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The Alleged Double Version in the Sixth Book of Plato's Laws

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Trevor J. Saunders
Trevor J. Saunders
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Extract

In 191O Wilamowitz suggested that the account of the election of the first Magnesian officials (Laws 751 a–755 b) is a conflation of two originally separate sets of proposals. After long neglect his arguments have been resurrected, with one major modification and in more detail, by Morrow. I intend to argue that both commentators are fundamentally mistaken, and that, properly interpreted, the passage yields limited but valuable information about Plato's plans for coping with the problems of founding a state from scratch. These plans are not simply of theoretical interest: as D. A. Russell has remarked, the Laws is our best guide to the policies and practices of the constitutional advisers sent out by the Academy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 230 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 230 note 1 Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, U. von, Hermes, xlv (1910), 398–402Google Scholar; Morrow, Glenn R., Plato's Cretan City, 204–6, 238–40.Google Scholar All references to the text of the Laws in this article are to the Budé edition (Platon, Œuvres complètes, xi (2e partie), ed. Places, E. des, 1951Google Scholar).

page 230 note 2 Classical Review xii (1962), 41.Google Scholar

page 232 note 1 My point is valid whatever view we take of the meaning of(see Morrow, op. cit. 159 n. 10). I suppose it could be argued that at any rate the military arrangements and activities refer to a period while the settlers were still in their home states. This is clearly true of 755 e 4 ff., where Plato's mind is still running on the problems of foundation. It may or may not be significant that here nothing is presupposed by way of buildings: we have only χωρίον (e 6), not ίερόν (753 ci).

page 233 note 1 How long ? We have one small clue: at 772 b ff. Plato suggests 10 years as a reasonable time in which to finalize details of sacrifices and choruses; only after this period, apparently, may the people at large be allowed to accept or reject proposed changes.

page 233 note 2 Note also 752 c 4:.

page 234 note 1 A possible remote parallel is the intermediate period between autocracy and aristocracy (681 cd): see especially(‘will direct affairs during this change of constitution’ [England]).

page 234 note 2 Especially if the age-limit (70: see 755 a) laid down for Guardians applies to the appointments made at the foundation.

page 234 note 3 Note that it cannot be urged that they have already been entrusted with the choice of 19 Guardians and 100 Scrutineers: they have not. At 752 de and 754 c (cf. 770) it is the Cnossians who choose both Cnossians and Magnesians (the ‘screening’ of 736 be would quickly reveal suitable Magnesians). At 752 e 4–7(cf. κοινῃ 754 c 5) may mean anything or nothing, but would seem to suggest that the Magnesians have only a consultative role in the elections.

page 234 note 4 Perhaps 969 ab gives us a faint clue: the responsibility of Cleinias and his colleagues must not go on indefinitely; at some stage there must be a clear transfer of responsibility from the Academy to the Magnesians, who must take the blame for any subsequent disasters.

page 235 note 1 Presumably ⋯ρχαί at 754 c 9 could include other (lesser) officials also.

page 235 note 2 This, of course, is the reason why they become citizens while the 200 disband, and (possibly) why it is not stipulated that they must be old, as the 200 must be (754 c 6), or at any rate the 100 Magnesians.

page 235 note 3 In fact, the first is less a discussion of this problem than an appeal to Cleinias and Megillus not to be faint-hearted.

page 236 note 1 The powers and functions of the Guardians are by no means confined to those described at 754 d ff.: see Morrow, op. cit. 196 ff.