Greek Texts & Translations

True.

Then let this which I describe be laid down as one cause which hinders the States from adequately practicing either military operations or any other noble pursuits and which turns men who are of a quiet nature ^note into traders, ship-owners, and servants, while of the bold it makes pirates, burglars, temple-robbers, fighters 832aand despots,—and that though, in some cases, they are not ill-natured, but merely ill-fortuned.

How so?

Well, how could I describe otherwise than as utterly unfortunate men who are compelled to go through life with hunger ^note always in their own souls?

This, then, is one cause: what is the second cause you speak of, Stranger?

You are right in reminding me.

One cause, as you assert, is this lifelong insatiable pursuit, which wholly engrosses each man, and hinders each and all from rightly practicing military operations. 832bBe it so: now tell us the second cause.

Do you think that I am delaying to do so because I am at a loss?

No; but we think that, owing to a sort of hatred against the character you describe, you are castigating it more severely than is required by the argument now on hand.

Your rebuke is just, Strangers; you want, it seems, to hear what comes next.

Only say on.

There lies a cause, as I affirm, in those non-polities which I have often mentioned ^note in our previous discourse,—namely, democracy, 832coligarchy, and tyranny. For none of these is a polity, but the truest name for them all would be “faction-State”; for none of them is a form of voluntary rule over willing subjects, but a voluntary rule over unwilling subjects accompanied always by some kind of force; and the ruler, through fear of the subject, will never voluntarily allow him to become noble or wealthy or strong or brave or in any way warlike. These, then, are the two main causes of nearly everything, and certainly of the conditions we described. 832dThe polity, however, for which we are now legislating has escaped both these causes; for not only does it enjoy a great amount of leisure, ^note but the citizens also are free from one another's domination, and as a consequence of these laws of ours they will be the least likely of men to be money-lovers. Hence it is both natural and logical that of all existing polities this type alone should welcome the system above described, which combines military schooling with sport, when we have rightly completed that description.

Very good.

The next step, then, is to remind ourselves, 832ewith regard to all gymnastic contests, that all such as afford training for war should be instituted, and should have prizes assigned to them, but all that do not do so must be set aside. What these contests consist in, it will be well to have described and ordained at the beginning. First, then, should we not ordain contests in running and speed in general?

We should.

Most important of all things for war is, no doubt, general activity of the body, of hands as well as feet—activity of foot for flight and pursuit, 833aand of hand for the stand-up fighting at close quarters which calls for sturdiness and strength.

No doubt.

Yet, surely, neither of these is of the greatest service when it lacks weapons.

Certainly not.

So at our contests the herald (as is now the practice) shall summon first the short-distance runner: he shall enter fully armed; and for an unarmed competitor we shall offer no prize. First, then, there shall enter the man who, with his arms, is to run the furlong,—second, the runner of the quarter-mile,— 833bthird, the half-miler,—fourth, the runner of the three-quarters,—and fifth, that runner whom we shall despatch first, fully armed, to run a distance of four miles to a temple of Ares and back; he shall be in heavier armor, and be called a hoplite, and he shall run over a smooth course, while his antagonist ^note shall be dressed in the full equipment of an archer, and shall run a course of twelve miles over hills and varied country to a temple of Apollo and Artemis. And having thus set up the contests, 833cwe shall await the return of these runners, and to the winner of each race we shall award the prize.

Very right.

Let us plan these contests in three divisions—one for children, one for youths, and one for men. We shall ordain that the course for the youths' races shall be two-thirds of the full course, and that for children one-half, when they compete either as archers or as hoplites. In the case of females, we shall ordain races of a furlong, a quarter-mile, a half-mile, and a three-quarters