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εἰ μὴ ἀδικῶ. Cf. X 608 D, 612 D, Charm. 156 A, Menex. 236 B. The translation “as I am an honest man” (D. and V.) is inaccurate; but Schneider's “ich thäte ja sonst nichts recht” hits the mark. In English we require an independent clause, ‘I have no right to refuse.’ ὥς γε ἐντεῦθεν ἰδεῖν: ‘seen from where we stand,’ i.e. on a first view: cf. ὡς ἐνθένδε ἰδεῖν Pol. 289 D, infra 432 B, X 595 B, and see Grünenwald in Schanz's Beiträge etc. II 3 pp. 1—37. ξυμφωνίᾳ -- ἁρμονίᾳ. On ἁρμονία see III 398 E note In its musical application συμφωνία is used both of consonance as in the octave or double octave and also of other musical intervals: cf. VII 531 A and von Jan's Mus. Script. Gr. p. 102 and passim. The ξυμφωνία in which σωφροσύνη consists is apparently of the former kind: cf. 432 A note ἡδονῶν -- ἐγκράτεια. It is chiefly this which is insisted on in the popular view of σωφροσύνη taken in III 389 D ff. Cf. Xen. Cyr. VIII 1. 32, Isocr. 3. 44, and other passages cited by Nägelsbach Nachhom. Theol. II p. 233. Here the essential mark of σωφροσύνη is ξυμφωνία as to who shall be rulers, and who subjects; a point which is not mentioned in III. In other fundamental respects, also, the two descriptions differ; and Hirzel rightly insists that the σωφροσύνη of Book IV must be examined independently and by itself (l.c. p. 409). κρείττω -- αὑτοῦ: a common formula in the popular acceptation of σωφροσύνη: see Nägelsbach l.c. λέγοντες. See cr. n. λέγοντες is found also in Flor. A, in some MSS of Stobaeus (Flor. 43, 97) and in Cesenas M. λέγοντες should (with Stallbaum) be taken as agreeing with the nominative of φασι, ‘as men say, calling one lord of oneself in some mysterious way.’ δή, ‘forsooth,’ helps out οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅντινα τρόπον. For other views on this passage see App. II. κρείττω αὑτοῦ. Stallbaum reads κρείττων αὑτοῦ, and wishes to do so also in 431 A below. The accusative is more natural in both places, partly because it suggests τὸ κρείττω αὑτοῦ εἶναι (cf. ὁ γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ κρείττων καὶ ἥττων—ἂν αὑτοῦ εἴη), partly because of κρείττω αὑτοῦ just before.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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