James Adam, The Republic of Plato

οὔτε -- οὔτε -- οὐδέ γε is a common sequence where stress is laid on the last alternative: cf. 492 E and X 608 B. οὐδέ γ᾽ ἀνήρ=‘no, nor yet an individual man’ is said because even the philosopher is not τέλεος except in the philosopher's city: cf. 497 A. ὁμοίως means simply ‘in like manner,’ ‘likewise,’ and should not be construed with τέλεος in the sense of ‘equally perfect,’ as J. and C. translate.

ἀνάγκη -- παραβάλῃ. See cr. n. παραβάλλειν means accedere (not, as has been asserted, accidere): cf. VIII 556 C and Lys. 203 B. The word is not however quite appropriate here: and I should much prefer a convincing emendation of the text of Α, Π and other MSS (ἀνάγκη—περιβάλῃ). As it stands, περιβάλῃ must either be intransitive, or else the infinitive ἐπιμεληθῆναι serves as its object in place of an accusative. Neither view is supported by any evidence. I formerly conjectured ἀνάγκην τις ἐκ τύχης περιβάλῃ ‘until some one happens to compel these philosophers’ etc., but τις ἀνάγκη—γέγονεν in C does not favour this remedy. It is perhaps safest to read παραβάλῃ provisionally and pro tempore. With ἐκ τύχης cf. IX 592 A ἐὰν μὴ θεία τις ξυμβῇ τύχη and Ep. VII 327 E.

κατηκόῳ. Schleiermacher's conjecture is accepted by Madvig, Baiter, and J. and C. Stallbaum was inclined to read κατηκόοις. If κατήκοοι is right, it must stand for κατηκόοις, the nominative being due to the interposition of εἴτε βούλονται κτλ. But the construction is difficult, and the sense unsatisfactory. We require some guarantee that the city will obey (cf. 502 B), and κατηκόῳ is the only reading which provides it.

τῶν νῦν -- ὑέσιν. “I do not doubt but that this was meant as a compliment and incitement to the younger Dionysius (see Plato Epist. 7, p. 327). And I understand what follows p. 502 in the same manner. Hence it seems that this part of the dialogue was written after his first voyage to Sicily, and probably not long before his second, about Ol. 101, 3, when the elder Dionysius was just dead” (Thomas Gray Works ed. Gosse IV p. 251). In the parallel passage V 473 D Plato speaks of kings and δυνάσται, but not yet of kings' sons. The substance of Gray's conjecture is confirmed by recent criticism (see e.g. Hirmer Entst. u. Kompos. etc. p. 668): but Dionysius I died in Ol. 103, 2 (367 B.C.) and not in Ol. 101, 3 (374 B.C.), and Plato's second visit to Sicily seems to have taken place just after the old tyrant's death (Grote X pp. 346—356). See also on V 473 D, VI 496 B and Introd. § 4.