elves to be
wronged by others; to attain the first is not difficult, but there is
great difficulty in acquiring the power of not being wronged. No man can
be perfectly secure against wrong, unless he has become perfectly good;
and cities are like individuals in this, for a city if good has a life
of peace, but if evil, a life of war within and without. Wherefore the
citizens ought to practise war--not in time of war, but rather while
they are at peace. And every city which has any sense, should take
the field at least for one day in every month, and for more if the
magistrates think fit, having no regard to winter cold or summer
heat; and they should go out en masse, including their wives and their
children, when the magistrates determine to lead forth the whole people,
or in separate portions when summoned by them; and they should always
provide that there should be games and sacrificial feasts, and they
should have tournaments, imitating in as lively a manner as they can
real battles. And they should distribute prizes of victory and valour to
the competitors, passing censures and encomiums on one another according
to the characters which they bear in the contests and in their whole
life, honouring him who seems to be the best, and blaming him who is the
opposite. And let poets celebrate the victors--not however every poet,
but only one who in the first place is not less than fifty years of
age; nor should he be one who, although he may have musical and poetical
gifts, has never in his life done any noble or illustrious action; but
those who are themselves good and also honourable in the state, creators
of noble actions--let their poems be sung, even though they be not very
musical. And let the judgment of them rest with the instructor of youth
and the other guardians of the laws, who shall give them this privilege,
and they alone shall be free to sing; but the rest of the world shall
not have this liberty. Nor shall any one dare to sing a song which has
not been approved by the judgment of the guardians of the laws, not even
if his strain be sweeter than the songs of Thamyras and Orpheus; but
only such poems as have been judged sacred and dedicated to the Gods,
and such as are the works of good men, in which praise or blame has been
awarded and which have been deemed to fulfil their design fairly.

The regulations about war, and about liberty of speech in poetry, ought
to apply equally to men and women. The legislator