Texte grec :
| [34,20] ἐπεί τοι μηδὲ τὴν βουλὴν αὐτὴν ἡγεῖσθ´ ὁμονοεῖν μηδ´
ὑμᾶς τὸν δῆμον. εἰ γοῦν τις ἐπεξίοι πάντας, δοκεῖ μοι μηδ´ ἂν
δύο ἄνδρας εὑρεῖν ἐν τῇ πόλει τὸ αὐτὸ φρονοῦντας, ἀλλ´ ὥσπερ
ἔνια τῶν ἀνιάτων καὶ χαλεπῶν νοσημάτων, ἃ δι´ ὅλων εἴωθεν ἔρχεσθαι
τῶν σωμάτων καὶ οὐδέν ἐστι μέρος εἰς ὃ μὴ κάτεισιν, οὕτως
ἡ τραχύτης αὕτη καὶ τὸ μικροῦ δεῖν ἅπαντας ἀλλήλων ἀπεστράφθαι
(21) διαπεφοίτηκε τῆς πόλεως. ἵνα γὰρ τὴν βουλὴν ἀφῶ καὶ
τὸν δῆμον τούς τε νέους καὶ τοὺς γέροντας, ἐστὶ πλῆθος οὐκ ὀλίγον
ὥσπερ ἔξωθεν τῆς πολιτείας· τούτους δὲ εἰώθασιν ἔνιοι λινουργοὺς
καλεῖν· καὶ ποτὲ μὲν βαρύνονται καί φασιν ὄχλον εἶναι
περισσὸν καὶ τοῦ θορύβου καὶ τῆς ἀταξίας αἴτιον, πάλιν δὲ μέρος
ἡγοῦνται τῆς πόλεως καὶ πολλοῦ ἀξιοῦσιν. οὓς εἰ μὲν οἴεσθε
βλάπτειν ὑμᾶς καὶ στάσεως ἄρχειν καὶ ταραχῆς, ὅλως ἐχρῆν ἀπελάσαι
καὶ μὴ παραδέχεσθαι ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις· εἰ δὲ τρόπον τινὰ
πολίτας εἶναι τῷ μὴ μόνον οἰκεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ γεγονέναι τοὺς πλείους
ἐνθάδε καὶ μηδεμίαν ἄλλην ἐπίστασθαι πόλιν, οὐδὲ ἀτιμάζειν δήπου
(22) προσήκει οὐδὲ ἀπορρηγνύειν αὑτῶν. νυνὶ δὲ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀφεστᾶσι
τὴν γνώμην τοῦ κοινῇ συμφέροντος, ὀνειδιζόμενοι καὶ δοκοῦντες
ἀλλότριοι. τούτου δὲ οὐθέν ἐστι βλαβερώτερον ταῖς πόλεσιν
οὐδὲ ὃ μᾶλλον στάσιν ἐγείρει καὶ διαφοράν, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῶν σωμάτων
ὁ προσγενόμενος ὄγκος, ἂν μὲν οἰκεῖος ᾖ τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι
καὶ συμφυής, εὐεξίαν ποιεῖ καὶ μέγεθος· εἰ δὲ μή, νόσου καὶ διαφθορᾶς
(23) αἴτιος γίγνεται. τί οὖν σὺ κελεύεις ἡμᾶς; τοὺς ἅπαντας
ἀναγράψαι πολίτας {ναί φημι} καὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἀξίους, ἅμα μηδὲ
ὀνειδίζειν μηδὲ ἀπορρίπτειν, ἀλλὰ μέρος αὑτῶν, ὥσπερ εἰσί, νομίζειν.
οὐ μὲν γάρ, ἄν τις καταβάλῃ πεντακοσίας δραχμάς, δύναται
φιλεῖν ὑμᾶς καὶ τῆς πόλεως εὐθὺς ἄξιος γεγονέναι· εἰ δέ τις
{ἢ} πένης ὢν {ἢ} πολιτογραφοῦντός τινος οὐ μετείληφε τοῦ ὀνόματος,
οὐ μόνον αὐτὸς παρ´ ὑμῖν γεγονώς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς
αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν προγόνων, οὐχ οἷός ἐστιν ἀγαπᾶν τὴν πόλιν οὐδ´
ἡγεῖσθαι πατρίδα, καὶ λίνον μὲν εἴ τις ἐργάζεται, χείρων ἐστὶν
ἑτέρου καὶ δεῖ τοῦτο προφέρειν αὐτῷ καὶ λοιδορεῖσθαι· βαφεὺς
δὲ ἢ σκυτοτόμος ἢ τέκτων ἐάν, οὐδὲν προσήκει ταῦτα ὀνειδίζειν.
(24) καθόλου δὲ οὐ τοῦτο μάλιστα τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει βουλόμενος
εἰπεῖν οὐδὲ οἷόν ἐστι δεῖξαι προῆλθον ἴσως, ἀλλ´ ἐκεῖνο σαφὲς
ὑμῖν ποιήσων, ὅπως διάκεισθε πρὸς ἀλλήλους, καὶ νὴ Δία εἰ
πιστεύειν ὑμᾶς ἄξιον τῇ παρούσῃ καταστάσει καὶ κατ´ ἀλήθειαν
οἴεσθαι νῦν συμπεπνευκέναι. οἰκίαν γὰρ ἔγωγε καὶ ναῦν καὶ τἄλλα
οὕτως ἀξιῶ δοκιμάζειν οὐ τὸ παρὸν σκοποῦντας, εἰ σκέπει νῦν καὶ
μὴ δέχεται τὴν θάλατταν, ἀλλὰ καθόλου πῶς παρεσκεύασται καὶ
πέπηγεν, εἰ μηδέν ἐστι διεστηκὸς μηδὲ σαθρόν.
|
|
Traduction française :
| [34,20] For, let me tell you, you must not
think that there is harmony in the Council itself,
nor yet among yourselves, the Assembly. At any
rate, if one were to run through the entire list of
citizens, I believe he would not discover even two
men in Tarsus who think alike, but on the contrary,
just as with certain incurable and distressing diseases
which are accustomed to pervade the whole body,
exempting no member of it from their inroads,
so this state of discord, this almost complete
estrangement of one from another, has invaded your
entire body politic.
(21) For instance, to leave now the discord of Council
and Assembly, of the Youth and the Elders, there
is a group of no small size which is, as it were, outsicle
the constitution. And some are accustomed
to call them `linen-workers,' and at times the citizens
are irritated by them and assert that they are a
useless rabble and responsible for the tumult and
disorder in Tarsus, while at other times they
regard them as a part of the city and hold the
opposite opinion of them. Well, if you believe
them to be detrimental to you and instigators of
insurrection and confusion, you should expel them
altogether and not admit them to your popular
assemblies ; but if on the other hand you regard
them as being in some measure citizens, not only
because they are resident in Tarsus, but also because
in most instances they were born here and know
no other city, then surely it is not fitting to disfranchise
them or to cut them off from association
with you. But as it is, they necessarily stand aloof
in sentiment from the common interest, reviled as
they are and viewed as outsiders. But there is
nothing more harmful to a city than such conditions,
nothing more conducive to strife and disagreement.
Take for example the human body : the bulk that
comes with the passing years, if it is in keeping with
the rest of the person and natural to it, produces
well-being and a desirable stature, but otherwise
it is a cause of disease and death.
(23) "Well then, what do you bid us do ?" I bid you
enroll them all as citizens—yes, I do—and just as
deserving as yourselves, and not to reproach them
or cast them off, but rather to regard them as
members of your body politic, as in fact they are.
For it cannot be that by the mere payment of five
hundred drachmas a man can come to love you and
immediately be found worthy of citizenship; and,
at the same time, that a man who through poverty
or through the decision of some keeper-of-the-rolls
has failed to get the rating of a citizen—although
not only he himself had been born in Tarsus, but
also his father and his forefathers as well—is
therefore incapable of affection for the city or of
considering it to be his fatherland; it cannot be
that, if a man is a linen-worker, he is inferior to his
neighbour and deserves to have his occupation
cast in his teeth and to be reviled for it, whereas,
if he is a dyer or a cobbler or a carpenter, it is unbecoming
to make those occupations a reproach.
(24) But, speaking generally, it was not, perhaps, with
the purpose of treating this special one among the
problems of your city nor of pointing out its seriousness
that I came before you, but rather that I
might make plain to you how you stand with regard
to one another, and, by Zeus, to make plain also
whether it is expedient that you should rely upon the
present system and believe that now you are really
united. Take, for example, a house or a ship or other
things like that; this is the way in which I expect
men to make appraisal. They should not consider
merely present conditions, to see if the structure
affords shelter now, or does not let in the sea, but
they should consider how as a whole it has been
constructed and put together, to see that there
are no open seams or rotten planks.
|
|
