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priestesses, shall not be disturbed; but if there be few or none such, as is
probable at the foundation of a new city, priests and priestesses shall be
appointed to be servants of the Gods who have no servants. Some of our
officers shall be elected, and others appointed by lot, those who are of the
people and those who are not of the people mingling in a friendly manner in
every place and city, that the state may be as far as possible of one mind. The
officers of the temples shall be appointed by lot; in this way their election will
be committed to God, that he may do what is agreeable to him. And he who
obtains a lot shall undergo a scrutiny, first, as to whether he is sound of body
and of legitimate birth; and in the second place, in order to show that he is of
a perfectly pure family, not stained with homicide or any similar impiety in
his own person, and also that his father and mother have led a similar
unstained life. Now the laws about all divine things should be brought from
Delphi, and interpreters appointed, under whose direction they should be
used. The tenure of the priesthood should always be for a year and no longer;
and he who will duly execute the sacred office, according to the laws of
religion, must be not less than sixty years of age—the laws shall be the same
about priestesses. As for the interpreters, they shall be appointed thus:—Let
the twelve tribes be distributed into groups of four, and let each group select
four, one out of each tribe within the group, three times; and let the three who
have the greatest number of votes [out of the twelve appointed by each
group], after undergoing a scrutiny, nine in all, be sent to Delphi, in order that
the God may return one out of each triad; their age shall be the same as that of
the priests, and the scrutiny of them shall be conducted in the same manner;
let them be interpreters for life, and when any one dies let the four tribes
select another from the tribe of the deceased. Moreover, besides priests and
interpreters, there must be treasurers, who will take charge of the property of
the several temples, and of the sacred domains, and shall have authority over
the produce and the letting of them; and three of them shall be chosen from
the highest classes for the greater temples, and two for the lesser, and one for
the least of all; the manner of their election and the scrutiny of them shall be
the same as that of the generals. This shall be the order of the temples.
Let everything have a guard as far as possible. Let the defence of the city
be commited to the generals, and taxiarchs, and hipparchs, and phylarchs, and
prytanes, and the wardens of the city, and of the agora, when the election of
them has been completed. The defence of the country shall be provided for as
follows:—The entire land has been already distributed into twelve as nearly
as possible equal parts, and let the tribe allotted to a division provide annually
for it five wardens of the country and commanders of the watch; and let each
body of five have the power of selecting twelve others out of the youth of
their own tribe—these shall be not less than twenty–five years of age, and not
1437
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International