Wednesday, January 02, 2019
Private Safety and the Safety of the State
Democritus, fragment B 252 Diels (Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 4. Aufl., Bd. II [1922], pp. 110-111; tr. Daniel W. Graham):
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The individual should consider those affairs of the city as the greatest of all which concern how it may be well governed, and he should not pursue his advantage beyond what is equitable, nor seek to assume power for himself contrary to the common good. For a well-governed city is the greatest of all institutions, in which every good thing is found; and if it is preserved everything is preserved, and if it is lost, everything is lost.See J.F. Procopé, "Democritus on Politics and the Care of the Soul: Appendix," Classical Quarterly 40.1 (1990) 21-45 (at 23).
τὰ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν χρεὼν τῶν λοιπῶν μέγιστα ἡγεῖσθαι, ὅκως ἄξεται εὖ, μήτε φιλονεικέοντα παρὰ τὸ ἐπιεικὲς μήτε ἰσχὺν ἑαυτῷ περιτιθέμενον παρὰ τὸ χρηστὸν τὸ τοῦ ξυνοῦ. πόλις γὰρ εὖ ἀγομένη μεγίστη ὄρθωσίς ἐστι, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ πάντα ἔνι, καὶ τούτου σῳζομένου <τὰ> πάντα σῴζεται καὶ τούτου διαφθειρομένου τὰ πάντα διαφθείρεται.
ξυνοῦ Schaefer: ξένου codd.
<τὰ> suppl. Meineke
