on ideal is a far cry from the ethical community designed by Plato. As such, Polybius probably felt it necessary to make a "preemptive strike" at the more philosophically-established position before the Platonists attacked him on what he would consider unrealistically moral grounds. His dismissal of the state as described in The Republic is unnecessarily harsh, though: "we ought not to admit this Platonic constitution to the contest for the prize of merit unless it can first point to some genuine and practical achievement" (Polybius VI, 47).
[I]f we imagine the State in process of creation, we shall see the justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also (Plato II, 369).
In many ways Plato would approve of Polybius' analysis of governments and their defects. As a starting point, mentioned above, Plato stresses the notion that the ideal state, or polis, was an ethical community for the attainment of virtue or goodness. His discussions range over several works - which immediately calls into question Polybius' short-shrift dismissal. In The Republic, however, we find Plato spending the most time on the specific subject government. It is here, too, that he makes constant reference to the Spartan government as it was originally conceived - devising his Ideal State along similar lines to theirs: that is, an aristocracy of meritorious men, the Guardians, elected for life by the select citizenry, led in turn by a philosopher-king appointed by the Guardians. Consequently, Plato would surely approve of Polybius' conclusion that "for safeguarding the Laconian territory, and prese
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