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16 f. τὴν θεραπείαν τῆς πόλεως: denotes political activity in the sense shown in ch. LVI. above, and in accordance with the principles deduced in ch. XIX. ff. The correct answer to the question propounded would be: “As matters are, I invite you to neither mode; for the one is immoral, the other (as Socrates also makes plain in Apol. 31 d f.), for the present impossible.” Hence, also, Socrates intimates that the only way of engag ing in true politics is at present limited in Athens to the improvement of individuals in private intercourse. The use of the article with θεραπείαν implies that both kinds have been previously mentioned,—as is more definitely stated in the following explanation. Cf. Crat. 439 a εἰ οὖν ἔστιν μὲν ὅτι μάλιστα δἰ ὀνομάτων τὰ πράγματα μανθάνειν, ἔστι δὲ καὶ δἰ αὐτῶν, ποτέρα ἂν εἴη καλλίων ἡ μάθησις.
τὴν τοῦ διαμάχεσθαι: cf. Apol. 29 b αὕτη ἡ ἐπονείδιστος (ἀμαθία) ἡ τοῦ οἴεσθαι εἰδέναι ἃ οὐκ οἶδεν. According to Madv. Syn. 49 a, the epexegetic gen. is usually found only with the inf.
ὡς ἰατρόν: see on 514 d.ἢ ὡς διακονήσοντα: the two words ὡς ἰατρόν have caused a shift in the construction where we should have expected (cf. 513 d) something like ἢ τὴν τοῦ καταχαρίζεσθαι κτἑ. In the answer of Callicles we have a simple verbal quotation of Socrates' words, without the speaker's troubling himself to observe any fixed construction. One might supply παρακαλῶ σε.
Gonzalez Lodge. Commentary on Plato Gorgias. Ginn & Company. Boston and London. 1891.
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