Plato · Complete work
Stephanus 36c
Stephanus 36c of 125. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Ancient Greek
ῷ ὄντι ἐπιεικέστερον εἶναι ἢ ὥστε εἰς ταῦτʼ ἰόντα σῴζεσθαι, ἐνταῦθα μὲν οὐκ ᾖα οἷ ἐλθὼν μήτε ὑμῖν μήτε ἐμαυτῷ ἔμελλον μηδὲν ὄφελος εἶναι, ἐπὶ δὲ τὸ ἰδίᾳ ἕκαστον ἰὼν εὐεργετεῖν τὴν μεγίστην εὐεργεσίαν, ὡς ἐγώ φημι, ἐνταῦθα ᾖα, ἐπιχειρῶν ἕκαστον ὑμῶν πείθειν μὴ πρότερον μήτε τῶν ἑαυτοῦ μηδενὸς ἐπιμελεῖσθαι πρὶν ἑαυτοῦ ἐπιμεληθείη ὅπως ὡς βέλτιστος καὶ φρονιμώτατος ἔσοιτο, μήτε τῶν τῆς πόλεως, πρὶν αὐτῆς τῆς πόλεως, τῶν τε ἄλλων οὕτω κατὰ τὸν
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the complete Ancient Greek text across all 125 Stephanus sections for fidelity, philosophical precision, Socratic voice, legal clarity, and structure.
in truth too decent a man to enter into these affairs and survive? I did not go where I could have been of no benefit either to you or to myself. Instead, I went where I could confer upon each of you privately what I maintain to be the greatest benefit. I went about trying to persuade each one of you not to care for any of his possessions before caring for himself—how he might become as good and wise as possible—nor to care for the city’s possessions before caring for the city itself, and to care for all other things in the same
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from all 125 Ancient Greek Stephanus sections.
way. What, then, do I deserve for being such a man? Something good, men of Athens, if I am truly to be assessed according to what I deserve—and indeed, a kind of good appropriate to me. What, then, is appropriate for a poor man who is your benefactor and who needs leisure to keep urging you on? Nothing is more appropriate, men of Athens, than for such a man to receive his meals in the Prytaneum—far more appropriate than for one of you who has won a victory at Olympia with a single horse, a two-horse chariot, or a four-horse chariot. For such a man makes you appear to be happy, while I make you