Note 324 — Chapter III · PLATO

Vierteljahrschrift f. Staats u. Volkswirtschaft, I, 375 ff. Of course Aristophanes may have caricatured Plato as he did Socrates in the Clouds. However, since both were opposed to extreme individualism, and since the comedy was written before the Republic, it is improbable. But cf. Drumann, Arbeiter u. Communisten in Griechenland u. Rom (1860), pp. 133 f., who thinks the poet was satirizing the oral discussions of Plato. Pohlenz (op. cit., pp. 223-28) argues for an earlier edition of the Republic, and states that, though the comedy is not a direct satire on the Republic, yet its numerous specific ideas and expressions that are similar to Plato’s warrant the conclusion that the poet followed Plato. Cf. also S. Cognetti de Martiis, (op. cit., pp. 541-61), on the relation of the two.