

tans which, in exalting their military prowess

and the

efficiency of

their military training, overlooks a deeper source of Spartan strength.

But tory.

Plato's references to the Spartans are

The

by no means

all

25

lauda-

passage in the Protagoras shows that he was not blind to

their lack of intellectual interests.

26

A

more

telling criticism occurs

book of the Republic, the very book in which he gives Sparta the place of honor in his survey of historical states. Here his criticism bears on precisely those qualities of the Lacedaemonians that were most admired, viz. their moral integrity and respect for law. This best of the imperfect states, which is said on two occasions to be exemplified by the Laconian constitution (544c, 545a), is called timocracy, and is characterized by the supremacy of the dvfios, the ambitious, combative, and passionate elements in human nature. Having thrown off the control of reason and intelligence, such a state is in an unstable position between aristocracy and oligarchy. It has some of the institutions of the former, e.g. respect for law and in the eighth

for public officials,

common

meals, military and gymnastic exercises.

and are inclined to war rather than peace (547de). They are covetous of money, and since they But

its

citizens distrust intelligence

cannot indulge their desire openly, they acquire their treasures

and hide them away from the law, as children evade their fathers (548ab). Even if Plato had not explicitly mentioned Sparta, it would be clear enough what state he had in mind; the avarice of the Spartans and the great wealth of gold and silver accumulated by some of them, in spite of the prohibition in the law, made one of secretly

24

makes a point of attributing this saying to Chilon. Diels-Kranz 11, 380. an anticipation of the Laws (630c!), where the Athenian Stranger endeavors to show his Cretan and Lacedaemonian friends that they do not truly understand the intent of their legislators if they regard their laws as designed solely for success 25

Critias It is

in war. 26

Cf. Hipp. Mj. 285cd.

46

SPARTA the juiciest scandals of Plato's time. Plato's readers likely to see a reference to

would

also be

Sparta in the description of oligarchy that

immediately follows. Socrates describes the inequality of wealth in an oligarchy, the restriction of the rights of citizenship to those having a property qualification, and the consequent division of the city

—

two classes, the rich and the poor traits that duplicate those which Aristotle explicitly mentions as grave defects in the Lacedae27 monian constitution. This critical attitude is especially marked in the Laws, particularly in the early books, where the principles are being laid down for the detailed legislation to follow. The Athenian Stranger is obviously into

bent on improving the opportunity presented by his casual encounter

with the two Dorians to examine their laws and probe his com-

Although the conversation remains

panions' opinions about them.

always

at the level of Attic urbanity, the

searching and

ment

and he does not hesitate to pronounce judgcompanions and indirectly upon the laws that they

critical,

against his

are defending.

Athenian's questions are

no young man present," he remarks, "hence the laws freely and no one of us should take offense

"There

we can criticize if we find fault"

is

;

At

(634c, 635a).

Cretan and Spartan laws

Cleinias' interpretation of the

primarily for success in

war

the very outset of the discussion

is

deftly refuted.

You must have misun-

derstood your legislators, says the Athenian, their

war

aim (63od). Peace is

And

which a

state

courage,

which he

is

may

was

a state;

result (628c).

the weakness that results

Your poet Tyrtaeus, who sang the virtues of overlooked the more serious malady against

should protect

part at that (630c)

extolled, ;

if

itself is

(629a-630c). In fact the virtue of

only a part of virtue, and the lowest

he concentrated his attention upon

this virtue,

he neglected the greater part of his task (631a).

interpretation of

name your

this

faction.

the warrior citizen,

say,

you think

good and healthy condition of

the

a worse evil than defeat in battle

you

if

sometimes necessary, but only that peace

from internal

as

is

designed

as

him may be

correct; for although

institutions that develop

courage

—the

And

you can

common

your easily

meals,

gymnastic exercises, the practice of hunting, the secret service, the contests in in 27

endurance of pain

—you have

naming any customs designed Pol. 1270a 15ft., 29ff.; 1307a 35-38.

47

to

difficulty,

and no wonder,

promote temperance (633a-

THREE HISTORICAL STATES 634b).

28

The

forward

when

which

the only thing you put

is

your contribution here, does not really promote temper-

as

ance, but

prohibition of wine,

is

likely to lead to the opposite

restraints are

orderly behavior of

extreme of drunkenness

removed (6373b). You Athenian citizens at the

are shocked

by the

rural Dionysia, but one

of us could equally well criticize the looseness of the Spartan

(637c).

Your common meals and gymnastic

dis-

exercises

women

have brought

great benefit to your state, but they also have disadvantages; they are a source of faction

and they lead

to unnatural love (636bc).

that your institutions are better because battle

is

win

stupid;

it

is

To

say

you can rout your enemies in

the bigger states, not always the better ones,

and subdue their enemies (638ab). In fact your state has the constitution of an armed camp; you have never learned the highest music (666de). This is not blind admiration. Obviously Crete and Sparta figure that

victories

in this dialogue not because Plato thought their constitutions to be

above criticism, but because he considered that they were worth

criti-

For Plato seems never to have abandoned the common judgment of his countrymen that Sparta was "well-governed" (ewo29 Then what was it in the fjiovfjiepr]) as compared with other states. Lacedaemonian laws and in the conduct of the Spartans that Plato and his countrymen held in such high esteem ? Thucydides gives us cizing.

most important part. "Sparta has never had a tyrant (alel aTvpdvvevTos tjv)" he says; "for it is a little more than four centuries, counting to the end of the present war, that the Lacedaemonians have had the same constitution."' This long record of stability would be especially impressive to the conservatives among Plato's countrymen, conscious as they were of the changes that their own constitution had undergone during the same period, and all would be impressed by the record of freedom from faction and tyranny, the twin evils to which the small city-state was by its nature exposed. Factional strife could often be terminated only by the advent of a tyrant to reduce the warring parties, and tyranny

a part of the answer, perhaps the

in turn bred

new enemies and new

divisions in the citizenry. If

Sparta was one of the few Greek states that had been exempt this recurrent cycle of disorder 28 29

during the previous centuries, she

For a similar criticism of Spartan education see Rep. 546c!, 548b. Cf. 635c, 696a, and the tradition, which Plato accepts, that Spartan laws

from Apollo. 30 Thuc. 1,

18,

1.

from

came

SPARTA could not but seem to the other Greeks an outstanding example of a well-ordered

commonwealth,

the

all

and fourth centuries because she

still

more remarkable

in the fifth

retained her hereditary kings,

when kingship had disappeared everywhere else, and kings who were commonly believed to be direct descendants of the two kings

who had

held power at the time of the Dorian conquest.

the sovereignty of law been upheld in Sparta

when

it

had been

intervals, in

on

tated

almost

all

some time or

to

discoveries,

The complement

had

these years,

other, for longer or shorter

but he ventured no opinion in his history.

much thought

most striking

all

How

other cities? Thucydides had probably medi-

this question,

Plato also gave of his

lost at

through

31

and

it,

his reflections led

which we

shall

come

him

to

one

to later.

to this constitutional stability at Sparta

was

a

peculiarly stubborn devotion of the Spartans to their laws. Herodotus,

writing of Xerxes' expedition against Greece in 480, describes the

Spartan Demaratus, then in exile from his native land, as speaking

King about

frankly to the Great

he was about to meet "but not free in

and

Thermopylae. "They are

things.

For the master

they fear (vTrepSeifxalvovo-i) far

this

fear you."

law

their

all

at

the quality of his opponents

32

is

lae.

The

over

men," he

them

is

more than your

subjects

the sentiment immortalized by Simonides in the

famous

who

died at

Thermopy-

Spartans did not always die at their posts; one of the things

Greeks during the Peloponnesian

War was

surrender of the beleaguered Spartan garrison at Pylos.

and shock

tans represented

that this caused

and

to their reputation for living

whose songs had

34

the

But the

testimony to the ideal the Spar-

is

had been memorably expressed for taeus,

the law,

felt for

that shocked the

surprise

says,

This profound fear and respect that the Spartans

epigram composed for these same Spartans 33

set

free

whom

all

up

to

it.

This ideal

Spartans by their poet Tyr-

stiffened their determination

during the long

war with the Messenians and were ever afterward cherished and sung as the best

expression of their conception of civic virtue.

taeus' elegies actually

bore the

to these songs (629a,e) 31

32 33

title

"Eunomia," and

shows that he

is

aware of

One

of Tyr-

Plato's reference

their

importance in

The Gree\ Tyrants, 66ff.; Busolt-Swoboda, 672. Herod, vn, 104. Herod, vn, 228: "Go, stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here obedient See Andrewes,

to their 34

commands."

Thuc.

iv, 40.

49

THREE HISTORICAL STATES 35

molding the Spartan character. The ideal Tyrtaeus describes is not that of the Homeric hero, set above the undistinguished mass of his followers and engaged in single combat with an enemy king or chieftain;

who

Tyrtaeus sang the praises of the citizen soldier

stands in the

forefront of the battle, in serried disciplined ranks, his feet firmly

planted apart, determined to conquer or to die for his dren, and his fatherland.

36

sires, his chil-

This ideal of the warrior citizen emerged

Greek world with the rise of hoplite warfare in the seventh century we find it in a fragment of Callinus of Ephesus but it was the Spartans who took it most seriously and adapted

in various parts of the

—

—

their other institutions to

cation

no longer had

tion of

an entire

as its

Henceforth, as Jaeger

aim the

city of heroes.

The impression fellow Greeks

it.

Spartan edu-

selecting of heroes, but the forma-

37

that such well-disciplined heroes reflected in another passage in

is

says,

made upon

their

Thucydides. After

describing the disposition of the opposing forces before the battle of

Mantinea, he mentions briefly the exhortations

made by

the

Man-

and Athenian generals to their respective troops, reminding them of the issues at stake and the prizes to be won by victory. But the Lacedaemonians, he says, reminded themselves individually of the rules of war which they had mastered, secure in the knowledge that long practice in doing things is more conducive to safety than an eloquent speech just before the battle. And in the engagement which follows he describes the Lacedaemonian troops advancing tinean, Argive,

slowly to the sound of flutes "not for reasons of religion, but in order

might march more evenly, and not break their ranks, as so 58 often happens when large armies are advancing." In short, the Spartans were not amateurs in battle; by long and strenuous discipline the individual hoplite had become a conscious and intelligent part of the fighting unit at the disposal of his commander. This military discipline which Thucydides here describes with such manifest admiration, and which made the Spartan hoplites invincible on the battlefield, is but an illustration of the lifelong discipline required of the Spartan citizen. He was a member of a small dominant

that they

35

For an analysis of Plato's use of Tyrtaeus see des Places, "Platon et Tyrtee," in REG LV, 1942, I4-24. 36

Frs.

37

Jaeger, Paideia

11

and

12,

Edmonds.

i25ff. (Eng. trans. 84^.). Thuc. v, 69-70. Plutarch {Lye. 22) gives a similar description (doubtless taken from one of his ancient sources) of the Spartans marching into battle in close formation to the music of the flute. 1,

38

50

SPARTA group in the midst of a subject and hostile population many times larger. Surrounded by enemies who might rise and attack them at any time, the Spartans together

and by

knew

by standing

that they could survive Only

and

ruthlessly subordinating individual interests

ambitions to the good of

all.

Spartans confronted them.

own making. Few

These were the hard

It is

facts of life as the

was

true that the predicament

of their

conquerors in history have been as ruthless as they

were toward the peoples whose lands they took over in Laconia and Messenia.

We

39

can even argue, from the perspective of today, that

would have been had not met their it

But the fact

is,

history they

orous

sort,

far better for the

Greeks

difficult situation

they did meet

it

whole

At some period

in their

successfully.

discipline of the

involving a virtual militarization of

Greeks enjoyed.

It

the Spartans success.

imposed upon themselves a

that other

if

with such undeserved

the cradle to the grave. This discipline

much

as a

was

most

all their life

their "laws." It cost

rig-

from them

required the cultivation of physi-

meant living more frugally than was customary even in Greek states whose soil was much less fertile; it demanded the renunciation of wealth and the acceptance of a certain equality of poverty and hardship. They turned their backs upon the enjoyment of the poetry, science, and art that were flowering throughout the rest of the Greek world at this time. They even stopped taking part in the contests at Olympia; athletic prowess was incompatible with the training of the soldier, and perhaps also a cal

endurance to an incredible degree;

it

dangerous incentive to individual ambition.

gan" laws cost them; and sense

and

their tenacity of

no

40

All this their "Lycur-

hard

social

purpose that they maintained their

disci-

it is

little

tribute to their

pline over themselves for at least four centuries, so

Thucydides be-

lieved.

The supremacy citizens

dently

—these

had

in

are

of law, the courage and political concord of the

what the thoughtful Greeks

mind when

of the Spartans in battle 39

of Plato's time evi-

they praised Spartan eunomia.

was one of its

The

success

striking results ; but admiration

We

is, according to the common account. must admit, however, that evidence regarding what actually happened at the conquest, about the origin of helotage, and even about the status of the Helot in historical times is woefully

That

reliable

scanty. 40

Guy

Dickins, in jhs xxxii, 1912, 18-19; E. N. Gardiner, Gree\ Athletic Sports London, 19 10, 56-59; Andrewes, op.cit. 69-70. For the archaeological evidence, see R. M. Dawkins, ed. The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, jhs Suppl. Papers 5, 1929.

and

Festivals,

51

— THREE HISTORICAL STATES of the Spartans

was not dependent on

their military success, for this

admiration survived the defeat at Leuctra in 371, and most of the contributors to the chorus of praise cited earlier come after that date. A constitution that could maintain the supremacy of law for so long

and could mold its citizens so efficiently into conformity with the law's demands, certainly had some secrets of wisdom to reveal to the earnest inquirer into politics, as Plato was. What were the causes of this eunomia so manifest among the Lacedaemonians, so frequently lacking elsewhere? To understand Plato we must try to find his answer to this question. a period,

One

educational system at Sparta. His attention to this

first

was the strict directed from the very

of these causes, so Plato undoubtedly thought, is

fundamental feature of Spartan

education in the

first

life;

two books of the Laws takes

the Athenian's inquiry regarding the

common

the discussion of its

departure from

meals, the gymnastic

and the other familiar elements of the Spartan system. Lacedaemon was one of the few Greek states (perhaps the only one, with the exception of Crete), that dealt seriously and systematically with the task of educating its youth. Education was made a primary concern of the state and placed under the supervision and control of the ephors. This was strikingly different from the custom of other cities of Plato's time, where the father alone was responsible for the kind 41 and amount of education that his sons received. Furthermore, the exercises,

Spartan system appeared to be peculiarly

efficient in

producing the

type of character that the Spartans thought the constitution required.

However

might be the Spartan conception of excellence and the discussion in the opening book of the Laws reveals that in Plato's opinion it was decidedly limited it showed what finished results can be obtained when the state has a definite idea of what it wants its citizens to be and pursues this end with vigor and consistlimited

—

ency.

The Spartan system

— the ayooyr),

as

it

came

to be called

—was in-

deed single-minded in its aim and unremitting in its demands, if we 42 can believe the accounts of it given by the ancient authorities. At the age of eight the Spartan boy was taken from his 41

Xen. Const. Lac. n,

42

The most

Educ. of Cyrus,

home and

placed

1337a 3 if. familiar ancient accounts are those in Xenophon's Constitution of 1-2;

1,

ii,

2; Arist. Pol.

the Lacedaemonians and Plutarch's lives of Lycurgus and Agesilaus. For a critical account based on these and other ancient testimonia see Busolt-Swoboda, 694-702.

52

SPARTA with others of his

members

own

age in a band or "herd" (ayeXrj)*

exercised, played, ate,

and

slept together,

3

whose

under the constant

supervision of an older youth, himself under the supervision of his elders.

They went

of food

was kept

was

barefoot, their clothing

to a

minimum,

they

scanty, their allowance

made long marches,

they slept

on beds of rushes, they studied some "letters," but not much, they had athletic and military contests, they danced and sang together. Breaches of discipline were heavily punished; there is no disciplinarian more rigorous than an older boy who has gone through the

and endurance were not the sole purpose of this training. They were taught to be grave in their demeanor, sparing of words, respectful to their elders. They were encouraged to supplement their meager rations by stealing food from the barns and homesteads in the country. This was presumably to cultivate ingenuity and dexterity, for one who was caught in the act, drill

himself. But bodily strength

Above all the boys learned to live not as individuals, but as members of a herd. Year after year this training continued, until at the age of twenty the youth was eligible for military service and received the rights of citizenship. At

Plutarch

tells us,

was

severely punished.

age also the law prescribed that he should marry, but for ten

this

young men of his own age, seeing his wife only by stealth at night when no duties were demanded of him. He was not allowed to go abroad, nor was any foreign teacher of the youth allowed at Sparta. Only at the age of thirty was he free to live in his own house, and even then he conyears longer he continued to live with the

member

tinued to be a

of a "mess" (