James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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ποιῇ μίαν. J. and C. assert that Plato “has no idea of a unity of opposites or differences—τὸ ἀντίξουν συμφέρον,” and Aristotle argues to the same effect in Pol. B 2. 1261^{a} 22 ff. But it is in fact on such a unity that the entire fabric of Plato's city rests: see IV 423 D note, and cf. also 432 A, 443 D. The perfect city is a ἕν with three πολλά—rulers, auxiliaries, farmers and artisans, or, if rulers and auxiliaries are classed together as guardians, then with two. Plato's object throughout this episode is to keep the whole city ‘one’ by preventing one of its constituent factors, viz. the guardians, from becoming ‘many.’ If the guardians are united—so he holds—no danger to the city's unity need be apprehended from the others (465 B). With the sentiment generally cf. Ar. Eccl. 594 and 674 (μίαν οἴκησίν φημι ποιήσειν συρρήξασ᾽ εἰς ἓν ἅπαντα | ὥστε βαδίζειν εἰς ἀλλήλους). See also on 463 E and App. I.

οἱ μὲν -- τῆς πόλεως. As when a national disaster is made the occasion of a party victory. Plato may be thinking of scenes which he had witnessed in his native city. Bosanquet cites an excellent illustration from Dem. de Cor. 217.