[371c]
“By all means.” “If, then, the farmer or any
other craftsman taking his products to the market-place does not arrive at
the same time with those who desire to exchange with him, is he to sit idle
in the market-place and lose time from his own work?”
“By no means,” he said, “but there are men who
see this need and appoint themselves for this service—in
well-conducted cities they are generally those who are weakest1 in body and those who are useless for any other task. They
must wait there in the agora
1 Similarly in Laws 918-920.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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