PLATO TO THE RELATIVES AND FRIENDS OF DION. WELFARE.
You write to me that I must consider your views the same as those ofDion, and you urge me to aid your cause so far as I can in word anddeed. My answer is that, if you have the same opinion and desire as hehad, I consent to aid your cause; but if not, I shall think morethan once about it. Now what his purpose and desire was, I caninform you from no mere conjecture but from positive knowledge. Forwhen I made my first visit to Sicily, being then about forty yearsold, Dion was of the same age as Hipparinos is now, and the opinionwhich he then formed was that which he always retained, I mean thebelief that the Syracusans ought to be free and governed by the bestlaws. So it is no matter for surprise if some God should makeHipparinos adopt the same opinion as Dion about forms of government.
But it is well worth while that you should all, old as well asyoung, hear the way in which this opinion was formed, and I willattempt to give you an account of it from the beginning. For thepresent is a suitable opportunity.
In my youth I went through the same experience as many other men.
I fancied that if, early in life, I became my own master, I shouldat once embark on a political career. And I found myself confrontedwith the following occurrences in the public affairs of my own city.
The existing constitution being generally condemned, a revolution tookplace, and fifty-one men came to the front as rulers of therevolutionary government, namely eleven in the city and ten in thePeiraeus-each of these bodies being in charge of the market andmunicipal matters-while thirty were appointed rulers with fullpowers over public affairs as a whole. Some of these were relativesand acquaintances of mine, and they at once invited me to share intheir doings, as something to which I had a claim. The effect on mewas not surprising in the case of a young man. I considered thatthey would, of course, so manage the State as to bring men out of abad way of life into a good one. So I watched them very closely to seewhat they would do.
And seeing, as I did, that in quite a short time they made theformer government seem by comparison something precious as gold-foramong other things they tried to send a friend of mine, the agedSocrates, whom I should scarcely scruple to describe as the mostupright man of that day, with some other persons to carry off one ofthe citizens by force to execution, in order that, whether he wishedit, or not, he might share the guilt of their conduct; but he wouldnot obey them, risking all consequences in preference to becoming apartner in their iniquitous deeds-seeing all these things and othersof the same kind on a considerable scale, I disapproved of theirproceedings, and withdrew from any connection with the abuses of thetime.
Not long after that a revolution terminated the power of thethirty and the form of government as it then was. And once more,though with more hesitation, I began to be moved by the desire to takepart in public and political affairs. Well, even in the newgovernment, unsettled as it was, events occurred which one wouldnaturally view with disapproval; and it was not surprising that in aperiod of revolution excessive penalties were inflicted by somepersons on political opponents, though those who had returned fromexile at that time showed very considerable forbearance. But once moreit happened that some of those in power brought my friend Socrates,whom I have mentioned, to trial before a court of law, laying a mostiniquitous charge against him and one most inappropriate in hiscase: for it was on a charge of impiety that some of them prosecutedand others condemned and executed the very man who would notparticipate in the iniquitous arrest of one of the friends of theparty then in exile, at the time when they themselves were in exileand misfortune.
As I observed these incidents and the men engaged in public affairs,the laws too and the customs, the more closely I examined them and thefarther I advanced in life, the more difficult it seemed to me tohandle public affairs aright. For it was not possible to be activein politics without friends and trustworthy supporters; and to findthese ready to my hand was not an easy matter, since public affairs atAthens were not carried on in accordance with the manners andpractices of our fathers; nor was there any ready method by which Icould make new friends. The laws too, written and unwritten, werebeing altered for the worse, and the evil was growing with startlingrapidity. The result was that, though at first I had been full of astrong impulse towards political life, as I looked at the course ofaffairs and saw them being swept in all directions by contendingcurrents, my head finally began to swim; and, though I did not stoplooking to see if there was any likelihood of improvement in thesesymptoms and in the general course of public life, I postponedaction till a suitable opportunity should arise. Finally, it becameclear to me, with regard to all existing cornmunities, that theywere one and all misgoverned. For their laws have got into a statethat is almost incurable, except by some extraordinary reform withgood luck to support it. And I was forced to say, when praising truephilosophy that it is by this that men are enabled to see what justicein public and private life really is. Therefore, I said, there will beno cessation of evils for the sons of men, till either those who arepursuing a right and true philosophy receive sovereign power in theStates, or those in power in the States by some dispensation ofprovidence become true philosophers.
