[344b]
For each several part of such wrongdoing
the malefactor who fails to escape detection is fined and incurs the extreme
of contumely; for temple-robbers, kidnappers, burglars, swindlers, and
thieves the appellations of those who commit these partial forms of
injustice. But when in addition to the property of the citizens men kidnap
and enslave the citizens themselves, instead of these opprobrious names they
are pronounced happy and blessed1 not only by their fellow-citizens
1 The European estimate of Louis Napoleon before 1870 is a good illustration. Cf. Theopompus on Philip, Polybius viii. 11. Euripides'Bellerophon(fr. 288) uses the happiness of the tyrant as an argument against the moral government of the world.
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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