[565a]
“And
the third class,1
composing the ‘people,’ would comprise all quiet2 cultivators of their own farms3 who possess little property. This is the largest and
most potent group in a democracy when it meets in assembly.”
“Yes, it is,” he said, “but it will not often
do that,4 unless it gets a share of
the honey.” “Well, does it not always share,”
I said, “to the extent that the men at the head find it possible,
in distributing5
to the people what they take from the well-to-do,6 to keep the lion's
share for themselves7?” “Why, yes,” he said,
“it shares
1 For the classification of the population cf. Vol. I. pp. 151-163, Eurip.Suppl. 238 ff., Aristot.Pol. 1328 b ff., 1289 b 33, 1290 b 40 ff., Newman i. p. 97
2 ἀπράγμονες: cf. 620 C, Aristoph.Knights 261, Aristot.Rhet. 1381 a 25, Isoc.Antid. 151, 227. But Pericles in Thuc. ii. 40 takes a different view. See my note in Class. Phil. xv. (1920) pp. 300-301.
3 αὐτουργοί: Cf. Soph. 223 D, Eurip.Or. 920, Shorey in Class. Phil. xxiii. (1928） pp. 346-347.
4 Cf. Aristot.Pol. 1318 b 12.
5 Cf. Isoc. viii. 13τοὺς τὰ τῆς πόλεως διανεμομένους.
6 For τοὺς ἔχοντας cf. Blaydes on Aristoph.Knights 1295. For the exploitation of the rich at Athens cf. Xen.Symp. 4. 30-32, Lysias xxi. 14, xix. 62, xviii. 20-21, Isoc.Areop. 32 ff., Peace 131, Dem.De cor. 105 ff., on his triarchic law; and also Eurip.Herc. Fur. 588-592.
7 Cf. Aristoph.Knights 717-718, 1219-1223, and Achilles in Il. ix. 363.
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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