Socrates: One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourth of those who were yesterday my guests and are to be my entertainers to-day?
Timaeus: He has been taken ill, Socrates; for he would not willingly have been absent from this gathering.
Socrates: Then, if he is not coming, you and the two others must supply his place.
Timaeus: Certainly, and we will do all that we can; having been handsomely entertained by you yesterday, those
of us who remain should be only too glad to return your hospitality.
Socrates: Do you remember what were the points of which I required you to speak?
Timaeus: We remember some of them, and you will be here to remind us of anything which we have forgotten: or
rather, if we are not troubling you, will you briefly recapitulate the whole, and then the particulars will be more
firmly fixed in our memories?
Socrates: To be sure I will: the chief theme of my yesterday's discourse was the State-how constituted and of
what citizens composed it would seem likely to be most perfect.
Timaeus: Yes, Socrates; and what you said of it was very much to our mind.
Socrates: Did we not begin by separating the husbandmen and the artisans from the class of defenders of the
State?
Timaeus:Yes.
Socrates: And when we had given to each one that single employment and particular art which was suited to his
nature, we spoke of those who were intended to be our warriors, and said that they were to be guardians of the
city against attacks from within as well as from without, and to have no other employment; they were to be
merciful in judging their subjects, of whom they were by nature friends, but fierce to their enemies, when they
came across them in battle.
Timaeus: Exactly.
Socrates: We said, if I am not mistaken, that the guardians should be gifted with a temperament in a high degree
both passionate and philosophical; and that then they would be as they ought to be, gentle to their friends and
fierce with their enemies.
Timaeus: Certainly.
Socrates: And what did we say of their education? Were they not to be trained in gymnastic, and music, and all
other sorts of knowledge which were proper for them?
Timaeus: Very true.
Socrates: And being thus trained they were not to consider gold or silver or anything else to be their own private
property; they were to be like hired troops, receiving pay for keeping guard from those who were protected by
them-the pay was to be no more than would suffice for men of simple life; and they were to spend in common,
and to live together in the continual practice of virtue, which was to be their sole pursuit.
Timaeus: That was also said.
Socrates: Neither did we forget the women; of whom we declared, that their natures should be assimilated and
brought into harmony with those of the men, and that common pursuits should be assigned to them both in time of
war and in their ordinary life.
Timaeus: That, again, was as you say.
Socrates: And what about the procreation of children? Or rather not the proposal too singular to be forgotten?
for all wives and children were to be in common, to the intent that no one should ever know his own child, but
they were to imagine that they were all one family; those who were within a suitable limit of age were to be
brothers and sisters, those who were of an elder generation parents and grandparents, and those of a younger
children and grandchildren.
Timaeus: Yes, and the proposal is easy to remember, as you say.
Socrates: And do you also remember how, with a view of securing as far as we could the best breed, we said
that the chief magistrates, male and female, should contrive secretly, by the use of certain lots, so to arrange the
nuptial meeting, that the bad of either sex and the good of either sex might pair with their like; and there was to be
no quarrelling on this account, for they would imagine that the union was a mere accident, and was to be attributed
to the lot?
Timaeus:
I remember.
Socrates: And you remember how we said that the children of the good parents were to be educated, and the
children of the bad secretly dispersed among the inferior citizens; and while they were all growing up the rulers
were to be on the look-out, and to bring up from below in their turn those who were worthy, and those among
themselves who were unworthy were to take the places of those who came up?
Timaeus:True.
Socrates: Then have I now given you all the heads of our yesterday's discussion? Or is there anything more, my
dear Timaeus, which has been omitted?
Timaeus: Nothing, Socrates; it was just as you have said.
Socrates:I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I feel about the State which we have
described. I might compare myself to a person who, on beholding beautiful animals either created by the painter's
art, or, better still, alive but at rest, is seized with a desire of seeing them in motion or engaged in some struggle or
conflict to which their forms appear suited; this is my feeling about the State which we have been describing.
There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear some one tell of our own city carrying on a
struggle against her neighbours, and how she went out to war in a becoming manner, and when at war showed by
the greatness of her actions and the magnanimity of her words in dealing with other cities a result worthy of her
training and education. Now I, Critias and Hermocrates, am conscious that I myself should never be able to
celebrate the city and her citizens in a befitting manner, and I am not surprised at my own incapacity; to me the
wonder is rather that the poets present as well as past are no better-not that I mean to depreciate them; but every
one can see that they are a tribe of imitators, and will imitate best and most easily the life in which they have been
brought up; while that which is beyond the range of a man's education he finds hard to carry out in action, and still
harder adequately to represent in language. I am aware that the Sophists have plenty of brave words and fair
conceits, but I am afraid that being only wanderers from one city to another, and having never had habitations of
their own, they may fail in their conception of philosophers and statesmen, and may not know what they do and
say in time of war, when they are fighting or holding parley with their enemies. And thus people of your class are
the only ones remaining who are fitted by nature and education to take part at once both in politics and
philosophy. Here is Timaeus, of Locris in Italy, a city which has admirable laws, and who is himself in wealth and
rank the equal of any of his fellow-citizens; he has held the most important and honourable offices in his own state,
and, as I believe, has scaled the heights of all philosophy; and here is Critias, whom every Athenian knows to be
no novice in the matters of which we are speaking; and as to, Hermocrates, I am assured by many witnesses that
his genius and education qualify him to take part in any speculation of the kind. And therefore yesterday when I
saw that you wanted me to describe the formation of the State, I readily assented, being very well aware, that, if
you only would, none were better qualified to carry the discussion further, and that when you had engaged our city
in a suitable war, you of all men living could best exhibit her playing a fitting part. When I had completed my task,
I in return imposed this other task upon you. You conferred together and agreed to entertain me to-day, as I had
entertained you, with a feast of discourse. Here am I in festive array, and no man can be more ready for the
promised banquet.
Hermocrates: And we too, Socrates, as Timaeus says, will not be wanting in enthusiasm; and there is no excuse
for not complying with your request. As soon as we arrived yesterday at the guest-chamber of Critias, with whom
we are staying, or rather on our way thither, we talked the matter over, and he told us an ancient tradition, which I
wish, Critias, that you would repeat to Socrates, so that he may help us to judge whether it will satisfy his
requirements or not.
Critias: I will, if Timaeus, who is our other partner, approves.
Timaeus: I quite approve.
Critias: Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange, is certainly true, having been attested by Solon,
who was the wisest of the seven sages. He was a relative and a dear friend of my great-grandfather, Dropides, as
he himself says in many passages of his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who remembered
and repeated it to us. There were of old, he said, great and marvellous actions of the Athenian city, which have
passed into oblivion through lapse of time and the destruction of mankind, and one in particular, greater than all
the rest. This we will now rehearse. It will be a fitting monument of our gratitude to you, and a hymn of praise true
and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival.
