The Circles

Many of the Highest Circles

The Highest Circles and Circles share a professional relationship as part of the ruling class, collaborating in governance.

The Isosceles

The Circles oversee the Isosceles in a rigid social hierarchy, with little personal interaction.

The Sphere

The Circles and Sphere have a distant, almost antagonistic relationship, as the Sphere's teachings threaten their authority.

The Stranger

The Circles and Stranger have minimal contact, likely formal or ceremonial.

Preface to the Second and Revised Edition, 1884

The Circles are mentioned as the aristocratic class whose supremacy is maintained by intellectual power but doomed by infecundity.

Flatland

The highest social class in Flatland, considered priests and nearly perfect.

Part I: This World

Mentioned as the highest class in Flatland's social hierarchy, representing priests and rulers.

III: Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland

The highest priestly order, who arrange intermarriages, oversee the State Hospitals, and use strategies to stifle rebellions by co-opting leaders and fomenting internal conflict among the Isosceles.

Concerning the Women

Described as the wisest statesmen who enact laws and rely on cautious wisdom to ensure safety at the cost of domestic comfort; their households enforce strict customs regarding female behavior.

V: Of Our Methods of Recognizing One Another

The Circles are mentioned as the highest order, preferring the third method of recognition over hearing or feeling.

VII: Concerning Irregular Figures

Referenced as the highest class whose members have sometimes been Irregular in youth but later became men of genius.

Of the Ancient Practice of Painting

The Priests (Circles) resisted the innovation of painting, remaining colourless along with women.

IX: Of the Universal Colour Bill

The Circles are the target of the bill, which aims to demoralize them by forcing them to adopt colour and undermining their intellectual training in Sight Recognition.

X: Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition

The Circles, led by Pantocyclus, orchestrate the suppression of the Colour Bill agitation, using deception and violence to restore order and abolish colour.

Concerning Our Priests

The Circles are described as the controllers of Flatland's society, actually Polygons with many sides, and their propagation involves both natural laws and artificial interventions.

XII: Of the Doctrine of Our Priests

The Circles are the priests and rulers who propagate the doctrine of Configuration, control marriage pedigrees, and enforce female non-education.

XV: Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland

Mentioned as the highest class; the Stranger claims to be a 'more perfect Circle than any in Flatland.'

How I Came to Spaceland, and What I Saw There

The highest Circles of Flatland meet in secret conclave and order the suppression of any who claim revelations from another world.

XXI: How I Tried to Teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to My Grandson, and with What Success

The Circles issue a proclamation through heralds, threatening arrest, imprisonment, or execution for anyone spreading delusions about another world.

XXII: How I Then Tried to Diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by Other Means, and of the Result

The highest Circles in the land are the audience for the Square's speech; the President and junior Circles are involved in his trial and sentencing.