INTRODUCTION
intro
This essay is evidently only a fragment, as Wyttenbach long ago pointed out. The opening words indicate that the author delivers it as an address before an audience to which he has spoken on the day before, but nothing further is known about the circumstances. Few scholars now believe that the author is Plutarch, though who the writer was is not known. The substance of the fragment is derived chiefly from the Republic of Plato.
1
Now as I was myself bringing before this company as a court of judgement the talk that I presented to you yesterday, I thought I heard, while wide awake, not in a dream, Cf. Homer, Od. xix. 547. Political Wisdom saying: Golden foundation is wrought for canticles sacred,Pindar, Frag. 194 (206), p. 465 ed. Schroeder. so the speech, which exhorts and encourages you to enter political life has been laid as a basis. Come, let us now build walls,Pindar, ibid. building upon the exhortation the teaching which is due. And it is due to anyone who has received the exhortation and the impulse to engage in public affairs that he next hear and receive precepts of statecraft by the use of which he will, so far as is humanly possible, be of service to the people and at the same time manage his own affairs with safety and rightful honour. But as a step towards that which follows and a consequence of that which has been said, we must consider what is the best form of government. For just as there are numerous modes of life for a man, so the government (politeia) is the life of a people, and therefore it is essential for us to take the best form of it; for of all forms the statesman will choose the best or, if he cannot obtain that, then the one of all the rest which is most like it.
