may possess more than one, very stringent regulations are advised.335 No lot may be purchased or sold,336 confiscated,337 or divided by will to more than one heir,338 and no citizen, in any manner whatsoever, may become owner of more than one lot.339 The living of the other members of the family is arranged for by a provision for a general distribution of the product of the soil, in imitation of the Cretan law.340 The annual product of grain and cattle shall be divided into three equal parts, one for citizens, one for their servants, and one for the artisans, metics, and strangers. The first two parts shall not be subject to sale, but each head of a family shall receive from them enough to nourish his family and slaves.
It is evident from all these regulations that Plato’s citizens do not actually own their lots, but merely enjoy the usufruct of them from the state on certain conditions. He takes away with one hand what he gives with the other. Under such a system all his precautionary measures could not have prevented the growth of an even more oppressive poverty, unless the growth of population could be checked.
The regulations limiting the acquisition or possession of personal property are even more stringent, though here an absolute equality is not attempted. He seeks, however, to prevent the rise of inequality of fortunes, at the very threshold,