thought of their misery, may be quoted in this place:—­’The right treatment of slaves is to behave properly to them, and to do to them, if possible, even more justice than to those who are our equals; for he who naturally and genuinely reverences justice, and hates injustice, is discovered in his dealings with any class of men to whom he can easily be unjust.  And he who in regard to the natures and actions of his slaves is undefiled by impiety and injustice, will best sow the seeds of virtue in them; and this may be truly said of every master, and tyrant, and of every other having authority in relation to his inferiors.’

All the citizens of the Magnesian state were free and equal; there was no distinction of rank among them, such as is believed to have prevailed at Sparta.  Their number was a fixed one, corresponding to the 5040 lots.  One of the results of this is the requirement that younger sons or those who have been disinherited shall go out to a colony.  At Athens, where there was not the same religious feeling against increasing the size of the city, the number of citizens must have been liable to considerable fluctuations.  Several classes of persons, who were not citizens by birth, were admitted to the privilege.  Perpetual exiles from other countries, people who settled there to practise a trade (Telfy), any one who had shown distinguished valour in the cause of Athens, the Plataeans who escaped from the siege, metics and strangers who offered to serve in the army, the slaves who fought at Arginusae,—­all these could or did become citizens.  Even those who were only on one side of Athenian parentage were at more than one period accounted citizens.  But at times there seems to have arisen a feeling against this promiscuous extension of the citizen body, an expression of which is to be found in the law of Pericles—­monous Athenaious einai tous ek duoin Athenaion gegonotas (Plutarch, Pericles); and at no time did the adopted citizen enjoy the full rights of citizenship—­e.g. he might not be elected archon or to the office of priest (Telfy), although this prohibition did not extend to his children, if born of a citizen wife.  Plato never thinks of making the metic, much less the slave, a citizen.  His treatment of the former class is at once more gentle and more severe than that which prevailed at Athens.  He imposes upon them no tax but good behaviour, whereas at Athens they were required to pay twelve drachmae per annum, and to have a patron:  on the other hand, he only allows them to reside in the Magnesian state on condition of following a trade; they were required to depart when their property exceeded that of the third class, and in any case after a residence of twenty years, unless they could show that they had conferred some great benefit on the state.  This privileged position reflects that of the isoteleis at Athens, who were excused from the metoikion.  It is Plato’s greatest concession to the metic, as the bestowal of freedom is his greatest concession to the slave.