Laws: Book VIII
Book VIII
ATHENIAN: Next, with the help of the Delphian oracle, we have to institute
festivals and make laws about them, and to determine what sacrifices will
be for the good of the city, and to what Gods they shall be offered; but
when they shall be offered, and how often, may be partly regulated by us.
CLEINIAS: The number--yes.
ATHENIAN: Then we will first determine the number; and let the whole
number be 365--one for every day--so that one magistrate at least will
sacrifice daily to some God or demi-god on behalf of the city, and the
citizens, and their possessions. And the interpreters, and priests, and
priestesses, and prophets shall meet, and, in company with the guardians
of the law, ordain those things which the legislator of necessity omits;
and I may remark that they are the very persons who ought to take note of
what is omitted. The law will say that there are twelve feasts dedicated
to the twelve Gods, after whom the several tribes are named; and that to
each of them they shall sacrifice every month, and appoint choruses, and
musical and gymnastic contests, assigning them so as to suit the Gods and
seasons of the year. And they shall have festivals for women,
distinguishing those which ought to be separated from the men's festivals,
and those which ought not. Further, they shall not confuse the infernal
deities and their rites with the Gods who are termed heavenly and their
rites, but shall separate them, giving to Pluto his own in the twelfth
month, which is sacred to him, according to the law. To such a deity
warlike men should entertain no aversion, but they should honour him as
being always the best friend of man. For the connexion of soul and body is
no way better than the dissolution of them, as I am ready to maintain
quite seriously. Moreover, those who would regulate these matters rightly
should consider, that our city among existing cities has no fellow, either
in respect of leisure or command of the necessaries of life, and that like
an individual she ought to live happily. And those who would live happily
should in the first place do no wrong to one another, and ought not
themselves to be wronged by others; to attain the first is not difficult,
but there is great difficulty in acquiring the power of not being wronged.
No man can be perfectly secure against wrong, unless he has become
perfectly good; and cities are like individuals in this, for a city if
good has a life of peace, but if evil, a life of war within and without.
Wherefore the citizens ought to practise war--not in time of war, but
rather while they are at peace. And every city which has any sense, should
take the field at least for one day in every month, and for more if the
magistrates think fit, having no regard to winter cold or summer heat; and
they should go out en masse, including their wives and their children,
when the magistrates determine to lead forth the whole people, or in
separate portions when summoned by them; and they should always provide
that there should be games and sacrificial feasts, and they should have
tournaments, imitating in as lively a manner as they can real battles. And
they should distribute prizes of victory and valour to the competitors,
passing censures and encomiums on one another according to the characters
which they bear in the contests and in their whole life, honouring him who
seems to be the best, and blaming him who is the opposite. And let poets
celebrate the victors--not however every poet, but only one who in the
first place is not less than fifty years of age; nor should he be one who,
although he may have musical and poetical gifts, has never in his life
done any noble or illustrious action; but those who are themselves good
and also honourable in the state, creators of noble actions--let their
poems be sung, even though they be not very musical. And let the judgment
of them rest with the instructor of youth and the other guardians of the
laws, who shall give them this privilege, and they alone shall be free to
sing; but the rest of the world shall not have this liberty. Nor shall any
one dare to sing a song which has not been approved by the judgment of the
guardians of the laws, not even if his strain be sweeter than the songs of
Thamyras and Orpheus; but only such poems as have been judged sacred and
dedicated to the Gods, and such as are the works of good men, in which
praise or blame has been awarded and which have been deemed to fulfil
their design fairly.
The regulations about war, and about liberty of speech in poetry, ought to
apply equally to men and women. The legislator may be supposed to argue
the question in his own mind: Who are my citizens for whom I have set in
order the city? Are they not competitors in the greatest of all contests,
and have they not innumerable rivals? To be sure, will be the natural
reply. Well, but if we were training boxers, or pancratiasts, or any other
sort of athletes, would they never meet until the hour of contest arrived;
and should we do nothing to prepare ourselves previously by daily
practice? Surely, if we were boxers, we should have been learning to fight
for many days before, and exercising ourselves in imitating all those
blows and wards which we were intending to use in the hour of conflict;
and in order that we might come as near to reality as possible, instead of
cestuses we should put on boxing-gloves, that the blows and the wards
might be practised by us to the utmost of our power. And if there were a
lack of competitors, the ridicule of fools would not deter us from hanging
up a lifeless image and practising at that. Or if we had no adversary at
all, animate or inanimate, should we not venture in the dearth of
antagonists to spar by ourselves? In what other manner could we ever study
the art of self-defence?
CLEINIAS: The way which you mention, Stranger, would be the only way.
ATHENIAN: And shall the warriors of our city, who are destined when
occasion calls to enter the greatest of all contests, and to fight for
their lives, and their children, and their property, and the whole city,
be worse prepared than boxers? And will the legislator, because he is
afraid that their practising with one another may appear to some
ridiculous, abstain from commanding them to go out and fight; will he not
ordain that soldiers shall perform lesser exercises without arms every
day, making dancing and all gymnastic tend to this end; and also will he
not require that they shall practise some gymnastic exercises, greater as
well as lesser, as often as every month; and that they shall have contests
one with another in every part of the country, seizing upon posts and
lying in ambush, and imitating in every respect the reality of war;
fighting with boxing-gloves and hurling javelins, and using weapons
somewhat dangerous, and as nearly as possible like the true ones, in order
that the sport may not be altogether without fear, but may have terrors
and to a certain degree show the man who has and who has not courage; and
that the honour and dishonour which are assigned to them respectively, may
prepare the whole city for the true conflict of life? If any one dies in
these mimic contests, the homicide is involuntary, and we will make the
slayer, when he has been purified according to law, to be pure of blood,
considering that if a few men should die, others as good as they will be
born; but that if fear is dead, then the citizens will never find a test
of superior and inferior natures, which is a far greater evil to the state
than the loss of a few.
CLEINIAS: We are quite agreed, Stranger, that we should legislate about
such things, and that the whole state should practise them.
ATHENIAN: And what is the reason that dances and contests of this sort
hardly ever exist in states, at least not to any extent worth speaking of?
Is this due to the ignorance of mankind and their legislators?
CLEINIAS: Perhaps.
ATHENIAN: Certainly not, sweet Cleinias; there are two causes, which are
quite enough to account for the deficiency.
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: One cause is the love of wealth, which wholly absorbs men, and
never for a moment allows them to think of anything but their own private
possessions; on this the soul of every citizen hangs suspended, and can
attend to nothing but his daily gain; mankind are ready to learn any
branch of knowledge, and to follow any pursuit which tends to this end,
and they laugh at every other: that is one reason why a city will not be
in earnest about such contests or any other good and honourable pursuit.
But from an insatiable love of gold and silver, every man will stoop to
any art or contrivance, seemly or unseemly, in the hope of becoming rich;
and will make no objection to performing any action, holy, or unholy and
utterly base; if only like a beast he have the power of eating and
drinking all kinds of things, and procuring for himself in every sort of
way the gratification of his lusts.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Let this, then, be deemed one of the causes which prevent states
from pursuing in an efficient manner the art of war, or any other noble
aim, but makes the orderly and temperate part of mankind into merchants,
and captains of ships, and servants, and converts the valiant sort into
thieves and burglars, and robbers of temples, and violent, tyrannical
persons; many of whom are not without ability, but they are unfortunate.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: Must not they be truly unfortunate whose souls are compelled to
pass through life always hungering?
CLEINIAS: Then that is one cause, Stranger; but you spoke of another.
ATHENIAN: Thank you for reminding me.
CLEINIAS: The insatiable lifelong love of wealth, as you were saying, is
one cause which absorbs mankind, and prevents them from rightly practising
the arts of war: Granted; and now tell me, what is the other?
ATHENIAN: Do you imagine that I delay because I am in a perplexity?
CLEINIAS: No; but we think that you are too severe upon the money-loving
temper, of which you seem in the present discussion to have a peculiar
dislike.
ATHENIAN: That is a very fair rebuke, Cleinias; and I will now proceed to
the second cause.
CLEINIAS: Proceed.
ATHENIAN: I say that governments are a cause--democracy, oligarchy,
tyranny, concerning which I have often spoken in the previous discourse;
or rather governments they are not, for none of them exercises a voluntary
rule over voluntary subjects; but they may be truly called states of
discord, in which while the government is voluntary, the subjects always
obey against their will, and have to be coerced; and the ruler fears the
subject, and will not, if he can help, allow him to become either noble,
or rich, or strong, or valiant, or warlike at all. These two are the chief
causes of almost all evils, and of the evils of which I have been speaking
they are notably the causes. But our state has escaped both of them; for
her citizens have the greatest leisure, and they are not subject to one
another, and will, I think, be made by these laws the reverse of lovers of
money. Such a constitution may be reasonably supposed to be the only one
existing which will accept the education which we have described, and the
martial pastimes which have been perfected according to our idea.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Then next we must remember, about all gymnastic contests, that
only the warlike sort of them are to be practised and to have prizes of
victory; and those which are not military are to be given up. The military
sort had better be completely described and established by law; and first,
let us speak of running and swiftness.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Certainly the most military of all qualities is general activity
of body, whether of foot or hand. For escaping or for capturing an enemy,
quickness of foot is required; but hand-to-hand conflict and combat need
vigour and strength.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Neither of them can attain their greatest efficiency without
arms.
CLEINIAS: How can they?
ATHENIAN: Then our herald, in accordance with the prevailing practice,
will first summon the runner--he will appear armed, for to an unarmed
competitor we will not give a prize. And he shall enter first who is to
run the single course bearing arms; next, he who is to run the double
course; third, he who is to run the horse-course; and fourthly, he who is
to run the long course; the fifth whom we start, shall be the first sent
forth in heavy armour, and shall run a course of sixty stadia to some
temple of Ares--and we will send forth another, whom we will style the
more heavily armed, to run over smoother ground. There remains the archer;
and he shall run in the full equipments of an archer a distance of 100
stadia over mountains, and across every sort of country, to a temple of
Apollo and Artemis; this shall be the order of the contest, and we will
wait for them until they return, and will give a prize to the conqueror in
each.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Let us suppose that there are three kinds of contests--one of
boys, another of beardless youths, and a third of men. For the youths we
will fix the length of the contest at two-thirds, and for the boys at half
of the entire course, whether they contend as archers or as heavy-armed.
Touching the women, let the girls who are not grown up compete naked in
the stadium and the double course, and the horse-course and the long
course, and let them run on the race-ground itself; those who are thirteen
years of age and upwards until their marriage shall continue to share in
contests if they are not more than twenty, and shall be compelled to run
up to eighteen; and they shall descend into the arena in suitable dresses.
Let these be the regulations about contests in running both for men and
women.
Respecting contests of strength, instead of wrestling and similar contests
of the heavier sort, we will institute conflicts in armour of one against
one, and two against two, and so on up to ten against ten. As to what a
man ought not to suffer or do, and to what extent, in order to gain the
victory--as in wrestling, the masters of the art have laid down what is
fair and what is not fair, so in fighting in armour--we ought to call in
skilful persons, who shall judge for us and be our assessors in the work
of legislation; they shall say who deserves to be victor in combats of
this sort, and what he is not to do or have done to him, and in like
manner what rule determines who is defeated; and let these ordinances
apply to women until they are married as well as to men. The pancration
shall have a counterpart in a combat of the light-armed; they shall
contend with bows and with light shields and with javelins and in the
throwing of stones by slings and by hand: and laws shall be made about it,
and rewards and prizes given to him who best fulfils the ordinances of the
law.
Next in order we shall have to legislate about the horse contests. Now we
do not need many horses, for they cannot be of much use in a country like
Crete, and hence we naturally do not take great pains about the rearing of
them or about horse races. There is no one who keeps a chariot among us,
and any rivalry in such matters would be altogether out of place; there
would be no sense nor any shadow of sense in instituting contests which
are not after the manner of our country. And therefore we give our prizes
for single horses--for colts who have not yet cast their teeth, and for
those who are intermediate, and for the full-grown horses themselves; and
thus our equestrian games will accord with the nature of the country. Let
them have conflict and rivalry in these matters in accordance with the
law, and let the colonels and generals of horse decide together about all
courses and about the armed competitors in them. But we have nothing to
say to the unarmed either in gymnastic exercises or in these contests. On
the other hand, the Cretan bowman or javelin-man who fights in armour on
horseback is useful, and therefore we may as well place a competition of
this sort among our amusements. Women are not to be forced to compete by
laws and ordinances; but if from previous training they have acquired the
habit and are strong enough and like to take part, let them do so, girls
as well as boys, and no blame to them.
Thus the competition in gymnastic and the mode of learning it have been
described; and we have spoken also of the toils of the contest, and of
daily exercises under the superintendence of masters. Likewise, what
relates to music has been, for the most part, completed. But as to
rhapsodes and the like, and the contests of choruses which are to perform
at feasts, all this shall be arranged when the months and days and years
have been appointed for Gods and demi-gods, whether every third year, or
again every fifth year, or in whatever way or manner the Gods may put into
men's minds the distribution and order of them. At the same time, we may
expect that the musical contests will be celebrated in their turn by the
command of the judges and the director of education and the guardians of
the law meeting together for this purpose, and themselves becoming
legislators of the times and nature and conditions of the choral contests
and of dancing in general. What they ought severally to be in language and
song, and in the admixture of harmony with rhythm and the dance, has been
often declared by the original legislator; and his successors ought to
follow him, making the games and sacrifices duly to correspond at fitting
times, and appointing public festivals. It is not difficult to determine
how these and the like matters may have a regular order; nor, again, will
the alteration of them do any great good or harm to the state. There is,
however, another matter of great importance and difficulty, concerning
which God should legislate, if there were any possibility of obtaining
from Him an ordinance about it. But seeing that divine aid is not to be
had, there appears to be a need of some bold man who specially honours
plainness of speech, and will say outright what he thinks best for the
city and citizens--ordaining what is good and convenient for the whole
state amid the corruptions of human souls, opposing the mightiest lusts,
and having no man his helper but himself standing alone and following
reason only.
CLEINIAS: What is this, Stranger, that you are saying? For we do not as
yet understand your meaning.
ATHENIAN: Very likely; I will endeavour to explain myself more clearly.
When I came to the subject of education, I beheld young men and maidens
holding friendly intercourse with one another. And there naturally arose
in my mind a sort of apprehension--I could not help thinking how one is to
deal with a city in which youths and maidens are well nurtured, and have
nothing to do, and are not undergoing the excessive and servile toils
which extinguish wantonness, and whose only cares during their whole life
are sacrifices and festivals and dances. How, in such a state as this,
will they abstain from desires which thrust many a man and woman into
perdition; and from which reason, assuming the functions of law, commands
them to abstain? The ordinances already made may possibly get the better
of most of these desires; the prohibition of excessive wealth is a very
considerable gain in the direction of temperance, and the whole education
of our youth imposes a law of moderation on them; moreover, the eye of the
rulers is required always to watch over the young, and never to lose sight
of them; and these provisions do, as far as human means can effect
anything, exercise a regulating influence upon the desires in general. But
how can we take precautions against the unnatural loves of either sex,
from which innumerable evils have come upon individuals and cities? How
shall we devise a remedy and way of escape out of so great a danger?
Truly, Cleinias, here is a difficulty. In many ways Crete and Lacedaemon
furnish a great help to those who make peculiar laws; but in the matter of
love, as we are alone, I must confess that they are quite against us. For
if any one following nature should lay down the law which existed before
the days of Laius, and denounce these lusts as contrary to nature,
adducing the animals as a proof that such unions were monstrous, he might
prove his point, but he would be wholly at variance with the custom of
your states. Further, they are repugnant to a principle which we say that
a legislator should always observe; for we are always enquiring which of
our enactments tends to virtue and which not. And suppose we grant that
these loves are accounted by law to the honourable, or at least not
disgraceful, in what degree will they contribute to virtue? Will such
passions implant in the soul of him who is seduced the habit of courage,
or in the soul of the seducer the principle of temperance? Who will ever
believe this? or rather, who will not blame the effeminacy of him who
yields to pleasures and is unable to hold out against them? Will not all
men censure as womanly him who imitates the woman? And who would ever
think of establishing such a practice by law? certainly no one who had in
his mind the image of true law. How can we prove that what I am saying is
true? He who would rightly consider these matters must see the nature of
friendship and desire, and of these so-called loves, for they are of two
kinds, and out of the two arises a third kind, having the same name; and
this similarity of name causes all the difficulty and obscurity.
CLEINIAS: How is that?
ATHENIAN: Dear is the like in virtue to the like, and the equal to the
equal; dear also, though unlike, is he who has abundance to him who is in
want. And when either of these friendships becomes excessive, we term the
excess love.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: The friendship which arises from contraries is horrible and
coarse, and has often no tie of communion; but that which arises from
likeness is gentle, and has a tie of communion which lasts through life.
As to the mixed sort which is made up of them both, there is, first of
all, a difficulty in determining what he who is possessed by this third
love desires; moreover, he is drawn different ways, and is in doubt
between the two principles; the one exhorting him to enjoy the beauty of
youth, and the other forbidding him. For the one is a lover of the body,
and hungers after beauty, like ripe fruit, and would fain satisfy himself
without any regard to the character of the beloved; the other holds the
desire of the body to be a secondary matter, and looking rather than
loving and with his soul desiring the soul of the other in a becoming
manner, regards the satisfaction of the bodily love as wantonness; he
reverences and respects temperance and courage and magnanimity and wisdom,
and wishes to live chastely with the chaste object of his affection. Now
the sort of love which is made up of the other two is that which we have
described as the third. Seeing then that there are these three sorts of
love, ought the law to prohibit and forbid them all to exist among us? Is
it not rather clear that we should wish to have in the state the love
which is of virtue and which desires the beloved youth to be the best
possible; and the other two, if possible, we should hinder? What do you
say, friend Megillus?
MEGILLUS: I think, Stranger, that you are perfectly right in what you have
been now saying.
Athenian: I knew well, my friend, that I should obtain your assent, which
I accept, and therefore have no need to analyze your custom any further.
Cleinias shall be prevailed upon to give me his assent at some other time.
Enough of this; and now let us proceed to the laws.
MEGILLUS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Upon reflection I see a way of imposing the law, which, in one
respect, is easy, but, in another, is of the utmost difficulty.
MEGILLUS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: We are all aware that most men, in spite of their lawless
natures, are very strictly and precisely restrained from intercourse with
the fair, and this is not at all against their will, but entirely with
their will.
MEGILLUS: When do you mean?
ATHENIAN: When any one has a brother or sister who is fair; and about a
son or daughter the same unwritten law holds, and is a most perfect
safeguard, so that no open or secret connexion ever takes place between
them. Nor does the thought of such a thing ever enter at all into the
minds of most of them.
MEGILLUS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Does not a little word extinguish all pleasures of that sort?
MEGILLUS: What word?
ATHENIAN: The declaration that they are unholy, hated of God, and most
infamous; and is not the reason of this that no one has ever said the
opposite, but every one from his earliest childhood has heard men speaking
in the same manner about them always and everywhere, whether in comedy or
in the graver language of tragedy? When the poet introduces on the stage a
Thyestes or an Oedipus, or a Macareus having secret intercourse with his
sister, he represents him, when found out, ready to kill himself as the
penalty of his sin.
MEGILLUS: You are very right in saying that tradition, if no breath of
opposition ever assails it, has a marvellous power.
ATHENIAN: Am I not also right in saying that the legislator who wants to
master any of the passions which master man may easily know how to subdue
them? He will consecrate the tradition of their evil character among all,
slaves and freemen, women and children, throughout the city: that will be
the surest foundation of the law which he can make.
MEGILLUS: Yes; but will he ever succeed in making all mankind use the same
language about them?
ATHENIAN: A good objection; but was I not just now saying that I had a way
to make men use natural love and abstain from unnatural, not intentionally
destroying the seeds of human increase, or sowing them in stony places, in
which they will take no root; and that I would command them to abstain too
from any female field of increase in which that which is sown is not
likely to grow? Now if a law to this effect could only be made perpetual,
and gain an authority such as already prevents intercourse of parents and
children--such a law, extending to other sensual desires, and conquering
them, would be the source of ten thousand blessings. For, in the first
place, moderation is the appointment of nature, and deters men from all
frenzy and madness of love, and from all adulteries and immoderate use of
meats and drinks, and makes them good friends to their own wives. And
innumerable other benefits would result if such a law could only be
enforced. I can imagine some lusty youth who is standing by, and who, on
hearing this enactment, declares in scurrilous terms that we are making
foolish and impossible laws, and fills the world with his outcry. And
therefore I said that I knew a way of enacting and perpetuating such a
law, which was very easy in one respect, but in another most difficult.
There is no difficulty in seeing that such a law is possible, and in what
way; for, as I was saying, the ordinance once consecrated would master the
soul of every man, and terrify him into obedience. But matters have now
come to such a pass that even then the desired result seems as if it could
not be attained, just as the continuance of an entire state in the
practice of common meals is also deemed impossible. And although this
latter is partly disproven by the fact of their existence among you, still
even in your cities the common meals of women would be regarded as
unnatural and impossible. I was thinking of the rebelliousness of the
human heart when I said that the permanent establishment of these things
is very difficult.
MEGILLUS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Shall I try and find some sort of persuasive argument which will
prove to you that such enactments are possible, and not beyond human
nature?
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: Is a man more likely to abstain from the pleasures of love and
to do what he is bidden about them, when his body is in a good condition,
or when he is in an ill condition, and out of training?
CLEINIAS: He will be far more temperate when he is in training.
ATHENIAN: And have we not heard of Iccus of Tarentum, who, with a view to
the Olympic and other contests, in his zeal for his art, and also because
he was of a manly and temperate disposition, never had any connexion with
a woman or a youth during the whole time of his training? And the same is
said of Crison and Astylus and Diopompus and many others; and yet,
Cleinias, they were far worse educated in their minds than your and my
citizens, and in their bodies far more lusty.
CLEINIAS: No doubt this fact has been often affirmed positively by the
ancients of these athletes.
ATHENIAN: And had they the courage to abstain from what is ordinarily
deemed a pleasure for the sake of a victory in wrestling, running, and the
like; and shall our young men be incapable of a similar endurance for the
sake of a much nobler victory, which is the noblest of all, as from their
youth upwards we will tell them, charming them, as we hope, into the
belief of this by tales and sayings and songs?
CLEINIAS: Of what victory are you speaking?
ATHENIAN: Of the victory over pleasure, which if they win, they will live
happily; or if they are conquered, the reverse of happily. And, further,
may we not suppose that the fear of impiety will enable them to master
that which other inferior people have mastered?
CLEINIAS: I dare say.
ATHENIAN: And since we have reached this point in our legislation, and
have fallen into a difficulty by reason of the vices of mankind, I affirm
that our ordinance should simply run in the following terms: Our citizens
ought not to fall below the nature of birds and beasts in general, who are
born in great multitudes, and yet remain until the age for procreation
virgin and unmarried, but when they have reached the proper time of life
are coupled, male and female, and lovingly pair together, and live the
rest of their lives in holiness and innocence, abiding firmly in their
original compact: surely, we will say to them, you should be better than
the animals. But if they are corrupted by the other Hellenes and the
common practice of barbarians, and they see with their eyes and hear with
their ears of the so-called free love everywhere prevailing among them,
and they themselves are not able to get the better of the temptation, the
guardians of the law, exercising the functions of lawgivers, shall devise
a second law against them.
CLEINIAS: And what law would you advise them to pass if this one failed?
ATHENIAN: Clearly, Cleinias, the one which would naturally follow.
CLEINIAS: What is that?
ATHENIAN: Our citizens should not allow pleasures to strengthen with
indulgence, but should by toil divert the aliment and exuberance of them
into other parts of the body; and this will happen if no immodesty be
allowed in the practice of love. Then they will be ashamed of frequent
intercourse, and they will find pleasure, if seldom enjoyed, to be a less
imperious mistress. They should not be found out doing anything of the
sort. Concealment shall be honourable, and sanctioned by custom and made
law by unwritten prescription; on the other hand, to be detected shall be
esteemed dishonourable, but not, to abstain wholly. In this way there will
be a second legal standard of honourable and dishonourable, involving a
second notion of right. Three principles will comprehend all those corrupt
natures whom we call inferior to themselves, and who form but one class,
and will compel them not to transgress.
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: The principle of piety, the love of honour, and the desire of
beauty, not in the body but in the soul. These are, perhaps, romantic
aspirations; but they are the noblest of aspirations, if they could only
be realised in all states, and, God willing, in the matter of love we may
be able to enforce one of two things--either that no one shall venture to
touch any person of the freeborn or noble class except his wedded wife, or
sow the unconsecrated and bastard seed among harlots, or in barren and
unnatural lusts; or at least we may abolish altogether the connection of
men with men; and as to women, if any man has to do with any but those who
come into his house duly married by sacred rites, whether they be bought
or acquired in any other way, and he offends publicly in the face of all
mankind, we shall be right in enacting that he be deprived of civic
honours and privileges, and be deemed to be, as he truly is, a stranger.
Let this law, then, whether it is one, or ought rather to be called two,
be laid down respecting love in general, and the intercourse of the sexes
which arises out of the desires, whether rightly or wrongly indulged.
MEGILLUS: I, for my part, Stranger, would gladly receive this law.
Cleinias shall speak for himself, and tell you what is his opinion.
CLEINIAS: I will, Megillus, when an opportunity offers; at present, I
think that we had better allow the Stranger to proceed with his laws.
MEGILLUS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: We had got about as far as the establishment of the common
tables, which in most places would be difficult, but in Crete no one would
think of introducing any other custom. There might arise a question about
the manner of them--whether they shall be such as they are here in Crete,
or such as they are in Lacedaemon--or is there a third kind which may be
better than either of them? The answer to this question might be easily
discovered, but the discovery would do no great good, for at present they
are very well ordered.
Leaving the common tables, we may therefore proceed to the means of
providing food. Now, in cities the means of life are gained in many ways
and from divers sources, and in general from two sources, whereas our city
has only one. For most of the Hellenes obtain their food from sea and
land, but our citizens from land only. And this makes the task of the
legislator less difficult--half as many laws will be enough, and much less
than half; and they will be of a kind better suited to free men. For he
has nothing to do with laws about shipowners and merchants and retailers
and inn-keepers and tax collectors and mines and moneylending and compound
interest and innumerable other things--bidding good-bye to these, he gives
laws to husbandmen and shepherds and bee-keepers, and to the guardians and
superintendents of their implements; and he has already legislated for
greater matters, as for example, respecting marriage and the procreation
and nurture of children, and for education, and the establishment of
offices--and now he must direct his laws to those who provide food and
labour in preparing it.
Let us first of all, then, have a class of laws which shall be called the
laws of husbandmen. And let the first of them be the law of Zeus, the God
of boundaries. Let no one shift the boundary line either of a fellow-
citizen who is a neighbour, or, if he dwells at the extremity of the land,
of any stranger who is conterminous with him, considering that this is
truly 'to move the immovable,' and every one should be more willing to
move the largest rock which is not a landmark, than the least stone which
is the sworn mark of friendship and hatred between neighbours; for Zeus,
the god of kindred, is the witness of the citizen, and Zeus, the god of
strangers, of the stranger, and when aroused, terrible are the wars which
they stir up. He who obeys the law will never know the fatal consequences
of disobedience, but he who despises the law shall be liable to a double
penalty, the first coming from the Gods, and the second from the law. For
let no one wilfully remove the boundaries of his neighbour's land, and if
any one does, let him who will inform the landowners, and let them bring
him into court, and if he be convicted of re-dividing the land by stealth
or by force, let the court determine what he ought to suffer or pay. In
the next place, many small injuries done by neighbours to one another,
through their multiplication, may cause a weight of enmity, and make
neighbourhood a very disagreeable and bitter thing. Wherefore a man ought
to be very careful of committing any offence against his neighbour, and
especially of encroaching on his neighbour's land; for any man may easily
do harm, but not every man can do good to another. He who encroaches on
his neighbour's land, and transgresses his boundaries, shall make good the
damage, and, to cure him of his impudence and also of his meanness, he
shall pay a double penalty to the injured party. Of these and the like
matters the wardens of the country shall take cognizance, and be the
judges of them and assessors of the damage; in the more important cases,
as has been already said, the whole number of them belonging to any one of
the twelve divisions shall decide, and in the lesser cases the commanders:
or, again, if any one pastures his cattle on his neighbour's land, they
shall see the injury, and adjudge the penalty. And if any one, by decoying
the bees, gets possession of another's swarms, and draws them to himself
by making noises, he shall pay the damage; or if any one sets fire to his
own wood and takes no care of his neighbour's property, he shall be fined
at the discretion of the magistrates. And if in planting he does not leave
a fair distance between his own and his neighbour's land, he shall be
punished, in accordance with the enactments of many lawgivers, which we
may use, not deeming it necessary that the great legislator of our state
should determine all the trifles which might be decided by any body; for
example, husbandmen have had of old excellent laws about waters, and there
is no reason why we should propose to divert their course: He who likes
may draw water from the fountain-head of the common stream on to his own
land, if he do not cut off the spring which clearly belongs to some other
owner; and he may take the water in any direction which he pleases, except
through a house or temple or sepulchre, but he must be careful to do no
harm beyond the channel. And if there be in any place a natural dryness of
the earth, which keeps in the rain from heaven, and causes a deficiency in
the supply of water, let him dig down on his own land as far as the clay,
and if at this depth he finds no water, let him obtain water from his
neighbours, as much as is required for his servants' drinking, and if his
neighbours, too, are limited in their supply, let him have a fixed
measure, which shall be determined by the wardens of the country. This he
shall receive each day, and on these terms have a share of his neighbours'
water. If there be heavy rain, and one of those on the lower ground
injures some tiller of the upper ground, or some one who has a common
wall, by refusing to give them an outlet for water; or, again, if some one
living on the higher ground recklessly lets off the water on his lower
neighbour, and they cannot come to terms with one another, let him who
will call in a warden of the city, if he be in the city, or if he be in
the country, a warden of the country, and let him obtain a decision
determining what each of them is to do. And he who will not abide by the
decision shall suffer for his malignant and morose temper, and pay a fine
to the injured party, equivalent to double the value of the injury,
because he was unwilling to submit to the magistrates.
Now the participation of fruits shall be ordered on this wise. The goddess
of Autumn has two gracious gifts: one the joy of Dionysus which is not
treasured up; the other, which nature intends to be stored. Let this be
the law, then, concerning the fruits of autumn: He who tastes the common
or storing fruits of autumn, whether grapes or figs, before the season of
vintage which coincides with Arcturus, either on his own land or on that
of others--let him pay fifty drachmae, which shall be sacred to Dionysus,
if he pluck them from his own land; and if from his neighbour's land, a
mina, and if from any others', two-thirds of a mina. And he who would
gather the 'choice' grapes or the 'choice' figs, as they are now termed,
if he take them off his own land, let him pluck them how and when he
likes; but if he take them from the ground of others without their leave,
let him in that case be always punished in accordance with the law which
ordains that he should not move what he has not laid down. And if a slave
touches any fruit of this sort, without the consent of the owner of the
land, he shall be beaten with as many blows as there are grapes on the
bunch, or figs on the fig-tree. Let a metic purchase the 'choice' autumnal
fruit, and then, if he pleases, he may gather it; but if a stranger is
passing along the road, and desires to eat, let him take of the 'choice'
grape for himself and a single follower without payment, as a tribute of
hospitality. The law however forbids strangers from sharing in the sort
which is not used for eating; and if any one, whether he be master or
slave, takes of them in ignorance, let the slave be beaten, and the
freeman dismissed with admonitions, and instructed to take of the other
autumnal fruits which are unfit for making raisins and wine, or for laying
by as dried figs. As to pears, and apples, and pomegranates, and similar
fruits, there shall be no disgrace in taking them secretly; but he who is
caught, if he be of less than thirty years of age, shall be struck and
beaten off, but not wounded; and no freeman shall have any right of
satisfaction for such blows. Of these fruits the stranger may partake,
just as he may of the fruits of autumn. And if an elder, who is more than
thirty years of age, eat of them on the spot, let him, like the stranger,
be allowed to partake of all such fruits, but he must carry away nothing.
If, however, he will not obey the law, let him run the risk of failing in
the competition of virtue, in case any one takes notice of his actions
before the judges at the time.
Water is the greatest element of nutrition in gardens, but is easily
polluted. You cannot poison the soil, or the sun, or the air, which are
the other elements of nutrition in plants, or divert them, or steal them;
but all these things may very likely happen in regard to water, which must
therefore be protected by law. And let this be the law: If any one
intentionally pollutes the water of another, whether the water of a
spring, or collected in reservoirs, either by poisonous substances, or by
digging, or by theft, let the injured party bring the cause before the
wardens of the city, and claim in writing the value of the loss; if the
accused be found guilty of injuring the water by deleterious substances,
let him not only pay damages, but purify the stream or the cistern which
contains the water, in such manner as the laws of the interpreters order
the purification to be made by the offender in each case.
With respect to the gathering in of the fruits of the soil, let a man, if
he pleases, carry his own fruits through any place in which he either does
no harm to any one, or himself gains three times as much as his neighbour
loses. Now of these things the magistrates should be cognizant, as of all
other things in which a man intentionally does injury to another or to the
property of another, by fraud or force, in the use which he makes of his
own property. All these matters a man should lay before the magistrates,
and receive damages, supposing the injury to be not more than three minae;
or if he have a charge against another which involves a larger amount, let
him bring his suit into the public courts and have the evil-doer punished.
But if any of the magistrates appear to adjudge the penalties which he
imposes in an unjust spirit, let him be liable to pay double to the
injured party. Any one may bring the offences of magistrates, in any
particular case, before the public courts. There are innumerable little
matters relating to the modes of punishment, and applications for suits,
and summonses and the witnesses to summonses--for example, whether two
witnesses should be required for a summons, or how many--and all such
details, which cannot be omitted in legislation, but are beneath the
wisdom of an aged legislator. These lesser matters, as they indeed are in
comparison with the greater ones, let a younger generation regulate by
law, after the patterns which have preceded, and according to their own
experience of the usefulness and necessity of such laws; and when they are
duly regulated let there be no alteration, but let the citizens live in
the observance of them.
Now of artisans, let the regulations be as follows: In the first place,
let no citizen or servant of a citizen be occupied in handicraft arts; for
he who is to secure and preserve the public order of the state, has an art
which requires much study and many kinds of knowledge, and does not admit
of being made a secondary occupation; and hardly any human being is
capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly, or of practising
one art himself, and superintending some one else who is practising
another. Let this, then, be our first principle in the state: No one who
is a smith shall also be a carpenter, and if he be a carpenter, he shall
not superintend the smith's art rather than his own, under the pretext
that in superintending many servants who are working for him, he is likely
to superintend them better, because more revenue will accrue to him from
them than from his own art; but let every man in the state have one art,
and get his living by that. Let the wardens of the city labour to maintain
this law, and if any citizen incline to any other art rather than the
study of virtue, let them punish him with disgrace and infamy, until they
bring him back into his own right course; and if any stranger profess two
arts, let them chastise him with bonds and money penalties, and expulsion
from the state, until they compel him to be one only and not many.
But as touching payments for hire, and contracts of work, or in case any
one does wrong to any of the citizens, or they do wrong to any other, up
to fifty drachmae, let the wardens of the city decide the case; but if a
greater amount be involved, then let the public courts decide according to
law. Let no one pay any duty either on the importation or exportation of
goods; and as to frankincense and similar perfumes, used in the service of
the Gods, which come from abroad, and purple and other dyes which are not
produced in the country, or the materials of any art which have to be
imported, and which are not necessary--no one should import them; nor,
again, should any one export anything which is wanted in the country. Of
all these things let there be inspectors and superintendents, taken from
the guardians of the law; and they shall be the twelve next in order to
the five seniors. Concerning arms, and all implements which are required
for military purposes, if there be need of introducing any art, or plant,
or metal, or chains of any kind, or animals for use in war, let the
commanders of the horse and the generals have authority over their
importation and exportation; the city shall send them out and also receive
them, and the guardians of the law shall make fit and proper laws about
them. But let there be no retail trade for the sake of moneymaking, either
in these or any other articles, in the city or country at all.
With respect to food and the distribution of the produce of the country,
the right and proper way seems to be nearly that which is the custom of
Crete; for all should be required to distribute the fruits of the soil
into twelve parts, and in this way consume them. Let the twelfth portion
of each as for instance of wheat and barley, to which the rest of the
fruits of the earth shall be added, as well as the animals which are for
sale in each of the twelve divisions, be divided in due proportion into
three parts; one part for freemen, another for their servants, and a third
for craftsmen and in general for strangers, whether sojourners who may be
dwelling in the city, and like other men must live, or those who come on
some business which they have with the state, or with some individual. Let
only this third part of all necessaries be required to be sold; out of the
other two-thirds no one shall be compelled to sell. And how will they be
best distributed? In the first place, we see clearly that the distribution
will be of equals in one point of view, and in another point of view of
unequals.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: I mean that the earth of necessity produces and nourishes the
various articles of food, sometimes better and sometimes worse.
CLEINIAS: Of course.
ATHENIAN: Such being the case, let no one of the three portions be greater
than either of the other two--neither that which is assigned to masters or
to slaves, nor again that of the stranger; but let the distribution to all
be equal and alike, and let every citizen take his two portions and
distribute them among slaves and freemen, he having power to determine the
quantity and quality. And what remains he shall distribute by measure and
number among the animals who have to be sustained from the earth, taking
the whole number of them.
In the second place, our citizens should have separate houses duly
ordered; and this will be the order proper for men like them. There shall
be twelve hamlets, one in the middle of each twelfth portion, and in each
hamlet they shall first set apart a market-place, and the temples of the
Gods, and of their attendant demi-gods; and if there be any local deities
of the Magnetes, or holy seats of other ancient deities, whose memory has
been preserved, to these let them pay their ancient honours. But Hestia,
and Zeus, and Athene will have temples everywhere together with the God
who presides in each of the twelve districts. And the first erection of
houses shall be around these temples, where the ground is highest, in
order to provide the safest and most defensible place of retreat for the
guards. All the rest of the country they shall settle in the following
manner: They shall make thirteen divisions of the craftsmen; one of them
they shall establish in the city, and this, again, they shall subdivide
into twelve lesser divisions, among the twelve districts of the city, and
the remainder shall be distributed in the country round about; and in each
village they shall settle various classes of craftsmen, with a view to the
convenience of the husbandmen. And the chief officers of the wardens of
the country shall superintend all these matters, and see how many of them,
and which class of them, each place requires; and fix them where they are
likely to be least troublesome, and most useful to the husbandman. And the
wardens of the city shall see to similar matters in the city.
Now the wardens of the agora ought to see to the details of the agora.
Their first care, after the temples which are in the agora have been seen
to, should be to prevent any one from doing any wrong in dealings between
man and man; in the second place, as being inspectors of temperance and
violence, they should chastise him who requires chastisement. Touching
articles of sale, they should first see whether the articles which the
citizens are under regulations to sell to strangers are sold to them, as
the law ordains. And let the law be as follows: On the first day of the
month, the persons in charge, whoever they are, whether strangers or
slaves, who have the charge on behalf of the citizens, shall produce to
the strangers the portion which falls to them, in the first place, a
twelfth portion of the corn--the stranger shall purchase corn for the
whole month, and other cereals, on the first market day; and on the tenth
day of the month the one party shall sell, and the other buy, liquids
sufficient to last during the whole month; and on the twenty-third day
there shall be a sale of animals by those who are willing to sell to the
people who want to buy, and of implements and other things which
husbandmen sell, (such as skins and all kinds of clothing, either woven or
made of felt and other goods of the same sort) and which strangers are
compelled to buy and purchase of others. As to the retail trade in these
things, whether of barley or wheat set apart for meal and flour, or any
other kind of food, no one shall sell them to citizens or their slaves,
nor shall any one buy of a citizen; but let the stranger sell them in the
market of strangers, to artisans and their slaves, making an exchange of
wine and food, which is commonly called retail trade. And butchers shall
offer for sale parts of dismembered animals to the strangers, and
artisans, and their servants. Let any stranger who likes buy fuel from day
to day wholesale, from those who have the care of it in the country, and
let him sell to the strangers as much as he pleases and when he pleases.
As to other goods and implements which are likely to be wanted, they shall
sell them in the common market, at any place which the guardians of the
law and the wardens of the market and city, choosing according to their
judgment, shall determine; at such places they shall exchange money for
goods, and goods for money, neither party giving credit to the other; and
he who gives credit must be satisfied, whether he obtain his money or not,
for in such exchanges he will not be protected by law. But whenever
property has been bought or sold, greater in quantity or value than is
allowed by the law, which has determined within what limits a man may
increase and diminish his possessions, let the excess be registered in the
books of the guardians of the law; or in case of diminution, let there be
an erasure made. And let the same rule be observed about the registration
of the property of the metics. Any one who likes may come and be a metic
on certain conditions; a foreigner, if he likes, and is able to settle,
may dwell in the land, but he must practise an art, and not abide more
than twenty years from the time at which he has registered himself; and he
shall pay no sojourner's tax, however small, except good conduct, nor any
other tax for buying and selling. But when the twenty years have expired,
he shall take his property with him and depart. And if in the course of
these years he should chance to distinguish himself by any considerable
benefit which he confers on the state, and he thinks that he can persuade
the council and assembly, either to grant him delay in leaving the
country, or to allow him to remain for the whole of his life, let him go
and persuade the city, and whatever they assent to at his instance shall
take effect. For the children of the metics, being artisans, and of
fifteen years of age, let the time of their sojourn commence after their
fifteenth year; and let them remain for twenty years, and then go where
they like; but any of them who wishes to remain, may do so, if he can
persuade the council and assembly. And if he depart, let him erase all the
entries which have been made by him in the register kept by the
magistrates.