[549a]
and to slaves such a one would be harsh,1 not scorning them as the really
educated do, but he would be gentle with the freeborn and very submissive to
officials, a lover of office and of honor,2 not basing his claim to office3 on
ability to speak or anything of that sort but on his exploits in war or
preparation for war, and he would be a devotee of gymnastics and
hunting.4” “Why, yes,” he
said, “that is the spirit of that polity.5” “And would
not such a man
1 Cf. p. 249, note g, on 547 C, and Newman ii. p. 317. In i. p. 143, n. 3 he says that this implies slavery in the ideal state, in spite of 547 C.
2 Cf. Lysias xix. 18. Lysias xxi. portrays a typical φιλότιμος. Cf Phaedr. 256 C, Eurip.I. A. 527. He is a Xenophontic type. Cf Xen.Oecon. 14. 10, Hiero 7. 3, Agesil. 10. 4. Isoc.Antid. 141 and 226 uses the word in a good sense. Cf. “But if it be a sin to covet honor,” Shakes.Henry V. iv. iii. 28.
3 Cf. the ἀξιώματα of Laws 690 A, Aristot.Pol. 1280 a 8 ff., 1282 b 26, 1283-1284.
4 Cf. Arnold on the “barbarians” in Culture and Anarchy, pp. 78, 82, 84.
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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