The Classical Quarterly

Table of Contents - 1949 - Volume 43, Issue 1-2  

Research Article

The Education of the Third Class in Plato's Republic

George F. Hourani

Plato pays little attention to the third class in his ideal city, regarding them as raw material on which the Guardians exercise their art. But modern criticism is interested in them, for upon their treatment and opportunities our judgement of Plato's city partly depends. They are the great mass of the people, and centuries of Christian equalitarianism have made us regard their welfare as an important criterion of the city's value.