[State], relation of, to the individual, 2. [368]; 4. [434], [441]; 5. [462]; 8. [544]; 9. [577 B] [cp. Laws 3. 689; 5. 739; 9. 875, 877 C; 11. 923]; origin of, 2. [369] foll. [cp. Laws 3. 678 foll.]; should be in unity, 4. [422]; 5. [463] [cp. Laws 5. 739]; place of the virtues in, 4. [428] foll.; virtue of state and individual, ib. [441]; 6. [498 E]; family life in, 5. [449] [cp. Laws 5. 740]:
—the luxurious state, 2. [372 D] foll.:
—[the best state]; classes must be kept distinct, ib. [374]; 3. [379 E], [415 A]; 4. [421], [433 A], [434], [441 E], [443]; 5. [453] (cp. 8. [552 A], and Laws 8. 846 E); the rulers must be philosophers, 2. [376]; 5. [473]; 6. [484], [497] foll., [501], [503 B]; 7. [520], [521], [525 B], [540]; 8. [543] (cp. [Rulers]); the government must have the monopoly of lying, 2. [382]; 3. [389 A], [414 C]; 5. [459 D] [cp. Laws 2. 663 E]; the poets to be banished, 3. [398 A]; 8. [568 B]; 10. [595] foll., [605 A], [607 A] [cp. Laws 7. 817]; the older must bear rule, the younger obey, 3. [412] [cp. Laws 3. 690 A; 4. 714 E]; women, children, and goods to be common, ib. [416]; 5. [450 E], [457] foll., [462], [464]; 8. [543 A] [cp. Laws 5. 739; 7. 807 B]; must be happy as a whole, 4. [420 D]; 5. [466 A]; 7. [519 E]; will easily master other states in war, 4. [422]; must be of a size which is not inconsistent with unity, ib. [423] [cp. Laws 5. 737]; composed of three classes, traders, auxiliaries, counsellors, ib. [441 A]; may be either a monarchy or an aristocracy, ib. [445 C] (cp. 9. [576 D]); will form one family, 5. [463] [cp. Pol. 259]; will be free from quarrels and law-suits, 2. [378]; 5. [464], [465];
—is it possible? 5. [471], [473]; 6. [499]; 7. [540] [cp. 7. [520] and Laws 4. 711 E; 5. 739]; framed after the heavenly pattern, 6. [500 E]; 7. [540 A]; 9. [592]; how to be commenced, 6. [501]; 7. [540]; manner of its decline, 8. [546] [cp. Crit. 120];
—the best state that in which the rulers least desire office, 7. [520], [521]:
—the four imperfect forms of states, 4. [445 B]; 8. [544] [cp. Pol. 291 foll., 391 foll.]; succession of states, 8. [545] foll. (cp. [Government], forms of):
—existing states not one but many, 4. [423 A]; nearly all corrupt, 6. [496]; 7. [519], [520]; 9. [592].
State. [The polity of which Plato ‘sketches the outline’ in the Republic may be analysed into two principal elements, I, an Hellenic state of the older or Spartan type, with some traits borrowed from Athens, II, an ideal city in which the citizens have all things in common, and the government is carried on by a class of philosopher rulers who are selected by merit. These two elements are not perfectly combined; and, as Aristotle complains (Pol. ii. 5, § 18), very much is left ill-defined and uncertain.
—I. Like Hellenic cities in general, the number of the citizens is not to be great. The size of the state is limited by the requirement that ‘it shall not be larger or smaller than is consistent with unity.’ [The ‘convenient number’ 5040, which is 374 suggested in the Laws (v. 737), is regarded by Aristotle (Pol. ii. 6, § 6) as an ‘enormous multitude.’] Again, the individual is subordinate to the state. When Adeimantus complains of the hard life which the citizens will lead, ‘like mercenaries in a garrison’ (4. [419]), he is answered by Socrates that if the happiness of the whole is secured, the happiness of the parts will inevitably follow. Once more, war is supposed to be the normal condition of the state, and military service is imposed upon all. The profession of arms is the only one in which the citizen may properly engage. Trade is regarded as dishonourable:—‘those who are good for nothing else sit in the Agora buying and selling’ (2. [371 D]); the warrior can spare no time for such an employment (ib. [374 C]). [In the Laws Plato’s ideas enlarge; he thinks that peace is to be preferred to war (1. 628); and he speculates on the possibility of redeeming trade from reproach by compelling some of the best citizens to open a shop or keep a tavern (11. 918).]—In these respects, as well as in the introduction of common meals, Plato was probably influenced by the traditional ideal of Sparta [cp. Introd. [p. clxx]]. The Athenian element appears in the intellectual training of the citizens, and generally in the atmosphere of grace and refinement which they are to breathe (see s. v. [Art]). The restless energy of the Athenian character is perhaps reflected in the discipline imposed upon the ruling class (7. [540]), who when they have reached fifty are dispensed from continuous public service, but must then devote themselves to abstract study, and also be willing to take their turn when necessary at the helm of state [cp. Laws 7. 807; Thucyd. i. 70; ii. 40].
—II. The most peculiar features of Plato’s state are (1) the community of property, (2) the position of women, (3) the government of philosophers. (1) The first (see [s. v.]), though suggested in some measure by the example of Sparta or Crete [cp. Arist. Pol. ii. 5, § 6], is not known to have been actually practised anywhere in Hellas, unless possibly among such a body as the Pythagorean brotherhood. (2) Nothing in all the Republic was probably stranger to his contemporaries than the place which Plato assigns to women in the state. The community of wives and children, though carefully guarded by him from the charge of licentiousness (5. [458 E]), would appear worse in Athenian eyes than the traditional ‘licence’ of the Spartan women [Arist. Pol. ii. 9, § 5), which, so far as it really existed, no doubt arose out of an excessive regard to physical considerations in marriage. Again, the equal share in education, in war, and in administration which the women are supposed to enjoy in Plato’s state, was, if not so revolting, quite as contrary to common Hellenic sentiment [cp. Thucyd. ii. 45]. The Spartan women exercised a great influence on public affairs, but this was mainly indirect [cp. Laws 7. 806; Arist. Pol. ii. 9, § 8]; they did not hold office or learn the use of arms. At Athens, as is well known, the women, of the upper classes at least, lived in an almost Oriental seclusion, and were wholly absorbed in household duties (Laws 7. 805 E). (3) Finally, the government of philosophers had no analogy in the Hellenic world of 375 Plato’s time. He may have taken the suggestion from the stories of the Pythagorean rule in Magna Graecia. But it is also possible that these accounts of the brotherhood of Pythagoras, some of which have reached us on very doubtful authority, may be themselves to a considerable extent coloured and distorted by features adapted from the Republic. Whether this is the case or not, we can hardly doubt that Plato was chiefly indebted to his own imagination for his kingdom of philosophers, or that it remained to himself an ideal, rather than a state which would ever ‘play her part in actual life’ (Tim. 19, 20). It is at least significant that he never finished the Critias, as though he were unable to embody, even in a mythical form, the ‘city of which the pattern is laid up in heaven.’]
Statesmen in their own imagination, 4. [426].
Statues, polished for a decision, 2. [361 D]; painted, 4. [420 D].
Steadiness of character, apt to be accompanied by stupidity, 6. [503] [cp. Theaet. 144 B].
Stesichorus, says that Helen was never at Troy, 9. [586 C].
Stories, improper, not to be told to children, 2. [377]; 3. [391]. Cp. [Children], [Education].
Strength, rule of, 1. [338].
Style of poetry, 3. [392];
—styles, various, ib. [397].
Styx, 3. [387 B].