Letter Eleven
358d Plato to Laodamas: 1 Do well!
I sent a letter to you before as well, saying that it makes a great difference, with respect to all the things you say, for you to come to Athens yourself; but since you claim that it is impossible, second after this would have been if it were possible for me or Socrates2 to come—just
358e as you said in the letter you sent. But right now, Socrates is ill with strangury;3 and as for me, it would be indecorous if, having arrived there, I should not accomplish the very things for the purpose of which you are calling upon me. But I do not have much hope that these things would come to be—as for the reasons why, there would be need of a long, other letter, which would go through everything thoroughly—and at the same time, I, because of my age, am not in a sufficient bodily condition to be wandering and undergoing dangers of the sort that occur by land and by sea; and now everything pertaining to journeys4 is full of dangers.
359a However, I can give counsel both to you and to the colonists, which, “after I have said it,” says Hesiod, “might seem to be paltry, but it is hard to think.”5 For if they suppose6 that, by the giving of any laws whatsoever, a city would7 ever be well established without the existence of some sovereign authority caring for the daily regimen8 of both slaves and free in the city, so that it might be both moderate and manly, they do not understand9 correctly. Now moreover, if there are already men worthy
359b of this ruling office, this [sovereign authority] might come to be; but if there is need of someone to educate them, you will have neither he who will educate nor they who will be educated, as I suppose; but what remains is for you to pray to the gods.
And in fact the earlier cities too were established in nearly this way and were well managed thereafter, under the coming-to-be of conjunctions of great affairs, both in war and in the other actions—whenever, at the propitious moments, a man both noble and good10 came about
359c having great power; one ought and is compelled to be eager for them11 beforehand, but to understand them as I say and not to be mindless by supposing something will be readily accomplished. Good luck.
1. Nothing else is known of this Laodamas.
2. Since Plato, who was in his twenties when Socrates died, makes excuse of his advanced age in this letter (358e5–6), it is generally thought that this reference must be to the “Younger Socrates” of Plato’s Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman. If so, this is the only extant reference to him by any contemporary outside of those dialogues, with one exception: Aristotle refers to (and rejects) a philosophical position the “Younger Socrates” used to hold at Metaphysics 1036b25 (see Granger 2000, 415n1). It has only rarely been considered that this may be a sort of joking—and consciously anachronistic—reference to Socrates himself; see Wohl 1998, 63–65.
3. As Nails explains, “Strangury (stranguria: strangled urine) is a condition in which an obstruction causes urine to be discharged spasmodically and painfully, drop by drop” (2002, 269). Cf. Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 617.
4. Or “everything in the traveling routes” (panta . . . en tais poreiais).
5. This line does not appear in Hesiod’s extant works, and, as Morrow observes ad loc., “its meaning [is] uncertain.” “Paltry” (phaulon) could also be rendered “simple” here. The final phrase, “is difficult to think” (chalepon noēsai), has been reasonably given by various translators as “is difficult to understand” (Post), “is hard to take” (Morrow), and “was difficult to think of” (Harward).
6. The reading “they suppose” (oiontai) appears in several of the later manuscripts. The earliest and generally best have instead oion te, which leaves the sentence grammatically difficult. Translators have universally adopted the former reading.
7. In both of the best manuscripts, marginal emendations suggest that “a city would” (polin an) is a textual corruption from “a regime” (politeian). The alternative reading would be “For if they suppose that, by the giving of any laws whatsoever, a regime was ever well established.”
8. Or “way of living,” or also, possibly, “arbitration” (diaitēs).
9. “Understand,” both here and in the last line of this letter, translates a form of dianoeō, for which I have generally used the English word “intend.” See n. 5 to Letter Three.
10. On the formula “both noble and good” (kalos te kai agathos), see n. 21 to Letter Seven.
11. The only grammatically valid antecedent of this “them” (auta) would seem to be the “great affairs” mentioned above.