THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

PREFACE
THIS version aims at conveying to the English reader as much
as possible of the thought of the Republic in the most convenient
and least misleading form. I have, accordingly, taken certain
liberties, which it is reasonable to suppose that Plato would have
sanctioned in an edition prepared for the modern press. The traditional
division into ten 'books,' i.e. papyrus rolls, has been discarded,
as an accidental expedient of ancient book-production, having
little more to do with the structure of the argument than
the division of every Victorian novel into three volumes had to
do with the structure of the stories. The dialogue falls naturally
into six main parts, and these I have subdivided, where minor
breaks occur, into forty chapters. The notes prefixed to the chapters
are designed to hold the thread of the argument and to explain
matters which Plato could take for granted as within the common
knowledge of his readers. The sole purpose is to bring out what
Plato meant, not to attack or defend his opinions. These are better
left to the judgement of the reader. For sympathetic and more
detailed interpretation, the best guide known to me is R. L. Nettleship's
Lectures on the Republic of Plato. Professor Ernest Barker's
Greek Political Theory (1918) reviews all Plato's works and the
speculations of his predecessors in this field. In Plato To-day Mr.
R. H. S. Crossman has made a lively and provocative experiment
in confronting Plato with the political problems of the present day.
Some authors can be translated almost word for word. The reader
may fairly claim to be told why this method cannot do justice to
the matter and the manner of Plato's discourse. In brief, the answer
is that in many places the effect in English is misleading, or tedious,
or grotesque and silly, or pompous and verbose. Since no scholar
would apply most of these epithets to the original, there must be
something wrong with the current practice of translators.
Many key-words, such as 'music,' 'gymnastic,' 'virtue,' 'philov