[423b]
that is really one1 you will not easily discover
either among Greeks or barbarians—but of those that seem so you
will find many and many times the size of this. Or do you think
otherwise?” “No, indeed I don't,” said
he.“Would not this, then, be
the best rule and measure for our governors of the proper size of the city
and of the territory that they should mark off for a city of that size and
seek no more?” “What is the measure?”
“I think,” said I, “that they should let it
grow so long as in its growth it consents2 to remain a unity,
1 Commentators, I think, miss the subtlety of this sentence;μίαν means truly one as below in D, and its antithesis is not so much πολλάς as δοκούσας which means primarily the appearance of unity, and only secondarily refers to μεγάλην.καί then is rather “and” than “even.” “So large a city that is really one you will not easily find, but the semblance (of one big city) you will find in cities many and many times the size of this.” Cf. also 462 A-B, and my paper “Plato's Laws and the Unity of Plato's Thought,”Class. Phil. 1914, p. 358. For Aristotle's comment Cf. Politics 1261 a 15.
2 The Greek idea of governemnt required that the citizens know one another. They would not have called Babylon, London, or Chicago cities. Cf. Introduction p. xxviii, Fowler, Greek City State, passim, Newman, Aristotle Politics vol. i. Introduction pp. 314-315, and Isocrates' complaint that Athens was too large, Antidosis 171-172.
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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