James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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δυναστεῖαι . δυναστεία is that form of polity in which the son succeeds the father καὶ ἄρχῃ μὴ ὁ νόμος ἀλλ᾽ οἱ ἄρχοντες (Arist. Pol. Δ 5. 1292^{b} 5 ff.: cf. Laws 680 A, B). Such a πολιτεία might be good, but was of course generally bad: see Susemihl and Hicks on Arist. Pol. B 10. 1272^{b} 3. Examples are pro vided by Thessaly (Thuc. IV 78. 3) and (about 480 B.C.) Thebes (Thuc. III 62. 3: cf. Gilbert Griech. Staatsalt. II pp. 10, 46). See Whibley Gk Olig. pp. 124— 126.

ὠνηταὶ βασιλεῖαι: like Carthage (Arist. l.c. 11. 1273^{a} 36 with Susemihl and Hicks p. 349). Herwerden sins through ignorance when he proposes αἱρεταί for ὠνηταί.

τοιαῦταί τινες: such as, for example, αἰσυμνητεία, and the other specific varieties (as Aristotle reckons them) of Plato's typical πολιτεῖαι: see Pol. Γ, Δ Ζ passim.

εὕροι δ᾽ ἂν κτλ.: whereas Plato confines himself to Greek history throughout VIII and IX.

καὶ ἀνθρώπων κτλ. Cf. IV 445 C, and on the principle here laid down see IV 435 E note The present passage is a clear and emphatic statement of the psychological basis on which Plato's philosophy of History rests. Political ἀδικία, like political δικαιοσύνη (IV 443 B note), is after all no more than εἴδωλόν τι: injustice in the truest sense is στάσις within the individual soul (IV 444 B), and social and political wrong-doing is but its outward manifestation. The double genitive, which is easy enough (cf. E below and V 449 A note), has led to the corruption τρόπον τινά in several MSS. Liebhold also suggests καὶ τρόπων instead of τρόπων. The expression εἴδη τρόπων (‘specific characters’) is treated as a single word, and should be repeated with πολιτειῶν: cf. IV 445 C ὅσοι πολιτειῶν τρόποι εἰσὶν εἴδη ἔχοντες, τοσοῦτοι κινδυνεύουσι καὶ ψυχῆς τρόποι εἶναι (a passage which proves, I think, that Schneider and Stallbaum are wrong in supplying only εἴδη with ὅσαπερ κτλ.）

ἐκ δρυὸς κτλ. Hom. Od. XIX 162 f. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὥς μοι εἰπὲ τεὸν γένος, ὁππόθεν ἐσσί: | οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ δρυός ἐσσι παλαιφάτου οὐδ᾽ ἀπὸ πέτρης, i.e. you have a γένος (cf. Ap. 34 D) and are not miraculously sprung ἀγενεαλογήτως out of tree or stone, like the fabled men of old (see Preller-Robert Gr. Myth. p. 79 note 4). In Plato the saying is used much like the German ‘es ist doch nicht aus der Luft gefallen’ (Schück de scholiis p. 32, where the proverb is illustrated).