Critias | Page 5

the zones of sea, and made

a way to and from the royal palace which they built in the centre island. This ancient
palace was ornamented by successive generations; and they dug a canal which passed
through the zones of land from the island to the sea. The zones of earth were surrounded
by walls made of stone of divers colours, black and white and red, which they sometimes
intermingled for the sake of ornament; and as they quarried they hollowed out beneath
the edges of the zones double docks having roofs of rock. The outermost of the walls was
coated with brass, the second with tin, and the third, which was the wall of the citadel,
flashed with the red light of orichalcum. In the interior of the citadel was a holy temple,
dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, and surrounded by an enclosure of gold, and there was
Poseidon's own temple, which was covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. The
roof was of ivory, adorned with gold and silver and orichalcum, and the rest of the
interior was lined with orichalcum. Within was an image of the god standing in a chariot
drawn by six winged horses, and touching the roof with his head; around him were a
hundred Nereids, riding on dolphins. Outside the temple were placed golden statues of all
the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives; there was an altar too, and there were
palaces, corresponding to the greatness and glory both of the kingdom and of the temple.
Also there were fountains of hot and cold water, and suitable buildings surrounding them,
and trees, and there were baths both of the kings and of private individuals, and separate
baths for women, and also for cattle. The water from the baths was carried to the grove of
Poseidon, and by aqueducts over the bridges to the outer circles. And there were temples
in the zones, and in the larger of the two there was a racecourse for horses, which ran all
round the island. The guards were distributed in the zones according to the trust reposed
in them; the most trusted of them were stationed in the citadel. The docks were full of
triremes and stores. The land between the harbour and the sea was surrounded by a wall,
and was crowded with dwellings, and the harbour and canal resounded with the din of
human voices.
The plain around the city was highly cultivated and sheltered from the north by
mountains; it was oblong, and where falling out of the straight line followed the circular
ditch, which was of an incredible depth. This depth received the streams which came
down from the mountains, as well as the canals of the interior, and found a way to the sea.
The entire country was divided into sixty thousand lots, each of which was a square of
ten stadia; and the owner of a lot was bound to furnish the sixth part of a war-chariot, so
as to make up ten thousand chariots, two horses and riders upon them, a pair of
chariot-horses without a seat, and an attendant and charioteer, two hoplites, two archers,
two slingers, three stone-shooters, three javelin-men, and four sailors to make up the
complement of twelve hundred ships.
Each of the ten kings was absolute in his own city and kingdom. The relations of the
different governments to one another were determined by the injunctions of Poseidon,
which had been inscribed by the first kings on a column of orichalcum in the temple of
Poseidon, at which the kings and princes gathered together and held a festival every fifth
and every sixth year alternately. Around the temple ranged the bulls of Poseidon, one of
which the ten kings caught and sacrificed, shedding the blood of the victim over the
inscription, and vowing not to transgress the laws of their father Poseidon. When night
came, they put on azure robes and gave judgment against offenders. The most important
of their laws related to their dealings with one another. They were not to take up arms
against one another, and were to come to the rescue if any of their brethren were attacked.

They were to deliberate in common about war, and the king was not to have the power of
life and death over his kinsmen, unless he had the assent of the majority.
For many generations, as tradition tells, the people of Atlantis were obedient to the laws
and to the gods, and practised gentleness and wisdom in their intercourse with one
another. They knew that they could only have the true use of riches by not caring about
them. But gradually the divine portion of their souls became diluted with too much of the
mortal admixture, and they began to