who is included and who is excluded. If we talk about the cratic principle, as Socrates does in Book 8 of the Rupublic, equality that does not discriminate, or as Otanes did or Theseus the Euripides' play did when they placed power en meson in middle then how are we to decide who is within the com munity and who is outside, who is in the middle and who is not, who is welcome to the dinner and who is to be excluded, who is worthless (pbaulo) and who is wise, who is animal and who is human? In the way in which democratic principles function at Agathon's house, at least in the early part of the dialogue, all are welcomed. Distinctions between worthless and wise, superior and inferior, do not determine exclusion or inclusion. The politi cal regime at Athens, though, must exclude. As Manville (199o, chap. 7) points out, this was the profound challenge for the new democracy at the end of the sixth century, namely, how to clarify who was a citizen and who was not, It was difficult, because the equality principle used to break down old aristocratic princi- was incapable of arti recisely how to set atin ple o those new boundaries. Insofar as Athens must explore its mem- bership laws, it dismisses the democratic principles Socrates identifies in Book 8, and indeed reminds us of the problems we currently face at all our borders about who can be welcomed and who cannot, as we are forced to discriminate against the funda- mental principles of democratic equality. Once Aristodemus joins the dinner party, we find an easiness and freedom, a certain lackadaisical quality characterizing the re- lationships between the host and guests and others. Agathon tries to play the master by ordering his servants to bring Socrates from the neighbor's porch to the dinner, but Aristodemus restrains him from forcing Socrates. "Let him be late), he repeats twice (175b) There is to be no compulsion. Socrates will come when it pleases Socrates, not when it pleases on. Freedom is to characterize the evening, Socrates is not compelled to attend the dinner (or to rule). Likewise, a lack of compulsion pervades the dinner. The