ATHENIAN: Justice is said by them to be the interest of the stronger (Republic).
CLEINIAS: Speak plainer.
ATHENIAN: I will:—'Surely,' they say, 'the governing power makes whatever laws have authority in any state'?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: 'Well,' they would add, 'and do you suppose that tyranny or democracy, or any other conquering power, does not make the continuance of the power which is possessed by them the first or principal object of their laws'?
CLEINIAS: How can they have any other?
ATHENIAN: 'And whoever transgresses these laws is punished as an evil-doer by the legislator, who calls the laws just'?
CLEINIAS: Naturally.
ATHENIAN: 'This, then, is always the mode and fashion in which justice exists.'
CLEINIAS: Certainly, if they are correct in their view.