Laws
guiding and sacred principle given by nature, but in some the division
or distribution has been more right than in others, and has been more
sacred and fortunate. In our opinion, nothing can be more right than the
selection of the number 5040, which may be divided by all numbers from
one to twelve with the single exception of eleven, and that admits of a
very easy correction; for if, turning to the dividend (5040), we deduct
two families, the defect in the division is cured. And the truth of this
may be easily proved when we have leisure. But for the present, trusting
to the mere assertion of this principle, let us divide the state; and
assigning to each portion some God or son of a God, let us give them
altars and sacred rites, and at the altars let us hold assemblies for
sacrifice twice in the month--twelve assemblies for the tribes, and
twelve for the city, according to their divisions; the first in honour
of the Gods and divine things, and the second to promote friendship
and 'better acquaintance,' as the phrase is, and every sort of good
fellowship with one another. For people must be acquainted with those
into whose families and whom they marry and with those to whom they give
in marriage; in such matters, as far as possible, a man should deem
it all important to avoid a mistake, and with this serious purpose let
games be instituted (compare Republic) in which youths and maidens shall
dance together, seeing one another and being seen naked, at a proper
age, and on a suitable occasion, not transgressing the rules of modesty.
The directors of choruses will be the superintendents and regulators
of these games, and they, together with the guardians of the law, will
legislate in any matters which we have omitted; for, as we said, where
there are numerous and minute details, the legislator must leave out
something. And the annual officers who have experience, and know what is
wanted, must make arrangements and improvements year by year, until
such enactments and provisions are sufficiently determined. A ten years'
experience of sacrifices and dances, if extending to all particulars,
will be quite sufficient; and if the legislator be alive they shall
communicate with him, but if he be dead then the several officers shall
refer the omissions which come under their notice to the guardians of
the law, and correct them, until all is perfect; and from that time
there shall be no more change, and they shall establish and use the new
laws with the others which the legislator originally gave them, and of
which they are never, if they can help, to change aught; or, if some
necessity overtakes them, the magistrates must be called into counsel,
and the whole people, and they must go to all the oracles of the Gods;
and if they are all agreed, in that case they may make the change, but
if they are not agreed, by no manner of means, and any one who dissents
shall prevail, as the law ordains.
Whenever any one over twenty-five years of age, having seen and been
seen by others, believes himself to have found a marriage connexion
which is to his mind, and suitable for the procreation of children, let
him marry if he be still under the age of five-and-thirty years; but
let him first hear how he ought to seek after what is suitable and
appropriate (compare Arist. Pol.). For, as Cleinias says, every law
should have a suitable prelude.
CLEINIAS: You recollect at the right moment, Stranger, and do not miss
the opportunity which the argument affords of saying a word in season.
ATHENIAN: I thank you. We will say to him who is born of good parents--O
my son, you ought to make such a marriage as wise men would approve. Now
they would advise you neither to avoid a poor marriage, nor specially
to desire a rich one; but if other things are equal, always to honour
inferiors, and with them to form connexions;--this will be for the
benefit of the city and of the families which are united; for the
equable and symmetrical tends infinitely more to virtue than the
unmixed. And he who is conscious of being too headstrong, and carried
away more than is fitting in all his actions, ought to desire to become
the relation of orderly parents; and he who is of the opposite temper
ought to seek the opposite alliance. Let there be one word concerning
all marriages:--Every man shall follow, not after the marriage which is
most pleasing to himself, but after that which is most beneficial to the
state. For somehow every one is by nature prone to that which is likest
to himself, and in this way the whole city becomes unequal in property
and in disposition; and hence there arise in most states the very
results which we least desire to happen. Now, to add to the law an
express provision, not only that the rich man shall not marry into the
rich family, nor the powerful into the family of the powerful, but that
the slower natures shall be compelled to enter into marriage with the
quicker, and the quicker with the slower, may awaken anger as well as
laughter in the minds of many; for there is a difficulty in perceiving
that the city ought to be well mingled like a cup, in which the
maddening wine is hot and fiery, but when chastened by a soberer God,
receives a fair associate and becomes an excellent and temperate drink
(compare Statesman). Yet in marriage no one is able to see that the same
result occurs. Wherefore also the law must let alone such matters, but
we should try to charm the spirits of men into believing the equability
of their children's disposition to be of more importance than equality
in excessive fortune when they marry; and him who is too desirous of
making a rich marriage we should endeavour to turn aside by reproaches,
not, however, by any compulsion of written law.
Let this then be our exhortation concerning marriage, and let us
remember what was said before--that a man should cling to immortality,
and leave behind him children's children to be the servants of God in
his place for ever. All this and much more may be truly said by way of
prelude about the duty of marriage. But if a man will not listen, and
remains unsocial and alien among his fellow-citizens, and is still
unmarried at thirty-five years of age, let him pay a yearly fine;--he
who of the highest class shall pay a fine of a hundred drachmae, and he
who is of the second class a fine of seventy drachmae; the third class
shall pay sixty drachmae, and the fourth thirty drachmae, and let the
money be sacred to Here; he who does not pay the fine annually shall owe
ten times the sum, which the treasurer of the goddess shall exact; and
if he fails in doing so, let him be answerable and give an account of
the money at his audit. He who refuses to marry shall be thus punished
in money, and also be deprived of all honour which the younger show to
the elder; let no young man voluntarily obey him, and, if he attempt to
punish any one, let every one come to the rescue and defend the injured
person, and he who is present and does not come to the rescue, shall be
pronounced by the law to be a coward and a bad citizen. Of the marriage
portion I have already spoken; and again I say for the instruction of
poor men that he who neither gives nor receives a dowry on account of
poverty, has a compensation; for the citizens of our state are provided
with the necessaries of life, and wives will be less likely to be
insolent, and husbands to be mean and subservient to them on account of
property. And he who obeys this law will do a noble action; but he who
will not obey, and gives or receives more than fifty drachmae as the
price of the marriage garments if he be of the lowest, or more than a
mina, or a mina-and-a-half, if he be of the third or second classes,
or two minae if he be of the highest class, shall owe to the public
treasury a similar sum, and that which is given or received shall be
sacred to Here and Zeus; and let the treasurers of these Gods exact the
money, as was said before about the unmarried--that the treasurers of
Here were to exact the money, or pay the fine themselves.
The betrothal by a father shall be valid in the first degree, that by a
grandfather in the second degree, and in the third degree, betrothal by
brothers who have the same father; but if there are none of these alive,
the betrothal by a mother shall be valid in like manner; in cases
of unexampled fatality, the next of kin and the guardians shall have
authority. What are to be the rites before marriages, or any other
sacred acts, relating either to future, present, or past marriages,
shall be referred to the interpreters; and he who follows their advice
may be satisfied. Touching the marriage festival, they shall assemble
not more than five male and five female friends of both families; and
a like number of members of the family of either sex, and no man shall
spend more than his means will allow; he who is of the richest class
may spend a mina,--he who is of the second, half a mina, and in the same
proportion as the census of each decreases: all men shall praise him who
is obedient to the law; but he who is disobedient shall be punished
by the guardians of the law as a man wanting in true taste, and
uninstructed in the laws of bridal song. Drunkenness is always improper,
except at the festivals of the God who gave wine; and peculiarly
dangerous, when a man is engaged in the business of marriage; at such
a crisis of their lives a bride and bridegroom ought to have all their
wits about them--they ought to take care that their offspring may be
born of reasonable beings; for on what day or night Heaven will give
them increase, who can say? Moreover, they ought not to begetting
children when their bodies are dissipated by intoxication, but their
offspring should be compact and solid, quiet and compounded properly;
whereas the drunkard is all abroad in all his actions, and beside
himself both in body and soul. Wherefore, also, the drunken man is bad
and unsteady in sowing the seed of increase, and is likely to beget
offspring who will be unstable and untrustworthy, and cannot be expected
to walk straight either in body or mind. Hence during the whole year
and all his life long, and especially while he is begetting children, he
ought to take care and not intentionally do what is injurious to health,
or what involves insolence and wrong; for he cannot help leaving the
impression of himself on the souls and bodies of his offspring, and he
begets children in every way inferior. And especially on the day
and night of marriage should a man abstain from such things. For the
beginning, which is also a God dwelling in man, preserves all things,
if it meet with proper respect from each individual. He who marries is
further to consider, that one of the two houses in the lot is the nest
and nursery of his young, and there he is to marry and make a home
for himself and bring up his children, going away from his father and
mother. For in friendships there must be some degree of desire, in order
to cement and bind together diversities of character; but excessive
intercourse not having the desire which is created by time, insensibly
dissolves friendships from a feeling of satiety; wherefore a man and
his wife shall leave to his and her father and mother their own
dwelling-places, and themselves go as to a colony and dwell there, and
visit and be visited by their parents; and they shall beget and bring up
children, handing on the torch of life from one generation to another,
and worshipping the Gods according to law for ever.
In the next place, we have to consider what sort of property will be
most convenient. There is no difficulty either in understanding or
acquiring most kinds of property, but there is great difficulty in what
relates to slaves. And the reason is, that we speak about them in a way