Jowett: citizenship

  

City

Citizen, the, owes his first duty to his fatherland, Crito   51; must know both how to rule and how to obey, Laws 1.643 E (cp. 6. 762 E ; 12. 942 C); requires more than a mere military education, ib. 2. 666 E; must possess true wisdom, ib. 3. 689 ; must aid the rulers by giving information of the faults of others, ib. 5. 730 D, 742 B; 6. 762 D (cp. Informer) ; must be virtuous, ib. 6. 770 ; must not be praised until after death, ib. 7. 801 E ; the true praise of, ib. 822 E ; must practise no art but politics,ibi. 8.846 D (cp.Rep.8.551 E) :—the good citizens separated from the bad by the royal science, Statesm. 308, 309:—the citizens [in the best state], compared to a garrison of mercenaries (Adeimantus), Rep.   4. 419 (cp. 8. 543; Tim. 18 B) ; will form one family, Rep. 5.462 foil. (cp. Guardians) :— [in the Model City], number of citizens, Laws 5. 737,738 ; 6. 771 ; 9.877D; II. 9190,929 A ; thé citizens must not quarrel, ib. 5.737 A ; must know and be friends of each other, id. 738 E, 743 C ; 6. 759 B, 771 E ; to be happy rather than rich, ib. 5. 743 ; divided into four classes, ib. 744 C ; 6. 754 E ; must not lead an idle life, ib. 7. 807 ; not to take part in comic performances, ib. 816 E; competitors in the greatest of all contests, ib. 830 A, C ; must not be lovers   of money, id. 832 D ; must be able to control their passions, ib. 840 ; must not practise handicraft arts, ib. 846 D ; not to be retail traders, ib. 11. 919 (cp. 8. 842 D, 847 E).

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Socrates   proceeds : Suppose the laws of Athens to come and remonstrate with him : they will ask, "Why does he seek to overturn them ?" and if he replies, "They have injured him," will not the laws answer, "Yes, but was that the agreement ? Has he any objection to make to them which would justify him in overturning them ? Was he not brought into the world and educated by their help, and are they not his parents ? He might have left Athens and gone where he pleased, but he has lived there for seventy years more constantly than any other citizen." Thus he has clearly shown that he acknowledged the agreement which he cannot now break without dishonor to himself and danger to his friends. Even in the course of the trial he might have proposed exile as the penalty, but then he declared that he preferred death to exile. And whither will he direct his footsteps ? In any well-ordered State the laws will consider him as an enemy. Possibly in a land of misrule like Thessaly he may be welcomed at first, and the unseemly narrative of his escape regarded by the inhabitants as an amusing tale. But if he offends them he will have to learn another sort of lesson. Will he continue to give lectures in virtue ? That would hardly be decent. And how will his children be the gainers if he takes them into Thessaly, and deprives them of Athenian citizenship ? Or if he leaves them behind, does he expect that they will be better taken care of by his friends because he is in Thessaly ? Will not true friends care for them equally whether he is alive or dead ? CRITO

"For just consider, if you transgress and err in this sort of way, what good will you do, either to yourself or to your friends ? That your friends will be driven into exile and deprived of citizenship, or will lose their property, is tolerably certain ; and you yourself, if you fly to one of the neighboring cities, as, for example, Thebes or Megara, both of which are well-governed cities, will come to them as an enemy, Socrates, and their government will be against you, and all patriotic citizens will cast an evil eye upon you as a subverter of the laws, and you will confirm in the minds of the judges the justice of their own condemnation of you. For he who is a corrupter of the laws is more than likely to be corrupter of the young and foolish portion of mankind. Will you then flee from well-ordered cities and virtuous men ? and is existence worth having on these terms ? Or will you go to them without shame, and talk to them, Socrates ? And what will you say to them ? What you say here about virtue and justice and institutions and laws being the best things among men ? Would that be decent of you ? Surely not. But if you go away from well-governed States to Crito’s friends in Thessaly, where there is great disorder and license, they will be charmed to have the tale of your escape from prison, set off with ludicrous particulars of the manner in which you were wrapped in a goatskin or some other disguise, and metamorphosed as the fashion of runaways is — that is very likely ; but will there be no one to remind you that in your old age you violated the most sacred laws from a miserable desire of a little more life ? Perhaps not, if you keep them in a good temper ; but if they are out of temper you will hear many degrading things ; you will live, but how ? — as the flatterer of all men, and the servant of all men ; and doing what ? — eating and drinking in Thessaly, having gone abroad in order that you may get a dinner. And where will be your fine sentiments about justice and virtue then ? Say that you wish to live for the sake of your children, that you may bring them up and educate them — will you take them into Thessaly and deprive them of Athenian citizenship ? Is that the benefit which you would confer upon them ? Or are you under the impression that they will be better cared for and educated here if you are still alive, although absent from them ; for that your friends will take care of them ? Do you fancy that if you are an inhabitant of Thessaly they will take care of them, and if you are an inhabitant of the other world they will not take care of them ? Nay ; but if they who call themselves friends are truly friends, they surely will. CRITO

who is helpless, and has no power to save either himself or others, when he is in the greatest danger and is going to be despoiled by his enemies of all his goods, and has to live, simply deprived of his rights of citizenship ? — he being a man who, if I may use the expression, may be boxed on the ears with impunity. Then, my good friend, take my advice, and refute no more : GORGIAS

Ath. Then let us not leave the meaning of education ambiguous or ill-defined. At present, when we speak in terms of praise or blame about the bringing-up of each person, we call one man educated and another uneducated, although the uneducated man may be sometimes very well educated for the calling of a retail trader, or of a captain of a ship, and the like. For we are not speaking of education in this narrower sense, but of that other education in virtue from youth upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship, and teaches him how rightly to rule and how to obey. This is the only education which, upon our view, deserves the name ; that other sort of training, which aims at the acquisition of wealth or bodily strength, or mere cleverness apart from intelligence and justice, is mean and illiberal, and is not worthy to be called education at all. But let us not quarrel with one another about a word, provided that the proposition which has just been granted hold good : to wit, that those who are rightly educated generally become good men. Neither must we cast a slight upon education, which is the first and fairest thing that the best of men can ever have, and which, though liable to take a wrong direction, is capable of reformation. And this work of reformation is the great business of every man while he lives. LAWS BOOK I

Ath. True, Cleinias ; but then what should the lawgiver do when this evil is of long standing ? should he only rise up in the state and threaten all mankind, proclaiming that if they will not say and think that the Gods are such as the law ordains (and this may be extended generally to the honourable, the just, and to all the highest things, and to all that relates to virtue and vice), and if they will not make their actions conform to the copy which the law gives them, then he who refuses to obey the law shall die, or suffer stripes and bonds, or privation of citizenship, or in some cases be punished by loss of property and exile ? Should he not rather, when he is making laws for men, at the same time infuse the spirit of persuasion into his words, and mitigate the severity of them as far as he can ? LAWS BOOK X

They next proceed to make a law which fixes a sum of money as the qualification of citizenship ; the sum is higher in one place and lower in another, as the oligarchy is more or less exclusive ; and they allow no one whose property falls below the amount fixed to have any share in the government. These changes in the constitution they effect by force of arms, if intimidation has not already done their work. THE REPUBLIC BOOK VIII

But think again : In his wealthy days, while he was spending his money, was a man of this sort a whit more good to the State for the purposes of citizenship ? Or did he only seem to be a member of the ruling body, although in truth he was neither ruler nor subject, but just a spendthrift ? THE REPUBLIC BOOK VIII

And still they remain in the city ; there they are, ready to sting and fully armed, and some of them owe money, some have forfeited their citizenship ; a third class are in both predicaments ; and they hate and conspire against those who have got their property, and against everybody else, and are eager for revolution. THE REPUBLIC BOOK VIII