carpenters were to exchange their occupations, and the same persons
did not always continue shoemakers and carpenters. And since it is
better that this should be so in politics as well, it is clear that
while there should be continuance of the same persons in power where
this is possible, yet where this is not possible by reason of the
natural equality of the citizens, and at the same time it is just that
an should share in the government (whether to govern be a good thing
or a bad), an approximation to this is that equals should in turn
retire from office and should, apart from official position, be
treated alike. Thus the one party rule and the others are ruled in
turn, as if they were no longer the same persons. In like manner
when they hold office there is a variety in the offices held. Hence it
is evident that a city is not by nature one in that sense which some
persons affirm; and that what is said to be the greatest good of
cities is in reality their destruction; but surely the good of
things must be that which preserves them. Again, in another point of
view, this extreme unification of the state is clearly not good; for a
family is more self-sufficing than an individual, and a city than a
family, and a city only comes into being when the community is large
enough to be self-sufficing. If then self-sufficiency is to be
desired, the lesser degree of unity is more desirable than the
greater.

                                   III

  But, even supposing that it were best for the community to have
the greatest degree of unity, this unity is by no means proved to
follow from the fact 'of all men saying "mine" and "not mine" at the
same instant of time,' which, according to Socrates, is the sign of
perfect unity in a state. For the word 'all' is ambiguous. If the
meaning be that every individual says 'mine' and 'not mine' at the
same time, then perhaps the result at which Socrates aims may be in
some degree accomplished; each man will call the same person his own
son and the same person his wife, and so of his property and of all
that falls to his lot. This, however, is not the way in which people
would speak who had their had their wives and children in common; they
would say 'all' but not 'each.' In like manner their property would be
described as belonging to them, not severally but collectively.
There is an obvious fallacy in the term 'all': like some other
words, 'both,' 'odd,' 'even,' it is ambiguous, and even in abstract
argument becomes a source of logical puzzles. That all persons call
the same thing mine in the sense in which each does so may be a fine
thing, but it is impracticable; or if the words are taken in the other
sense, such a unity in no way conduces to harmony. And there is
another objection to the proposal. For that which is common to the
greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one
thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and
only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides
other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty
which he expects another to fulfill; as in families many attendants
are often less useful than a few. Each citizen will have a thousand
sons who will not be his sons individually but anybody will be equally
the son of anybody, and will therefore be neglected by all alike.
Further, upon this principle, every one will use the word 'mine' of
one who is prospering or the reverse, however small a fraction he
may himself be of the whole number; the same boy will be 'so and
so's son,' the son of each of the thousand, or whatever be the
number of the citizens; and even about this he will not be positive;
for it is impossible to know who chanced to have a child, or
whether, if one came into existence, it has survived. But which is
better- for each to say 'mine' in this way, making a man the same
relation to two thousand or ten thousand citizens, or to use the
word 'mine' in the ordinary and more restricted sense? For usually the
same person is called by one man his own son whom another calls his
own brother or cousin or kinsman- blood relation or connection by
marriage either of himself or of some relation of his, and yet another
his clansman or tribesman; and how much better is it to be the real
cousin of somebody than to be a son after Plato's fashion! Nor is
there any way of preventing brothers and children and fathers and
mothers from sometimes recognizing one another; for children are
born like their parents, and they will necessarily be finding
indications of their relationship to one another. Geographers
declare such to be the fact; they say that in part of Upper Libya,
where the women are common, nevertheless the children who are born are
assigned to their respective fathers on the ground of their
likeness. And some women, like the females of other animals- for
example, mares and cows- have a strong tendency to produce offspring
resembling their parents, as was the case with the Pharsalian mare
called Honest.

                                    IV

  Other evils, against which it is not easy for the authors of such
a community to guard, will be assaults and homicides, voluntary as
well as involuntary, quarrels and slanders, all which are most
unholy acts when committed against fathers and mothers and near
relations, but not equally unholy when there is no relationship.
Moreover, they are much more likely to occur if the relationship is
unknown, and, when they have occurred, the customary expiations of
them cannot be made. Again, how strange it is that Socrates, after
having made the children common, should hinder lovers from carnal
intercourse only, but should permit love and familiarities between
father and son or between brother and brother, than which nothing
can be more unseemly, since even without them love of this sort is
improper. How strange, too, to forbid intercourse for no other
reason than the violence of the pleasure, as though the relationship
of father and son or of brothers with one another made no difference.

  This community of wives and children seems better suited to the
husbandmen than to the guardians, for if they have wives and