The Earth, according to Plato's Noble Lie, was our mother. When she created us she mixed different precious metals into our souls. Gold into the souls of rulers and guardians. Silver into the souls of auxiliaries and soldiers, auxiliaries were those who served society. Iron and Bronze went into the souls of the farmers, craftsmen and laborers.
Look around chaps, there's a reason Plato wrote the lines of his Noble Lie for Socrates. Plato was never an idiot, he had his work as a tutor to the highly successful to look out for, so more likely Plato's own tongue was firmly in his cheek.
Gold is a soft metal, pretty as a scanty princess, for men to fight over and possess. Silver's got a certain style, unless you're a Chinese Emperor silver is nothing to get worked up about, it polishes up nicely, makes a good candlestick for a lowly cat burglar. Bronze and iron are lumpen, they sit there looking useful until directed.
In Plato's ideal republic, the Men of Gold weren't allowed to own anything. What society needed from them was a purification of their greed, their cunning, their ability to manipulate others, their skill at attracting personal wealth so that these talents might combine into a knowledge that passed all understanding called a Good Tyrant.
And yes indeed, worth a quote from the King James Version from the missive written by Paul the Apostle and forwarded by Timothy, thanking the Church in Philippi for their financial support and a call for joy and even greater unity : "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Following years and years of diaspora, by the time Pontius Pilate was the Roman Governor of Judea the majority of Jewish people lived outside of Judea. Philippi was a Roman Colony in Macedonia, on the Greek side of Rome, definitely in Europe. This colony had no Jewish Synagogue. For Paul the Apostle and his sidekick Timothy, in terms of world conquest, the Philippians were a bunch of non-Jewish outsiders, and the church in Philippi was a very big deal, it was almost up there with the Irish Saint Columba crossing the seas in a coracle, apparently, to convert the Picts.
It's "The Peace of God" that presents the promise "The Peace of a Good Tyrant."
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