Categoria: Leis III

Athenian Stranger. Enough of this. And what, then, is to be regarded as the origin of government ? Will not a man be able to judge of it best from a point of view in which he may behold the progress of states and their transitions to good or evil ? Cleinias. What do you…

Ath. Do you believe that there is any truth in ancient traditions ? Cle. What traditions ? Ath. The traditions about the many destructions of mankind which have been occasioned by deluges and pestilences, and in many other ways, and of the survival of a remnant ? Cle. Every one is disposed to believe them.…

Ath. Thus, after digressing from the original subject of laws into music and drinking-bouts, the argument has, providentially, come back to the same point, and presents to us another handle. For we have reached the settlement of Lacedaemon ; which, as you truly say, is in laws and in institutions the sister of Crete. And…

Cle. Let us resume the argument in that spirit. And now, speaking of friendship and wisdom and freedom, I wish that you would tell me at what, in your opinion, the legislator should aim. Ath. Hear me, then : there are two mother forms of states from which the rest may be truly said to…

LAWS – BOOK III After having laid down as the first principle of politics, that peace, and not war, is the true aim of the legislator, and briefly discussed music and festive intercourse, at the commencement of the third book Plato makes a digression, in which he speaks of the origin of society. He describes,…