James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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419A - 423B Adimantus now interposes with the objection that the Guardians will be far from happy. Although they are in reality masters of the city, they have nothing which they can call their own— none of the contributing factors of individual or personal gratification. In reply, it is not admitted that the Guardians will be unhappy, but even supposing that they are, our purpose was, not to make happy Guardians, but to found a happy City, in order to discover Justice within its borders. Our Guardians must not be made happy at the cost of efficiency in their peculiar duty. Wealth is hardly less unpropitious to the exercise of arts and professions than Poverty. When our city is at war with two communities, she will not lack resources; for she will make alliance with one of the two by promising to it the other's wealth. Nor will she be in danger from her ally afterwards. Other States are each of them not one but manifold, and our city, if she have but a thousand defenders, is the greatest single state in Greece or Barbary.

ff. 1 καὶ ὁ Ἀδείμαντος κτλ. Adimantus' objection is the dying echo of the view already advocated by Thrasymachus, that a ruler should rule for his own profit: cf. I 343 A, 344 B notes Socrates declines to discuss the question now, because it is irrelevant. In the further account of the communism of the ruling class, the difficulty solves itself. A higher happiness—so we are told— comes from self-victory than from indulgence (V 465 D ff.: cf. IX 583 C note). Compare the conversation of Socrates with Aristippus in Mem. II 1. 17 ff.

μή. On μή with the infinitive after verbs of saying see I 346 E note

δἰ ἑαυτούς: i.e. they have themselves to thank for not being εὐδαίμονες. Cf. V 465 E οὐκ οἶδα ὅτου λόγος ἡμῖν ἐπέπληξεν ὅτι τοὺς φύλακας οὐκ εὐδαίμονας ποιοῖμεν, οἶς ἐξὸν πάντα ἔχειν τὰ τῶν πολιτῶν οὐδὲν ἔχοιεν; and Solon 33 1 f. οὐκ ἔφυ Σόλων βαθύφρων οὐδὲ βουλήεις ἀνήρ: | ἐσθλὰ γὰρ θεοῦ διδόντος αὐτὸς οὐκ ἐδέξατο (he of his own initiative refused). διά is used exactly as in I 354 B. This view, which is Ast's, gives an excellent meaning, and Schneider, who at first proposed a subtler explanation, adopts it in his translation (“durch ihre eigene Schuld”). The various conjectures δή, αὐτοῖς ὧν (Stephanus), δὴ αὐτοὺς ὧν (Buttmann), αὐτοὺς δἰ ὧν (Herwerden) need no refutation.

ἄλλοι: not οἱ ἄλλοι (Bekker, Stallbaum, etc.), which might be taken as referring to the lower classes in Plato's State. Plato would not be likely to permit these to have οἰκίαι καλαὶ καὶ μεγάλαι. ἄλλοι means ‘other rulers,’ i.e. rulers in other cities; and κεκτημένοι belongs to οἱ δέ: ‘possessing, like other rulers, lands,’ etc. So Schneider, rightly. For the idiomatic position of οἷον ἄλλοι cf. VII 515 A, 528 B, IX 589 B al.

μισθωτοί is not otiose as Badham supposes. We should translate ‘just like paid auxiliaries.’ The emphasis on μισθωτοί prepares us for Socrates' correction when he says they do not, strictly speaking, even get μισθός.