t
disposition he has filled his senate, since no others will solicit for
that office; and yet the principal part of those crimes which men are
deliberately guilty of arise from ambition and avarice.

We will inquire at another time whether the office of a king is useful
to the state: thus much is certain, that they should be chosen from a
consideration of their conduct and not as they are now. But that the
legislator himself did not expect to make all his citizens honourable
and completely virtuous is evident from this, that he distrusts them as
not being good men; for he sent those upon the same embassy that were at
variance with each other; and thought, that in the dispute of the kings
the safety of the state consisted. Neither were their common meals at
first well established: for these should rather have been provided at
the public expense, as at Crete, where, as at Lacedaemon, every one was
obliged to buy his portion, although he might be very poor, and could by
no means bear the expense, by which means the contrary happened to what
the legislator desired: for he intended that those public meals should
strengthen the democratic part of his government: but this regulation
had quite the contrary effect, for those who were very poor could not
take part in them; and it was an observation of their forefathers, that
the not allowing those who could not contribute their proportion to the
common tables to partake of them, would be the ruin of the state. Other
persons have censured his laws concerning naval affairs, and not without
reason, as it gave rise to disputes. For the commander of the fleet is
in a manner set up in opposition to the kings, who are generals of the
army for life.

[1271b] There is also another defect in his laws worthy of censure,
which Plato has given in his book of Laws; that the whole constitution
was calculated only for the business of war: it is indeed excellent to
make them conquerors; for which reason the preservation of the state
depended thereon. The destruction of it commenced with their victories:
for they knew not how to be idle, or engage in any other employment
than war. In this particular also they were mistaken, that though they
rightly thought, that those things which are the objects of contention
amongst mankind are better procured by virtue than vice, yet they
wrongfully preferred the things themselves to virtue. Nor was the public
revenue well managed at Sparta, for the state was