ABSTRACT
It is the purpose of this chapter to consider the idea (and ideal) of 'manliness', as it emerges in the Laws, and to contrast it with relevant historical material. I will demonstrate how the concept of manliness (avopda) is fundamental to Plaw's Magnesia in many significant respects. This is a traditional Greek value, but the Athenian Stranger's definition represents a unique modification of existing cultural norms. His conceptualisation of avopda is, as in the Greek world, strongly connected with the broader notion of apET~ (goodness/virtue/excellence). The versions of avopda and apET~ in the Laws, while grounded in cultural context, are peculiar to the Athenian Stranger. As was explored in the previous chapter, Magnesia utilises sophisticated means of psychological manipulation, on a mass scale, to inculcate its accepted values. Its methodologies entail such features as, in today's terminology, sex-role stereotyping and performative modelling. Official opprobrium and the force of law enforce and promote these. Magnesia's interest in policing the sphere of civic ideas applies particularly to Platonic 'manliness'.
