Plato, Laws 832b

ζήτησις, παρέχουσα ἄσχολον ἕκαστον, ἐμπόδιος γίγνεται τοῦ μὴ καλῶς ἀσκεῖν τὰ περὶ τὸν πόλεμον ἑκάστους. ἔστω· τὴν δὲ δὴ δευτέραν λέγε. μῶν οὐ λέγειν ἀλλὰ διατρίβειν δοκῶ διʼ ἀπορίαν; οὔκ, ἀλλὰ οἷον μισῶν δοκεῖς ἡμῖν κολάζειν τὸ τοιοῦτον ἦθος μᾶλλον τοῦ δέοντος τῷ παραπεπτωκότι λόγῳ. κάλλιστα, ὦ ξένοι, ἐπεπλήξατε· καὶ τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ἀκούοιτʼ ἄν, ὡς ἔοικε. λέγε μόνον. τὰς οὐ πολιτείας ἔγωγε αἰτίας εἶναί φημι ἃς

Be it so: now tell us the second cause. Do you think that I am delaying to do so because I am at a loss? No; but we think that, owing to a sort of hatred against the character you describe, you are castigating it more severely than is required by the argument now on hand. Your rebuke is just, Strangers; you want, it seems, to hear what comes next. Only say on. There lies a cause, as I affirm, in those non-polities which I have often mentioned in our previous discourse,—namely, democracy,