James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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ἓν μέγα . ἓν balances πολλά: we need but one regulation, ‘the proverbial one great thing, or rather not great, but adequate.’ J. and C. err in translating ἱκανόν “to a sufficient extent”; and Stallbaum in making λεγόμενον “quod dicebamus.” ἓν μέγα is illustrated by J. and C. from Pol. 297 A.

εὖ παιδευόμενοι. Does this refer to the scheme of education already given, or is it a promise of the philosopher's training in Books VI and VII? Krohn takes the former view (Pl. St. p. 127), and (if we have regard only to the preceding discussion) it must be allowed that this is the natural interpretation of Plato's words. At the same time, it is not easy to see how the musical education of II and III would enable the guardians to grasp such a conception as the community of wives and children. And in the later books Plato expressly declares that the training necessary for the Rulers was inadequately discussed before: see VI 497 C ff., 502 D. For these reasons we must, I think, suppose that Plato when he wrote these words was thinking of the education still to be provided. Cf. also III 414 A.

τήν τε τῶν γυναικῶν κτλ. is the first mention of communism in wives and children. According to an ingenious chorizontic theory, it was this sentence which inspired the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes, to whose caricature Plato replies in Book V (Stein de Ar. Eccles. arg. etc. and Brandt Zur Entwick. d. Pl. Lehre v. d. Seelentheilen, p. 6). See on the whole subject App. I to Book V. In γάμων and παιδοποιίας there is a kind of zeugma: for κτῆσιν suits only γυναικῶν. Plato marks the difference by placing τε after τήν and not after τῶν. γάμους (conjectured by Richards) would depend on διόψονται; but διόψονται γάμους καὶ παιδοποιίας is surely an impossible expression.