[425d]
and, if you please,
contracts with workmen1 and actions for foul
language2
and assault, the filing of declarations,3 the impanelling
of juries, the payment and exaction of any dues that may be needful in
markets or harbors and in general market, police or harbor regulations and
the like, can we bring4 ourselves to legislate about
these?” “Nay, ‘twould not be
fitting,” he said, “to dictate to good and honorable
men.5 For most of the enactments that are needed
about these things
1 In Laws 920 D Plato allows a δίκη ἀτελοῦς ὁμολογίας against workmen or contractors who break or fail to complete contracts.
2 Cf. Laws 935 C. There was no λοιδορίας δίκη under that name at Athens, but certain words were actionable,ἀπόρρητα and there was a δίκη κακηγορίας.
3 Plato shows his contempt for the subject by this confused enumeration, passing without warning from contracts and torts to procedure and then to taxes, market, harbor and police regulations.
4 τολμήσομεν is both “venture” and “deign.”
5 Cf. Isocrates Panegyr. 78ὅτι τοῖς καλοῖς κἀγαθοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐδὲν δεήσει πολλῶν γραμμάτων.
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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