Laws
which is right and which is not right; for what we say about our slaves
is consistent and also inconsistent with our practice about them.
MEGILLUS: I do not understand, Stranger, what you mean.
ATHENIAN: I am not surprised, Megillus, for the state of the Helots
among the Lacedaemonians is of all Hellenic forms of slavery the most
controverted and disputed about, some approving and some condemning
it; there is less dispute about the slavery which exists among the
Heracleots, who have subjugated the Mariandynians, and about the
Thessalian Penestae. Looking at these and the like examples, what ought
we to do concerning property in slaves? I made a remark, in passing,
which naturally elicited a question about my meaning from you. It was
this:--We know that all would agree that we should have the best and
most attached slaves whom we can get. For many a man has found his
slaves better in every way than brethren or sons, and many times they
have saved the lives and property of their masters and their whole
house--such tales are well known.
MEGILLUS: To be sure.
ATHENIAN: But may we not also say that the soul of the slave is utterly
corrupt, and that no man of sense ought to trust them? And the wisest of
our poets, speaking of Zeus, says:
'Far-seeing Zeus takes away half the understanding of men whom the day
of slavery subdues.'
Different persons have got these two different notions of slaves in
their minds--some of them utterly distrust their servants, and, as if
they were wild beasts, chastise them with goads and whips, and make
their souls three times, or rather many times, as slavish as they were
before;--and others do just the opposite.
MEGILLUS: True.
CLEINIAS: Then what are we to do in our own country, Stranger, seeing
that there are such differences in the treatment of slaves by their
owners?
ATHENIAN: Well, Cleinias, there can be no doubt that man is a
troublesome animal, and therefore he is not very manageable, nor likely
to become so, when you attempt to introduce the necessary division of
slave, and freeman, and master.
CLEINIAS: That is obvious.
ATHENIAN: He is a troublesome piece of goods, as has been often shown
by the frequent revolts of the Messenians, and the great mischiefs which
happen in states having many slaves who speak the same language, and the
numerous robberies and lawless life of the Italian banditti, as they are
called. A man who considers all this is fairly at a loss. Two remedies
alone remain to us,--not to have the slaves of the same country, nor if
possible, speaking the same language (compare Aris. Pol.); in this way
they will more easily be held in subjection: secondly, we should tend
them carefully, not only out of regard to them, but yet more out of
respect to ourselves. And the right treatment of slaves is to behave
properly to them, and to do to them, if possible, even more justice
than to those who are our equals; for he who naturally and genuinely
reverences justice, and hates injustice, is discovered in his dealings
with any class of men to whom he can easily be unjust. And he who in
regard to the natures and actions of his slaves is undefiled by impiety
and injustice, will best sow the seeds of virtue in them; and this may
be truly said of every master, and tyrant, and of every other having
authority in relation to his inferiors. Slaves ought to be punished as
they deserve, and not admonished as if they were freemen, which will
only make them conceited. The language used to a servant ought always
to be that of a command (compare Arist. Pol.), and we ought not to jest
with them, whether they are males or females--this is a foolish way
which many people have of setting up their slaves, and making the life
of servitude more disagreeable both for them and for their masters.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Now that each of the citizens is provided, as far as possible,
with a sufficient number of suitable slaves who can help him in what he
has to do, we may next proceed to describe their dwellings.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: The city being new and hitherto uninhabited, care ought to be
taken of all the buildings, and the manner of building each of them,
and also of the temples and walls. These, Cleinias, were matters which
properly came before the marriages;--but, as we are only talking,
there is no objection to changing the order. If, however, our plan of
legislation is ever to take effect, then the house shall precede the
marriage if God so will, and afterwards we will come to the regulations
about marriage; but at present we are only describing these matters in a
general outline.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: The temples are to be placed all round the agora, and the
whole city built on the heights in a circle (compare Arist. Pol.), for
the sake of defence and for the sake of purity. Near the temples are to
be placed buildings for the magistrates and the courts of law; in these
plaintiff and defendant will receive their due, and the places will be
regarded as most holy, partly because they have to do with holy things:
and partly because they are the dwelling-places of holy Gods: and in
them will be held the courts in which cases of homicide and other trials
of capital offences may fitly take place. As to the walls, Megillus, I
agree with Sparta in thinking that they should be allowed to sleep in
the earth, and that we should not attempt to disinter them (compare
Arist. Pol.); there is a poetical saying, which is finely expressed,
that 'walls ought to be of steel and iron, and not of earth;' besides,
how ridiculous of us to be sending out our young men annually into
the country to dig and to trench, and to keep off the enemy by
fortifications, under the idea that they are not to be allowed to set
foot in our territory, and then, that we should surround ourselves
with a wall, which, in the first place, is by no means conducive to the
health of cities, and is also apt to produce a certain effeminacy in
the minds of the inhabitants, inviting men to run thither instead of
repelling their enemies, and leading them to imagine that their safety
is due not to their keeping guard day and night, but that when they are
protected by walls and gates, then they may sleep in safety; as if they
were not meant to labour, and did not know that true repose comes from
labour, and that disgraceful indolence and a careless temper of mind
is only the renewal of trouble. But if men must have walls, the private
houses ought to be so arranged from the first that the whole city may
be one wall, having all the houses capable of defence by reason of their
uniformity and equality towards the streets (compare Arist. Pol.). The
form of the city being that of a single dwelling will have an agreeable
aspect, and being easily guarded will be infinitely better for security.
Until the original building is completed, these should be the principal
objects of the inhabitants; and the wardens of the city should
superintend the work, and should impose a fine on him who is negligent;
and in all that relates to the city they should have a care of
cleanliness, and not allow a private person to encroach upon any public
property either by buildings or excavations. Further, they ought to
take care that the rains from heaven flow off easily, and of any other
matters which may have to be administered either within or without the
city. The guardians of the law shall pass any further enactments which
their experience may show to be necessary, and supply any other points
in which the law may be deficient. And now that these matters, and the
buildings about the agora, and the gymnasia, and places of instruction,
and theatres, are all ready and waiting for scholars and spectators,
let us proceed to the subjects which follow marriage in the order of
legislation.
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: Assuming that marriages exist already, Cleinias, the mode
of life during the year after marriage, before children are born, will
follow next in order. In what way bride and bridegroom ought to live in
a city which is to be superior to other cities, is a matter not at all
easy for us to determine. There have been many difficulties already,
but this will be the greatest of them, and the most disagreeable to the
many. Still I cannot but say what appears to me to be right and true,
Cleinias.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: He who imagines that he can give laws for the public conduct
of states, while he leaves the private life of citizens wholly to take
care of itself; who thinks that individuals may pass the day as they
please, and that there is no necessity of order in all things; he, I
say, who gives up the control of their private lives, and supposes that
they will conform to law in their common and public life, is making a
great mistake. Why have I made this remark? Why, because I am going to
enact that the bridegrooms should live at the common tables, just as
they did before marriage. This was a singularity when first enacted by
the legislator in your parts of the world, Megillus and Cleinias, as
I should suppose, on the occasion of some war or other similar danger,
which caused the passing of the law, and which would be likely to occur
in thinly-peopled places, and in times of pressure. But when men had
once tried and been accustomed to a common table, experience showed that
the institution greatly conduced to security; and in some such manner
the custom of having common tables arose among you.
CLEINIAS: Likely enough.
ATHENIAN: I said that there may have been singularity and danger in
imposing such a custom at first, but that now there is not the same
difficulty. There is, however, another institution which is the natural
sequel to this, and would be excellent, if it existed anywhere, but at
present it does not. The institution of which I am about to speak is not
easily described or executed; and would be like the legislator 'combing
wool into the fire,' as people say, or performing any other impossible
and useless feat.
CLEINIAS: What is the cause, Stranger, of this extreme hesitation?
ATHENIAN: You shall hear without any fruitless loss of time. That which
has law and order in a state is the cause of every good, but that
which is disordered or ill-ordered is often the ruin of that which is
well-ordered; and at this point the argument is now waiting. For with
you, Cleinias and Megillus, the common tables of men are, as I said, a
heaven-born and admirable institution, but you are mistaken in leaving
the women unregulated by law. They have no similar institution of public
tables in the light of day, and just that part of the human race
which is by nature prone to secrecy and stealth on account of their
weakness--I mean the female sex--has been left without regulation by
the legislator, which is a great mistake. And, in consequence of this
neglect, many things have grown lax among you, which might have been
far better, if they had been only regulated by law; for the neglect of
regulations about women may not only be regarded as a neglect of half
the entire matter (Arist. Pol.), but in proportion as woman's nature
is inferior to that of men in capacity for virtue, in that degree the
consequence of such neglect is more than twice as important. The careful
consideration of this matter, and the arranging and ordering on a
common principle of all our institutions relating both to men and women,
greatly conduces to the happiness of the state. But at present, such
is the unfortunate condition of mankind, that no man of sense will even
venture to speak of common tables in places and cities in which they
have never been established at all; and how can any one avoid being
utterly ridiculous, who attempts to compel women to show in public