Dialogues · Chapter
Book XII explained
The Athenian Stranger continues the detailed legislation of Magnesia, covering military service, desertion, false witness, the throwing away of arms, funeral expenses, and the treatment of strangers.
What happens
The Athenian Stranger continues the detailed legislation of Magnesia, covering military service, desertion, false witness, the throwing away of arms, funeral expenses, and the treatment of strangers. He emphasizes the need for laws to have an irreversible, preserving quality, and establishes a nocturnal council to oversee education and the stability of the state.
Themes in this chapter
Law, Custom, and Legislation
The chapter is a detailed legislative code covering military conduct, funerals, and the reception of strangers, emphasizing the need for precise and enduring laws.
War, Peace, and Military Virtue
Extensive laws are given on military service, cowardice, desertion, and the awarding of prizes for valor, reflecting the importance of military discipline.
Justice and Injustice
The discussion of false witness and the distinction between voluntary and involuntary loss of arms highlights the pursuit of justice in legal judgments.
Characters to notice
- Athenian Stranger
The primary speaker, proposing laws on military discipline, funerals, and the preservation of the state.
- Cleinias
The Cretan interlocutor who encourages the Athenian Stranger to continue and seeks clarity on the permanence of the laws.
- Megillus
Present as a silent participant in the dialogue.
Key passages
“He shall serve in war who is on the roll or appointed to some special service, and if anyone is absent from cowardice, and without the leave of the generals, he shall be indicted before the military commanders for failure of service when the army comes home;”
Every citizen on the military roll must serve when called; cowardly absence without permission will lead to a trial by fellow soldiers upon the army's return.
Establishes compulsory military service and penalties for desertion.
“The expenditure on the entire funeral of him who is of the highest class, shall not exceed five minae; and for him who is of the second class, three minae, and for him who is of the third class, two minae, and for him who is of the fourth class, one mina, will be a fair limit of expense.”
Funeral costs are capped by social class: five minae for the highest, three for the second, two for the third, and one mina for the fourth class.
Regulates funeral spending to prevent excess and maintain social order.
“The saying that Lachesis or the giver of the lots is the first of them, and that Clotho or the spinster is the second of them, and that Atropos or the unchanging one is the third of them; and that she is the preserver of the things which we have spoken, and which have been compared in a figure to things woven by fire, they both ( i.e. Atropos and the fire) producing the quality of unchangeableness.”
The three Fates—Lachesis (allotter), Clotho (spinner), and Atropos (unchanging)—symbolize the need for laws to have a permanent, unalterable quality, like cloth woven by fire.
Uses the myth of the Fates to argue for the irreversibility of law.