ABSTRACT
The Politicus (or ‘Statesman’) probably belongs to the last period of Plato’s life; and its composition may be assigned either to the period of his connexion with Dionysius II (367–361) or to the years immediately following. 1 Whatever the exact date of its composition may have been (and that we can hardly hope to discover), the Politicus must in any case have been written many years after the publication of the Republic. Its attitude to democracy is less hostile; and above all a new attitude to law – still hostile, but much less uncompromisingly hostile – is one of its prominent features. On the other hand, a belief in absolutism is still part of Plato’s thought; and though there is much discourse of weaving and the need for mixture of different mental elements in the composition of the State, there is only a very slight hint of that form of mixed constitution, combining monarchy with democracy, which is advocated in the Laws. The Politicus must thus be prior by some years to the Laws. Perhaps we shall not go far wrong if, remembering that between 367 and 361 Plato had high hopes of the monarchy at Syracuse, and that, on the other hand, he was already interested in law and working with Dionysius II at the construction of preambles for laws, we ascribe the Politicus, with its mixture of a vindication of absolutism and an appreciation of law, to the same period of his life.
