XII
As the walls are to be divided by guardhouses and towers built at
suitable intervals, and the body of citizens must be distributed at
common tables, the idea will naturally occur that we should
establish some of the common tables in the guardhouses. These might be
arranged as has been suggested; while the principal common tables of
the magistrates will occupy a suitable place, and there also will be
the buildings appropriated to religious worship except in the case
of those rites which the law or the Pythian oracle has restricted to a
special locality. The site should be a spot seen far and wide, which
gives due elevation to virtue and towers over the neighborhood.
Below this spot should be established an agora, such as that which the
Thessalians call the 'freemen's agora'; from this all trade should
be excluded, and no mechanic, husbandman, or any such person allowed
to enter, unless he be summoned by the magistrates. It would be a
charming use of the place, if the gymnastic exercises of the elder men
were performed there. For in this noble practice different ages should
be separated, and some of the magistrates should stay with the boys,
while the grown-up men remain with the magistrates; for the presence
of the magistrates is the best mode of inspiring true modesty and
ingenuous fear.
Pages:
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316