[471a]
who are their own people as a form of faction
and refuse even to speak of it as war?” “Most
certainly.” “And they will conduct their quarrels always
looking forward to a reconciliation?” “By all
means.” “They will correct them, then, for their own
good, not chastising them with a view to their enslavement1 or their destruction, but acting as correctors, not as
enemies.” “They will,” he said.
“They will not, being Greeks, ravage Greek territory nor burn
habitations, and they will not admit that in any city all the population are
their enemies, men, women and children, but will say that only a few at any
time are their foes,2
1 Cf. Newman, op. cit. p. 143.
2 The same language was frequently used in the recent World War, but the practice was sometimes less civilized than that which Plato recommends. Hobhouse (Mind in Evolution, p. 384), writing earlier, said, “Plato's conclusions (Republic 469-471) show how narrow was the conception of humanitarian duties in the fourth century.” It is, I think, only modern fancy that sees irony in the conclusion: “treating barbarians as Greeks now treat Greeks.”
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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