rld is also sanctioned by
the authority of Hesiod and the poets. Thus we see that the Republic is
partly founded on the ideal of the old Greek polis, partly on the actual
circumstances of Hellas in that age. Plato, like the old painters,
retains the traditional form, and like them he has also a vision of a
city in the clouds.

There is yet another thread which is interwoven in the texture of the
work; for the Republic is not only a Dorian State, but a Pythagorean
league. The 'way of life' which was connected with the name of
Pythagoras, like the Catholic monastic orders, showed the power which
the mind of an individual might exercise over his contemporaries, and
may have naturally suggested to Plato the possibility of reviving such
'mediaeval institutions.' The Pythagoreans, like Plato, enforced a rule
of life and a moral and intellectual training. The influence ascribed to
music, which to us seems exaggerated, is also a Pythagorean feature; it
is not to be regarded as representing the real influence of music in
the Greek world. More nearly than any other government of Hellas, the
Pythagorean league of three hundred was an aristocracy of virtue. For
once in the history of mankind the philosophy of order or (Greek),
expressing and consequently enlisting on its side the combined
endeavours of the better part of the people, obtained the management of
public affairs and held possession of it for a considerable time (until
about B.C. 500). Probably only in States prepared by Dorian institutions
would such a league have been possible. The rulers, like Plato's
(Greek), were required to submit to a severe training in order to
prepare the way for the education of the other members of the community.
Long after the dissolution of the Order, eminent Pythagoreans, such as
Archytas of Tarentum, retained their political influence over the cities
of Magna Graecia. There was much here that was suggestive to the kindred
spirit of Plato, who had doubtless meditated deeply on the 'way of life
of Pythagoras' (Rep.) and his followers. Slight traces of Pythagoreanism
are to be found in the mystical number of the State, in the number which
expresses the interval between the king and the tyrant, in the doctrine
of transmigration, in the music of the spheres, as well as in the great
though secondary importance ascribed to mathematics in education.

But as in his philosophy, so also in the form of his State, he goes far
beyond the old Pythagorea