Socrates “And this intermixture of the iron with the silver and the bronze with the gold will engender unlikeness¹ and an unharmonious unevenness, things that always beget war and enmity wherever they arise. Of this lineage, look you, ² we must aver the dissension to be, wherever it occurs and always.” ““And rightly too,”” he said, “we shall affirm that the Muses answer.” “They must needs,” I said, “since they are³ Muses.” 547b “Well, then,” said he, “what do the Muses say next?” “When strife arose,” said I, “the two groups were pulling against each other, the iron and bronze towards money-making and the acquisition of land and houses and gold and silver, and the other two, the golden and silvern, not being poor, but by nature rich in their souls,⁴ were trying to draw them back to virtue and their original constitution, and thus, striving and contending against one another, they compromised⁵ on the plan of distributing and taking for themselves the land and the houses, 547c enslaving and subjecting as perioeci and serfs⁶ their former friends⁷ and supporters, of whose freedom they had been the guardians, and occupying themselves with war and keeping watch over these subjects.” “I think,” he said, “that this is the starting-point of the transformation.” “Would not this polity, then,” said I, “be in some sort intermediate between aristocracy and oligarchy ?” “By all means.”

“By this change, then, it would arise. But after the change 547d what will be its way of life? Is it not obvious that in some things it will imitate the preceding polity, in some the oligarchy, since it is intermediate, and that it will also have some qualities peculiar to itself?” “That is so,” he said. “Then in honoring its rulers and in the abstention of its warrior class from farming⁸ and handicraft and money-making in general, and in the provision of common public tables⁹ and the devotion to physical training and expertness in the game and contest of war—in all these traits it will copy the preceding state?” “Yes.” “But in its fear 547e to admit clever men to office, since the men it has of this kind are no longer simple¹⁰ and strenuous but of mixed strain, and in its inclining rather to the more high-spirited and simple-minded type, who are better suited for war 548a than for peace, and in honoring the stratagems and contrivances of war and occupying itself with war most of the time—in these respects for the most part its qualities will be peculiar to itself?”

“Yes.” “Such men,” said I, “will be avid of wealth, like those in an oligarchy, and will cherish a fierce secret lust for gold¹¹ and silver, owning storehouses¹² and private treasuries where they may hide them away, and also the enclosures¹³ of their homes, literal private love-nests¹⁴ in which they can lavish their wealth on their women¹⁵ 548b and any others they please with great expenditure.” “Most true,” he said. “And will they not be stingy about money, since they prize it and are not allowed to possess it openly, prodigal of others’ wealth¹⁶ because of their appetites, enjoying¹⁷ their pleasures stealthily, and running away from the law as boys from a father,¹⁸ since they have not been educated by persuasion¹⁹ but by force because of their neglect of the true Muse, the companion of discussion and philosophy, 548c and because of their preference of gymnastics to music?” “You perfectly describe,” he said, “a polity that is a mixture²⁰ of good and evil.” “Why, yes, the elements have been mixed,” I said, “but the most conspicuous²¹ feature in it is one thing only, due to the predominance of the high-spirited element, namely contentiousness and covetousness of honor.²²” “Very much so,” said he. “Such, then, would be the origin and nature of this polity if we may merely outline the figure 548d of a constitution in words and not elaborate it precisely, since even the sketch will suffice to show us the most just and the most unjust type of man, and it would be an impracticable task to set forth all forms²³ of government without omitting any, and all customs and qualities of men.” “Quite right,” he said.

“What, then, is the man that corresponds to this constitution? What is his origin and what his nature?” “I fancy,” Adeimantus said, “that he comes rather close²⁴ to Glaucon here 548e in point of contentiousness.” “Perhaps,” said I, “in that, but I do not think their natures are alike in the following respects.” “In what?”

“He will have to be somewhat self-willed²⁵ and lacking in culture,²⁶ yet a lover of music and fond of listening²⁷ to talk and speeches, though by no means himself a rhetorician; 549a and to slaves such a one would be harsh,²⁸ not scorning them as the really educated do, but he would be gentle with the freeborn and very submissive to officials, a lover of office and of honor,²⁹ not basing his claim to office³⁰ on ability to speak or anything of that sort but on his exploits in war or preparation for war, and he would be a devotee of gymnastics and hunting.³¹” “Why, yes,” he said, “that is the spirit of that polity.³²” “And would not such a man 549b be disdainful of wealth too in his youth, but the older he grew the more he would love it because of his participation in the covetous nature and because his virtue is not sincere and pure since it lacks the best guardian?” “What guardian?” said Adeimantus. “Reason,” said I, “blended with culture,³³ which is the only indwelling preserver of virtue throughout life in the soul that possesses it.” “Well said,” he replied. “This is the character,” I said, “of the timocratic youth, resembling the city that bears his name.” “By all means.” 549c “His origin³⁴ is somewhat on this wise: Sometimes he is the young son of a good father who lives in a badly governed state and avoids honors and office and law-suits and all such meddlesomeness³⁵ and is willing to forbear something of his rights³⁶ in order to escape trouble.³⁷” “How does he originate?” he said. “Why, when, to begin with,” I said, “he hears his mother complaining³⁸ 549d that her husband is not one of the rulers and for that reason she is slighted among the other women, and when she sees that her husband is not much concerned about money and does not fight and brawl in private lawsuits and in the public assembly, but takes all such matters lightly, and when she observes that he is self-absorbed³⁹ in his thoughts and neither regards nor disregards her overmuch,⁴⁰ and in consequence of all this laments and tells the boy that his father is too slack⁴¹ and no kind of a man, with all the other complaints 549e with which women⁴² nag⁴³ in such cases.” “Many indeed,” said Adeimantus, “and after their kind.⁴⁴”

“You are aware, then,” said I, “that the very house-slaves of such men, if they are loyal and friendly, privately say the same sort of things to the sons, and if they observe a debtor or any other wrongdoer whom the father does not prosecute, they urge the boy to punish all such when he grows to manhood 550a and prove himself more of a man than his father, and when the lad goes out he hears and sees the same sort of thing.⁴⁵ Men who mind their own affairs⁴⁶ in the city are spoken of as simpletons and are held in slight esteem, while meddlers who mind other people’s affairs are honored and praised. Then it is⁴⁷ that the youth, hearing and seeing such things, and on the other hand listening to the words of his father, and with a near view of his pursuits contrasted with those of other men, is solicited by both, his father 550b watering and fostering the growth of the rational principle⁴⁸ in his soul and the others the appetitive and the passionate⁴⁹; and as he is not by nature of a bad disposition but has fallen into evil communications,⁵⁰ under these two solicitations he comes to a compromise⁵¹ and turns over the government in his soul⁵² to the intermediate principle of ambition and high spirit and becomes a man haughty of soul⁵³ and covetous of honor.⁵⁴” “You have, I think, most exactly described his origin.” 550c “Then,” said I, “we have our second polity and second type of man.” “We have,” he said.

“Shall we then, as Aeschylus: would say, tell of another champion before another gate, ^{55 56} or rather, in accordance with our plan,⁵⁷ the city first?” “That, by all means,” he said. “The next polity, I believe, would be oligarchy.” “And what kind of a regime,” said he, “do you understand by oligarchy?” “That based on a property qualification,⁵⁸” said I, “wherein the rich hold office 550d and the poor man is excluded.” “I understand,” said he. “Then, is not the first thing to speak of how democracy passes over into this?” “Yes.” “And truly,” said I, “the manner of the change is plain even to the proverbial blind man.⁵⁹” “How so?” “That treasure-house⁶⁰ which each possesses filled with gold destroys that polity; for first they invent ways of expenditure for themselves and pervert the laws to this end, 550e and neither they nor their wives obey them.” “That is likely,” he said. “And then, I take it, by observing and emulating one another they bring the majority of them to this way of thinking.” “That is likely,” he said. “And so, as time goes on, and they advance⁶¹ in the pursuit of wealth, the more they hold that in honor the less they honor virtue. May not the opposition of wealth and virtue⁶² be conceived as if each lay in the scale⁶³ of a balance inclining opposite ways?” “Yes, indeed,” he said.