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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: kings of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, was an island greater in extent
than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an
impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the
ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations of
barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they
successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all the
Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the
respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the
precedence to Athens.
In the days of old, the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by
allotment (Cp. Polit.) There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly
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