It should be noted here that, as in his Republic, Plato provides his ideal state with female as well as male guardians, and with priestesses as well as priests, whose duty it was to fulfil sacerdotal functions. Special attention is drawn to this point, as in practice, it naturally signifies a dual government, such as I have traced in ancient Egypt, Babylonia-Assyria, and also in Mexico and Peru.

“As regards the number of ... festivals ... let there be three hundred and sixty-five ... so that some one of the magistrates may always sacrifice ... there are to be twelve festivals to the twelve gods from whom each tribe has its name ... and twelve guardians of the law.... There ought to be twelve hamlets, one in the middle of each twelfth part, and in each hamlet to be selected first, a market place and temples ... prepare all the rest of the country by it into thirteen parts for the handicraftsmen and to cause one portion of these to reside in the city by distributing this portion among the twelve parts of the whole city ... to have other persons distributed out of the city, in a circle around it.”

The portions of Plato's work dealing with the appointment of the governors and guardians of the state and their rotations in office and imposed tours of inspection, are of such particular interest in connection with the present comparative research, that I am impelled to quote them here.

“Let each (of the twelve) phyles furnish for the year five Rural Stewards (in all sixty) ... each of whom is to choose twelve young men ... to the latter let there be allotted portions of the country during a month ... so that all of them may have a practical knowledge of every part of the country.... But let the governorship and guardianship continue to the guards and governors for two years, and let those who first obtain by lot their [pg 490] respective portions, the guard officers, lead out, changing the places of the country constantly by going to the place next in order towards the right in a circle, and let the right be that which is in the east. But as the years come around, in the second year, in order that the greatest portion of the guards may become acquainted with the country, not only at one season of the year, but that as many as possible may know thoroughly in addition to the country, at the same time what occurs relatively to each spot in the country at each season, let the officers lead them out again to the left, constantly changing the place until they go through the second year. In the third year it is meet to choose other rural stewards and guard officers as the five curators of the twelve young men.... There were to be three city stewards, dividing the twelve parts of the city into three ... and five Market-Stewards, to be chosen from ten elected”....[142]

It is deeply interesting to consider from the standpoint of comparative study the principal features of the perfected scheme proposed by Plato, in the fifth century B. C, for the establishment of an ideal colony, which is designated as a “divine polity” or a “holy land.” This is especially the case when we see that Plato himself states that it is the conformity of the states to the inherent laws of nature, that confers upon it divinity or holiness. It seems impossible not to recognize that both ideal republics of Plato were intended to be “celestial kingdoms” or “kingdoms of heaven” and that he expounded and doubtlessly perfected, an ancient ideal which had been more or less successfully carried out in different countries during many centuries before his time.

Having studied the proposed scheme for the foundation of a new colony of the Greeks, who proudly maintained that “it was meet that the Greeks should rule barbarians,” and pursued a regular [pg 491] system of colonization, let us now obtain an idea of the mode in which Greeks had previously founded colonies by reading the following passage from Grote's History of Greece, vol. iv, chap. xxvii:

“Under reign of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, about the middle of seventh century B.C., Grecian mercenaries were first established in Egypt and Grecian traders admitted ... into the Nile.[143] The opening of this new market emboldened them to traverse the direct sea which separates Krête from Egypt—a dangerous voyage with vessels which rarely ventured to lose sight of land—and seems to have first made them acquainted with the neighboring coast of Libya ... hence arose the foundation of the important colony called Kyrênê” ... about 630 B.C.

“Thêra was the mother-city, herself a colony from Lacedæmon ... political dissension among its inhabitants ... bad seasons, distress and over-population led to the emigration that founded Kyrênê.... The oekist Battus was selected and consecrated to work of founding the colony.... From the seven districts into which Thêra was divided, emigrants were drafted for the colony, one brother being singled out by lot from the different families.... The band which accompanied Battus was generally supplied with provisions for one year and was all conveyed in two pentekonters—armed ships with fifty rowers each. Thus humble was the start of the mighty Kyrênê. After six years residence in one spot they abandoned it and were conducted to a better site by guides, saying: ‘Here, men of Hellas, is the place for you to dwell, for here the sky is perforated.’ ”[144] The small force brought over by [pg 492] Battus was enabled at first to fraternize with the indigenous Libyans,—next, reinforced by additional colonists and availing themselves of the power of native chiefs, to overawe and subjugate them....

“The Theræan colonists seem to have married Libyan wives, whence Herodotus describes the women of Kyrênê and Barka as following, even in his time, religious observances indigenous and not Hellenic. Even the descendants of the primitive oekist Battus were semi-Libyan.... We must bear in mind that the population of the [Græco-Libyan] cities was not pure Greek, but more or less mixed, like that of the colonies in Italy, Sicily or Ionia.... Isokrates praises the well-chosen site of the colony of Kyrênê because it was planted in the midst of indigenous natives apt for subjection and far distant from any formidable enemies.... We are then to conceive the first Theræan colonists as established in their lofty fortified post Kyrênê, in the centre of Libyan Perioeki, till then strangers to walls, to arts and perhaps even to cultivated land.... To these rude men the Theræans communicated the elements of Hellenism and civilization, not without receiving themselves much that was non-Hellenic in return, and perhaps the reactionary influence of the Libyan element against the Hellenic might have proved the stronger of the two had they not been reinforced by new-comers from Greece.... About 543 B.C. owing to discontent, etc., the regal prerogative of the Battiad line was terminated and a republican government established; [pg 493] the dispossessed prince retaining both the landed domains and various sacerdotal functions which had belonged to his predecessors.”

ROME.