[527c]
“Then nothing is
surer,” said I, “than that we must require that the men of
your Fair City1 shall never neglect geometry, for even
the by-products of such study are not slight.” “What are
they?” said he. “What you mentioned,” said I,
“its uses in war, and also we are aware that for the better reception
of all studies2 there will be
an immeasurable3
difference between the student who has been imbued with geometry and the one who
has not.” “Immense indeed, by Zeus,” he said.
“Shall we, then, lay this down as a second branch of study for our
lads?” “Let us do so,” he said.
1 καλλιπόλει: Plato smiles at his own Utopia. There were cities named Callipolis, e.g. in the Thracian Chersonese and in Calabria on the Gulf of Tarentum. Cf. also Herod. vii. 154. fanciful is the attempt of some scholars to distinguish the Callipolis as a separate section of the Republic, or to take it as the title of the Republic.
2 Plato briefly anticipates much modern literature on the value of the study of mathematics. Cf. on 526 B, p. 166, note a. Olympiodorus says that when geometry deigns to enter into matter she creates mechanics which is highly esteemed.
3 For ὅλῳ καὶ παντί cf. 469 C.Laws 779 B, 734 E, Phaedo 79 E, Crat. 434 A.
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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