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553A - 553E The oligarchical man is the son of a timarchical father, whose fortunes have been shipwrecked by an unjust condemnation. Profiting by his father's example, the son deposes the love of honour from its sovereign place, and enthrones desire and avarice within his heart. The amassing of wealth is henceforward his one consuming passion. ὅταν κτλ. Plato (as suggested by Hermann Gesch. Abhandl. pp. 155 ff.) may have in view some of the generation of Athenian oligarchs who succeeded to the political party of Cimon; for Cimon was τιμοκρατικός rather than ὀλιγαρχικός (cf. V 470 C note). The description of the progress of individual degeneration from the aristocrat down to the tyrant constantly reflects Plato's own experience of Athenian society and domestic life: cf. 549 C, D notes Abundant materials for the picture were doubtless ready at hand in the παντοδαποὶ ἄνθρωποι (557 C) of the ‘bazaar of polities’ (557 D). For the construction of this sentence cf. 549 C—550 A note We ought not to understand μεταβάλλει before ὅταν, for the μεταβολή does not take place until 553 C, and ἆρ᾽ οὐκ—παραζωννύντα is the only apodosis which Plato thinks it necessary to provide. πταίσαντα κτλ. For the figure cf. Aesch. Ag. 1006 and Eum. 554—565.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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