The number of our citizens shall be
5040--this will be a convenient number; and these shall be owners of the
land and protectors of the allotment. The houses and the land will be
divided in the same way, so that every man may correspond to a lot. Let
the whole number be first divided into two parts, and then into three;
and the number is further capable of being divided into four or five
parts, or any number of parts up to ten. Every legislator ought to know
so much arithmetic as to be able to tell what number is most likely
to be useful to all cities; and we are going to take that number which
contains the greatest and most regular and unbroken series of divisions.
The whole of number has every possible division, and the number 5040
can be divided by exactly fifty-nine divisors, and ten of these proceed
without interval from one to ten: this will furnish numbers for war and
peace, and for all contracts and dealings, including taxes and divisions
of the land. These properties of number should be ascertained at leisure
by those who are bound by law to know them; for they are true, and
should be proclaimed at the foundation of the city, with a view to use.
Whether the legislator is establishing a new state or restoring an old
and decayed one, in respect of Gods and temples,--the temples which are
to be built in each city, and the Gods or demi-gods after whom they
are to be called,--if he be a man of sense, he will make no change in
anything which the oracle of Delphi, or Dodona, or the God Ammon, or
any ancient tradition has sanctioned in whatever manner, whether by
apparitions or reputed inspiration of Heaven, in obedience to which
mankind have established sacrifices in connexion with mystic rites,
either originating on the spot, or derived from Tyrrhenia or Cyprus
or some other place, and on the strength of which traditions they have
consecrated oracles and images, and altars and temples, and portioned
out a sacred domain for each of them. The least part of all these ought
not to be disturbed by the legislator; but he should assign to
the several districts some God, or demi-god, or hero, and, in the
distribution of the soil, should give to these first their chosen domain
and all things fitting, that the inhabitants of the several districts
may meet at fixed times, and that they may readily supply their various
wants, and entertain one another with sacrifices, and become friends
and acquaintances; for there is no greater