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Plato: Laws

Plato · translated by Benjamin Jowett · 4th century BC; translation 1871–1892

Plato's last work: a law-code for a city, with his natural theology in Book X. Pagan philosophy, read by the Fathers as a preparation for the Gospel.

Edition: Project Gutenberg · www.gutenberg.org

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From the opening: Introduction and Analysis

The genuineness of the Laws is sufficiently proved (1) by more than twenty citations of them in the writings of Aristotle, who was residing at Athens during the last twenty years of the life of Plato, and who, having left it after his death (B.C. 347), returned thither twelve years later (B.C. 335); (2) by the allusion of Isocrates

(Oratio ad Philippum missa, p.84: To men tais paneguresin enochlein kai pros apantas legein tous sunprechontas en autais pros oudena legein estin, all omoios oi toioutoi ton logon (sc. speeches in the assembly) akuroi tugchanousin ontes tois nomois kai tais politeiais tais upo ton sophiston gegrammenais.) --writing 346 B.C., a year after the death of Plato, and probably not more than three or four years after the composition of the Laws--who speaks of the Laws and Republics written by philosophers (upo ton sophiston); (3) by the reference (Athen.) of the comic poet Alexis, a younger contemporary of Plato (fl. B.C 356-306), to the enactment about prices, which occurs in Laws xi., viz that the same goods should not be offered at two prices on the same day

(Ou gegone kreitton nomothetes tou plousiou Aristonikou tithesi gar nuni nomon, ton ichthuopolon ostis an polon tini ichthun upotimesas apodot elattonos es eipe times, eis to desmoterion euthus apagesthai touton, ina dedoikotes tes axias agaposin, e tes esperas saprous apantas apopherosin oikade.

Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec.); (4) by the unanimous voice of later antiquity and the absence of any suspicion among ancient writers worth speaking of to the contrary; for it is not said of Philippus of Opus that he composed any part of the Laws, but only that he copied them out of the waxen tablets, and was thought by some to have written the Epinomis (Diog. Laert.) That the longest and one of the best writings bearing the name of Plato should be a forgery, even if its genuineness were unsupported by external testimony, would be a singular phenomenon in ancient literature; and although the critical worth of the consensus of late writers is generally not to be compared with the express testimony of contemporaries, yet a somewhat greater value may be attributed to their consent in the present instance, because the admission of the Laws is combined with doubts about the Epinomis, a spurious writing, which is a kind of epilogue to the larger work probably of a much later date. This shows that the…

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Contents (40 sections)

  1. Opening
  2. Introduction and Analysis
  3. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  4. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  5. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  6. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  7. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  8. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  9. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  10. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  11. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  12. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  13. Introduction and Analysis (continued)
  14. Excursus on the Relation of the Laws of Plato to the Institutions of Crete and Lacedaemon…
  15. Excursus on the Relation of the Laws of Plato to the Institutions of Crete and Lacedaemon… (continued)
  16. The Dialogue — Laws
  17. The Dialogue — Laws (continued)
  18. Book II
  19. Book II (continued)
  20. Book III
  21. Book III (continued)
  22. Book IV
  23. Book IV (continued)
  24. Book V
  25. Book V (continued)
  26. Book VI
  27. Book VI (continued)
  28. Book VII
  29. Book VII (continued)
  30. Book VII (continued)
  31. Book VIII
  32. Book VIII (continued)
  33. Book IX
  34. Book IX (continued)
  35. Book X
  36. Book X (continued)
  37. Book XI
  38. Book XI (continued)
  39. Book XII
  40. Book XII (continued)

How to cite it

Chicago
Plato. Plato: Laws. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Project Gutenberg, 4th century BC; translation 1871–1892. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1750
MLA
Plato. Plato: Laws. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, Project Gutenberg, 4th century BC; translation 1871–1892. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1750
APA
Plato (4th century BC; translation 1871–1892). Plato: Laws (Benjamin Jowett, Trans.). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1750

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