KINGSHIP 87described it? In his recent careful analysis of the subject Langstadt^5 is
clearly right in concluding that to Philo democracy was really Plato's
ideal Politeia, the subjection of the mob to the firm rule of a philosopher
king. It was not the royal person which Philo desired so much as the
royal function and activity by which the king introduced equality
(looTKjc) into society. Those who have most carefully investigated the
secrets of Nature, he says, have handed down to us the notion of the
importance of equality in the cosmos, and of equality as the mother of
justice. Equality makes the universe into a cosmos, cities into the best of
all constitutions, a democracy; it makes bodies healthy and souls virtu
ous.^6 It will be recalled that fluctuations within the Logos, which cause
the rise and fall of cities and empires, are governed, Philo thinks, by a
fundamental cosmic democracy within the Logos itself.^7
Philo's ideal is, then, a state based fundamentally upon the cosmic
virtue of \O 6 TY\C. He sketches an ideal state in describing the Essenes
whose education brings the members to love of God, love of virtue, and
love of man. Love of God leads man to intellectual and philosophic
achievement, love of virtue to personal virtues, and love of man to the
social virtues, benevolence (euvoia), equality (\OOTY\C), and fellowship
beyond verbal description (h navroc Aoyou Kparruv koivcjvioc).^8 That is,
the Essenes are an ideal community in which every man is a philoso
pher, and so has little need for the philosopher king to introduce
\O 6 TV)Q and Koivuvia. But in the state as ordinarily understood, the ideal
organization would require a philosophic ruler, else all would be lost.
Clearly what Philo says about democracy is more properly considered
with his remarks about kingship. But it is interesting to inquire how
Philo came to call such a government "democracy" when it does not
correspond at all to the general use of the term in ancient tradition.
Langstadt has published an extremely interesting parallel from the
pseudo-Platonic Menexenos, 238B-239A, in which a polity based upon
\O 6 TY\C is described, one ruled over by a king, but called by some people
a democracy. He sees that the author of this treatise is like Philo, fur
ther, in that both look back to a primitive time in history when the ideal- Erich Langstadt, "Zu Philos Begriff der Demokratie," Occident and Orient, Studies...
in honor of Haham Dr. M. Gaster*s 8oth Birthday, London, 1937, 349-364. I agree with almost
everything said in this essay, and have drawn freely on it for these paragraphs. - Spec, iv, 237. The idea is again Pythagorean-Platonic.
- lmmut., 176; see above, pp. 76 ff.
- Prob., 83 ff. Cf. Virt., 119. Langstadt, op. cit., 354 £f.