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 ties; and therefore we have faithful records of past ages preserved in our temples, while you are ever beginning your history afresh, and know nothing of what formerly came to pass in your own land or in any other; all your so-called genealogies are but children's tales. You do not even know that your own city, 9000 years ago, before the great Deluge, was foremost of all in war and peace, and is said to have done the greatest deeds, and to have possessed the fairest constitution of any city under heaven. And the same great goddess who founded our city founded yours also; for she and her brother Hephæstus obtained the land of Athens as their lot, and they planted there a race of brave men, and gave them a fair and fertile soil, and rich pastures, and a healthy climate. And these ancient Athenians (so Critias tells Socrates) realised in actual life the strict division of classes laid down in your 'Republic;' and their guardian soldiers—both men and women—were trained and went out to battle together like yours; and none among them had house or family or gold that he could call his own, but they had all things in common. And the number of these guardians neither increased nor decreased, but was always twenty thousand. And their most famous victory was over the vast army sent forth from the island of Atlantis.

"Now, this island was of a great size—larger than all Asia and Libya together—and was situated over against the straits now called the Pillars of Hercules. It was founded by the god Neptune, who divided the land among the ten sons that were born to him by a mortal woman. And the eldest, who was called Atlas, he