[548a]
than
for peace, and in honoring the stratagems and contrivances of war and
occupying itself with war most of the time—in these respects for
the most part its qualities will be peculiar to itself?”
“Yes.” “Such men,” said I,
“will be avid of wealth, like those in an oligarchy, and will
cherish a fierce secret lust for gold1 and silver, owning storehouses2 and private treasuries where they may hide
them away, and also the enclosures3 of
their homes, literal private love-nests4 in which they can lavish their
wealth on their women5
1 This was said to be characteristic of Sparta. Cf. Newman on Aristot.Pol. 1270 a 13, Xen.Rep. Lac. 14, 203 and 7. 6, and the Chicago Dissertation of P. H. Epps, The Place of Sparta in Greek History and Civilization, pp. 180-184.
2 Cf. 416 D.
3 Cf. Laws 681 A, Theaet. 174 E.
4 νεοττιάς suggests Horace's ‘tu nidum servas” (Epist. i. 10.6). Cf also Laws 776 A.
5 Cf. Laws 806 A-C, 637 B-C, Aristot.Pol. 1269 b 3, and Newman ii. p. 318 on the Spartan women. Cf. Epps, op. cit. pp. 322-346.
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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