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τοῦτ᾽ ἐστίν: does not refer to ἄρχειν, but simply, as often, introduces the following clause.

τί δὲ αὑτῶν: the indefiniteness of the question shows that it is only designed to draw Callicles' attention to the necessity of some rule governing the actions of the κρείττους to one another. According to the connexion we may supply either ἄρχειν or πλέον ἔχειν to govern the gen., or we may consider it as a free genitive. The idea of a man's governing himself is so entirely new to Callicles that he is unable to catch Socrates' meaning at first.

ἕνα ἕκαστον: the single concrete case to explain the principle.

οὐδὲν ποικίλον: means that the question is about a simple matter, whereas the person addressed imag-ines something else behind the words.

ὥσπερ οἱ πολλοί: with this, Socrates calls in the authority of common usage to determine the meaning of ἑαυτοῦ ἄρχειν, which he defines by σώφρων and ἐγκρατὴς ἑαυτοῦ, with τῶν ἡδονῶν κτἑ. explanatory.

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