Greek Texts & Translations

The next steps would certainly be such as you describe.

Let us go on to describe the rise of a third form of constitution, in which are blended all kinds and varieties of constitutions, and of States as well. ^note 681e

What form is that?

The same that Homer himself mentioned next to the second, when he said that the third form arose in this way. His verses run thus— Dardania he founded when as yet
The Holy keep of Ilium was not built
Upon the plain, a town for mortal folk,
But still they dwelt upon the highland slopes
Of many-fountained Ida.
Hom. Il. 20.216 ff. 682aIndeed, these verses of his, as well as those he utters concerning the Cyclopes, are in a kind of unison with the voices of both God and Nature. For being divinely inspired in its chanting, the poetic tribe, with the aid of Graces and Muses, often grasps the truth of history.

It certainly does.

Now let us advance still further in the tale that now engages us; for possibly it may furnish some hint regarding the matter we have in view. Ought we not to do so? 682b

Most certainly.

Ilium was founded, we say, after moving from the highlands down to a large and noble plain, on a hill of no great height which had many rivers flowing down from Ida above.

So they say.

And do we not suppose that this took place many ages after the Deluge?

Many ages after, no doubt.

At any rate they seem to have been strangely forgetful 682cof the catastrophe now mentioned, since they placed their city, as described, under a number of rivers descending from the mount, and relied for their safety upon hillocks of no great height.

So it is evident that they were removed by quite a long interval from that calamity.

By this time, too, as mankind multiplied, many other cities had been founded.

Of course.

And these cities also made attacks on Ilium, probably by sea too, as well as by land, since by this time all made use of the sea fearlessly.

So it appears. 682d

And after a stay of ten years the Achaeans sacked Troy.

Very true.

Now during this period of ten years, while the siege lasted, the affairs of each of the besiegers at home suffered much owing to the seditious conduct of the young men. For when the soldiers returned to their own cities and homes, 682ethese young people did not receive them fittingly and justly, but in such a way that there ensued a vast number of cases of death, slaughter, and exile. So they, being again driven out, migrated by sea; and because Dorieus ^note was the man who then banded together the exiles, they got the new name of “Dorians,” instead of “Achaeans.” But as to all the events that follow this, you Lacedaemonians relate them all fully in your traditions.

Quite true.

And now—as it were by divine direction—we have returned once more to the very point in our discourse on laws where we made our digression, ^note when we plunged into the subject of music and drinking-parties; and we can, so to speak, get a fresh grip upon the argument, now that it has reached this point,—the settlement of Lacedaemon, 683aabout which you said truly that it and Crete were settled under kindred laws. From the wandering course of our argument, and our excursion through various polities and settlements, we have now gained this much: we have discerned a first, a second and a third State, ^note all, as we suppose, succeeding one another in the settlements which took place during vast ages of time. And now there has emerged this fourth State—or “nation,” if you so prefer—which was once upon a time in course of establishment and is now established. 683bNow, if we can gather from all this which of these settlements was right and which wrong, and which laws keep safe what is kept safe, and which laws ruin what is mined, and what changes in what particulars would effect the happiness of the State,—then, O Megillus and Clinias, we ought to describe these things again, making a fresh start from the beginning,—unless we have some fault to find with our previous statements.

I can assure you, Stranger, that if some god were to promise us that,