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καὶ ταῦτα κτλ.: ‘and that, too, though, as it seems, you could have told us of a still more beautiful city and man’ viz. the city of the philosopherking and the philosopher-king himself, afterwards described by Socrates in V 472 B—VII. The city of V—VII is spoken of as a different city from that of II— IV: see on ἐν μὲν τῇ προτέρᾳ ἐκλογῇ VII 536 C, II 372 D note, and Hirzel Der Dialog pp. 235 ff. Jowett's translation “although, as now appears, you had more excellent things to relate both of State and man” is a defensible construction, but unnatural, and certainly not what Plato meant. The passage has been curiously misunderstood by some critics, through inattention to the force of the imperfect participle ε<*>χων. Herwerden, for example, actually proposes to insert <οὐ> before καλλίω. Schneider and Stallbaum translate the sentence correctly.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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