Abstract
Abstract
Scholars have either integrated the Nocturnal Council into the regime of law or dismissed it as an afterthought, incompatible with the dialogue as a whole. Engaging with the controversy between “integrationists” and “incompatibilists,” this chapter charts a novel path. The appropriate question to pose is, Why would the Athenian install figures resembling philosopher rulers at the end of a dialogue focused on establishing an ambitious regime of law? Verbal echoes link the establishment of the Nocturnal Council with the foundation of Magnesia in Book 4; instead of “handing over the city” to magistrates who are the law’s “slaves,” as readers had been led to believe, the Athenian now proposes to hand it over to philosophers in the Nocturnal Council, a major shift in orientation. The Athenian’s presentation of the Nocturnal Council implies a downgrading of the quality and worth of the regime of law.