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τῆς -- σχηματίζονται: ‘circumstance and pomp of majesty, which they put on to the world outside.’ Cf. προστήσασθαι X 599 A note and (with Schneider) II 365 C πρόθυρα μὲν καὶ σχῆμαπεριγραπτέον. τῶν τυραννικῶν seems to be usually taken as masculine, in which case it might have been omitted without any loss to the meaning. I think it is the genitive of τὰ τυραννικά: cf. B below ἐν οἷς μάλιστα γυμνὸς ἂν ὀφθείη τῆς τραγικῆς σκευῆς.

εἰ οὖν οἰοίμην κτλ. ‘If then I should think it right for all of us to listen to the man who is both capable of judging’ etc. The dialogue form is strained almost to breaking in this remarkable sentence. We are all to be silent and listen to Plato himself. Plato might fairly claim from his psychological studies and experience as a teacher, to be δυνατὸς τῇ διανοίᾳ εἰς ἀνδρὸς ἦθος <*>νδὺς διιδεῖν and so δυνατὸς κρῖναι, and he had lived under the same roof with Dionysius I of Syracuse. The poet Gray was one of the first to observe that Plato is here meant.

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