 The Statesman also raises an important question about the nature and value of rule by law, as opposed to rule by such expert knowledge as embodied in a rare and likely singular individual. For its part, the Republic had taken law in its stride as the standard formulation to be utilized in the construction of the city in speech by the dialogue’s principal interlocutors from Book II onward, who constitute themselves as Kallipolis’ ‘founders’ (Annas 2017, Lane 2013a). By contrast, the Statesman analyzes law as in principle a stubborn and imperfect substitute for the flexible deployment of expertise (293e–303c). However, the principal interlocutors of the latter dialogue go on to agree that if the choice is between an ignorant imitator of the true political expert who changes the laws on the basis of whim, and a law-bound polity, the latter would be preferable, so bringing law back into the picture as an alternative to the ideal after all.