Dichaearchus of Messana, a pupil of Aristotle, described an original paradise, when men lived in accord with nature. In that golden age, they did not depend upon animals for food, but subsisted on fruits. Neither did they have any possessions to arouse hate and strife, until the evil of private property developed, and caused the degeneration of human society.1035
Ephorus,1036 a disciple of Isocrates, represented the second tendency. He eulogized the life of the “milk-fed” (γαλακτόφαγοι), barbarian nomads of the north as true to nature and righteous.1037 Their piety and simple life precluded the social ills that arise from individual ownership,1038 for their communism even extended to the family, and all composed one brotherhood.1039
The third tendency is evident in the writings of Isocrates,1040 Ephorus,1041 Polybius,1042 Plutarch,1043 and was probably common to many other thinkers whose works are no longer extant.1044 They idealized the ancient Spartan society, as a model of complete communism, which provided full equality and freedom for the citizens. It was free from the evils of luxury, excessive wealth, poverty, civic strife, commerce, and money-greed, a condition where all the citizens were wise, and where the Stoic ideal of independence (αὐτάρκεια) was fully realized.1045
It was but a step from this to the projection of these bizarre idealizations of the past and of primitive life into the present and future. They took the form of ideal utopias such as that of Zeno,1046 or of romantic descriptions, purporting to portray ideal conditions as actually existing, such as found their model in Plato’s Atlantis.1047 For a full discussion of this type of literature, the reader may consult Poehlmann’s work.1048 We need give it only cursory notice here.