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[555a]
in the city for any prize of
victory or in any other honorable emulation. He is unwilling to spend money
for fame and rivalries of that sort, and, fearing to awaken his prodigal
desires and call them into alliance for the winning of the victory, he
fights in true oligarchical1 fashion with
a small part of his resources and is defeated for the most part
and—finds himself rich!2” “Yes
indeed,” he said. “Have we any further doubt,
then,” I said, “as to the correspondence and
resemblance3 between the thrifty and
money-making man
[555b]
and the oligarchical
state?” “None,” he said.“We have next to consider, it seems, the origin
and nature of democracy, that we may next learn the character of that type
of man and range him beside the others for our judgement.4” “That would at least be a consistent
procedure.” “Then,” said I, “is not
the transition from oligarchy to democracy effected in some such way as
this—by the insatiate greed for that which it set before itself as
the good,5 the attainment of the
greatest possible wealth?”
[555c]
“In what way?” “Why, since its rulers owe
their offices to their wealth, they are not willing to prohibit by law the
prodigals who arise among the youth from spending and wasting their
substance. Their object is, by lending money on the property of such men,
and buying it in, to become still richer and more esteemed.”
“By all means.” “And is it not at once
apparent in a state that this honoring of wealth is incompatible with a
sober and temperate citizenship,6
[555d]
but that one or the other of these two
ideals is inevitably neglected.” “That is pretty
clear,” he said. “And such negligence and encouragement
of licentiousness7 in oligarchies not infrequently
has reduced to poverty men of no ignoble quality.8” “It surely
has.” “And there they sit, I fancy, within the city,
furnished with stings, that is, arms, some burdened with debt, others
disfranchised, others both, hating and conspiring against the acquirers of
their estates and the rest of the citizens,
[555e]
and eager for revolution.9” “’Tis so.”
“But these money-makers with down-bent heads,10 pretending not even to see11
them, but inserting the sting of their money12 into any of the remainder who do not resist, and harvesting
from them in interest as it were a manifold progeny of the parent sum,
1 ὀλιγαρχικῶς keeps up the analogy between the man and the state. Cf. my “Idea of Justice,”Ethical Record,Jan. 1890, pp. 188, 191, 195.
2 i.e. he saves the cost of a determined fight. For the effect of surprise cf. on 544 C, p. 239, note f.
4 Cf. Phileb. 55 Cεἰς τὴν κρίσιν, Laws 856 C, 943 C.
5 The σκοπός or ὅρος. Cf. on 551 A, p. 263, note e, and Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1094 a 2.
6 Ackermann, Das Christliche bei Plato, compares Luke xvi.13 “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Cf. also Laws 742 D-E, 727 E f., 831 C.
7 ἀκολασταίνεινCf. Gorg. 478 A, Phileb. 12 D.
8 Cf. Laws 832 Aοὐκ ἀφυεῖς. For the men reduced to poverty swelling the number of drones cf. Eurip.Herc. Fur. 588-592, and Wilamowitz ad loc.
9 Cf. Aristot.Pol. 1305 b 40-41, 1266 b 14.
10 Cf. Persius, Sat. ii. 61 “o curvae in terras animae, et caelestium inanes,” Cf. 586 Aκεκυφότες. Cf. also on 553 D for the general thought.
11 Cf. Euthyph. 5 C, Polit. 287 A, Aristoph.Peace 1051, Plut. 837, Eurip.Hippol. 119, I. T. 956, Medea 67, Xen.Hell. iv. 5. 6.
12 Or, as Ast, Stallbaum and others take it, “the poison of their money.”τιτρώσκοντες suggests the poisonous sting, especially as Plato has been speaking of hives and drones. For ἐνιέντες cf. Eurip.Bacchae 851ἐνεὶς . . . λύσσαν, “implanting madness.” In the second half of the sentence the figure is changed, the poison becoming the parent, i.e. the principal, which breeds interest,. cf. 507 A, p. 96.
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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