James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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ἥ τε -- ἐπαινουμένη. The Spartan constitution in its palmy days was widely praised for εὐνομία and discipline (pseudo-Archytas in Mullach Frag. Philos. Gr. I p. 560, Xen. Mem. III 5. 15 f., IV 4. 15, Plato Hipp. Mai. 283 E, 285 B, Laws 692 C and elsewhere), and became on this ground a sort of political ideal in the eyes of many Greeks: see for example Isocr. Panath. 108 ff. 200 ff. 216 ff. and the fragments of Critias' Λακεδαιμονίων πολιτεία in Müller Frag. Hist. Gr. II pp. 68 f. Cf. Nohle Statslehre Plat. pp. 108 ff. and Whibley Gk Olig. pp. 57 ff.

αὕτη: ista ‘that of yours,’ ‘your Cretan and Lacedaemonian constitution.’ On their connexion see Arist. Pol. B 10. 1271^{b} 22 ff. with Susemihl and Hicks's notes. It is, I think, fanciful to see in αὕτη an allusion to Glauco's sympathies for Sparta, in spite of 548 D below.

καὶ δευτέρως. Hermann prints his own conjecture ἡ δευτέρως, but the common confusion of καί and ἡ (Bast Comm. Pal. p. 815) is, I believe, later than the date of Paris A, and the text is free from objection: ‘and second in order as in esteem, a constitution fraught with many evils, bearing the name of oligarchy.’ δευτέρα agrees with πολιτεία, not with ὀλιγαρχία.

διάφορος: not of course ‘different’ (as Jowett), but ‘antagonistic,’ adversaria (Stallbaum). διάφορος ‘different’ gives a poor sense, and would take the genitive, which Ast erroneously proposed to read. Greek history furnished only too many proofs of the natural feud between democracy and oligarchy: see Greenidge Gk Const. Hist. pp. 208 ff. and Gilbert Gr. Staatsalt. II p. 285 note 2.

ἐφεξῆς γιγνομένη. From this and other indications it would appear on a first perusal that the sequence of commonwealths in VIII and IX is intended by Plato to be not merely logical, but historical also; but there is no question that the political evolution of Greek constitutions was far more complex than would appear from Plato's description. See on 543 A. We must above all things remember that it is in order to furnish a picture of the worst city and the worst man that the whole of this enquiry is undertaken, and Plato is at liberty to adopt whatever mode of presentation is best adapted for the object which he has in view. The form which he does in point of fact select is that of a historical narrative (see on 543 A, 548 D), but the real order of the development which he describes is a ‘logical order,’ and is primarily determined by psychological, and not by historical considerations. Although there are many points of contact between the development of Greek constitutional history and Plato's arrangement, Plato here employs narration primarily and chiefly as a vehicle or instrument for expressing the results of psychological analysis, and not because he believes that political development always and inevitably follows the same lines. See also on 543 A and infra 544 D.

διαφέρουσα κτλ. The reading of Ξ—see cr. n.—is confirmed by v and two other MSS, as well as by Stobaeus (Flor. 43. 115) and Ficinus (ab his omnibus differens). All other MSS appear to have διαφεύγουσα. “Errori—occasionem pronuntiatio non absimilis dedisse videtur” (Schneider). The word does not mean ‘differs’ (as Jowett) but ‘excels’ (ironically, of course, like ἡ γενναία δή). Father Rickaby has suggested to me that we should read καὶ ἡ πασῶν τούτων διαφέρουσα, ἡ γενναία δὴ τυραννίς, τέταρτον κτλ. The conjecture is an attractive one, both on other grounds and also because it enables us to retain the article which appears before πασῶν (see cr. n.) in A: but it is perhaps safer to follow Ξ.

νόσημα. Greek political theory regards tyrants as νοσήματα τῶν πόλεων (Isocr. Hel. 34: cf. Henkel l. c. p. 156).

ἢ τίνα. Ast and others write ἤ τινα (with slight MS support), but τίνα is perfectly good: cf. IX 573 A.

ἐν εἴδει διαφανεῖ τινι. See on 544 A.