Old age offices and educated authority

Use in the book

The ending makes the course politically consequential. Those who have labored at the studies in the required way are to receive the greatest offices when they arrive at the completion of old age (992d). The rest are to follow them, honoring all gods and goddesses with auspicious speech. The assembly's summons to wisdom follows this assignment.

The restriction “in this way” carries the full preceding account into the political prescription. The recipients are not merely older people, people with an astronomical reputation, or technically clever mathematicians. They are the people described immediately before: divine and temperate, sharing naturally in the remaining virtue, and having acquired all the blessed learning (992c–d). Age supplies a further condition of developed qualification, not a substitute for it.

This positive use of old age should be compared with the opening account of mortal life's burdens. At 974a old age comes quickly after the short middle breathing space and makes repetition of life unattractive. At the end, the long labor of rightly directed education can culminate in public authority. The two passages do not simply contradict each other. The work's exceptional possibility for a few answers its broadly pessimistic description of ordinary life.

The text states that the rule is to be affirmed privately and set down publicly by law. That distinction makes the recommendation more than the Athenian's private wish for personal honor. Yet no specific list of magistracies, appointment procedure, fixed qualifying age, or tenure is supplied. “Greatest offices” should not be inflated into a fully described constitutional mechanism or a claim that mathematical expertise alone warrants unrestricted power.

The followers' auspicious speech is part of the public religious order under the educated leaders. Euphēmein is not identical to mechanically repeating their propositions: its object is all gods and goddesses. The scope recalls the earlier insistence that all eight celestial powers receive their appropriate honor. Civic leadership is thus connected to informed, inclusive divine service, rather than separated from the theology that justified the curriculum.

Places to read

1. 974aταχύ γε μὴν ἐπιλαβὸν γῆρας — The opening presents rapidly arriving old age as a burden
2. 992dτοῖς μὲν οὖν ταῦτα οὕτω διαπονήσασιν — The qualification is labor at these things in this way
3. 992dἰδίᾳ λέγομεν καὶ δημοσίᾳ κατὰ νόμον τίθεμεν — Private affirmation is joined to public law
4. 992dεἰς πρεσβύτου τέλος ἀφικομένοις — The beneficiaries have reached the completion of old age
5. 992dτὰς μεγίστας ἀρχὰς παραδίδοσθαι — The greatest offices are to be handed over
6. 992dτοὺς δ’ ἄλλους τούτοις συνεπομένους — The others are to follow them
7. 992dεὐφημεῖν πάντας θεοὺς ἅμα καὶ πάσας — Auspicious speech encompasses gods and goddesses alike

Translation in this edition

“Completion of old age” keeps the telos expression and does not assign an age the Greek does not give. “Offices” identifies the civic sense of archai, distinct from the work's uses of archē for a beginning. “Speak auspiciously” preserves the religious force of euphēmein rather than reducing it to ordinary praise.

Highest civic responsibility — ἀρχή (archē)

ἀρχή (archē)

Highest civic responsibility. The plural greatest offices names governmental authority entrusted to properly formed aged learners, distinct from the noun's beginning-sense elsewhere. Attested: ἀρχὰς (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Relation of others to educated leaders — συνέπεσθαι (synepesthai)

συνέπεσθαι (synepesthai)

Relation of others to educated leaders. The rest are to follow the aged qualified officeholders, within the final prescription for civic religious order. Attested: συνεπομένους (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Culmination in old age — τέλος (telos)

τέλος (telos)

Culmination in old age. The expression completion of an old man or old age is the stage at which the trained person is assigned public authority. Attested: τέλος (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Transfer of office — παραδιδόναι (paradidonai)

παραδιδόναι (paradidonai)

Transfer of office. The greatest offices are to be entrusted to those qualified by study, virtue, and age; the text does not specify the administrative appointment mechanism. Attested: παραδίδοσθαι (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Completed qualification for office — διαπονεῖν (diaponein)

διαπονεῖν (diaponein)

Completed qualification for office. The active participle identifies those who have thoroughly labored at the specified studies in the right way and are later assigned offices. Attested: διαπονήσασιν (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Aged qualification for authority — πρεσβύτης (presbytēs)

πρεσβύτης (presbytēs)

Aged qualification for authority. The person who has completed the long educational labor receives the greatest offices at the completion of old age; no numerical qualifying age is given. Attested: πρεσβύτου (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Comprehensive divine reverence — εὐφημεῖν (euphēmein)

εὐφημεῖν (euphēmein)

Comprehensive divine reverence. The followers are to speak auspiciously of all gods and goddesses, extending the earlier refusal to neglect divine members of the cosmos. Attested: εὐφημεῖν (992d). Old age offices and educated authority.

Those who have labored in this way (contextual phrase)

τοῖς μὲν οὖν ταῦτα οὕτω διαπονήσασιν (992d)

The demonstratives carry the full specified curriculum and manner of learning into the political prescription. Merely being old, reputed astronomical, or technically quick does not suffice for the greatest offices. Old age offices and educated authority.