Friendship, Masculinity, and the Barbarian in Plato's Laws

In the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, many Greek authors—invoking a range of cultural, environmental, and biological explanations—distinguish Greeks from non-Greeks partly in terms of the capacity or emotional fitness for friendship. According to this trend, barbarian groups, especially the Persians, are deficient in the social bonds of philia that are necessary for masculine virtue and political unity, whereas Greeks are well-suited for such friendships. This chapter examines Plato's engagement with this trend. It argues that Plato makes deliberate use of Greek prejudices about barbarian political psychology, but that he challenges and complicates the picture by turning Greek assumptions on their heads and depicting Greeks themselves, especially contemporary Athenians, as poor exemplars of, and culturally ill-suited for, philia . Ultimately, Plato subverts the Greek trope of the “friendless barbarian” in some respects while reinforcing it in others.