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ἀπειργάσαντο. On the tense see 548 D note A few MSS read ἀπειργάσατο: but ἄλλος ἄλλον is in partitive apposition to the plural subject, according to the regular idiom: cf. II 369 B, C, IX 581 C note ἢ οὐχ κτλ. Cf. 555 C and especially Laws 743 A ff. ἀγαθὸν δὲ ὄντα διαφερόντως καὶ πλούσιον εἶναι διαφερόντως ἀδύνατον (‘how hardly shall a rich man’ etc.). Other parallels are quoted by Spiess Logos Spermatikos p. 74. Cf. also III 416 E note ὥσπερ κτλ.: ‘as it were inclining always in opposite directions when each is placed in the scale of a balance.’ As the scale containing virtue rises, that containing riches falls, and vice versa. Cf. Hom. Il. XXII 209 ff. Madvig's κείμενον ἑκάτερον, though adopted even by J. and C., is questionable Greek, and certainly no improvement. ὥσπερ should be taken with ῥέποντε “quasi non πλούτου ἀρετὴ διέστηκεν, sed πλοῦτος καὶ ἀρετὴ διεστήκατον praecessisset” (Schneider). There is a kindred figure in 544 E above: ἃ ἂν ὥσπερ ῥέψαντα τἄλλα ἐφελκύσηται. Ξ and some other inferior MSS have the obvious ‘correction’ ῥέποντος. Other conjectures are ῥέπουσα (Liebhold) and ἂν ῥέπουσα (Price), but neither could ever have been changed to ῥέποντε.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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