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It was accordingly agreed to do this, and Solon began by saying, But you, Mnesiphilus, as well as all the rest of the Athenians, have heard the opinion which I hold regarding government. However, if you wish to hear it again now, I think that a State succeeds best, and most effectively perpetuates democracy, in which persons uninjured by a crime, no less than the injured person, prosecute the criminal and get him punished.
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Second was Bias, who said that the most excellent democracy was that in which the people stood in as much fear of the law as of a despot.
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Following him Thales said that it was the one having citizens neither too rich nor too poor.
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After him Anacharsis said that it was the one in which, all else being held in equal esteem, what is better is determined by virtue and what is worse by vice.
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Fifth, Cleobulus said that a people was most righteous whose public men dreaded censure more than they dreaded the law.
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Sixth, Pittacus said that it was where bad men are not allowed to hold office, and good men are not allowed to refuse it.
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Chilon, turning to the other side,Chilon, a rather strict Spartan (cf. 152 D supra), is impatient of opinions which suggest that the attitude of the people is more important than the law. declared that the best government is that which gives greatest heed to laws and least heed to those who talk about them.
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Finally, Periander once more concluded the discussion with the decisive remark, that they all seemed to him to approve a democracy which was most like an aristocracy.
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When this discussion had come to an end, I said that it seemed to me to be only fair that these men should tell us how a house should be managed. For, said I, but few persons are in control of kingdoms and states, whereas we all have to do with a hearth and home,
