And is it not true that in like manner a leader of the people who, getting control of a docile mob, Footnote 1Note the difference of tone from 502 B. Cf. Phaedr. 260 C. does not withhold his hand from the shedding of tribal blood, Footnote 2Cf. Pindar, Pyth. ii. 32; Lucan i. 331:
nullus semel ore receptus Pollutas patitur sanguis mansuescere fauces.
but by the customary unjust accusations brings a citizen into court and assassinates him, blotting out Footnote 3For ἀφανίζων Cf. Gorg. 471 B. a human life, and with unhallowed tongue and lips that have tasted kindred blood,
banishes and slays and hints at the abolition of debts and the partition of lands Footnote 4The apparent contradiction of the tone here with Laws 684 E could be regarded mistakenly as another disharmony.
Grote iii. p. 107 says that there is no case of such radical measures in Greek history. Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen, ii. p. 374, says that the only case was that of Cleomenes at Sparta in the third century. See Georges Mathieu, Les Idées politiques d’Isocrate, p. 150, who refers to Andoc. De myst. 88, Plato, Laws 684, Demosth. Against Timocr. 149 (heliastic oath), Michel, Recueil d’inscriptions grecques, 1317, the oath at Itanos. —is it not the inevitable consequence and a decree of fate Footnote 5Cf. 619 C. that such a one be either slain by his enemies or become a tyrant and be transformed from a man into a wolf?It is quite inevitable,
he said. He it is,
I said, who becomes the leader of faction against the possessors of property. Footnote 6Cf. 565 A.
Yes, he.
May it not happen that he is driven into exile and, being restored in defiance of his enemies, returns a finished tyrant?
Obviously.
And if they are unable to expel him or bring about his death by calumniating him to the people, they plot to assassinate him by stealth.
That is certainly wont to happen,
said he. And thereupon those who have reached this stage devise that famous petition Footnote 7Cf Herod. i. 59, Aristot. Rhet. 1357 b 30 ff. Aristotle, Pol. 1305 a 7-15, says that this sort of thing used to happen but does not now, and explains why. For πολυθρύλητον Cf. Phaedo 100 B. of the tyrant—to ask from the people a bodyguard to make their city safe Footnote 8For the ethical dative αὐτοῖς cf. on 343 Vol. I. p. 65, note c. for the friend of democracy.
They do indeed,
he said. And the people grant it, I suppose, fearing for him but unconcerned for themselves.
Yes, indeed.
And when he sees this, the man who has wealth and with his wealth the repute of hostility to democracy, Footnote 9For μισόδημος cf. Aristoph. Wasps 474, Xen. Hell. ii. 3. 47, Andoc. iv. 16, and by contrast φιλόδημον, Aristoph. Knights 787, Clouds 1187. then in the words of the oracle delivered to Croesus,
By the pebble-strewn strand of the Hermos Swift is his flight, he stays not nor blushes to show the white feather.
Hdt. 1.55No, for he would never get a second chance to blush.
And he who is caught, methinks, is delivered to his death.
Inevitably.
And then obviously that protector does not lie prostrate,
mighty with far-flung limbs,
Hom. Il. 16.776 in Homeric overthrow, Footnote 10In Hom. Il. 16.776 Cebriones, Hector’s charioteer, slain by Patroclus,κεῖτο μέγας μεγαλωστί, mighty in his mightiness.
(A. T. Murray, Loeb tr.) but overthrowing many others towers in the car of state Footnote 11For the figure Cf. Polit. 266 E. More common in Plato is the figure of the ship in this connection. Cf. on 488. transformed from a protector into a perfect and finished tyrant.What else is likely?
he said.
Shall we, then, portray the happiness,
said I, of the man and the state in which such a creature arises?
By all means let us describe it,
he said. Then at the start and in the first days does he not smile Footnote 12Cf. Eurip. I. A. 333 ff., Shakes. Henry IV.Part I. I. iii. 246
This king of smiles, this Bolingbroke.
upon all men and greet everybody he meets and deny that he is a tyrant, and promise many things in private and public, and having freed men from debts, and distributed lands to the people and his own associates, he affects a gracious and gentle manner to all?Necessarily,
he said. But when, I suppose, he has come to terms with some of his exiled enemies Footnote 13Not
foreign enemies
as almost all render it. Cf. my note on this passage in Class. Rev. xix. () pp. 438-439, 573 B ἔξω ὠθεῖ
, Theognis 56, Thuc. iv. 66 and viii. 64. and has got others destroyed and is no longer disturbed by them, in the first place he is always stirring up some war Footnote 14Cf. Polit. 308 A, and in modern times the case of Napoleon. so that the people may be in need of a leader.That is likely.
Book 8