PLATO'S LAWS I, OR ON LEGISLATION

God. Is it a Cretan, O stranger, or one of the gods who is responsible for you, O strangers, for the arrangement of the laws? It is a god, O stranger, a god, if one is to speak most justly. Among us it is Zeus; among the Lacedaemonians, from where this man comes, I believe they would say it is Apollo. Do you speak then, according to Homer, as Minos went to the company of his father every nine years, and established laws for the cities based on the reports from him? For it is said so among us. And indeed, his brother Rhadamanthus—for you have heard the name—is said to have been the most just. We Cretans would say that he received this praise because at that time he distributed judgments correctly. The glory is beautiful and most fitting for the son of Zeus. Since for the Lacedaemonians and the Cretans, in the laws, it is not a small matter that we have organized ourselves to fight wars, but rather we set laws for the sake of piety toward the city and above all for courage. In our leisure and rest, we attempt to make a cessation of travel, saying that it would seem best to speak to one another as humans, in the way that this path perhaps makes our rest long.

They will love towards the good. Of age, stranger. Clinias. Megillus.

A circular library stamp of the VATICAN LIBRARY is depicted.

I say from each. Indeed, then, for what reason were Crete and Sparta created, and the third? It is said thus: how many cities on earth keep guard? He says that it does not happen to all that life is laid out for those who win in war, and the things of the defeated become the property of the victors. Everything of the defeated is to be transferred to the victors.

A red circular stamp of the VATICAN LIBRARY is depicted.

Peace. Friendship. Eunomia good order.

That the city has need of five goods: health, beauty, strength, wealth, and practical wisdom. And so that it may have these, the lawgiver must always look toward temperance, justice, courage, and practical wisdom.

Perhaps, then, it is necessary to examine the laws, which private citizens must use. And perhaps they might seem to us as something that happens to them throughout all time. Do not, therefore, but rather as if this were a part of a myth, walk the whole way with both play and seriousness. And it would be worth going through how among you, gymnasia, communal meals, and acquisitions are all laws for the seats. And before—I think you speak correctly. For one might see your whole way of life as if it were arranged for war. And in this way, it seems to me that, according to this arrangement, the laws among you are agreed upon. For the gymnasia are for the sake of war. For those in Crete and in every kingdom assumed that the days were such—for there is no good for the other beasts that escape and hide during the times of peace—but they also set a law for themselves and use only the running, because our country is uneven and most suitable for the arrangement of running, and the weapons are light and most correct for those who walk in this way, so that they do not compete while burdened by the weight of speed. Wherefore he also speaks of harmony. These things, then, must be said to look toward all the parts, and the whole name of divine laws might say that the lawgiver did not arrange the communal meals and the gymnasia looking at this—a clear part—that the whole looks toward the name of virtue and at the same time the name of the protection of all.

Text in lower margin is very faded and dense, appearing to be a later commentary or scholia.?