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καὶ λογίζεσθαί τε κτλ. καί ‘also,’ because “et aliarum rerum et arithmetices peritum imperatorem esse decet” (Schneider). Cf. VI 506 A. The word is omitted by Π^{1} q Ξ and some other MSS. καί may of course be spurious, but it was not likely to have been added by a scribe, and the balance of MS evidence is in its favour. The other variants ( and τό and μᾶλλον in place of καί) are corruptions due to the erroneous idea that ἄλλο τι is ‘any other’ and not ‘nonne.’

μᾶλλον δὲ κτλ. μᾶλλον δέ is ‘vel potius,’ as usual. ἄνθρωπος=‘human being,’ not ‘anything of a man’ (D. and V.), which suggests an entirely wrong idea. We may compare the Latin use of homo, for example in Cic. ad Quint. II 11. 5 “sed cum veneris, virum te putabo, si Sallusti Empedoclea legeris: hominem non putabo.” For the sense cf. Laws 819 D, where the Greek ignorance of arithmetic appears to Plato ούκ <*>νθρώπινον ἀλλὰ ὑηνῶν τινῶν εἶναι μᾶλλον θρεμμάτων. The knowledge of number is one of the characteristic differences between man and the lower animals: see Tim. 39 B and [Epin.] 978 C.

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    • Plato, Timaeus, 39b
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