Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4

Note 346 — Chapter XXXIX · LEGES AND EPINOMIS. (continued 3)

Reading edition

Plato himself is here the Νόμος Πόλεως, which the Delphian oracle, in its responses, sanctioned as the proper rule for individual citizens, Xenophon, Memor. iv. 3, 16. Compare iv. 6. 2, and i. 3, 1; Lysias, Or. xxx. 21-26. θύειν τὰ πάτρια — θύειν τὰ ἐκ τῶν κύρβεων, is εὐσεβεία.

See K. F. Hermann, Gottesdienstliche Alterthümer der Griechen, sect. 10: Nägelsbach, Nach-Homerische Theologie, pp. 201-204.

Cicero also enacts, in his Treatise De Legibus (ii. 8-10):— “Separatim nemo habessit Deos: neve novos, sed ne advenas, nisi publicé adscitos, privatim colunto.” Compare Livy, xxxix. 16, about the Roman prohibitions of sacra externa. But Cicero does not propose to inflict such severe penalties as Plato.

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