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THE WORKS OF XENOPHON
.* ~ *
º

T H E
WORKS OF XENOPHON
TRANSILATED BY
H. G. D. A. KY N S, M. A.
LATE ASSISTANT MASTER, CLIFTON COLLEGE
IN F O U R V O L U M ES
VOL. III—-PART I
THE MEMORABILIA AND APOLOGY, THE ECONOMIST
THE SYMPOSIUM, AND HIERO
3ſ, Uttiyott
M A CM ILL AN AND CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
I 897
All rights reserved
PRE FACE
THIS is the last but one of the four companion volumes
in which I have proposed to translate the works of
Xenophon. The first, containing Hellenica, Books I.
and II. (which form practically the Seguel to Thucy-
dides), together with the Anabasis, was published in
I 890. The second, containing the five remaining
books of the Hel/emica (which constitute the Hellenic
History proper), along with four of the minor works
commonly attributed to Xenophon : the Agesilaus, the
Aoſity of the Athenians, the Poſity of the Zacedaemomezans,
and the pamphlet on Revenues, otherwise entitled Ways
and Means, appeared in 1892. In the preface to that
volume I expressed a hope concerning the contents of
the remaining portion of my work which, as far as this
the penultimate volume is concerned, I am at length
able to fulfil. There still remains a final volume, to be
devoted to Xenophon's longest, and in some respects
most important work, the Cyropaedia, or Education of
Cyrus (the Great), which will, I trust, see the light of
day before the century has ended.
As to the shape in which the present volume is
issued, a word of explanation is perhaps required. The
fact is that during a prolonged period of struggle and
vi - PREFACE
contortion in the press, it has imitated the behaviour
of amoeba primitiva, or Some such humble organism,
increasing in bulk and multiplying by a process known.'
to the biologist as simple or binary fission ; and now
presents itself for examination in two practically inde-
pendent parts.
The first of these contains the so-called Socratic
writings : the Memorabi/ia and the (possibly spurious)
Apology, the Economist and the Symposium, along with
the Hiero, an imaginary conversation conducted in a
quasi-Socratic manner on the topic of “Tyranny.” The
second part includes the three remaining minor works,
which treat respectively of the Chase, of the duties of a
General of Cavalry, and of the Horse and Horsemanship |
(see preface to Part II.).
In the particular portion of the Xenophontine writ-
ings represented by Part I., the student is confronted)
with many interesting problems. There are the literary
and artistic value of the several treatises; the stylistic
capacities and inventiveness of the author ; his stand-
point as a philosopher. The main question concerning
the real and the Xenophontic Socrates will be directly
raised: what is the worth of Xenophon's testimony? what
deduction as regards the truthfulness of his portraiture
must be made for the author's idiosyncrasy P what is
Xenophon's personal equation ? This consideration ap-
plies in varying degrees, if I am not mistaken, to all four
of the Socratic writings. I had proposed at One time to
insert, as bearing on it, a brief essay entitled the Socrates
of Xenophon, but chiefly owing to want of space desisted.
The student will, however, find, I hope, not only in the
translations themselves, but further in a Conspectus of
topics treated of in the Memorabilia and a somewhat
copious Index (s.n. Socrates), sufficient material on
PREFACE vii
which to form his own conclusions, unbiassed by the
particular view of the matter which I happen myself to
hold. A further question of interest is the discovery of
the “archic" man (Tí ópxticós :). This problem, incident-
ally started in the Oeconomicus, is directly dealt with
in the Hzero ; and will be found to be treated exhaust-
ively, after the writer's own manner, in the Cyropaedia.
The importance lastly of the Oeconomicus as the earliest
work we possess on Household Management, the position
of the wife, and so forth, can hardly be exaggerated ;
nor again can that of the Symposzuma, which at once from
a literary point of view, and as bearing on the character
of Socrates, presents many points of interest.
With regard to the work of translation (and in
particular to my renderings of the Oeconomicus and
Symposium), I may perhaps be permitted once more to
draw attention to what I ventured to set forth in my
Original preface as constituting, apart from personal defi-
ciencies on the part of the translator, the main difficulties
of representing the style of Xenophon—that is to say,
his thought and diction—in English without travesty or
insipidity. If I refer to those remarks again, it is with
a painful consciousness that, for whatever reason, the
two versions in question fail lamentably to reproduce
the right nuance of feeling, the colour, flavour—call it
what one will—distinctive of the original compositions.
Perhaps it is that the personal deficiencies above hinted
at have increased instead of lessening, as they should
by rights, with years; perhaps this type of translation,
which, following the late Master of Balliol (now passibus
aequis), and in Obedience to his conception of the task
imposed, I consciously aimed at (it was to be “a version
true at once to the Sense and spirit of the original, and
at the same time readable as an English book"), has
viii PREFACE
proved in these two cases more than usually inelastic
in my hands.
6 bíAot, où pºev ćyò Tavča), Aaſ'éta Šē kai &\\os.
Whatever the explanation, an apology, I feel, is
due to something and to somebody, - to the Dás
Manióus assuredly of Xenophon and of his master
Socrates—to the Genius of Translation—to the high
ideal of the great English scholar, whom I delight to
regard as the “onlie begetter’ of these volumes.
As to the Oeconomicus indeed, that delicate and
Curiously-wrought (if somewhat unevenly-executed)
piece of workmanship—even if some violence has been
done to the Muse of Xenophon, no great matter :
“Quel Greco dolcissimo e soavissimo scrittore ” (as
Alberti wrote in reference to this very treatise)—will
Survive it. Some one soon or late, I venture to sur-
mise, Combining the strength of Landor with the
unaffectedness of Cowley and the charm of Ruskin,
will Come to do this, the most graceful and artistic, as
many critics have maintained, of Xenophon's writings,
full justice.
With regard to the Symposium it is different.
Here to have failed to reproduce the humour of a
Strange and antique people humorously may perhaps
seem pardonable. But my trouble is of another sort.
It is not so much that the Muse of Xenophon is likely
to be injured in such a case, which would be bad
enough, as that the image he designs to draw of
Socrates has been disfigured—a worse evil ; or worst of
all, the reputation of the philosopher besmirched. So
great seems to me to be the danger of rendering
crudely in commonplace English sayings which in the
Original Greek are pleasant and humorous enough ,
PREFACE ix
and which have indeed, to my mind, an echo of the
real man. To sum up : it would be a great error to
take Xenophon's dramatisation of Socrates and the
rest at more than its pretended worth : philosophers at
lay. But to mistake an anglicised réchauffe of the
Xenophontine humour for a true characterisation of
the best and wisest of men would be worse than a
Calamity—a calumny.
The text which I have followed is, as usual, that of
the editio stereotypa of Gustav Sauppe. I have, I
believe, in all cases noted any occasional deviation at
the bottom of the page.
I must here express my obligations once again not
only to the above-named editor and commentator
throughout, but to many others: among the more
ancient scholars to Schneider and Zeune ; to Louis
Dindorf; -to R. Kühner and L. Breitenbach ; to G. C.
Cobet and his Prosopographia Xenophomſea I am par-
ticularly indebted, as also to the Amalecta Xenophontea Old
and new of his lineal descendant in Dutch scholarship,
J. J. Hartman ; to Adalbert Roquette, whose famous dis-
Sertation de Xenop/ontis Vita is still my mainstay to
Arnold Hug, whose view concerning the Symposium Con-
firms me in my own ; to C. Schenk! ; and passing on to
modern times, to Karl Lincke, to M. Schanz, and Karl
Joel. Lastly, but not least, to the one man who, apart
from his other titles to fame, has certainly amongst Eng-
lish scholars deserved best of Xenophon—the late Dr.
Hubert Holden. It would be out of place here, per-
haps, to record the debt (dating from early Rugby
days) which I feel to owe to this labour-loving critic
and kind friend. His careful editions of the Oecozzo-
7/zzczºs, the Hiero, and Cyropaedia are in everybody's hands.
Others, as we hoped, were soon to be forthcoming.
X PREFACE
Mournfully I realise that I can never discuss the
problems of the Xenophontine writings with Dr.
Holden any more, or note the kindly accents of his
voice.
To many other scholars in this country or in
America or on the Continent I have naturally many
debts. These I hope I have acknowledged in their
proper places.
To Grote's History of Greece and Plato, to
Jowett's Plato and Aristotle; to Zeller's Socrates (my
edition is the English translation by Oswald Reichel,
68); to Mr. Ruskin and his Bibliotheca Pastorum,
vol. i. ; to Dr. Alfred Croiset ; to Dr. Henry Jackson ;
and to Mr. W. L. Newman, I am indebted for ideas
worked out in some part or other of the Introduction.
I cannot say how many of the notions I entertain
concerning Socrates and the sophists are derived from
my oldest friend of all, Professor Henry Sidgwick ;
not that I would seek to father on so exact a thinker
my somewhat nebulous conceptions.
I have once again to thank another intimate friend
and former colleague, Mr. S. T. Irwin, for help and
encouragement after reading a portion of this volume,
the Economist. Mr. Irwin's masterly rendering of
certain dialogues of Lucian give considerable weight to
his criticisms, which, through kindliness of nature and
modesty, he was disposed to make, I think, too
optimistic.
As before, none of these personal debts are at all
equal to what I owe to Mr. J. R. Mozley, that friend
of friends, who once again in the midst of his own far
severer daily labours has found time to read through
and criticise and correct everything contained in this
part of my volume, much to its improvement.
\
PREFACE xi
I take this opportunity of thanking those readers
nown or unknown to me who have already been good
enough to favour my two former volumes with their
criticism. I hope to profit still further by their
opinions, and perhaps to make the remaining volume
somewhat worthier of commendation than the present.
HASLEMERE, /azzuary, 1897.
CONT ENTS
PREFACE
i
INTRODUCTION.—
f
*
ON THE SO-CALLED “SOCRATIC WRITINGs” OF XENOPHON
THE MEMORABILIA
A CONSPECTUS OF TOPICS TREATED OF IN THE MEMO-
RABILIA
NOTE ON MEM. I. ii. 9-61—ó Kathyopos
ON THE PERSONAL NOTE IN THE 'Atropºv'muovetºuata : WHO
Is EUTHYDEMUs? (in Bk. IV.)
ON THE RELATION BETWEEN (XEN.) APOLOGY AND MEM.
IV. viii.
THE OECONOMICUS
THE STRUCTURE OF THE OECONOMICUS, WITH AN
ANALYSIS OF CAPP. I.-VI. AND CAPP. VII.-XXI. (the
discussion between Socrates and Ischomachus)
THE SYMPOSIUM . & * s
ON A CERTAIN PARALLELISM BETWEEN TIIE SYMPOSIUM
OF XENOPHON AND THE SYMPOSIUM OF PLATO
PAGE
xix
xxiii
xxxviii
lviii
lix
THE HIERO
lxxii
xiv CONTENTS
rºom
THE MEMORABILIA, OR RECOLLECTIONS OF SOCRATES-
ſ
BOOK I. . |
BOOK II. 38
BOOK III. 8
BOOK IV. * * e e º: 13b
THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES & * g º
j
THE ECONOMIST : a Treatise on the Science of the
Household in the form of a Dialogue º
SyMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET tº g * 29 |
HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT * : a Discourse on Des- .
potic Rule *; * * * . 35 ||
INDEx º sº t e e . 39T
ON THE SO-CALLED “SOCRATIC WRITINGS ’’ OF XENOPHON
THE group in question includes four more or less allied
compositions which appear in the Canon of Xenophon's
writings" as separate works, traditionally entitled—
i. 'Atropiumpovetſgata” (or Memorabilia, commonly so called ; that is to
say, “Memoirs” or “Recollections").
ii. 'AtroXoyia 20kpátovs (a pamphlet /n defence of Socrates, which, even
if it should be spurious, is somehow or other closely connected with
the Memorabilia).
ii. Olkovoukös Xó-yos or Oikovopaká (a treatise Owl Household management,
here entitled The Economist).
>vutóortov (The Symposium).
i
iv.
The two last named, whatever their original relation
to each other and to the Memorabilia,” are, in the shape
1 As known to Demetrius Magnes; see Trans. vol. i. p. xlviii. On p. xlix. the
statement, “I have grave doubts as to the genuineness of the Apology and of the Agesi-
Jaws,” needs qualification. With regard to the latter see Trans. vol. ii. p. lxi. foll., and
as to the Aſology, below, p. xlvi.
2 This may well have been the author's own title for the collection of notes and
memoranda and reminiscences, etc., which at Some date or dates unknown he published,
“pietatis causa," as a testimony and tribute to the memory of his friend the philosopher.
See Meyz. I. iii. 1, and cf. Diog. Laert. A em. II. xi. 48, Tpótos =evotböv ÚToo mueto-
orguevos Tā Āeyóuevo [itro Stokpátovs].ets &v606trovs paysv, & Toulmwovetſuota. Twypôpos.
The remark has been misunderstood sometimes as if Diogenes (or his authority) meant
to claim for Xenophom that he was the first writer to try his hand at biography. What
he does say evidently is that “Xenophon was the first to publish The Sayings (of
Socrates), based upon notes of conversations, under the title Memoirs,” being “in fact
to Socrates what Boswell was to Johnson.” There may indeed have been some claim to
novelty in the work, or in the note-taking, and Xenophon's literary inventiveness is
certainly remarkable; but Ion of Chios, the famous poet and prose writer, was certainly
his precursor (and there were surely many others) in the field of biography with a work
ientitled ūtropºvijuata. Schol, ad Aristoph. Aac. 835. See Plut. Cimzon, v. ix. xvi. l
| 3 And at intervals during the process of composition and arrangement of material for
Mublication and re-publication, not to speak of posthumous editing, it is easy to imagine
à more intimate connection between part and part than now subsists—e.g. it is believed
#y many modern critics (and the idea dates back to Galen, A.D. 160, To Bufºtov Tooto
+öv Sokparuków & Touwmuovevuátov čori to éoxarov; see L. Dindorf, Aen. Mem. Praef.
kiv. and ad inscr. p. 1) that the Oeconomic, commencing with the words "HKovga. Šć
|rote airov, is the concluding book of the Memorabilia, with which it was originally
continuous; and a similar belief is held about the Sympositéſz, that it was once a portion
of the larger work (see Schenkl). For my own view on this whole question, see Trans.
vol. i. p. liv. note 1, and below, p. xlvii.
xvi. INTRODUCTION
in which they have been handed down, to all intents and
purposes independent works.
Why, then, it may be asked, are these three or four
writings to be treated under one head? Divergent in point
of style and diction, disparate as specimens of art, what are
they but the inventive products of a type of literary genius,
not profound indeed, but versatile, which seeks to find ex-
pression first on one and then on another plane of thought
or feeling P And why “Socratic *P The question is far-
reaching. For the present I limit myself to replying:
“Socratic” in this sense, that, however dissimilar, the writings
in question have a common basis and starting-point. They are,
as it were, modulations on a single theme—the motif Socrates.
We may go further: one may speak of them as studies in
historical portraiture differently worked out. With more
or less pretence to accuracy of delineation, in proportion to
the freedom which the artist's fancy has permitted him in
handling the central figure, they present a view of Socrates
(and his associates) consistent with itself—a dramatised con-
ception rather of the living man, the wise companion and
friend, whose dialectic skill and ardent search for truth
were only surpassed by his desire to make himself and his
friends better. That is the aſpecrus, the heresy of Xenophon,
right or wrong, concerning Socrates," which those who knew
him best would recognise as faithful and tenable within its
limits. It is a view, moreover, which successive ages, eager to
find the man within the man revealed to Xenophon, to Plato,
to Antisthenes, Eucleides, Aristippus, and the rest, have on
the whole been willing to accept as to a large extent historic-
ally true, or, at any rate, of peculiar biographic value.
One must be careful, however, not to overstate the case. We do not
know at all what his contemporaries thought of Xenophon's Socratic
writings, or of his tenets with regard to the philosopher. Aristotle,
who was all but contemporary, takes no notice of Xenophon's cº
of Socrates as diſpeñów Tows ovvóvras, i.e. as directly edifying people b
his discourses and by force of his moral nature. The dperm plus 20kpatuch
1 See Hellenica. Essays, pp. 372-374, for an attempt to analyse Xenophon's partially
Socratic mind, as shown in his effort to interpret Socrates to the general public. l
THE “SOCRATIC” WRITINGS xvii
loxi's of Antisthenes is, I suppose, the nearest approach we have to direct
testimony in favour of Xenophon's view. But if, as we assume to be the
case, Xenophon was intimate with Socrates (see Trans, vol. i. Sketch, pp.
lxxv.-lxxxi.), his testimony to the moral benefit which the “true com-
panions” felt they owed their guide, philosopher, and friend, was a personal
matter not to be disputed. Here, then, a signal point in which Xenophon
may be thought to supplement (as apart from directly or indirectly cor-
roborating) the testimony of Plato and Aristotle, etc., would seem to
be established. As to succeeding generations, the ancient critics, how-
ever discriminating,” were probably content to accept the Xenophontic
Socrates (E2) uncritically as a practically just conception, an adum-
bration in some sort of the real man, just as they accepted with like
equanimity the Platonic Socrates (II2), the Antisthenean Socrates (Avt. 2),
the Aeschinean Socrates (Alox. 2), and so forth, as all equally sub-
stantiated. It has been left to our own more critical age, with its
scientific conscience, its curiosity, its duty of a képus, its belief in objective
as opposed to subjective truth, to ransack the evidence to discover which
is the more to be relied upon as an authority—the idealising philosopher
Plato, who had a system to construct, or the plain and realistic láuditmº
Xenophon, with his taste for history; or whether either or any contem-
porary can be trusted to state the facts of the case impartially by com-
parison with a writer so free from prepossession, and otherwise so favourably
placed to weigh the evidence, as the metaphysical historian and philosopher
Aristotle.
Two separate questions are here started. The one concerns the relative
trustworthiness of the two chief contemporary witnesses, Xenophon and
Plato, on whom we have to depend for our own conception—the view we
are to take of the life and personality, the method, doctrine, philosophic
standpoint, etc., of Socrates. The other concerns the truthfulness, the
objectivity of Xenophon's conception. To what extent, we ask ourselves,
does the dramatising witness “impute himself” consciously or uncon-
sciously to his hero and protagonist P. How far from the point of view of
literary art is he even aiming at historical truth?” Both questions alike will
1 See, for instance, Demetrius (the Peripatetic), de EZoc. 296, Ka8óAov 8é Ögmep Tov
aútov kmpov 6 uév Tus Köva èrxa arev, 6 8& Boöv, 6 & Tirov, oùto kai Tpayua Taüto 6 uév tus
&Tobawváuevos Kai katmyopæv (bmariv 6tt “ot & v6p to Toº xpi wa to 9. § v & To Ae Tov a t
toºs traw a (v, Štru a tipi mºv 8 & ot, a v v & To Ae (Tov a v th v Xpm a op. Švn v Tots ov v a tro-
As tºp 6 sº a t.” Toºro Sérô eiðos toū Aóyov 'Aptotitievou Aéyétat, , §Tepos 6& To auto intro-
6eyukós Tpooia stat, ka96trep Eevodºvros Tā Tox&á, otov 8tt 6 sº yap oil xpijuato.
w 6 vov & iro Ae itſ st v toºs at Tów iſ a to iv, & AA & kai étr to trip mºv thu Xp morou è v’m v
at to?s ” to Śē t&ios kaAoûuevov sióos Sokpatuków, à uéAvota Šokovov &mA&a'av
Ataxévºs kai IIAárov petapv6 uto elev (&v) tooto to Tpáyua to Tpostpmuévov, eis ip6.
Tmariv 66é tros, otov: “3, tra!, tró aſ a got Xpiju at à & TéA wºre v 6. Ta tip ; # To AA &
T; va, kai oi k swap (61 m ta; ” “To AA 6, & 36 kpates.", “ápa of v kg i & T to thunv
& TéAt trè orot Tº v xpmag.p. v m v at toº s : ” (äu.a yöp kai sis àtropia” ºf axe Töv Tatóa
Äſsämöóros kai &véuvnorév čtv &vervatiuov čari kai iratēsiſsa flat Tpoutpébato, I owe the
Yeference to Karl Joel, Dez. Foſite und der Aenophomáische Sokrates, i. p. 465 f.
2 Both questions may conveniently be expressed in symbols. (I) Is EX > = < IIX'?
VOL. III— I &
xviii INTRODUCTION
haunt the brain of the student as he reads the Socratic writings of Xenophon,
and to both alike each individual inquirer must find his own answer. In
reference to the first, he will naturally turn from Plato (as I hope, in the
first instance) to Xenophon, and from Xenophon to Plato ; and from both
to every other source of information open to him : to Aristotle and the
peripatetics; to the fragments of Antisthenes; to Aristippus; to Eucleides;
to the exponents of the traditional tenets of the schools which looked to
Socrates as their spiritual founder; to the fragments left of the viri Socra-
ficz, to biographers, critics, commentators, historians, and philosophers, of
both ancient and modern times.” Into the first of these discussions it would
be inopportune to enter in this place. As to the second, certain underlying
questions” (of a kind which a translator least of all is entitled to shirk)
would seem to call for some remark, with regard to
(I) The genuineness of the writings before us; and
(2) The design and intention, artistic or philosophic, of the author in
composing them.
*** I have, as a matter of fact, already given directly or
by implication such answers as I have to give to these funda-
mental inquiries in my first volume. See Trans. vol. i.-
Re the “Socratic writings,” generally p. liv, note I, p. lv. notes I and 2.
Re Memorabilia, in particular pp. lxxv.-lxxxi., especially p. lxxvii. foll,
(where, however, I am now inclined to think that I over-emphasised
the importance of the ‘‘personal note ’’; see below in reference to
Euthydemus).
A'e Mem. II. vi. pp. lxxxiii. lxxxiv.
How far does the Socrates of Xenophon excel (in point of fidelity to psychological truth),
tally with, or fall short of the Socrates of Plato’ or are we to turn to Apx? (the Ariš.
totelian evidence). (2) In the symbol EX what is the proportion of E to S 7 since, in
one extreme, Xenophon's conception may be entirely subjective and the element >
* altogether; in the other, it is objectively just and the element E is swallowed
up ln 2. -
1. Among moderns see especially Zeller's Socrates and the Socratic Schools (Reichel),
Jhs..y.-ix., and in particular p. 84 foll, compared with p. 150 foll. ; Grote, H. G. viii. (c.
lxviii.) p. 555, “Xen. and Plato as witnesses”; p. 556 foll., “Their pictures of Socrates
are in the main accordant"; id., PZato, passim ; Prof. H. Sidgwick, Hist, of Ethics, ii.
3; Dr. Henry Jackson's article “Socrates” in the Æncyc., Brit: ; G. H. Lewes, Biºgy.
Aſist, of Philosophy, Aſozuzºtſ, A/ocſ, ; 4 new Era oftened by the invention of a new ſºmethºd
p. 104 foll, ; and a host of other readily accessible authorities, to which ſ would add the
remarkable work of Karl Joel already referred to.
* To face these would seem to be the barest duty on the part of a translator, aware not only
of the imperfections of his own rendering, but of the inadequacy of even the best translation
in the world to represent the fine shades of a foreign idiom, the delicate ºnces of style
diction, and phraseology, the connection (or it may be the lack of connection) of thºſht
and ideas in the arrangement of sentences, topics, and so forth, which are the character.
istics of the composition, part and parcel of its texture, the warp and woof of it, and of
the utmost importance, whether as revealing the author's idiosyncrasy, or possibly as
betraying some corruption of his text, some foisting in of alien matter by a foreign had
for which he was not responsible. *- *
THE MEMORABILIA xix
As to the dates of composition, publication, etc., of the several works,
- pp. cxxix. CXXX.
Ace The Oeconomicus, p. cxxviii. note 4.
Re The Symposium, p. liv. note I.
To save space and to escape repetition, I will therefore, with the reader's
permission, limit myself to the following Supplementary notes. To
speak first of
THE /l/EMORABILIA
(1) The genuineness, in the main, of the work handed down
to us under the title Eevoºpóvros 'Atropºvmpovečgata has never
been doubted. Nor were the earliest exponents of modern criti-
cism in this century disposed to find much fault with the style
of the composition." Possibly even Cobet lacked some critical
insight. In any case, under the stress of the “higher criticism,”
as it may fairly be called, of recent years, the attitude of the
scholarly world has a good deal changed. The genuineness of
the work is not the point. The question raised is more subtle.
Is the work handed down under that title for the most part in
the condition in which it left the author's hands P. It certainly
presents at first sight many “anomalies,” much unevenness of
| style and diction, incoherencies here and there, abruptnesses
in the piecing together of topics; and in the fourth book
especially, puzzling reduplications of topics previously handled.
It will be readily admitted that the author himself may
frequently have rehandled Such a work during his leisure and
in process of composition, adding and subtracting before the
final compilation. But apart from authoritative re-editions
of this sort, is there reason to believe that the work which
we now possess has been rehandled by some later editor than
the author himself? Is Our Memorabilia conceivably an
epitomised fragment of an original which included both the
Oeconomicus and the Symposium ?” Or, on the contrary, so
1 Compare the language of Cobet, War. Zectt. 379, “hunc librum Xenophontis
emendatissimum,” and Mnemos. 7. 187, “prae ceteris longe emendatiorem,” with the
terms used by L. Dindorf (an early exponent of the new criticism), Praef. to Leipsig ed.,
“Xenophontis scripta quum omnia jam antiquitus omni emendatorum genere multisqué
otiosorum lectorum additamentis contaminata fuerint, mullum est in quo majori licentia hoc
factum reperiatur quam in his de Socratis commentariis.” C. Schenkl meanwhile has
“advanced " upon Dindorf, and J. J. Hartman upon Schenkl, not to speak of Gilbert
and others : troAAów buouátov wop bil was
2 Bergk's theory resumed by Schenkl, etc.
XX INTRODUCTION
far from being cut down, has the original work been added to
and interpolated by one or more editors or copyists?"
Everything turns upon internal evidence. In the first
place, the acumen of the critical scholar will show itself in
detecting the signs of a second hand, the keenness of
his ear to catch falsettoes : he must be quick to note
anomalies of style, incoherencies of arrangement, ineptitudes
of speech and diction, etc. In the second, on the Suppo-
sition that the work may after all be genuine, he will be on
the look-out for such inevitable divopaxia as may be due partly
to the idiosyncrasy of the author,” and partly, perhaps largely,
to the difficulty which an author under the circumstances of
Xenophon would experience in publishing such a work as this
at such and such time and place. Of all this, the higher
criticism, if it is to fulfil its mission unfailingly, will have to
take account, or the exponent of it may easily become hyper-
critical. In common parlance, he will “ride his hobby to
death.” The theory of interpolation may be pushed too far.
It may become extravagant, a sort of mania—crescit indu/gens
sibi dirus hydrops AWec sitim pe//it. It is not surprising, there-
fore, if at the present moment a reactionary movement should
have commenced. The tide seems to have turned; and,
from the point of view of a still more recent school of
criticism,” not only is much in Xenophon (whether whole
works or parts of works), which had grown to be suspected,
delivered from the stigma, but the very grounds of suspicion
are turned to account as of infinite importance for a more
exact appreciation of the character of the writing, the circum-
1 This last is the theory of &6érmats, much in vogue at present, and of which I wish
to speak with all respect, since the principle of criticism upon which it rests is an appeal
to literary gig.6mats, to a delicate sense of the value of words, a feeling for style, in fact.
Are these axiwara Aééeos kai čvavotas appropriate to this writer, or are they the signs of
a later and different manner of speech? I do not deny that the principle may easily be
pushed too far, as when, for instance, in the case before us Krohn would Stamp as
supposititious everything in the Meſºz. except I. i., III. ix., IV. i., IV. vii., and bits of
I. ii., I. iii., IV. vi. ; or as when Lincke recognises as genuine barely three chapters, and
these not probably published by Xenophon. 5.
2 See my remarks on this head, as a note of Xenophon, in Trans. vol. ii. pp. xiv. note 2
lxv., lxxiii., lxxvi. note I. y
3 e.g. M. Schanz ; see his re-vindication of the genuineness of the Azºology—Die
Aemoghontische Apologie, p. 76 foll, of the Introduction to his edition of Plato, Añologia
Leipzig, Tauchnitz, 1893; F. Dümmler (see AAEademika, etc.) for his theory of Cynić
influence on Xenophon, who is a plagiarist of Cynic doctrines, not a bona-fide historian
of Socrates; Karl Joel (see his Introduction to the work already referred to, pp. 1-68
especially p. 66 foll.). 2
XENOPHON'S POINT OF VIEW xxi
stances under which it was written, and, above all, the mental
and spiritual peculiarities of the author himself.
Perhaps, as expressing a view of the matter to which I largely hold, I
may be allowed to repeat what I have said elsewhere (in a somewhat
meagre notice of Karl Joel's first volume in the Classical ſeezyżew, vii. 6.
p. 259 foll.) : “The Introduction (to Joel's book) reveals the author's attitude
to what he speaks of as ‘tradition' and to its rival ‘the newer criticism
(the value of which he does not underestimate). It leaves no doubt as to
the solution which he himself offers of the debateable questions, What was
Socrates? and what the essence of his philosophy? Joel does not regard
Zeller's solution as final. He denies the so-called ‘harmony” of the three
sources, and dissents from Zeller's dependence on Xenophon for his special
‘Entwicklung’ of the Socratic doctrine. From Joel's point of view the
basis of the traditional view has been so shattered by the modern criticism
that it is no longer tenable. But the hobby of &0&T maſts has, he thinks, been
ridden to death. A graphic description is given of the torture-bed of
Procrustes on which the unhappy-Memorabilia has been laid, until, through
the tender mercies of Krohn and Lincke, a bare torso of seven or even
fewer chapters has been left as representing this particular “ original
source' for Socrates.
“Joel has a more excellent way of dealing with the Memorabilia. It
is simply to treat it as a literary work, the product of a writer whose mental
characteristics are well marked and exemplified in every one of his writings.
It is a mistake to suppose that, because Xenophon is no philosopher, he
would necessarily confine himself to matter of fact. That was the old
mistake. A more modern one has been to try to discover an element of
logic in his account of Socrates, of which he is incapable. The order of
topics is not logical; it is, if you like, psychological, “associative.’ The
writing begins with an apology in answer to the indictment, and also to
the sophist Polycrates. It presently ceases to be forensic. The writer
indulges his literary vein. The defence becomes a panegyric of Socrates,
like that of Cyrus or of Agesilaus, or of himself in the Anabasis. The
familiar “motifs' of eigé8eva, Tô 6tkalov, 6-ykpáteua, ºpt)\{a, begin to haunt his
brain and to inform his matter. At a certain point (I. iv. 1) the secret is
out—it is a ‘Concurrenz-schrift,” written to correct certain one-sided views
of Antisthenes, who will have it that Socrates was simply a master of
castigatory Protreptic (ko)\ao Tmptov čveka). [This is, I think, stated a little
too dogmatically, Xenophon is sure that the influence of Socrates in his
dealings with his associates was more edifying ; he gently led them on to
virtue. It is a great question whether this view of Socrates can be estab-
lished. Unconsciously, no doubt, and as it were by accident, Socrates,
through the moral force of his personality, did lead his friends on to virtue.
Xenophon's own testimony is sufficient. But that Socrates moralised of Set
xxii INTRODUCTION
purpose is scarcely credible." Indeed, Xenophon himself tells us that he
did not set up as a teacher of virtue. How are we to discover the real
Socrates (2) and separate him from his admirer Xenophon (E) in that
compound (EX) presented to us in the Memorabilia 2 The criterion is
ready to hand. Independently of Xenophon for the moment, we can get
at X through Plato, the Socratic schools, and ‘Aristotle.” Whatever these
several witnesses attest in common may be accepted as genuine for 2.
Xenophon, too, we know well enough, as has already been said, from his
various writings. With the criterion, in particular, of the Aristotelian
Socrates, we can approach the Memorabilia, and so separate the gold from
the dross of Xenophon.”
(2) As to the design, etc., of the Memorabilia. I accept
an ancient view that it is not primarily an historical account
(still less is it a philosophical criticism); but in point of
literary form (I am not speaking of the inspiration which is
born of personal affection *) an “apology " which presently
becomes a “panegyric,” “setting forth the writer's conception
of Socrates in opposition to current accounts, in which he
feels that a certain side of the matter, of which he himself as
a Socratic is entitled to speak, has been neglected.
This other side of the matter he develops with no inten-
tional untruthfulness of delineation, but what guides his hand
as he draws the lines is the artistic or literary instinct of the
man who is partly himself and partly a vir Socraticus. As to
the composition, my notion is that Xenophon had either
juvenile notes to depend on, or at any rate memories
refreshed in conversation with friends (Socratic and other)
which at a certain date were thrown into some sort of
literary form, tentatively at first [possibly portions were orally
delivered, a text was gradually formed, copies were circulated].
This was the nucleus of the complete work, which he kept
1 I agree and disagree. Plato bears testimony, I should say, to the moral influence of
Socrates, especially in the Phaedo, Aristotle, possibly because his “works” are notes
of his lectures and not edited by himself, or for some idiosyncratic reason, is very reticent
as to the personal characteristics of his predecessors.
2 See Trans. vol. i. p. lxxvii. : “That work is an honest attempt to explain the
character and position of Socrates to a public who seemed to misconceive him ; and
being based mainly on the writer's personal recollections, is replete with autobiographic
matter.”
3 This is the view of that greatest critic of the ancient world, who was not a philo-
sopher (see Trans. vol. i. p. xxv.), Dionysius of Halicarnassus: £evo bºv čv roºs 'Atropºvm-
povetºuaa w śs &tokoyoſpevos ūtrép >okpárous trepaivet épyov 3' attoºs éatv kai troXAás
itrofféorews 6p.ow ovpat?\ékevv.—Ar. A/ket. ix. I2. 358, 4.
CONSPECTUS OF TOPICS xxiii
working at on and off during his leisure at Scillus, 387-371 B.C.,
till the final moment. As to the dates at which such a work
was first begun or finally concluded, I think there is no
evidence.1
At this point I insert a conspectus of topics treated of in
the Memorabilia, as we possess it. In spite of those incoher-
encies and “anomalies” of all sorts, which have been a
Scandal to critics zealous for the reputation of Xenophon as
a master of simple style, it will be found, I think, that there
are evident signs of method in the compilation, which, whether
the author is himself responsible for the arrangement or not
as it now stands, is imperfect indeed, but very readable (in
the original Greek).
A CONSPECTUS OF TOPICS TREATED OF IN THE
MAE/MORAB/Z/A
[X= the real historical Socrates. EX= the Xenophontic Socrates.]
PART I.—MEM. I. i. ii.; from the point of view of an “apologist.”
Lib. I. cap. i.-š I. re the indictment (ypagyū). The author in ref. to the
official promoters of the suit (oi ypayápºevot).
§§ 2-2O rebuts the charge (I) of “impiety” advanced by the prose-
cutor at the trial, 399 B.C. & * . Trans. pp. I-6
ić, cap. ii.-S$ 1-8, (2) that of “corrupting the young” advanced by the
prosecutor at the trial, 399 B.C. e - . pp. 6, 7
And by an easy transition passing on to current literature, etc., with
a special reference possibly to the Katmyopia 2wkpátovs of the
rhetorician Polycrates (392-380 B.C.), deals with particular points
advanced by the accuser (6 Katiyopos) . e . pp. 7-2O
(1) that Socrates was a bad democrat, §§ 9, IO, which he
rebuts by §§ IO, II º e º . pp. 7, 8
1 Bk. IV., in which Hippias and Euthydemus more especially are interlocutors, and
in which so many topics are rehandled, is surely of later date than the mass of what has
preceded. As to the last chapter of Bk. IV, (and the Apology) the clue is to be found in
the actual relationship of Hermogenes to Xenophon, which is among the “arcana.”
xxiv.
INTRODUCTION
(2) that S. was responsible for the misdeeds of Critias and
Alcibiades, §§ 12-48 e * . pp. 8-16
The charge rebutted by the author, $$ 13-16; versus an
objection, Ś 17, 18; versus an Antisthenean (?) theory,
§§ 18-23; the case of Critias and Alcibiades resumed, §§
24-28; two illustrative anecdotes, §§ 29-38; the author's
theory, patmy 6' ày &yoye, K.T.N., “where the teacher is
not pleasing to the pupil there is no education,” $ 39,
tested in the case of these two so-called pupils.
“Alcibiades and Pericles,” a discussion to show the propen-
sity of Alcibiades, as a lad, to “disputation,” $$ 40-46 ;
the true companions of Socrates, §§ 47, 48 . pp. 16, 17
(3) that S. caused the young to despise their fathers, etc., § 49,
rebutted by the author, § 50 ; and their kith and kin in
general, §§ 51, 52, rebutted, §§ 53-55 . pp. 17, 18
(4) that S., by perverse quotation of questionable passages in
the poets, taught his associates to be kakoúpyovs and Tupau-
vukoús, e.g. Hesiod's épyov 6' oijöèv čvetó0s, $56, rebutted,
§§ 56, 57; or Homer's Suriya Aév 6aort)\fia. . . . and 6v 6’ at
ôňuov T' àvôpa . . ., § 58, rebutted, §§ 59-61 . pp. 18-2O
The author's summing-up in favour of Socrates as a public bene-
factor and the most unselfish of citizens, 6mpotukös kal pixáv-
6patros, liberally dispensing his spiritual wealth to all—an allusion
to current piracy of Socratic teaching, § 60 ; “a greater than
Lichas is here,” $61 ; the two counts of the indictment ridiculously
inapplicable in the case of a man pre-eminently God-fearing, and
who by rein and spur encouraged his associates to the highest
virtue, $ 62-64. [It is noticeable that in this final summing-up
of the apologetic preface to his work the author does not use the
phrase à katiyopos, but 6 ypayápevos. If Polycrates is referred
to under the former title, Anytus is certainly suggested by the
latter, and it is likely enough that the rhetorician gave currency
to arguments which the official prosecutor had advanced. See
note below, Ö Kathyopos, p. xxxii.] . te , pp. 20, 2I
PART II.-MEM. I. iii. to end of Bk. III. (or Bk. IV., see below); from
the point of view of the “biographer.”
The author's main thesis is that Socrates “benefited ” those he
came in contact with in the highest way. (Cf. Shelley's remark-
able phrase, “And Socrates the Jesus Christ of Greece.”) This
note has already been sounded in the last paragraph (64) of the
last chapter, and the theme is developed throughout from this point
CONSPECTUS XXV
onwards. The two topics of “piety” and “morality” suggested
by the Ypapſ, control the argument.
Lib. I. cap. iii.-The author will draw upon his “recollections” to prove
that S. “benefited his associates,” and (I) first with regard to his
piety: his precept as to worship, v 6 p. 9 TóXews ; his formula of
Arayer; his other precept, ka 66% vapºv u ępóety (cf. below, IV. iii.
I6, 17), $$ I-3; his faith in God (Tów 6eóv), $4 . pp. 21, 22
(2) His happy self-control—continence of soul and body a second
nature ; his humorous way of defending the advantage of pumöèv
āyav by a gloss on a passage in the Odyssey, $$ 5-8. Ace the
things of Aphrodite, a discussion between the author (who
introduces himself as a dramatis persona) and Socrates about
Critobulus, who is present. [I take this to be based upon fact,
or idealised fact. See Trans, vol. i. p. lxxvii.] §§ 8-15.
pp. 22-25
20. cap. iv.–Š I. The author, versus a certain plausible conception de-
rived from current literature, etc. [Plato P and Antisthenes Pl
that Socrates was “protreptically ” strong in stimulating people,
but had no skill to introduce them, like a good go-between, to
virtue himself, insists that Socrates’ “eristic” discussions, Koxaa-
Tmptov Šveka, were only a portion of his method used to break down
false conceit of knowledge. His ordinary daily conversation with
his intimates was of a much more “edifying ” character, and cal-
culated to make people positively better. Æe the first topic, Divine
A rovidence, witness the conversation (which the author personally
vouches for, \éo 68 TpóTov & Tote attoº #kova’a) [for this personal
720te see below] with Aristodemus, trept tod óalpovtov, Š 2-18.
The author's comment as to the salutary effects of such arguments,
“Thou God seest me,” $ 19 . wº . pp. 25-30
[This teleological chapter has its parallel below, IV. iii., even to a
detail (the reference by Aristodemus in the one case, and Euthy-
demus in the other, to Socrates’ 6alpóvtov, his “private oracle,”
I. iv. I5; IV. iii. 12). The question arises: how far is this
teleology Socratic, X, or Xenophonto-Socratic, EX Pl
20. cap. v.–Re the second topic, čykpáreta. § 1. The author challenges
attention again to the wholesome effect of such an appeal as
follows: EX inculcating strict aloofness from all means of self-
enslavement, Ś I-5 (self-mastery the foundation of virtue, § 4).
The author's testimony to X self-control, § 6 . . pp. 3O-32
20, cap. vi.-Apropos of the apparent kakoëatuovía, but real evöalgovia,
of Socrates, the author introduces three conversations with Anti-
phon the sophist : (a) $$ I-10, rational “stoicism '- the higher
hedonism ; the highest pleasure improvement of self and others;
xxvi
INTRODUCTION
Summary of 2 (or E2) ethics. (6) $$ I 1-14, the wisdom of
Socrates; the vendor of wisdom and the vendor of beauty com-
pared; the Secret of X ethical force—the author's personal testimony,
Ś I4 ad ſizz. (Y) $ I5, re troXttuká, or, as we might say, “the social
ethics of a citizen º’—a retort Socratic . e . pp. 32-35
Lib. I. cap. vii.-el Kal &Naſſovetas āTorpétroy Toys g. āpeſās étrueNeto 6at
Lib. II.
Tpoi/Tpetrew ; Ś I-5 (re 2 horror of cant and humbug); avoidance
of false-seeming the royal road to virtue and reputation—“Be
what you would fain be thought”; false pretension the shoal on
which shipwreck is made ; of humbug in high places. The
author's testimony to the helpfulness of such arguments apo- and
fro-treptically, § 5, and II. i. § 1. [But there is a sense of
botching at this point; see note ad loc.] o . pp. 35-37
cap, i.-A conversation with Aristippus re diko)\aoto. §§ I-9.
Education of a ruling spirit, the “archic" man. § 9. The free-
dom of pleasure-taking another goal. § 1 I. A. asks, Is there
not a zia media between rule and slavery P. S. None. The man
without a state is a foreigner everywhere; his condition cosmo-
politan vagabondage A. But is not the happiness of the “royal
art” much the same thing as the misery of the slave? S. Volun-
tary and involuntary pains ! all the difference as in hunting; but
how much more exhilarating is the quest after spiritual perſection.
§§ 2 I-34, the aºyºypappa of Prodicus, “Heracles' choice.” The
education of Heracles by virtue. [One wonders : Did Xenophon,
taking the dºpal of Prodicus as his model, essay an “Education
of Heracles,” “Hpak)\éovs Tatóevalus (cf. his Kūpov travöeta), just as
Antisthenes wrote a ‘Hpak)\ffs and a Köpos ? A/iter, is this a tºy-
'Ypappa pure E, or E after IIpóðukos, or E2 after IIpóðukos ?]
pp. 38-49
By a natural transition following the accuser's line of argument (see
20. cap.
20. cap.
above), the author passes on to the topics of “filial duty,”
“brotherly affection,” etc.
ii. —A conversation between Socrates and his eldest son Lam-
procles on ‘‘gratitude to parents,” the duty of a son to his
mother. § Io. A mother's prayer for her child. §§ II, I2.
Socratic “induction.” $ 13. The dilemma. § 14. EX religious,
“Honour your father and mother, that mankind may not spurn
you’” . sº ty * ſº tº pp. 49-53
iii. —$ I. A conversation with Chaerecrates on “brotherly affec-
tion.” $ 2. E2 “epaktic.” $$ 7, 9. Horses and dogs. § 14.
A Hellenic ēuoMo'yotſuevov, “Hate thine enemies, but love thy
brethren ‘’ e g & tº * . pp. 53-57
CONSPECTUS xxvii
A series of discourses on friendship follow (chapters iv., v., vi.),
introduced with the personal note
Lib. II. cap. iv.–$ I. #kova'a 6é Trote atroſ Kal trept ºptAwu 6ta\e youévov,
K.T. N. (as if the author had been an ear-witness to the conversation
and its moralising effect). Friends the great possession. $ 7.
Strange neglect of friends by comparison with other possessions.
pp. 58, 59
ib. cap. v.–Again the personal note. The author bears testimony as
an ear-witness to a discourse, the protreptic force of which im-
pressed him as forcing one to examine one’s self and ask, “What
am I worth as a friend ?” & e e . pp. 59, 60
Żó. cap. vi.-Again the personal note. Č6óket 6é got . . . ppevotiv Totòe
Xéºyaſu. A conversation with Critobulus (see above, I. iii.) on the
question: “What sort of friend ought one to aim at getting,” or,
“The qualities of a friend worth the seeking.” $$ I-5. Characters
to be avoided. § 6. How gauge a good friend beforehand P how
attach when tested P $$ IO-I2. A Socratic love-charm. § 13.
The Periclean incantation ; Themistoclean amulet. §§ 14-23.
Critobulus (who seems to be drawn from life), driven to it that to
secure a good friend one must be good one's self, starts an ātropia,
“Why is not ka)\okāya.0ta in itself a force of cohesion between
ka)\ot kāya.0ot ?” The difficulty discussed. § 24. 2 (or EX) on
an ideal combination of the Ka}\ot kāya.00% in a state or in society
to help each other, and dominate, i.e. regenerate, the world. [See
Trans, vol. i. p. lxxxiv. ; cf. Fichte, Zhe Vocation of Man,
pp. I40-148 (Eng. tr.).] § 28. 2 irony. S. as an épotikós
offers his assistance and advice. § 35 deals subtilly in argument
by the young man (epaktic-maieutic process; cf. below, IV. ii.).
§ 37. [Let the ypayápévot and the Katiyopos listen and be
ashamed !] § 38. Sincerity commended : “Be what you would
fain be thought to be l’ is the golden rule, or rather, it is the
shortest, safest, and altogether the best road to take for the
achievement of your end. § 39. How virtues are made to grow
by knowledge and practice. Critobulus is convinced . pp. 60-70
[The author turns from the topic of friendship to show how Socrates
Żó. Cap.
helped his friends out of their difficulties, like a clever doctor, by
one course of treatment or another to suit the case. There are
four cases (chapters vii.-x.). The author has apparently the
accuser's aspersion of Socrates re the Hesiodic line épyov 6' oijóēv
êveu60s, ringing in his ears in introducing these cases, and there
is the familiar personal note, épô 6é Kai éu Toºtous & gºvotóa
airó, vii. § 1, repeated in chapters, ix. and x.]
vii. — How S. helped Aristarchus (and his dependent female
xxviii
INTRODUCTION
relations) out of difficulties by a dose of common-sense (a tale of
the anarchy, 404-403 B.C.). §§ I-II. Discussion. § 12. Author's
narration as to what came of it. §§ 13, 14. Further discussion.
The fable of the sheep and the watch-dog c . pp. 70-74
Lib. II, cap. viii.-A similar case (belonging to the same date)—that of
Euthèrus, who, as the result of Socratic argument, is brought to
see that “work is no disgrace,” if honest; he is cured at once of
pride and penury e • e e . pp. 74-76
ió. cap. ix.-The case of Crito (introduced with the personal note olòa.
20. cap.
Lib. III.
20. cap.
Żó.
ôé Tore attöv . . .). §§ I-3. Discussion. §§ 4-8. The author
marrates what came of it, to the mutual gain of the two friends
Crito and Archedemus . • - e . pp. 76-78
x.-The case of Diodorus (and Hermogenes). § I. Personal
note of the author, who vouches for the discussion, conducted
with much 2 irony and humour. And the rich man ends by
seeking out and assisting the poor man, to the mutual gain of
both friends . º e . pp. 78, 79
[It is to be noted that Hermogenes, who seems to be the same
person as the son of Hipponicus, was probably a personal friend
of the author's. Crito, too (above), of course, belongs to the
Socratic circle.]
The commencement of a new Book (III.) at this point, whether
Cap.
due to the author or an editor, marks a change of subject, nor is
any further junctura needed.
capp. i.-vii. —How Socrates benefited those who aimed at Tö, KaNd.
by making them étruplexeſs in reference to the object of their
ambition.
i. — Stratégia. §§ I-3. A young man who wished to be a
stratégos is persuaded by Socrates to take lessons of Dionysodorus
(cf. Plat. Euthyd.), and what came of it, the author narrates in a
subsequent conversation. § 4. 2 quotes Homer, eipov.ukós. § 5 (cf.
Cyrop. I. vi. I2). S. At what point did the teacher begin his
instruction in generalship 2 Zhe young man. Tactics were his
alpha and Omega. $6. S. Surely an infinitesimal portion of the
matter, though very important. The qualities of a stratēgos ; how
to discover the principles—the when and how of each tactical
arrangement. [The discussion winds up somewhat abruptly; con-
sider, too, the force (or weakness) of the parallel in § Io; also the
morality of the illustration—is it 5 or EX or X 2 Who, if a
real being, one wonders, was the young man P] © pp. 80-83
ii. –$ I. The author narrates how S. conversed with one
chosen stratégos. § 2. Socratic gloss on Homer. X humour.
§ 4. The author on the method of argument . . pp. 83, 84
CONSPECTUS xxix
Lib. III. cap. iii.-š I. The author, with a quasi-personal note, introduces
a conversation of S. with a youth just elected hip?arch. [One is
close to autobiographical matter here, one feels, though of course
the author could readily have imagined the sort of conversation
without “assisting” at it himself in his young manhood.] W. B.
§ II. The hipparch must be able to speak well (the power of X&Yos
savours of 2 and also of E). § 13. pi}\otipita is the spur, the
motive-power, at Athens. It is this which gives the finish, the
final grace, to Our Delphic chorus, for instance, more than
eūqovia, or physical stature and strength ; which enables her to
carry off the palm among all states. § 14. Will not the cavalry
of Athens be the best of cavalry, if the same lure of praise and
glory be held out? The young hipparch assents. (The thesis is
developed in the “Aipparch " of our author and elsewhere.)
26. cap. iv.–Š I. The author narrates how a conversation took place
20. Cap.
between S. and Nicomachides, an old soldier, who has failed to
be elected stratégos, being defeated by a rival candidate, Anti-
sthenes, who is an economist. The discussion turns upon the
qualifications for the office of a good economist [possibly ironical,
i.e. it does not matter whether Antisthenes is really the fitter
person of the two to be at the head of the war department. The
dialectic holds]. Nicomachides is bettered by the discussion, and
brought to see that economy is at the root of the matter whether
in right handling of private or of public affairs. Even when it
comes to war, the economist knows, no one better, how disastrous
and wasteful a thing defeat is, and will, according to circum-
stances, fight tooth and nail to avoid it, or act on the maxim
“Discretion is the better part of valour,” if need be. § 12. EX
dicta . º º º • & . pp. 88-91
v. — S. and Pericles, son of Pericles [an “imaginary con-
versation,” in part at any rate—ideal date uncertain. E the
artist] . e e e © º . pp. 91-98
I. Prospects of Athens under a good stratégos, comparison
between Boeotia and Attica (anti-Theban politics).
§ 4. [våv diret)\odotu is the sole clue to the “ideal” date of the conver-
sation, which may be supposed to take place between 421-416 B.C.;
or, more probably, perhaps, after 413 B.C. Oropus was betrayed
to the Boeotians in 412 B.C. (Thuc. viii. 60), and Oenoë in
41 I B.C. (Thuc. viii. 98; Xen. Hell. I. vii. 28); but considering
that at the later date the Lacedaemonians were in occupation of
Decelea, it somewhat destroys the z/raisemblance of the discussion
to make it turn on the sole hostility of the minor state. It is a
question of art.]
XXX
INTRODUCTION
§ 8. [W. B. X, the spiritual side exemplified by the material side,
the lower becoming a step to the higher.]
§ 9. How valour may be enkindled in the hearts of Athenians now-
adays, by reminding ourselves of the glorious deeds of our ancestors:
§ Io, in ancient times; $ II, in the more modern struggle against
the Persians.
§ 12. [E anti-Theban bias; Laconism ; patriotism. Athens the
“unmoved,” the arbitrator of quarrels, the asylum of the op-
pressed.]
§ 13. As to the degeneracy of modern Athens: the cure ex ore
Socratis, E Atticism, §§ 8-12, 18, 20 ; the disease ex ore Peric/is,
F. Laconism, §§ 13-17 ; but not incurable (says Socrates), a con-
servative reform all that is needed (see Trans. vol. i. p. lxxx.).
§ 16. p96vos, love of litigation.
§ 17. 6t’ & #yaoye pad Xa poéoùpiat àel gift tu, K.T.A. (as a matter of
history, Arginusae, 406 B.C.; Aegospotami, 405 B.C.).
$ 20. In praise of the court of Areopagus (cf. Isocr. Areopag. I47;
Jebb, Att. Or, ii. 208).
§ 2 I. to as Yap Év roºrous of #kuota étruatápºevot àpxovatv airów [is
not this E rather than 2, though it is based on a true X con-
ception ?]. (2. eſpov) characteristic personal turn given to the
dialogue; the moral Pericles is driven to : acquire étuarium of
strategics; beware of “autoschediasm.”
§ 24. (EX = X.) Pericles feels the force of this argumentum ad
hominema. His assent is won. Intellectual light has streamed in.
He is ripe for right behaviour.
§ 25. 2 abruptly turns the argument (sic passim).
§ 26. Anachronistic illustration. [As to this section one feels that
the temptation to Xenophon to illustrate from so favourite a
topic, so engrained an experience and memory, was too great to
resist ; nor is he (no more than Plato) afraid of anachronisms in
characterisation. (It is legitimate in the ZXichfuzzg-Wahzhezž
style of dramatisation which makes Aristotle rank the X&You
20kpatukot as poetry.) It certainly throws light on the style, date,
etc., of composition of the Memorabilia. Important to ascertain
if of later insertion or a bona-ſide portion of the ideal conversation
of Socrates and Pericles, since it is clearly an ex post facto illus-
tration ex ore Xenophontés. Who but Xenophon would have
cared to bring in the illustration ? Surely his grandson editor
(according to a current modern theory; see Trans, vol. ii. p. lxxiii.)
less than the man himself.]
§ 27. E military reforms, ex ore Socratis. [E “has the mind * of
X if the remark is “ of himself.”]
CONSPECTUS xxxi
§ 28. [Consider what befell the interlocutor Pericles after Arginusae.
See Hell. I. v. 16; vi. 29 ; vii. 2, 16, 17, 34 (Trans. Vol. i. pp.
2 I, 27, 29, 33, 36).]
Lib. III. capp. vi., vii.--The two next companion chapters bring in a
reference to Plato, and concern two of his relations. Glaucon,
Plato's brother, appears as an over-bold young man, who needs
the rein; Charmides, Plato's uncle, as over-diffident, and needing
the spur.
ió. cap. vi. — On the duties of a 6mplºyopos. Lessons in statesman-
ship ; how the future “tribune of the people” should fit himself
for the prime ministry of a state. § I. The author introduces us
to Glaucon. § 2. 2 “irony’ (cf. supra, II. vi. I3, as to the
Sirens' incantation Song). Glaucon is caught, and willingly
stays to listen. §§ 3-16. 2 or E2 applies his method, ending
§§ 16-18 with a homily on the need of knowledge, soundness,
thoroughness, as $27te 7242&nts moſt of success in any matter. [$ 12,
about the mines, strikes one as an illustration suited rather to
5. than to 2. On the other hand, the concluding § 18 powerfully
presents the helpfulness, irony, and intellectual clearness of X,
showing that E was at any rate an artist] . . pp. 98-IO3
20. cap. vii.--On Statesmanship. § I. The author's introduction : Char-
mides, a man of marked ability, far more capable than the
average run of politicians, shrinks from approaching the Démos
and attacking politics.
§§ I-4. Socrates. What would you think of a competent athlete who
refused to go in and win crowns and honour for his state 2
Charmădes. That he was a poltroon.
Soc. And the same epithet is his who, being fitted to help
the city by entering the arena of politics, is too lazy to do so.
Ch. Maybe, but why these remarks P
Soc. Because you are that man.
Ch. Where did you discover my ability for politics?
Soc. In gatherings (éu Taºs avvovariats), etc., where political ques-
tions are discussed, I see your advice and disapproval are much
respected on questions of importance.
Ch. It is one thing to debate in private, another to contend in
public in full assembly among the masses.
Soc. Why, the arithmetician can count in a crowd as well as he
can in his closet.
§ 5. Ch. You forget the effect of alóós and fear.
§ 6. Soc. (X-wise). Let us analyse this crowd. Whom does it con-
sist of 2–a lot of tinkers, etc. [$$ 5, 6. Important for nature and
scope of the work. If it were an apology merely, the writer
xxxii INTRODUCTION
would probably have omitted such a conversation, which is
Socratic rather than demotic.] A lot of tinkers and tailors,
farmers and merchants, that’s the ecclesia, and you are like an
athlete who shrinks from encountering amateurs. The professional
antagonist you don’t mind—you deal him round blows, but these
fellows, who have never given politics a thought, will laugh at
you, and that troubles you.
Ch. Well, they do laugh at some of their good speakers, don’t
they P
Soc. Yes, and so do those others. Socrates winds up with a
sermon on self-knowledge e & ſº pp. IO3-IO5
§ 9. Know thyself. (Cf. III. vi. 18.)
Lib. III. cap. viii.-Azgumentorum ordo tºtubat. [See K. Joel, op. cit.
p. 425 foll.]
[Chapter viii. introduces a couple of Socrates - Aristippus stories
which illustrate the author's present theme, viz. the helpfulness
of Socrates to all sorts of people. 8ov\ópevos Toys ovvövtas (bqe)\éïv,
Socrates gave such and such answers to Aristippus, the answers
not of careful fence but of a good conscience. Still one feels
that there is a sort of breakdown or wobble in the ordering of the
topics at this point, a suggestion of notebook, and “let me see,
won’t this fit in here P”—important for composition of book there-
fore. Töv kaxóv leads up to Tô Ka)\öv, Tô &Yaffèv, the philosophic
side of 2. That is the only connecting link.]
§§ I-3. A reminiscence illustrative of Socrates’ desire to help his
associates beyond all else, even in argumentation. Socrates and
Aristippus; what is the good? what is the beautiful ? £2 an utili-
tarian.
§§ 4-7. A second question on the part of Aristippus, and the
answer of Socrates (E2): “Everything is good and beautiful
relatively to some thing and the same thing—e.g. a, virtue; 8,
men themselves ; y, the bodies of men ; 6, the commodities
they use ; e, houses,” etc.
§§ 8-10. Useful hint to architects; houses [see Joel's suggestion op.
cit. p. 448, ap. Class. A'eview, vii. 268]; temples pp. IO5-108
26. cap. ix.-Can courage be taught P or is it “physical ‘’P
§§ I-3. A natural basis of courage, an inborn propensity to manliness,
which explains the differences amongst people brought up alike,
added to, however, by learning and practice; illustrations from
Scythians, Thracians, and Lacedaemonians. In general, pºoret
differences étrueNetſ, intensified; pavóðvelu, plexerāv indispensable.
§ 4. E2 drew no distinction between goqta and awqipoa ſum [X prob-
ably would have said : étuatium &perff or épéth (ppóvnats. His
§§
CONSPECTUS xxxiii
answer to the question : what if a man knows the right and does
the wrong?] . te º - pp. IO8-I IO
5-I.O. (E)2 regarded Öukatoo ſum, etc. as wisdom. 2 definitions:
what is p0óvos ? what is “madness”? what is axox; P $$ IO-13,
Kings and rulers are those who have the étrio Túp.m of rule; e.g.
women are rulers of men gata possessing knowledge in certain
matters. [Compendium of argumentation : given that the function
of the ruler is to order what has to be done, and of the ruled to
obey—X illustrations.]
§ 14. What is the best étruthèevpa P eitſpašta (20kpatukós). § 15.
Lib. III.
Xen.’s “religiosity.” E2 = 2 +5. - º pp. I IO-II 3
cap. x. —$ I-5. 2 his helpfulness to all kinds of artists, etc., e.g.
to Parrhasius the painter. A conversation between S. and Par-
rhasius. [Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Timanthes (who is said to have
suggested the invisible by his pencil ; see Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 50
foll.) stand, I believe, in a certain evolutional order as represent-
atives of the most “modern" development of the pictorial art.
There is a sense of incompleteness in the description. What is
the moral 2 where lay the dºpéNewa especially P Socrates is perhaps
leading Parrhasius (a young man) along the lines of Zeuxis to
Timanthes. § 5. A suggestive remark not followed up. The
author should perhaps have told us if Parrhasius was a beginner
or not. Xen. is frequently obscure in this way.] pp. II 3-II 5
§§ 6-8. Conversation with Cleiton the sculptor; $$ 9-15. With
Pistias, a corselet-maker e - g pp. II 5-II.7
7b, cap. xi.-š I. Conversation with Theodoté. [E artist. “pulcherrimum
colloquium,” Hartman ; see Hellenica Zssays, p. 355.]
§§ 7,8. Horses and hounds [different kinds of hounds, cf. Cynegeticus;
& 4
Xen. is tempted to “pan out” on this Socratic hint, sic passim].
§ IO. Socrates (X or EX) under the image of a hunting-net shows the
woman how she may truly endear herself. [This is helpſul-
ness of the right sort (be it X or EX); cf. Socrates (X or EX) on
“friendship,” supra, III. v. 8. There is the same raising of the
level of the matter So that the spiritual may transcend the material
(the carnal and the selfish).] . º e pp. II 7-122
7%. cap. xii. —$$ I-8. Conversation with Epigenes on physical training
WOL,
and the need of a good habit of body. (§ 8 a noble Hellenic
conception, probably thoroughly “Socratic,” beautifully expressed.)
pp. I22-124
[There is a want of junctura at this point, a sense of tailing off,
as if the author had before him a set of notes and jottings illus-
trative of Socratic humour (xiii.) and table talk (xiv.) (like the stories
current, apocryphal or not, of any great man, say the late Master
III— I Ç
xxxiv. INTRODUCTION
of Balliol), which might as well be inserted here as anywhere. It
is an accident, so to speak, that some one or other of them has not
been worked up by the author into a conversation or a treatise
(see below, IV. i. 1). Everything depends upon the anecdotist's
power of telling his tale and reproducing the manner of the man.
Xen. is not a first-rate story-teller, to my mind. He has a sense
of humour, but a poor gift of mimicry.]
Lib. III. cap. xiii.-Various remarks and conversations. Six anecdotes full
of 2 (or E2) humour and gadfly stimulativeness . pp. 124-126
2b. cap. xiv.–Four anecdotes illustrative of X (FX) table-talk. [“Some-
times . . . he sinks to the level of a manual of etiquette”—
A. D. Godley, Socrates and Athenian Society, a delightful essay, ch.
viii. “The Xenophontic Socrates,” p. 149. I take it the fault is the
artist's, and after all these are clearly only notes.] pp. I26-129
PART III. Lib. IV.
Resuming the note of “usefulness,” oëTwo 6é 2, #y év Tavri Tpdypart
Kai Távta Tpôtrov diſpéAlpºos &ote, K.T. A., the author [or, as many
able modern critics believe, an editor or interpolator] proceeds to
the topic of education (not that 2 professed to teach ; see above).
Many of the former topics are rehandled, and there is a sense of
difference in the author's style at points, a change of attitude also
to his subject. The last chapter (viii.), in defence of Socrates'
trust in Tô 6alpêvuov (i.e. his “private oracle”), gives itself out to
be based upon the testimony of Hermogenes. This chapter and
the 'AtroXoyta are evidently closely connected. The latter, if
genuine, is probably the earlier composition of the two.
[Consider, in reference to the composition of Book IV., the
theory of interpolated passages bracketed as of later insertion by
L. Dind., Schenkl, Hartman, and other critics of the “athetesis-
ing ” school.]
Lib. IV. cap. i. [For “Canon” question, etc. AV. B. This chapter has
all the feeling to me of being written with pains, but in a laboured
style. If by Xenophon, it is probably of late “Isocratid” date; see
Trans. vol. ii. p. xlii. n. 2. L. Dind. Scents the editorial hand
in § 1, so too Schenkl, J. J. Hartman, etc. (See the latter’s severe
criticism of the whole chapter, A72, Xenz, p. 148), but the tender
feeling of this passage is personal and real (and Xenophontine).]
§§ I, 2. [kai yüp Tatówu, K.T.A., would indeed fit on to the concluding
words of the last chapter of Book III. quite naturally. The whole
section is suggestive of the “motif.” elaborated in the Symposium.]
§ 2. 2. čpws of the Soul not of bodily beauty. Signs of a good nature :
(I) aptness to learn ; (2) to recollect lessons learnt (i.e. a good
CONSPECTUS XXXV
memory); (3) desire to be taught certain important branches of
knowledge (i.e. enthusiasm and high aims).
2 his different modes of dealing with different natures. Three
types of people differently natured and circumstanced.
§§ 3, 4. Type I.-Gifted natures need training from the first, or else
‘‘corruptio optimi pessima’’ (pride of genius). Cf. dogs, horses,
etc. (E topic).
§ 5. Type 2. —People in wealthy circumstances (pride of riches);
“money makes the man” type.
Lib. IV. cap. ii.-š I. Type 3.−The so-called “highly-educated ”—intel-
lectual prig (intellectual pride) e - pp. I3O-I32
Socrates and Euthydemus on education — a specimen of 2.
“ dialectic” education, the “maieutic” process. X applies the
éAeyxos with a view to producing consciousness of ignorance and
breaking down conceit of knowledge through a series of diroptat.
§§ I-7. The author's introduction. [The question arises : is Euthy-
demus a real person or a convenient dramati's persona 3 (see below).
If a real person (§§ 8-39), as the “maieutic” discussion is con-
ducted tâte-à-zéte, 0.6vos \ffev, whence did E. derive his informa-
tion ?]
$ 40. Euthydemus is confirmed in his attachment to Socrates. The
author's comment as to the relationship now established.
- pp. I 32-I47
ió. cap. iii. —$ I. The author [or editor, according to some modern
critics] would show that Socrates (E2) held capacity for speech,
action, and invention subordinate to a wºbpoa ºvm—See above, I. ii.
17; and (still following the order of the indictment) in the first
place wished to make his intimates adºppovas Tepi 6éoùs.
§ 2. Apart from the testimony of other witnesses (for this allusion
see note ad loc.) the author strikes the personal note once more,
and proceeds to reproduce the teleological views of I. iv., and
others of I. iii.
§§ 3-17. Teleological, | to I. iv. 2 foll, in general, and in detail IV.
iii. 12 || I, iv. I5 re the X 6alpóvtov. §§ 16, 17, vögq, TóNews, Katë.
öðvapuv–FX maxims; see above, I. iii. I, 3.
§ 18. Author’s comment; the topic of piety and owqipoa ſum towards
the gods e e - e • pp. I47-I53
ib. cap. iv.–$$ I-6 naturally suggest that of Tö 6tkatov, and the author
[or the interpolating editor] proceeds to point out the law-
abiding loyalty of Socrates in his private and public behaviour on
various occasions (two of which have been already noticed, I. i.
18; I. ii. 35, above), and re the indictment of Melétus. [The
mention of the name of the particular promoter of the Suit marks
xxxvi INTRODUCTION
the passage, if genuine, as belonging to a different order of com-
position from that of Books I.-III., and confirms certain modern
critics in their view that these sections are of later insertion and
probably not Xenophontine.] -
§ 6 foll. There is some abruptness in the introduction of a discussion
between S. and Hippias on Justice, vouched for by the author.
§ 12. Tó vópºpov 6tratov, cf. Plat. Apol., also Hiſp. maj., Hipp. min.,
Aſºarchats. [See Henry Jackson, op. cit.; W. L. Newman,
Politics of Aristotle, i. 25, 389 ; Grote, Plato, I. ch. xi., xii.]
§ I9. The unwritten laws.
§ 25. The author’s (or editor's) comment tº pp. I53-162
Lib. IV. cap. v.–Š I. The author (or editor) will now explain how S. made
his associates Tpa Kruka Tépous. [The chapter is a rehandling to
Some extent of topics handled in the earlier part of the work.]
§ 2. Personal note in introducing another “Euthydemus’ conversa-
tion on éYkpáTeva, cf. I. v. supra.
§ 12. 6ta\éyéo-0at derived tº • e pp. I62-166
Żó. Cap. vi. —$ I. The author will try to show how Socrates made
his associates 6ta\ektukayrépovs. The need of definition with a
view to knowledge and a correct answer to the question, T4 early
ékao Tov Tóv čvraju ;
2 method of inquiry as apprehended by the author (“Euthy-
demus” conversation). Specimens of procedure (EX) and defini-
tions arrived at.
§§ 2-5. e.g. “ piety” = “the knowledge of those laws that are con-
cerned with the gods.” [Cf. Plat. Æuthyphro for the difference
between II2 (the Platonic Socrates) and EX, and see H. Jackson,
Socrates, pp. 236, 237.]
§§ 5, 6. Öikatov, “to be just is to know what is due to men.” $ 7.
aroqta étruatiºn.
§ 8, Tó &Yaffou & péºpov. § 9. To ka)\ov xpija plov. [Cf. supra,
III. viii. 4-7, utilitarian measure of “the good * and “the beauti-
ful,” EX.]
§§ Io, I I. divöpetou, “to be courageous is to know what is to be feared
and what is not.”
§ 12. The author explains how Socrates distinguished “Kingship,”
“Tyranny,” and the various forms of troXtteta. §§ 13, 14. And
how Socrates led his interlocutor to a definition of, e.g., “the good
citizen” through a series of Öpoxoyoſpeva.
§ 15. The author testifies to the leverage which Socrates got in
arguing from adopting this method of procedure. [Tó 6pt{egºat
kafféXov with étraktukol A6)ot for its basis, as Aristotle phrases it.]
2 (or E2) on Odyss. viii. 171, Ó 3’ &cºpa)\éws &yopeſet of Odysseus.
Lib. IV.
CONSPECTUS xxxvii
[According to Schenkl, the passage above re 6taxéyeaffat, IV. v.
I2, would better come in at this point.] t pp. I66-175
cap. vii. —$ I. E or 2. A personal paragraph. Socrates in quite
a simple, frank, straightforward way declared his opinions to those
who talked with him. Did any one suppose that he tried to
mystify or to Sophisticate his auditors? That is not Xenophon's
testimony; and the other half of the matter is equally important :
he did not care to have disciples to echo his views, but did all he
could to foster independence of thought. As far as he could he
would take them along the road himself, or, where he lacked
acquaintance with any subject, he would pass them on to those
who had the knowledge of it—the recognised expert,
§ 2. 2 (or rather, admittedly, E2) held that theoretic study might
easily be pushed too far. [Is the author thinking of the Aristo-
phanic travesty of Socrates as a pleteopogoqua Tijs P] At any rate,
though versed in the higher studies himself, he inculcated the
relative importance of the lower as more practical—in other words,
Tô dºéApov was a test to be applied, e.g., to the study of—
§ 3. Geometry (though by no means &yeapéTpmtos himself) or (§ 4)
astronomy (though, $ 5, well versed himself). §§ 6, 7. Attitude of
2 (or E2) to Tà oðpávia in general (see above, I. i. II foll.)
FX, his strictures on Anaxagoras, $8; and so with regard to arith-
metical Aoyagoûs (aliter ratiocăreative processes, logic) FX affixed
the same limit of utility. § 9. One's duty to study the laws of
health in general and in reference to one's own idiosyncrasy; self-
diagnosis. § IO. In matters transcending human wisdom E2
counselled an appeal to heaven through gavtukºff. [This last topic
serves (as a connecting link of thought, apparently) to introduce
the final chapter, which must be read in close connection with the
'AtroXoyta. Indeed, if the writing so named is genuine, chapter
viii. would seem to be an epitomised version of it, adapted to
form the conclusion of the dTopºv muove"pata in the shape which
the author or his editor finally gave to the compilation. See Schanz,
Alat. Apol. Einleitung, p. 84 foll.] . e pp. 174-178
CONCLUSION.—Lib. IV. cap. viii.
§ 1. The author justifies Socrates re to 6alpóvov (his private oracle)
in the matter of the trial which ended in his death.
§ 4. (One the authority of Æermogenes) he will state what he himself
heard from Hermogenes, the son of Hipponicus, with regard to
Socrates' behaviour before the trial, instituted by Melétus, com-
menced. § 9 might well be a réchauffº or excerpt of Apology, 26.
Ś II. Author's personal encomium of Socrates e pp. 179-182
xxxviii INTRODUCTION
NOTE ON MEM. I. ii. 9-61–6 katſiyopos.
*...* Who is “the accuser’? Three writings throw light on this question :-
(I) The Katmyopia 2wkpátovs of Polycrates (392-380 B.C.), an “epi-
deictic” speech. See references below and authorities ap. Jebb,
Att. Or, i. I53, n. 2. (2) An étroXoyia 20kpátovs of Lysias, entitled,
probably, Ötrép 20kpátovs Tpós IIoxvkpátmv, in reply to the above.
See Schol. ad Aristid. I 13. 16, vol. iii. p. 480; Dind. ap. Jebb, Att.
Or. i. I53, I54. (3) The dToMoyla 20kpátovs of the sophist Libanius,
fourth century A.D., fragments of which remain. See Sievers, Das
Alebezz des Zióamzzus, Berlin 1868.
I agree with certain critics" in thinking that in this section
of his work the author is rebutting arguments prejudicial to
Socrates, which (whether they had been actually advanced at the
trial or not) had gained currency through a particular writing of
the day called j kat myopia 20kpátovs, the author of which was
the well-known “sophist” Polycrates.” The writing in question,
an “epideictic” speech, was published not earlier than 392 B.C.
(since it contains an allusion to the rebuilding of the walls of
Athens by Conon, 393 B.C.), nor later probably than 380 B.C.”
Not improbably it took the form of a speech for the prosecu-
tion, put into the mouth of Anytus, so that 6 karūyopos in
one sense is Polycrates (the author of the brochure), and in
another Anytus, the imaginary counsel for the prosecution,
who as a matter of fact had some years previously been
politically the most redoubtable of the official accusers (of
1 See Cobet, W. L. 662 foll: ; L. Dind. Praef. (to Oxford ed.) xx, foll. ; Sauppe,
Praef, vol. iii. (ed. Ster.) xi.; J. J. Hartman, Avt. Xen. v. IoA foll. ; M. Schanz, Einl, to
P/at, ſº£od. “Die Anklagerede des Polykrates, p. 22 foll. ; K. Joel, oft. cit. Einleitung,
. Io foll.
p § See Prof. Jebb, Att. Or., on whom, as often before, I venture to draw wholesale :
“Polykrates evidently held a respectable rank among the rhetoricians of his time. He
is mentioned by Dionysios in company, with Antiphon, Thrasymachos of Chalkedon,
Kritias, Theodoros of Byzantium, Anaximenes, Zoilos, and Isaeos (Isae. c. 20: Dezſz.
c. 8). He was, however, no favourite of Dionysios, who describes him as ‘empty in
practical oratory, frigid and vulgar in the rhetoric of display, and devoid of grace in the
subjects which demand it’ (cf. Aristot. Rhet. ii. 24). He wrote for the law courts, and
the ‘Accusation of Sokrates’ itself was supposed by some to have been actually spoken
at the trial.” Diog. Laert. ii. 5. 39 notices this tradition, but contradicts it on the
authority of Favorinus.
3 The year of Gorgias' death, before which time, according to Pausanias, vi. 17. 9,
Polycrates had gained no small repute at Athens, whereas his two Tvåståews, Bovariptóó;
&roXoyia and Xokpátovs kot myopia, Z'he Deſence of Busiris and The Accusation of
Socrates, were written, as we learn from Isocrates, in the days of his early struggles.
WHO IS “THE ACCUSER" 2 xxxix
ypaſpápevo). That the katyyopia 20kpátovs of Polycrates was
fictively a speech for the prosecution delivered by Anytus is
rendered probable, partly, by the fact that a belief (the absurdity
of which Favorinus is at pains to point out) was current in the
third century B.C. that “Polycrates was the author of the
speech for the prosecution at the trial, though others said
Anytus”; 1 partly, by the inferences to be drawn from a later
ětíðelés, an ātroXoyſa, Xokpátovs, or speech in defence of
Socrates, written by another famous Sophist of his time,
Libanius, circa A.D. 35o. This writing was a Counterblast ap-
parently to the karmyopia 20kpátovs of Polycrates, the lines of
which it follows, and the person addressed is Anytus. Indeed,
from the surviving fragments of Libanius' ZXefence of Socrates
it is possible to reconstruct the general line of attack, with some
of the specific charges, which Polycrates (either playing the
part of katſyopos himself or sub Anyti persona) adopted against
Socrates.” They are just such arguments as partisans of the
1 See Diog. Laert. Socrates, ii. 5. 38, 39, 40 : (38) &mvéykaro pºv oſſºv thu Ypaphu 6
MéAmros sime Šē thv Šikmu IIoMáevktos, Ös (bmart pagoptvos év II avroča"Tú to topig' a v v-
éyp a lie à è to v A 6'yov II oxv K p & Tys, 6 a. o.pt a Tijs, & s p mov v "Eput Tiros, m "Avu tos,
Ö's t w ves' trpomtoiu.a.a.s. 68 tróvta Aiſkov 6 &muayoyós. (39) 'Avttaſöévms 3' év Taºs tºov
quxoa 6¢ ov Avačoxa is kai IIAérov čv 'AtroAoyig Tpets autoi, katmyopmaraí, boguv, "Avurov
kai Aſkova kai. MéAmtov, Tov Lév "Avvtov, tos ūtrép Töv Šmutovpyöv kai Tôv troAvtuków
Öpyvgåuevov, Töv Šē Aykovo Útěp Töv finrópov, kai Tov MéxmTov Útěp Töv Towntôv oils
&mavtas & Xokpárms 6véovpe. Po. 8 (opt vos & 6 pm a v v ć w tº Tp 6 tº Tô v 'Atrop, v)-
p ovsv u & to v iii) et va &^n 0# to v A 63 ov, to v II oxvkpátov s kata, Sokpátovs' év
gºt & Yép. 4 no i, u,vng ovejev Tó v i To Kévoyos Te º Xó v &vg a to 96 vtov, ô y Éyou e v
êt so w w ść 'tis to 0 × 60 kp & To vs Te A sv tims iſ a Tepo v. kai éa Tuv oitas Šxov. (40)
6' &vropodia tis Šikms toūtov eixe tou Tpóſtov: &Tókeitav yūp étu kai vov, p.mari Paſłopivos,
év tº Mmtp%q). Tăös, Öypélato kai &vtop.60 aro MéAmtos Mexijtov IIvrösös, Sakpárst
>0%povía-kov 'AAgotrekm6ev' 'Aöuket Stokpárms, oùs uèv TóAts vopićev 6eous oi, votičov
étepa Śē kawv& Saupºvva elonyotſuevos &öuket Sé kai Toijs véovs 6ta®6éépov. Tipºmua
6ávatos, 6 6' oiv ºbuxóa oſbos, Avaíou ypdal autos &Toàoyüav autº, övolvayvoys épm, “Kaxos
uèv 6 Aóyos, & Aijalvo, où unu &pp.6trov 'y' épot.” &mAaôň yöp #v Tó TAéov Šukavukös
épºq,w}\óarothos. (41) eitróvtos, Šč too Avoríov, “IIós et kaśós égruv 6 Aóyos, oùk &v orov
ôpitättov,”, Šipm, “Oi yāp kai iu.6two kaAó kai Ütroöjuato sim &v époi &vápuloo to , ” and as
to Lysias’ &Toxoyia Etokpátovs see Jebb, Até. Or, i. 153 foll.
2 The chief Żièce justificative in reference to our passage is Isocr. Busiris,
“addressed to Polycrates, who has lately been driven by need to become a professed
rhetorician.” Isocrates has never seen him, but sympathising with his misſortunes
wishes to help him with advice (Jebb, off, cit. ii. p. 94 : ato'0ópºevos obv oëx #ktoró are
ueyaxauxotºuevov ºri Tà Bovaiptôos & Toxoyig kai Tà Xokpárovs Kamyopia trºpégouai
OTOt. Totia at Karabayes ött troA) tov, ôéovtos év toºs &ºporépots tots, Aóyots 8viuapres
. . . Öttép pºèv Bovaripuðos.. . . Xokpátovs 8& Katmyopetv. čTuxeup.joras, Öorſtep eykopºváo at
BovXópºevos 'AAkuflváðmu èöokas ağtó p.a6mTjv, Öv jºb’ &Kečvov učv ověsts ja'6eto Tatóevó-
pºevov, 6tt öö troAv Šváveyké Tóv &AAgov &Tavtes &v Öpoxoyfforevav, Tovyapoov et yevout'
éčova to roºs retexévtmkóort Bouxeija-aoréat trepi Tôv sipmuevov, 6 p.sv (Socrates) &v arov
too aſtmv Šxov xáptu Ütrêp Tús karmyopias 60 mu občevi Tôv étrauvetv autov et0topºvov, Ö
ôé (Busiris), k.T.A. (Isocr. Bus. 222), “You put your trust in your De/ence of Busiri's
and your Accusation of Socrates. As to Busiris, you have made his case worse than
ever. . . . As to Socrates, your accusation glorifies him ; you make him the teacher
of Alcibiades, who is not known to have been his disciple, but who certainly was a
remarkable man. Could the dead hear you, you would have the thanks of the philosopher
and the hatred of the king ” (Jebb).
xl INTRODUCTION
“unmixed democracy,” now once more firmly re-established,
would be likely to bring (and doubtless commonly brought)
against Socrates as a pºoróðmuos, a hater of the democracy,
the spiritual adviser, in fact, of oligarchs and weak-kneed
democrats. Thrasybulus and Conon, the true democrats, are
pointedly compared with Critias and Alcibiades, the pupils of
Socrates. And as to “quotations from the poets" and “cor-
ruption of the young,” the topics in the fragments of Libanius
coincide remarkably with those mentioned in order to be
rebutted by Xenophon in our passage."
From Xenophon's own line of argument, if we are right in
our main supposition, we may further conjecture the sort of
things afloat in the current Socratico-dialogic literature of the
day, which Polycrates, in his rhetorical attempt to prove the
better the worse cause, had as material to work upon.”
ON THE PERSONAL NOTE IN THE 'Atropºwmpoveſpato :
WHo Is EUTHYDEMUs P (in Bk. IV.)
I have already (vol. i. Sketch, p. lxxvii. foll.), whilst discussing the
autobiographic quality of Xenophon's Socratic writings, drawn attention to
the fact that none of them probably were published nor in any technical
sense composed until long after the death of Socrates, which took place in
B. c. 399. Even the most matter-of-fact of them therefore (the Memorabilia)
could hardly escape a certain colouring. Socrates is seen through a vista of
years. The young man's memoranda, however faithfully preserved, represent
also the mature reflections of one who has himself gone through many
experiences, since as a youth he sat in some saddler’s shop and imbibed
words of wisdom ; and whose character is formed. With this caution, as I
then insisted, we are entitled to turn over the pages of the Memorabilia, etc.,
in confidence that the story of Xenophon's own deeper education lies
therein. At present, we are less concerned with the inner spiritual growth
of the man Xenophon than with his skill and method as an artist, his truth
and exactness as a biographer.
1 See Conspectus, p. xvii.
* See Schanz, off. cit. p. 51 ; Joel, oft. cit, p. 481.
THE PERSONAL NOTE xli
The Personal Mote.—The opening words of the Memorabilia, IIoMXàkus
éðaðuaga, “I have often wondered,” strike a note which dominates the first
two “apologetic” chapters of the work as it now stands, and with more or
less emphasis recurs at intervals from I. iii. I (the commencement of the
'A Touwmpovetºpata proper) onward down to the last chapter (of our version).
At one point (IV. viii. 4-10) the author is careful to tell us that he is indebted
for certain facts (of which indeed, as being far away ſrom Athens at the
moment, he could not be personally cognisant) to Hermogenes. For myself,
then, I can only repeat what I have already stated, that épotye ākoſſovtu, “to
my ears at any rate,” the Memorabilia from beginning to end reads like “an
honest attempt, on the part of one who knew, to explain the character and
position of Socrates to a public who seemed to misconceive him.” As it is
possible, however, that I have over-emphasised the value of the personal
authority" in such phrases as—
\éa, Öé TpóTov & Trote at Toj žkova'a. e e . I. iv. 2, Trans. p. 25
#kovo a 6é Tote aſſroi, kal Tept ºptXóv Šva)\eyouévov II. iv. I, ,, p. 58
éööket Öé plot \éyòu . . . q peyotiv . * * . II. vi. I, ,, p. 60
olòa 6é Trote at Töv kal Kptrovos &Koča'avta. ge . II. ix. I, ,, p. 76
éºyd, 6é, Öre Tpós Eöðū67901, Totáðe 6texéyéro, Tapeye-
vöpmv . & & tº & * e . IV. iii. 2, , , p. I47
and so forth, as if the words necessarily implied that the author was an ear-
witness of some particular conversation (which he had taken notes of at the
time perhaps, or had for some other reason a lively recollection of, and wished
now to record after the fashion of a Boswell or an Eckermann), rather than
that in a general way, and without hindrance to his artistic liberty, he meant to
give his personal imprimatur to the manner, tone, and natural effect of such
conversations, etc.—I think it desirable to add these supplementary remarks.
Throughout the Atopumuoveſpata proper the question perpetually arises
in the reader's mind : what is Xenophon's authority for this and that
conversation ? Is he refurbishing a note or recollection of some actual
discussion which he heard himself or learnt from some first-hand witness?
or is he generalising from a number of similar discussions P (heard or over-
heard P) and is this the quintessential discussion, the final residuum leſt
upon his mind P Is he, in fact, poetising, dramatising 2 (always no doubt
honestly and with a bona-ſide wish to reveal the Socrates best known to
himself, albeit with the constructive licence of the artist). As I believe,
the author does so range over his whole gamut, passing from matter-of-fact
shorthand-note narrative at one time to pure artistic dramatisation at
another.
1 See Trans. Vol. i. p. lxxvii. n. 3.
xlii INTRODUCTION
The ZXramatºs Personae. —A like question with a like answer attaches to
the personality of the interlocutors' introduced in the conversations. Are
they actual persons, who, on some real occasion, actually spoke thus?—or
might be supposed to speak thus P or are they dramatis personae, historical
personages used as stage puppets, or non-historic zºoms de fºlume to represent
real beings? or purely imaginary, conventional vehicles of certain ideas and
ways of looking at things familiar to the literature of the time P
By help of the following table it will be easy for the reader to run
his eye through the more important passages; and so doing, to form
his own conclusion on the matter. [A. m. = personal note of the kind
indicated.]
A. m. I. iii. 8-13. —Socrates and Xenophon, Critobulus present as
a mute (probably autobiographic).
p. m. I. iv. I-18, 19. —S. and Aristodemus “the little,” trept
ôatpovtov : teleology (versus a view of Socrates in
vogue).
I. v. I-6. –S. & divöpes monologue, on éºykpáteua.
I. vi. I-Io.—S. and Antiphon.
Ż. m. ad I4, I. vi. II-I4.—S. and Antiphon. [There is no reason why
Xen. Should not have been an ear-witness, $ 14.]
I. vi. I 5. –S. and Antiphon.
I. vii. I-5. —S. Soliloq.
Ż. m. [I. vii. 5-II. i. I.]—See Conspectus (the personal note is
probably an editorial device).
II. i. 1-34.—S. and Aristippus (cf. Plat. Phaed, 59 C). [Query,
can we trust the p. m. (ad II. i. 1) as a genuine passage
even Pl
II. ii. I-14. —S. and Lamprocles, his elder Son. [Xen. might
have learnt it from Socrates or a Socratic ; see Trans.
vol. i. p. lxxx..]
II. iii. I-19. —S. and Chaerecrates (re Chaerephon and
Chaerecrates). [Xen. might have heard it from one or
other of the brothers or both.]
A. m. II. iv. I-7. —S. Soliloq. on friendship.
Ż. n. II. v. I-5. —S. and Antisthenes. [Xen, was probably intimate
with Antisthenes. J
quasi p. 72. II. vi. I-39. —S. and Critobulus. [I am Strongly disposed
to assume a real intimacy between Xen. and Crito-
bulus.]
& a tſuotöa Ż. n. II. vii. 1-14. —S. and Aristarchus [épyov 6' oijöèv čvetóos]
(see Schanz, Plat. Apol, p. 27).
& ortºvouða, p. m. II. viii. 1-6. —S. and Eutherus.
oióa quasi ž. n. II. ix. I-8. —S. and Crito. [Xen. might have learnt it from
Crito or Archedemus.]
Ż. n. II. x. 1-6. —S. and Diodorus. [Xen, might have learnt it
from Hermogenes or Diodorus.]
1. It is noticeable that the Xenophon conversations (except in the Symposium) are
confined to a couple of persons, Socrates and an interlocutor. With greater verisimilitude
the Platonic Socrates carries on his work of dialectic with several interlocutors. Why
is this?
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUES xliii
III. i. 1-II.-S. and a young man re otpatnyeſu and Diony-
Sodorus. [Xen. might have learnt it from the inter-
locutor, a (Socratic) young man.] *
III. ii. I-4.—S. and a newly-elected Stratégos. [Xen. might
have learnt it from the interlocutor.]
quasi Z. m. III. iii. I-15.-S. and a newly-appointed Hipparch. [Xen.
might have learnt it from some one. The topic came
home closely to himself.]
III. iv. I-I2. —S. and Nicomachides. [Xen, might have learnt
it from N., or been present, or invented it from similar
talk with some one, or purely imaginatively.]
III. v. I-28.-S. and Pericles, son of Pericles (see Trans.
vol. i. p. lxxx.). [Xen. artistic, or possibly had heard
Some such talk as basis, circa annum 4II B.C.].
[Plato series. Xen. might
III. vi. I-18.-S. and Glaucon, have learnt them from some
son of Ariston. of the Socratics or the
III. vii. I-9. —S. and Char- people themselves. Did
mides. Xen, know Charmides
( personally Pl
Abrupt transition.
III. viii. I-3. —S. and Aristippus (cf. supra, II. i. I-34).
[Xen.'s own “philosophy ’’ inclines to that of the Cynic
rather than the Cyrenaic school.
III. viii. 4-7. —S. and Aristippus.
III. viii. 8-Io.—S. soliloq. on utility as essential to make a
house beautiful, and temples. [Why should not Xen.
have heard Socrates so talk?]
III. ix. I-3. —Courage. 4. Wisdom and Sophrosune. 5.
dpeth orogºta. 6, 7. Madness. 8. Envy. 9. Leisure.
Io-13. Kings and rulers. I4, 15. eitpašta. (E
jottings, but E has the mind of 2.) -
Socrates and artists, etc. [Xen, might have heard
III. x. I-5. —S. and Parrhasius. it from the inter-
III. x. 6-8. —S. and Cleiton. locutor, or Some One,
III. x. 9-I 5.-S. and Pistias. or have invented these
conversations.]
III. xi. 1-18. —S. and Theodoté. [If Theodoté is a real
person and the incident a fact, Xen. might have been
one of the company, or have heard it from one of
them or have invented it.]
III. xii. I-8. –S. and Epigenes (probably a Socratic). [Xen.
might have heard it from the interlocutor.]
III. xiii. I ; 2 ;
3; 4; 5; 6.- |[Xen. might have been present, or noted
S. anecdotes. U current tales—possibly apocryphal or spoilt
III. xiv. I ; 2- in telling and through want of context—
4; 5, 6; 7. — inartistic to my mind.]
S. table-talk.
IV. i. 1-5,-[Xen. picks up thread of his discourse, 2
&q}{\upaos.
xliv
INTRODUCTION
Author's intro-Y
duction to final
book—which I
take to be of IV.
ii. 1-7.—S. and Euthydemus. [Xen. might have been
later date in there; if Euthydemus is a real person or a nom de plume.]
composition IV. ii. 8-40. —S. and Euthydemus, a tête-d-tête ; $ 8, p.6vos
and written on #\9ev. [Xen. might have heard it from the real Euthy-
a somewhat dif- demus, or invented it, or experienced it, or divined it.
ferent plane of Xen. artistic to the nº.]
thought, less lit-
erally “apomne-
moneumatic.” J
Trapeyevöpmv p. 77. IV.
oióa quasi p. 72. IV.
Ż. m. IV.
oióa quasi p. 27. IV.
IV.
A. m. IV.
IV.
iii. 2-18. —S. and Euthydemus on “Sophrosune" in
reference to the Gods || I. iv. I-18. [A reduplication
—one is forced to ask oneself, who is Euthydemus Pl
iv. [editorial interpolation I-5] 5-25. —S. and Hippias,
Trept tod ólkatov on “sophrosune” in reference to man-
kind. (See Cobet's defence of E ITttas, Pros. Xen.
S. n.) [Xen. might have heard it, learnt it, or more
probably perhaps invented it. Hippias is of course a
stock “character” in the Socratic literature of the time.]
v. T. —How S. made his associates Tpaktuka/Tépovs. .
v. 2-II.-S. and Euthydemus on éypátela. [Who is
Euthydemus Pl
v. 12. —Tô 6ta\éyé00au, Socrates' definition of [would, as
Schenkl observes, fit on well with IV. vi. I 5 below].
vi. I.-How S. made his associates 6ta\ektuka/Tépovs—the
process of definition.
vi. 2-4.—S. and Euthydemus define eſſa'é8éta. 5, 6.
ôlkatov. 7. Togºta. 8. (bºpé\ºpov dya.0óv. 9. Xpija upov
ka)\óv. Io, II. S. and Euthydemus, divöpeta. I2.
6aot)\eta and Tvpavvis.
vi. I3-15. –S., his method of argumentation.
vii. I-9. —S., his educational attitude, “positivity,” etc.
vii. Io. —S. re pavtukºff : the divine counsel needed in
matters transcending human wisdom.
viii. 1-3. —S., his trust in the Öatpºvtov justified.
viii. 4-10.*—S. and Hermogenes. [A conversation in
which Socrates explains his reason for refusing to trouble
his head about the line of defence he should take in his
approaching trial, and justifies the opposition of the
6aupiðvuov to any such preparation ; see below ze the
Apology,
viii. II. —The author's peroration to his éyköpitov.
(These remarks are thoroughly Xenophontean in style.
See Trans. Vol. i. p. lxxix.)
p. m. § 15, IV.
Ż. m. IV.
IV.
%. m. IV.
IV.
%. m. IV.
Who, we keep on asking ourselves, is this constant interlocutor Euthydemus
in Book IV. P. The name occurs five times in Xen. and Plato as that of
1 On , the authority of. Hermogenes, son of Hipponicus and brother of Callias
apparently. See Mezz. I. ii. 48; II. x. 3; 4/o/, viii. 4; Symº. iii. 14; iv. 47, 49; vi. 1;
Plat. Crat. 383 B ; 384 C ; 408 B ; 429 C ; Phaed. 59 B.
WHO IS EUTHYDEMUS P xlv.
(I) The brother of Polemarchus and Lysias, the son of Cephalus. Cf.
Plat. Rep. i. 328 B.
(2) The eristic sophist E. of Chios, the younger of the Thurian brothers
E. and Dionysodorus, ap. Plat. Euthyd. 271 B, effassim ; Craſſ. 386 D.
Cf. Aristot. Soph. EZ. 177 blº; Rhet. 14or a 28.
(3) The son of Diocles, ap. Plat. Symp. 222 B: “This, friends, is my praise
of Socrates. (Alcibiades loguitur.) I have added my blame of him for his
ill-treatment of me ; and he has ill-treated not only me but Charmides the son
of Glaucon, and Euthydemus the son of Diocles, and many others in the same
way—beginning as their lover, he has ended by making them pay their addresses
to him " (Jowett).
(4) The beloved of Critias, in Mem. I. ii. 29.
Nos. 3, 4, and 5 may all easily be the same person (so Cobet, Pros.
2 enz. s. 72.), and if No. 5 is a real personage so named we shall not perhaps be
wrong in identifying him with the son of Diocles. This was my original
opinion (see Trans. vol. i. p. lv. note 2). On the other hand, his person-
ality does not seem to be so well established as that of Critobulus for
instance, and K. Joel adduces strong reasons in favour of the view that
Euthydemus is a literary type—or figure-head—due to the invention of
Antisthenes perhaps, in the first instance. This Antisthenean young man
ô Ka)\ós with a taste for “eristic” is a stock persona of the literature of the
time : employed mutatis mutandis by Plato and Xenophon (and Aristotle).
But for this whole argument (which is somewhat elaborate) I must refer the
reader to the work in question, Der AEchte und der Xen. Sokrates, vol. i.
p. 372 foll.
I pass on to speak of the A’elation between (Xen.) Apology
and Mem. IV. viii. It looks as if either (1) the Apology were an
expansion of Mem. IV. viii., or (2) Mem. IV. viii. in some sort
a “refined” excerpt from the Apology, and of these alternatives
the latter would on the whole appear to be the more probable."
It is argued that—
(a) The author of the Apology explains his standpoint. He wishes to
justify the pleya)\myopia of Socrates not hitherto explained. In Mem. IV.
viii. this justification is given ex ore Socratis. If Mem. IV. viii. were the
source of the Apology, the above explanation of the writer's standpoint
would be falsified, and the ground cut from beneath the brochure. Quite
otherwise, in the converse case (supposing the Apology to be the source of
Mem. IV. viii.).
(3) The Apology has a certain parallelism to Plato's Apology, e.g. the
speeches assigned to Socrates are distinguished according to the several
1 So Arnold Hug, Prof. M. Schanz, etc.
xlvi INTRODUCTION
stages of the Trial, as if the author (Xenophon or whoever it was) penned
it in answer to Plato's Apology. There is no such opposition to Plato's
Apology in Mem. IV. viii. The author is absorbed in the single reflection :
“Socrates’ death was no misſortune.” What does it matter the precise
time at which the remarks were made 2 This is what he said on the eve of
the Trial which was to end his life. Obviously the transition from the
Apology to Mem. IV. viii. is an easy one, but not so zice Zersa.
(y) The greater detail and particularity of the brochure in fact suggests
that its relation to Mem. IV. viii. is that of an original to a copy; e.g. in
Apol. § 26 || Mem. IV. viii. 9, the transition from the special to the general
would be easy and natural, from the general to the special unnatural. See
Prof. M. Schanz, Plat. Apol. Einleitung, $ 25, p. 84 foll, ; but see for an
opposite view of the relationship Leonard Schmitz, Class. Mus. Vol. ii. 22 I-
229, quoted in L. Dind. Praef. to Oxford ed. of Mem. p. xvi. foll. L. Dind.
himself, as is well known, regards both the Apology and the last chapter of
the Memu.. as spurious ; so do Schenkl and J. J. Hartman.
So much for the relationship of the two documents to
each other. With regard to the genuineness of both grave
doubts have been entertained by many modern critics, and more
particularly concerning the Apology, which, it has been argued,
is written in a style and manner unworthy of Xenophon.
There is a note of exaggeration in the argument, and a certain
crudeness of language suggestive rather of some Sophist or
grammarian, during the period between Dionysius of Halicar-
nassus and Athenaeus, than of the author of the Memoračz/ia.
How that may be I do not know.' I would prefer to
think that Xenophon had not written the Apology. On the
other hand, I feel that Xenophon when not at his best was
probably capable of writing such a “ defence of Socrates" by
way of justifying his peya Amyopia, and if only he had omitted
the passage concerning the unfortunate son of Anytus * I
should have had little quarrel with the work as it stands. It
reads like a brochure thrown off hastily in answer to some
such view of Socrates' behaviour as we get from Plato's
1 See Grote's remark, H. G. viii. p. 641. “This little piece bears a very erroneous
title, and may possibly not be the composition of Xenophon, as the commentators generally
affirm; but it has every appearance of being a work of the time.” Why should a sophist
or grammarian during the period between Dion. Hal. and Athenaeus trouble himself to
expatiate on the theme of Socrates' pºeyaxmyopia?
* See Schanz, oſ. cit, p. 88, § 26, Qree//e der Xenoff/onfischen A/ologie : “Es
liegt also (Apol. 18 || Symeſ. iv. 41) die Vermutung nahe, dass Xenophon eine Kynische
Yºgº für Seine Apologie benutzt hat"; and below, § 27, Die Anytose/isode im Memo, p.
89 foll.
THE APOLOGY xlvii
Apology. Possibly a kind of floating comment on the matter
in men's mouths was a scandal to him, and so he wrote it.
At a later date, when arranging the material for his larger work,
now known as the Memorabilia (and consisting of an ātroAoyſa
and an éykópavov based on dropºwmpovečpoto), he decided to turn
it to account for the purposes of his concluding chapter.
This of course is only one possible explanation out of many, and
there is no proof of it. It assumes, moreover, the genuineness of
Mem. IV. viii., which personally I cannot but regard as genuine
for reasons already suggested. As the matter stands it is clear
that one or other of four alternatives holds—either (1) both
documents are spurious, or (2) both are genuine, or (3) the
Apology is genuine and the last chapter of the Mem. an inter-
polation, or (4) vice versa, the Zast chapter is genuine and the
Apology by a foreign hand. Of these alternatives, I personally
incline to the second or the last. It is a question of ato-6,70-is.
It should be borne in mind, however, that the ancient critics”
regarded the Apology as a genuine work. It appears in the
canon of Xenophon's works, which we owe to Demetrius
Magnes.”
We pass on to the two independent Socratic works entitled
the Oeconomicus and the Symposium.
THE OFCONOMICUS 3
I have already referred to the opinion thrown out
by Galen 4 in ancient times, and reinforced by some
modern critics,” that the Oeconomicus is a continuation
(ºrxarov 88Aſov (Galen), “the last book”) of the Memorabilia,
as the opening words, "HKovora öé Tote attoo kai Tepi oikovopºtas
8taxeyopévow towdóe, “I once heard him discuss the topic of
economy in the following way,” with the familiar personal note
of the author introducing a new topic of discussion, might
1 See G. Sauppe, vol. iii. (ed. ster.) Praef. to 'AtroA. p. 117 foll.
2 See Trans. vol. i. p. xlix. tº º º e
3 See Grote, Plato, iii. 569 foll. ; W. L. Newman, Politics of Aristotſe, i. IoT foll.,
169 foll, and Žassim ; Alfred Croiset, Xéno/āon : son can actère et son talent, ch. v.–a
beautiful essay ; Lecky, Hist, of European Moza/s, vol. ii. p. 305 foll.
4 See above, p. ix. n.
Il. 3.
5 e.g. Schenkl—a view combated by Adalbert Roquette, de Xen. Wif. p. 73 foll, ; J. J.
Hartman, Azt. Yen. p. 177 foll. ; and others.
xlviii INTRODUCTION
seem to imply. I have also hinted in my first volume * my
own view as to the sort of connection which exists between the
two compositions in question. Whatever truth may conceiv-
ably lurk in Galen's remark, as far as the opening chapter (the
initial discussion with Critobulus on economy) is concerned, the
work as it now stands” is practically an independent treatise
representing quite a different mood and attitude of mind, on
the part of the writer, from that in which he penned and
put together his recollections in defence and praise of Socrates.
It may indeed, both in point of style and as regards its subject
matter, fairly claim to be regarded as an unique product of Xeno-
phon's literary genius. Like so much of our author's writing, it
is no doubt “anomalous” in texture and composite in form, but in
spite of the initial difficulty implied in working over and welding
together fragments composed ex hypothesi at different dates and
with only a dimly-conceived intention, whilst the design of the
whole was gradually shaping itself, he has contrived to impress
upon the treatise in its final form a charm and unity inborn of
noble thought and tender feeling. This he has done in a
manner which, however much we might have esteemed the
qualities of his muse before, must certainly tend to raise our
admiration of his powers not only as an artist but as a
serious thinker: Eevoq (ov oroquoit'ſs—Éevoq (ov ióvotijs (bux60-oqbos
Troumrijs rather—a free-lance poet and philosopher bent upon
saying his say and contributing his quantum of reflection
towards the elucidation of a series of topics interesting not
only at the moment of Hellenic history but for all time:
Concerning the household and household management—
concerning war and agriculture—concerning the spheres of
1 P. liv. note, I : “The Economist (and I assume that the whole work is Xenophon's,
though I agree with Dr. Lincke so far in thinking that it bears traces of an Umarðeitung,
as if a later self had worked over the composition of an earlier self, and not always in
accordance with modern taste) is as it were an expanded chapter of the Memorabi/;a.
Just in the same way, one can imagine, the conversation between Socrates and Pericles
(Mem. III. v.) might have been expanded into a separate treatise on the Soloniazz constigae-
tion or Polity of Athens.” So here the first chapter (or possibly the first two chapters)
may have been written first as a topic of the étrouvmwoueiſuota and afterwards expanded
into the much larger and more elaborate treatise on household management in all its
details—the “ideal of an active citizen, cultivator, and housemaster,” as Grote has it.
See further, for the autobiographical nidus, mºise-en-scène, local colouring, etc., of the
piece, Trans. vol. i. p. cxxvii. foll., cxxx. foll. y
2 i.e. in the complete form in which (£ace Dr. Lincke, and apart from defects which
the archetype of our version may be supposed to have laboured under) we may Suppose it
to have left the author's hand.
THE OECONOMICUS xlix
the wife and of the husband, and their inmost relationship
to each other, to their children, their domestics—Concerning
the condition of the slave—the gentle art of tillage—the
beauty of our mother earth—the school of justice—the need
of order and painstaking care to success in life—the divine
gift of command exercised over willing and loyal subordinates,
and so forth.” Certainly, whatever structural defects there are
in our version” (and perhaps they are due in part to Xenophon's
editors), they are easily forgotten, as we pass from stage to
stage of the discussion—the grace of diction tallying
marvellously with the beauty of the theme.
(To repeat what I have elsewhere said (Hellenica Fssays, p. 379), not too
extravagantly, I hope, whilst discussing Xenophon's stylistic qualities as
seen in his several writings): Scarcely behind the Cyropaedia in inventive-
ness, and its superior in a certain quality of opaline beauty, ranks the
A conomist. It is full of the Xenophontean limpidity ; the little bells of
alliteration ring in our ears ; the graceful antithetic balance sways ; the
sweet sounds help out the healthy sense, as if a fragrant air breathed on
us from fresh and well-worked fields—and a happy homestead, where
we cherish content in winter by a blazing fire, or in Summer lulled by a
trio of babbling streams, soft airs, and tender shade. [Oecom. v. 7. The
horizontal structure of the Xenophontean sentence is conspicuous in this
work ; the members balancing with a tender minuet-like movement.]
This is a work the careful thoroughness of which, and its praise of
1 See Trans. vol. i. Introduction, pp. xxiii. xxiv.
2 The chief of these defects to my mind is the confusion left on the reader's mind
with regard to Cyrus the Great and Cyrus the Witt/e in ch. iv. § 16 foll. The words
Aéystav Šē kai Köpós Tore, Šotrep evöokup.6tatos & 8aa whet's yeyévmtat, eitretv, K.T.A.,
“Cyrus, the most glorious king that ever lived,” at once call up the image of Xenophon's
ideal monarch, the legendary founder of the Persian Empire and the hero of the Cyro-
£aedia—and there is a terrible bathos in finding suddenly that Socrates is talking about
the lesser personage. But it further strikes one as a matter of questionable taste to intro-
duce a topic of the Anabasis—$$ 18, 19–(totidem veróis extracted from Amaë. I. ix. 29
foll.), in the mouth of Socrates. “Schenkl thinks that two sections (18 and 19) are an inter-
polation (which they are exceedingly likely to be, as they contain two quotations with
almost verbal exactness from the Azzabasis), and that when these crept into the text the
context was mutilated and altered to suit them " (C. D. Morris, in an article criticising
Lincke's views, referred to below, p. 209, note 1). Schenkl's note ad loc. reads thus:
“Verba 'Apuaços . . . tetayuévos ut adscripta ex An, i. 8. 24 del, Heind., Schaef. etiam
tr}\ºv 'Aptatov in suspicionem vocavit, Nitschio sectiones inde a duodevicesima usque ad
finem hujus capitis omnes ab interpolatore videntur adjectae esse, cui ita assentiar, ut
sectionem xviii fere totam, xviiii totam, denique verba quae initio sectionis xx leguntur, ab
interpolatore profecta esse statuam, Xenophontem autem haec fere scripsisse : kai
pºv kai Kūpos é Aapetov, 6s ye et étregào &puatos &v Šoket àpxov yewégéat, Aéyerow
Awarévôpg.” This would certainly much mend matters, but I confess that my own
difficulty is not simply with regard to textual defects. To go further back, I find it
painful to sit by and listen to the great philosopher and debater discoursing at large on
the excellence of the Persian system.
WOL. III — I d
l o INTRODUCTION
masserizia, found great favour with the Italians of the Renaissance, so that
Alberti or some other speaks of imitating “quel Greco dolcissimo e
soavissimo scrittore Senophonte.” See many passages in J. A. Symonds
A'enaissance in Italy, e.g. concerning Leo Battista Alberti and his 7% attato
della Aamiglia : “The third book (of the Famiglia) modelled on the
Aconomicus of Xenophon is devoted to thrift. How to use our personal
faculties, our wealth, and our time to best advantage forms its principal
theme.” Italian Ziterature, Part I. pp. 188-191 ; and again concerning
the treatise Del Gozerno del/a Famiglia (an essay which, rightly or wrongly
attributed to Agnolo Pandolfini, “passes for one of the choicest monuments
of ancient Tuscan diction ”): “In the bourgeois household described by Pan-
dolfini no one can be indolent. The men have to work outside and collect
wealth, the women to stay at home and preserve it. The character of a
good housewife is sketched very minutely. Pandolfini describes how, when
he was first married, he took his wife over the house, and gave up to her
care all its contents. Then he went into their bedroom and made her kneel
with him before Madonna, and prayed to God to give them wealth, friends,
and male children. After that he told her that honesty would be her great
charm in his eyes as well as her chief virtue, and advised her to forego the
use of paints and cosmetics. Much sound advice follows as to the respective
positions of the master and mistress in the household, the superintend-
ence of domestics, and the right ordering of the most insignificant matters.”
Age of the Despots, p. 178. The reader will notice how closely this Italian
writer (of the earlier portion of the 15th century) has copied his original,
even to a detail, slight perhaps, and yet so touching as that passage which
describes how the husband and wife said prayers together. See below, p.
227, AEcon. vii. 7, 8. Once more : “The Oeconomicus of Xenophon served
as common material for the Æconomico and the Governo; whatever we may
think about the authorship of these two essays. Many parallel passages in
Palmieri's Vºža Cºzzle can be referred to the same source. To what extent
Alberti knew Greek is not ascertained ; but even in the bad Latin transla-
tions of that age a flavour so peculiar as that of Xenophon's style could not
have escaped his fine sense.” Ital Zit. Part I. p. 196, note.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE OFCONOMICUS, witH AN ANALysis
OF CAPP. I.-VI.
As a possible help to the student with the Greek text
before him, I append the following note on the structure of
the Oeconomicus, along with an analysis of capp. i.-vi. The
treatise as it now exists naturally falls into three parts:—
STRUCTURE OF THE OECONOMICUS li
PART I.—An introduction consisting of chapter i. (or possibly
Cap. i chapters i. and ii.), which seems to be composed on the lines
ap. 1. ge ºf a
al, capp. i. of the Memorabélia, and may very well have been penned
** originally as a topic of the 'Arouvnuovečuara proper. A con-
versation between Socrates and Critobulus Tepl olkovopºtas.
PART II.-This conversation is developed in a somewhat freer manner,
the personality of Socrates (EX) is preserved as far as the Socratic
elpoweta, his playful humour, and educational spiritualising
bent are concerned, but in the disquisitions the author does not
scruple to use the master as a mere persona or mouthpiece to
convey to the reader some of his own favourite ideas—couched,
moreover, in thoroughly Xenophontean language.
Some of the illustrations used are undramatic ex ore Socratis, for the
rest, of great autobiographic interest (e.g. the tale about the
younger Cyrus and Lysander as narrated by the latter, šévg Toté
Tuva èv Meyápots. See Trans. vol. i. Sketch, pp. lxxxvi. 7t. I,
xcvi. ??. 2). There is dºs éuotye āokeſ, something slightly
“laboured,” though not actually ungraceful (the result, per-
haps, of welding together composite documents), in the style at
various points of these chapters, iii. I.-vi. I2; like, to use a
very modern illustration, the effort of an aerodrome getting
under weigh, and soaring up in face of a breeze with wide
gyrations, and then gently fluttering down to earth again (see
the criticism of Dionysius Halic. on Xenophon's historical
style, quoted in Trans. vol. i. p. xxvii.); but the marvel is
successfully performed. In chapter vi. there are obvious signs
of hiatus or other lesure in the text as handed down to us.
At $ I2 a further development of the thesis commences.
Capp.ii.
:::"-vi.
al. iii. I2
PART III. —The conversations between Socrates and Ischomachus,” that
capp.vii. beau-ideal of the good citizen and country gentleman, which
S. vi. 12. “Socrates repeats for the benefit of Critobulus, are a little treatise
in themselves on household management, wifehood, étrupéNeta, etc.
down to the crowning topic Tô 66exövtav Čipxeuv. It is notice-
able that Critobulus does not speak again after vi. II. The
scene, indeed, is laid in Athens and Attica ; Socrates and
Ischomachus (a real personage or a study of Some one—
possibly Xenophon's own father) talk as dramatically as the
artist Xenophon can make them ; but, as in our dreams, we
1 Possibly a real man. See Plut. Mor. iii. 1, p. 79 (Wytt.), kai. 'Apia Tutſtros "OXvp-
triaavy 'Iakouéxºp ovuffaxov ºptóra, Ti 30kpárms taxeyóuevos oil to Tows véovs 6tatiºnal,
k.T.A. Aristippus chanced upon Ischomachus at Olympia, and was led by his encomiums
of Socrates to extend his journey to Athens.
lii
INTRODUCTION
seem to be in two places at one and the same time, and
the speakers assume secondary personalities. Ischomachus is
Xenophon himself and his young wife is Philesia, and the
house is Xenophon's in the neighbourhood of Scillus (see
Trans. vol. i. p. cxxx.).
ANALYSIS
Is oikovouta a science P and if so what is its subject matter P Granted
Cap. i.
The original
chapter.
it is a science like any other, those who have the étuo Tàpm of
it should be able to exercise it for the benefit of themselves
and others. § 5. oikos defined. No possession, not money
itself, is of any value unless the owner knows how to use it to
advantage, but with this knowledge all he has, even the enemies
he has, if turned to good account, may be wealth to him. A
particular class of foes, however—his own overmastering
passions—may reduce a man to a state of slavery in which
neither knowledge nor possessions are wealth to him.
On the supposition that he is free from the domination of such foes,
Cap. ii.
111 COntlnua-
tion of cap. i.
and therefore not liable to such a curtailment of his fortune,
Critobulus asks Socrates to advise him how he is to better his
estate, but perhaps Socrates thinks him rich enough already.
On the contrary, he is surprised to find Socrates regards him as
anything but wealthy. The calls upon Critobulus’ purse are
so many that, though his fortune exceeds the pittance which
Socrates can call his own a hundredfold, it does not suffice.
Indeed he is, S. judice, perilously near beggardom. Wealth in
fact is relative to the possessor's needs. Critobulus assents,
but all the more (§ 9) he has need of Socrates as his patronzes
to save him from such a catastrophe; and when Socrates ironically
demurs to admitting so topsy-turvy a relationship, Critobulus
defends his appeal (§ IO) on the ground that Socrates knows at
least one TNovtmpöv Špyov, viz. treptovoltav Troteſv, and to further
Socratic banter urges that it is agreed an étra Tijum of olkovo-
pita exists, so why should not Socrates, poor as he is, be its
professor P-T! obu kaj)\get kat ore étrio Taaffat, and when Socrates
further objects: for the good reason that he has never had the raw
material of wealth to practise on, and may very likely spoil a for-
tune in his attempt to learn the étuo Túpm, Critobulus exclaims
(§ I4) against Socrates’ evident desire to shirk a disagreeable
duty : “I see you won’t help me to bear my burthens more
easily.” “No l’ Socrates replies, “I am not shirking, 3XX’
ða'a &xa, Kal Tävv Tpoffº/Los éémyūgopal arou,” but the best service
he can render him will be to point out to Critobulus others far
OECON. I. —VI. liii
more capable than himself of giving instruction in what he is
anxious to learn from him. § 16. Éy& Toluvv got detša, & Kputó-
8ovXe 80'a vöv Attrapets Tap Šuot, pav6ávely Toxi) ā)\\ovs épio')
ôeuvoTépovs trepi rajra. Socrates has, he is free to confess, made
it his business to discover who are the real scientific experts in
various departments of knowledge (aliter economy) to be found
in the city; his curiosity was strongly aroused by noticing the
extraordinary difference of result (in one case wealth, in
another indigence) achieved by people engaged in apparently
precisely the same occupations. On investigating the matter
the explanation seemed natural enough; it all depended upon the
spirit in which the undertaking was carried on—whether in a
haphazard way elkä Tpdt touras, ending in loss, or yvöum ovure-
Tapiéum étrupe) oupévows, in painstaking fashion with wits upon the
stretch, and consequent prosperity. These latter are the sort
of people at whose feet Critobulus should sit as a pupil,
and Socrates will undertake to say he will soon become Távv
ôelvös Xpmuatuo Tàs, as clever a man of business as one might hope
to See.
Critobulus (with growing impatience) exclaims: “Now that I have
Cap. iii.
The theme
further de-
veloped.
got hold of you, Socrates, I do not mean to let you go until, in
the presence of these witnesses, the friends assembled here,
you have given proof positive of what you promised,” viv Tot
6-yô aſe of Kéru dºjo w, & 26kpates, trpiv čv plot & WTéaxma at éváv-
Tuov Tów pt)\ov Tourwut &Troöeišms. Thereupon Socrates, so put
to it, proceeds “ dialectically ” to quicken the imagination" of
this would-be student of economics (hitherto, it would appear,
somewhat jaunty and blind to the dangers of the situation) by
calling up to his mind’s eye a series of illustrative instances
(this is the “proof” by companion tableaux or “object lessons”—
“look on this picture and on that ”); and by this pointing-out
process brings Critobulus to a consciousness of six essentials
or first principles of Economy, #v got éirtóeukvčo Tpótou pév
. . . “Adam, now ope thine eyes, and first behold.”
(1) Here a set of people building vast inconvenient palaces at
great cost, as opposed to another set who prefer to build com-
fortable modest homesteads and at far less cost.
(2) Here people possessing much furniture of all sorts, all at
3 x
1 As the archangel “Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed,” so Socrates treats
the purblindness of Critobulus.
then purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see,
And from the well of life three drops instilled.
Milton, P. Z. xi. 414.
liv INTRODUCTION
sixes and sevens and inaccessible, versus others with a scantier
supply of furniture but all ready for use.
(3) Here two gangs of slaves—the one set are bound, but
breaking their chains and running away, they do not work
heartily nor love their master; the other free, but though their
fetters have fallen off they remain attached, domino potius (77ta/7
glebae adscriptz, and with what spirit they work
(4) Here two contiguous farms, alike in all respects, only on
one the farmer flourishes, and on the other starves—not owing
to expenditure on ruinous objects; his is a reverse case, he has
not money to spend even on necessaries.
“What can be the cause P” Critobulus asks in a puzzled
way.
“Oh, I must take you to these also,” Socrates replies. “It
will be as good as a play” (Critobulus's taste for sight-seeing
and the theatre is humorously touched on); “and as you sit and
watch the puppets, you can ask yourself some home questions.
I hope you will be able to answer them.”
(5) IHere is another contrast [very much to the point, as
Critobulus keeps of course a stud of horses]: horsemanship. “In
the one case it pays and brings honour, in the other it is
ruinous.” Critobulus feels the sting but staves it off. “Ah yes,
familiar pictures “the road to glory or to ruin,’ but it doesn’t
make me any the more successful with my stables to con-
template them.” Socrates answers: “Because it is too simply a
matter with you of titillating the senses of sight and hearing
in the dress circle—right enough when you go to see a play of
Euripides or Aristophanes, since you don't aspire to be a play-
wright; but, as you have to be a horseman, Surely you should
cease to be an amateur. There's profit in the business.” Crito-
bulus asks if Socrates wants him to set up as a breeder (§ Io),
traj)\oëaplveºu pae ke^eūets, & 26R pates ; to which Socrates dissents
on the principle [which Xenophon advocates, Horseme. ii. 1] I
of “economy of labour'' apparently.
(6) And lastly, Ś IO [coming still closer home, since Critobulus
(§ 13, cf. Symp. ii. 3) is married to a young wife], “let me point
out to you one final contrast, in the manner in which the heads of
families treat their wives. The position of the wife is an essential
point in the domestic economy, but this is a delicate matter, for
the subtleties of which (§ I4) I must introduce you to the true
* The parallelism of these passages I take to be a sort of undesigned coincidence in
proof of the genuineness of this chapter of the Oecom.versus Dr. Lincke's interpolation
theory, just as below, § II, tow vouéa attvöp.e06, reminds one of Mem. I. ii. 32.
OECON. I.-VI. ly
expert Aspasia.” And so too with regard to other branches of
knowledge, Tóv ćN\(ov étraormuáv, Socrates will be happy to
indicate to Critobulus successful practitioners, in every case, if
so he wishes.
Cap. iv. § I. Critobulus deprecates the notion of having all the arts
and sciences illustrated ; he will be content if Socrates will
indicate those which will be best and most suitable for him, with
their practitioners, and also do what he can to help him on
his road by personal instruction, Kai airós 6* 8tt öövaa’at ovy-
wºé\et els Tajra ötöáokov. [To this appeal it is noticeable that
Socrates does not demur, he does not plead dyvota. With a
geniality which may be dramatic enough (since E2 is genial),
but in a style which, as regards diction and illustrative argument
alike, savours strongly of the author, he follows his cue.]
§ 2. The mechanical arts (at 8avava'ukat) are accordingly
excluded : and to Critobulus’s question (§ 4): “Which are
the arts you would counsel us to engage in P” Socrates
replies that they must not be ashamed to imitate the
Persian king, who is said to set the highest value on the
arts of war and agriculture. §§ 5-I4. An account follows
of the Persian system, in which militarism and the cultivation
of the soil are helpmates of one another. § 15. Illustrative
anecdotes of the great king. § 16. Of Cyrus [“ the great"
apparently, or is it after all (§ 17) “the little” P]. §§ 18, 19. A
reminiscence of the Azzabasis and Cyrus the younger. §§ 20-25.
A tale of Cyrus and Lysander."
Cap. v. § I. Socrates explains to Critobulus that he narrates this
story to him in order to show, 8tt Tàs yeapyukňs oëö’ of Távv
pakápuot 6üvavtat dTéxeo gau, that the greatest grandees in the
world cannot keep their hands off agriculture. He then pro-
ceeds [in another highly poetical and Xenophontean passage]”
to hymn the praises of agriculture and of that great public
school, husbandry, which is the mother and nurse of all the
arts. $$ 2-17. And when Critobulus utters ‘‘ amen,” but
suggests that there is this drawback—“in agriculture most
things are beyond man’s calculation,” Tàs yeapyukås Tö.
TXeſatà éo Tuv ćvöpúTºp 3.6%uata Tpovoſia at (another beautiful
poetical description of climatic visitations follows ex ore
Critoöul:),” Socrates reminds him that (§§ 19, 20) the affairs of
1 Translated by Cicero, de Senect. 17. 59. See Trans, vol. i. Introduction, p. xxvi. ;
Nobbe's Cicero, 236, for the twenty-four fragments left of Cicero's translation of the
Oecozz.
2. Which Cowley has perhaps imitated in his essay Of Agriculture.
8 Which Virgil surely had in mind when he wrote: hic quondam morbo caeli mise-
randa coorta est Tempestas.—Georg. iii. 478.
lvi INTRODUCTION
husbandry no less than those of war lie in the hands of the
gods, whose favour must be sought by the worshipper with due
humility [and so with this thoroughly Xenophontean topic the
chapter ends].
Cap. vi. § 1. Critobulus assents: “I quite approve when you bid us
endeavour to begin each work with heaven’s help,” ke?\etſov
Tetpāorðat gºv Toís 6eois àpxed:0at Taurös pyov [which, as we well
know, is Xenophon's own favourite precept, though possibly en-
forced on him by Socrates], the gods who hold in their hands the
issues of peace and war, and in that faith he, Critobulus, will
strive to live; but will not Socrates return from his digression
and pursue the subject of economy proper, as he thinks he has
a clearer view now of the proper mode of life?' Socrates then
proposes (§ 2) that they should first review what they had so far
agreed to, and to this Critobulus naturally consents. [To
reason from common premisses was, we know, the Socratic
method. See Mem. IV. vi. I 5, Ötö. Töv pad Xuata Ögo)\oyoupévov
étropečero, vout' wu Taºrmv [Thu] &a pā)\etav elva, A6)ov]. [What is
evidently intended to be an exact recapitulation of the chief
points of the five preceding chapters follows, Š 4-II, I2. It
is true this recapitulation is not as complete as it should be,
and it mentions one conclusion (§ 6) as having been reached
which is not found in the previous chapters. Obviously, I
think, there is something amiss with our version of the original
text, which could hardly have left the hands of Xenophon or
any responsible editor of his works with this blot on it..]”
§ 12 foll. Socrates gives a new turn to the discussion,” describing
his endeavour to find a really “beautiful and good man,” whom
he happily discovered in the person of Ischomachus.
The remaining chapters vii.-xxi. are a report of the matter
and of the conversation which ensued between Socrates and
Ischomachus as narrated by the former. This dialogue within
a dialogue forms, as I have already said, a treatise on the
household, beginning with the functions of the wife and her
goodman, the olkočeatróTms himself, to the end of the story,
1 I borrow these phrases from C. D. Morris's review of Lincke's edition already
referred to.
2 Schenkl annotates ad loc. : “Sectiones 6 et 7 inepto positos esse loco jam Breitenbach
intellexit, qui eas olim in capite iv post $ 2 collocatas ſuisse conjecit atque inde
épapev et épé0a insertis a librariis huc translatas esse, Mihi in capite v ante $ 13, haec
videntur excidisse: avptrapośćver 6é to kai eis to &Aktuous sivat # yeopyto. ÉÉo tôv épw-
p.4tov. . . . . Toºs épyagopaevows. rekpºmptov Šē oraq,éotarov yewotto &v Toitov et troAspiov
. . . . Što juxáttetv. oëto yap &v Toys pièv &W bi yńv éxoutas stºpov \mbºgouévows &pſi'yeuv
. kuvövvetſovtas. Quae huc per errorem translata ab interpolatore male sunt reficta.”
3 In a sufficiently dramatic way (one is reminded of Plat. Ažo/. 21).
Cap. vii. I-4.
Cap. vii. 4.
Cap. viii.
Cap. ix.
Cap. x.
Cap. xi.
Cap. xii.
Cap. xiii.
Cap. xiv.
Cap. xv.
Cap. xvi.
Cap. xvii.
Cap. xviii.
Cap. xix.
Cap. xx.
Cap. xxi.
OECON. VI.-XXI. lvii
which from Xenophon's point of view is the need of one crown-
ing virtue, one divine gift for this and every other like business,
Tô 66e)\övtaju äpxeuv.
Socrates tells how he met Ischomachus, and of the conversa-
tion which ensued :
Concerning the sphere of the wiſe and mistress,
The beauty of orderliness in general, and as applied to a house,
And arrangement of furniture : concerning the housekeeper
and her mistress.
The secret of true beauty.
The sphere of the head of the household : a country gentle-
man’s pursuits, and of his training as a citizen.
Of the qualities and training of a steward : of carefulness and
the master’s eye.
Of the art of ruling others.
How uprightness may be taught.
Of the humane art of agriculture; which is an art easy to
learn ; and why.
Of the earth, and when to plough.
Of sowing, hoeing, weeding.
Reaping, threshing, winnowing.
Of planting fruit-trees—the vine, the fig-tree, and the olive.
Care rather than knowledge a desideratum ; earth the dis-
coverer of true honesty : joy and profit of agriculture.
Yet here as elsewhere the quality of greatest import is the
faculty in part divine of commanding willing obedience.
lviii INTRODUCTION
THE SPMPOSIUM,”
the latest, not improbably, in order of composition,” of Xeno-
phon’s “Socratic writings,” is in every way * a remarkable work.
If only as the author's final contribution to our knowledge of
Socrates it would deserve attention, and the more so since the
new delineation deepens and confirms the conception of the
philosopher which we have derived from the Memorabilia, etc.
It presents a view of Socrates which, in spite of limitations due
to the idiosyncrasy of the biographer, we feel to have been
honestly arrived at and consequently to be of great historical
value. But, again, from a purely literary point of view (and
apart from its biographical value) the work possesses a further
intrinsic interest; since, whatever view we take of it—whether
we regard it as a purely historical account of an actual
Supper-party which took place in Piraeus at the house of
Callias after the Panathenaic festival in the latter end of July
422 B.C., or as an idealisation of many similar supper-parties,”
it is probably the earliest specimen of a type of dialogue,
known from this time forward under the title Xupatóortov
(or Aóyos orvpatoo-takós); a type immortalised at once by the
genius of Plato and destined to be imitated later on by a long
line of illustrious writers (philosophers and “grammarians”)
1 See Grote, P/ato, ii. ch. xxiv., and in particular pp. 218-232, “The symposion of
Plato compared with that of Xenophon”; Jowett, Plato, ii., Sym}. Introduction, pp. 3-22;
Prof. Mahaffy, Aſist. Gk. Lit. ii. § 487 (ed. 1880); 'Schneider, Xen. vol. v. pp. 129-148,
“Quaest. de convivio Xenophonteo ’’; G. Sauppe, Xen. vol. v. (ed. ster.), pp. 66-72,
Conv. Praef. ; Boeckh, “De simultate quam Plato cum Xenophonte exercuisse fertur,”
Ahilol. V. Ja/k/g. No. 28; Arnold Hug, Ueber das gegenseitige Verhältniss der Symz-
Aosien des Aeſto//ion and Plato, and Platons Syzy/osion, Einleitung ; Adalbert Roquette,
de Xewe. Žić. §§ 18, 19, pp. 66-78; J. J. Hartman, An. Yezz. ix. “de Xen. conv. dis-
putatio,” pp. 214-234; Becker, Charikles ; A. D. Godley, Socrates and Athenian Society,
ch. vii. “The Syzyz/osinema.”
* See Trans, vol. i. Sketch, p. cxxx. All four belong, as I believe, to the years 387-
371 B.C., the Scilluntian period. The Symposium is evidently intended to supplement the
more serious side of the philosopher’s life depicted in the 'Atropºvmuovsöuata. That those
graver studies should be followed by a lighter comic after-piece was quite in accordance
with the literary taste of the age, as exemplified by the structure of the Symposium,
itself. Cf. Plat. Synº. 223 D, &AA’ owk Aaffes, &AAö. Tö orativpuków arov Špópa toûto kai.
auxquuköv katáðm\ov éyévero,
3 Essentially as regards its contents and literary form, and also “accidentally,” so to
speak, owing to its connection with “the most beautiful and perfect among all the works
of %. his Symposium. (The epithets are Shelley's ; see his Preface to The Banquet
o/ P/a/o.
4 The former is Hug's view (“Xenophon's Sy/i/., a reine historische Schilderung, as
opposed to Plato's, which is eine Wºeſe Composition ''), the latter is C. F. Hermann's (Ä/a2-
ðitzg: Prograzeſzz : 1834, 1835, and 1841); in criticising which as implying a singular mix-
ture of Jºeier Dichtung und historischer Wahreit, Hug admits that “of course Xenophon
feels at liberty to put into the mouth of Socrates sentiments belonging to other occasions,”
THE SYMPOSIUM lix
from Aristotle to Lucian." It is surely much to the credit of
Xenophon, and a proof not only of artistic originality on his
part, but of his broad humanity,” that he should have hit upon
the idea of SO stereotyping an Attic supper-party. In this med-
ley of grave and gay, broad farce and serious argument, of airy
Word-play intermixed with lofty conversation, we are made to
feel the kind of amusements which an assemblage of ko Aoi
kāya flot on a festal occasion might indulge in ; but the occa-
Sion also serves as the natural setting for a discourse on Zove
spoken by Socrates, whereby the spiritualising tendency of the
Socratic pos is unmistakably revealed.
See above, Aſſem. IV. i. 1, 2, kal yüp Tatºwy owóēv jTTov ) aſtrovčášov
é\voltéNet Toſs ovuòuatplgoval. Tox\ákus Yāp Šºm pºèv Čiu Tuvos épáv, pavepès
ô’ fiv of Töv Tó adjuara Tpôs &pav, &\\& Töv Tós puxás Tpós &perhu et Teq v-
kóTøv éðtépévos (below, p. 130), a text of which the Symposium may be
regarded as an elaborate expansion.
ON A CERTAIN PARALLELISM (WHETHER OF RESEMBLANCE
OR CONTRAST) BETWEEN THE SPMPOSIUM OF XENOPHON
AND THE SPIMPOSIUM OF PLATO.
The object of the following note is to draw attention to an
apparent correspondence between the two dialogues (to what
but insists strongly on the view that Xenophon's Symposium was a real event which took
place at a certain date, and that Xenophon was present at it as a £ersona welcºa. He
holds, after Krüger, etc., to the ancient belief that Xenophon was born circa 445 B.C.
rather than 431 B.C. For myself, holding to the belief that Xenophon was only born
about 431 B.C., and could not therefore have been present even as a “mute" at a
Supper-party given in honour of Autolycus' victory in the Pankration, 421 B.C. [see
Trans, vol. i. p. xlix, foll., Note B, on the dates respectively of Xenophon's birth and
death], I incline strongly to C. F. Hermann's view so far, that Xenophon's Symposium,
contains an element of freie Dichtung, which distinguishes it from the Memorabilia
[or, as I see the matter, from the most matter-of-fact portions of that work, since large
portions of it also, especially Bk. IV., seem to me also to contain an element of /reie
AXichtung.], but I do not subscribe to Hermann's opinion that Xenophon's work was later
in date than Plato's and composed “polemically ” in answer to it. See below for further
discussion on these particular points.
1 Onwards. Aristotle, Speusippus, and Epicurus all wrote Symposia. So did the
grammarians Didymus and Herodian, to which must be added Plutarch's (?) Convivium,
se/te/z Sapiezztzczyz, Lucian's Convivium, sett Zaffithae, and Athenaeus's Deiànoso//lists.
The Emperor Julian is said to have written a Symºosium/z, and so, too, Macrobius. The
climax seems to have been reached when St. Methodius, Bishop of Tyre, composed a
ovutróa'vov 3) trepi &yveſas on the lines of Plato's work, with this difference, that the inter-
locutors are ten maidens : Ein Gesſºrãch zoſt zehn Jungſratten, die bei eine, Quelle inſt
Aºreien reveter devi Azi/t/ezzde/z Schatten zlozz Bäumzen ge/agent, fibez die /r/zig/rāae-
lichkeit geleſtrº-eróatliche Vorträge Walten (Hug, Einleitung, p. xvi.). St. Methodius
died A.D. 312. ...”
* See, for the situation, Grote, Plato, ii. pp. 206, 207. As to Xenophon's catholicity
of mind in reference to the whole topic of épos see further, Hellenica. Essays, pp. 352-362.
lx INTRODUCTION
extent the parallelism is real each reader must judge for him-
self)—(1) in their general structure,” (2) and as regards topics,
(3) along with verbal similarities. In other words, there
are turns of thought and expression which suggest that, Con-
sciously or unconsciously, the later writer was in some way or
other acquainted with the earlier composition, or with portions
of it. I do not assert, but I am strongly inclined to the
opinion that of the two Symposia Xenophon's was the earlier:
somehow and to some extent it haunted, I imagine, the brain
of Plato whilst engaged upon his own much more splendid
composition, much as an early overture of Mozart's (the
Zntrade to his juvenile operetta Bastien and Bastienne) or
some Volks/ied would seem to have haunted the brain of
Beethoven when composing the Eroica. See below.
The subjoined list of “parallelisms” is largely copied from
Hug, Einleitung to Plato's Symposion.
XENOPHON'S SPMPOSIUM. PLATO'S SYMPOSIUM.
(a) The author is the narrator [“he
was present,” ois 6é trapayevópewos
Taüra yuyvögſko Öm)\@o at 800Xo-
(a) The narrator Apollodorus, ‘‘the
beloved disciple,” repeats to a
companion the dialogue which
plat fiv pièv yöp IIava.0mvatov,
K.T.A., i. I. This I take to be a
literary device, like the personal
note of the author at Mem. IV.
iii. 2 (he had been present often
enough on like occasions); the
dialogue is a study in realistic art.
The characters of Socrates, Anti-
sthenes, Charmides, etc., are drawn
to the life, but with the mannerism
of Xenophon.]
(b) The occasion: (1) Autolycus' vic-
tory in the Pankration, 422 B.C.
[Xenophon circa aet. 9]; (2) Callias
(épôv) entertains his friend Auto-
lycus and others.”
(c) (I) Socrates puns, vi. 7, and in-
terprets Homer, viii. 30 ; (2) Top-
'yuelots ºffplaatu, ii. 26.
he had heard from Aristodemus
“the little,” who was present and
had already once narrated it to
Glaucon. It all happened long
ago, ‘‘in Our boyhood '': Tatóww
ëvraju juáv čtv Šte Tú Tp(\tº Tpa-
'ya,6tg évíkma'ev 'Aºyá6ay, Tū ūq-
Tepaig, K.T.A. [Plato is careful to
point out that the dialogue is a
Study in idealistic art, though the
characters are realistically drawn.]
(0) (I) Agathon's first victory with a
tragedy, 416 B.C. [Plato aet. I4];
(2) Agathon entertains Pausanias
(épôvta) and others.”
(c) (1) Ditto, 'Ayā00v' éiri Öatras,
I74 B ; (2) Topylov Ó Nôºyos, Top-
ºytov kepa Nijv, Ig8 C.
1 This naturally follows the order of a real supper and wine party: Seimvov–grovãat—
Tótos (ovuTóo wov or kówos): Tpótros Tis Tóaeos-àkpoépata kai 6.edu.ata—treptoãos Aóyov,
and so forth. See Becker's Charicles, The Banquet; and excurs., sc. vi.
2 Lycon (the boy's father), Nicératus, Critobulus, Hermogenes, Antisthenes, Char-
mides, and Socrates; Philippus accidentally. See Index, s.7m.
3 Phaedrus, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, and Socrates; Alcibiades accidentally.
XENOPHON AND PLATO lxi
XENOPHON'S SYMPOSIUM.
(d) The host (Callias) is a pupil of
the Sophists Protagoras, Prodicus,
Gorgias, i. 5.
(e) Philippus comes in uninvited, i.
I3 ; with a loud knocking, i. II ;
and makes a speech, a Täs étri Tø
divöpóvt, i. I3.
(f) Philippus is a professional ye)\w-
Totrotés and would fain play his
part, tva Öh étriteXotm Övtrep Šveka
€ka)\etro . . . , i. I3-16 eſſ passāmz,
and suffers (apparently) from a
pain (in the Stomach), i. I 5.
(g) Philippus re elkáčeuv, vi. 8-Io;
(the game of “ comparisons ")
played at the expense of the Syra-
cusan impresario and ballet-master
272 malam partem.
(h) Socrates is in favour of wine,
but would restrict the drinking to
Small cups, pukpaſs KöNuši, ii. 26,
oùTws ... divateuffépcevot trpès
Tö Tatyvvajëéo Tepov diſpušópºeffa.
He also limits the sphere of
&kpoépara and 6edpata (and de-
precates a repetition of violent
gymnastic displays on the part of
the dancing girl and boy, infr. vii.
23); SO intellectual a company
should help the entertainment
themselves by argumentative feats
of their own, iii. 2. The com-
pany exclaim : ort) tolvvu juïv
€émºyoſ, Tolaju XóYaju &TTópevot
p.dxuat’ &v Taüta Trotoſuev.
(i) Socrates v. Critobulus, the trial
7 e Beauty, "Aye vvv, & pm 6 20-
PLATO'S SYMPOSIUlſ.
(d) The host (Agathon) is a pupil of
Gorgias, I98 C.
(e) Aristodemus uninvited (or only on
the invitation of Socrates, who in
a reverie has left him to appear
alone), 174 E ; Alcibiades rushes
in sans façons later on, and makes
a speech, ētriotăval éti Tàs 6%pas,
Żó. 212 D.
(f) Aristophanes suffers from a hic-
cough, and there is much banter
between the poet and the doctor
Eryximachus as to his propensity
to ye)\aytotroteiv, I89 A, B ; “which
is to the manner born of our
Muse " (Jowett), Tijs huetépas
Moča ms étrix&ptov.
(g) Alcibiades draws comparisons in
bonam partem at the expense of
Socrates, Öt' elkóvaju Kai p'nut at
éoukéval airóv Tó Gatúpºp Tig
Mapa ſq., 2I 5 A, B.
(h) Eryximachus, as a physician, pro-
tests against pºé0m, and they agree
ph Stö, p.66ms Touffa aabat Thu èv Tó
trapövt. ovvovortav, d\\’ oita,
Tívouras Tpès hôówmv. [Socrates,
it is admitted, is iravös duqétépa,
able either to drink largely or to
abstain, as is proved when Alci-
biades enters and plies him with
the pukTàpa, 213 E, “the wine-
cooler,” a “vessel holding more
than two quarts”; and See ad ſize.
223 C, 'Aºyá0ajva Öe Kal 'Aptoſ-
Toqºſium kal 20kpátm étu pévous
é Ypmyopéva, kal Tively €k pud)\ms
peyāXms étri Öeštá - Töv oëv Xakpátm
aúToís 6ta)\é-yéo 6au.] He further
gets rid of the flute girl, 176 E,
and proposes “conversation in-
stead,” kal 6t' otov \ó you el 30%-
Neo-0e, é66)\@ (pºv ela myſia aabat.
The company exclaim, bidding
him elo-myeo-0at.
(i) Socrates and Agathon, the trial
7te Wisdom, kal Taüta pºév Kal
lxii
INTRODUCTION
XENOPHON'S SYMPOSIUM.
Kpdºtns, Štra's pºepºvija et Öuakpuff fivat
Tept toū káX\ovs, K.T.N., iv. 20,
and below, Töv Tepl rod Ká)\\ovs
dyóva Tpós 20kpátnu . . . Tapſ,
Tots kputats, sc. the boy and girl,
v. I. ; the victor is to be crowned not
with ribands but kisses, rig vukň-
oravtt Ah Tatvia's d)\\& ‘ptAijuata
&vačijuata, v. 9.
(4) Each member of the company is
to speak in praise of that which he
most prides himself on, 8tt ékāa Tos
jºyetrat T\eta-Tov čvov čTío Tao flat,
iii. 3 ; Critobulus, étri Tig kä)\et
(a quasi éporukös Xóyos), iv. Io-18;
Socrates, at a later stage of the
proceedings, starts a new discourse
directly in praise of love, an épay-
Tukös \óyos, viii, I-4I." [One feels,
I think, that the speaker is rather
'EX than the real Socrates, whose
personality is better preserved by
Plato..] Socrates predicates of
Erős that he is — (1) 6aipovos
peºyáXov. (2) to fiXuka Toſs devºyevéort
6eois. (3) Tim 6e pop på vewrátov.
(4) peºyéðet Távra étréxovtos, viii. I.
(5) Perhaps to be distinguished
as oëpávvos and trävömpos : el pºèv
oëv puta éotiv 'Aq poèttºm 3) 6tttal,
oùpavia Te Kal Tävömpos, oùk oióa,
K.T. A., viii. 9, Io.
PLATO'S SYMPOSIUM.
ôXiyov ja repov 6taðukagópºeffa €y&
Te Kai o Tepi Tàs Goghias
K.T.A., 175 E, and below. Socrates
is crowned with ribands by Alci-
biades as vukövta év \6 yous, 213 E.
(#) The company agree each in turn
to make a speech in honour of
Love (Épaſs), Öokeſ yap plot Xpijval
ékao Tov huôv \óyov eitreºu èTravov
"Epwros, 177 D and (below) 21.4 c.
Socrates' turn comes last ; his
Speech characteristically begins
with a dialectical criticism of the
former speakers, and is continued
as a repetition of what Diotima
the prophetess of Mantineia has
told him on the subject, 198-212.
“The artifice has the advantage
of maintaining his accustomed
profession of ignorance. Even his
knowledge of the mysteries of love
to which he lays claim here and
elsewhere (Lys. 204 c) is given by
Diotima” (Jowett).
These several attributes are distributed in the Platonic Symposium
amongst the following speakers: (1) "Epws is a 6alpov péyas, not a god,
2O3 E, according to Socrates, or rather Diotima ; (2) Tpeogºtatos rôv 6eów,
178 B, according to Phaedrus ; (3) veðratos Tów bedºv, 195 C, according
to Agathon; (4) év táo t toſs obot, I86 A, according to Eryximachus;
(5) "Epwra Töv pleu Tà étépg ('Aq poèttm) ovvepyöv Trávömuov . . ., Top 63
oùpávtov, 180 E, according to Pausanias.
PLATO'S SPMPOSIUM.
(2) Phaedrus criticises Aeschylus for
making (in the Myrmidons) Achilles
the love?", Épao Tºffs, of Patroclus (i.e.
Patroclus A.'s trauðuká), “seeing
that Patroclus was the elder of the
XENOPHON'S SYMPOSIUM.
(2) Socrates maintains that in Homer
‘‘Achilles and Patroclus are co/2-
rades,” 'Axi}\\et's 'Ophpºp Tetroimtal
oùx dºs travölkoſs IIatpók\p d'AA' dis
éraípg &Toffavóvrt ékirpetréatara
1. This additional discourse of Socrates in praise of Love corresponds “structurally ” to
Alcibiades' speech [which is again an additional discourse in praise, not of love, but of
Socrates], Plat. Symeſ. 214 D, 215 A f.
THE TWO SYMPOSIA lxiii
XENOPHON'S SYMPOSIUM.
tup.opſia a.s. Patroclus was not his
travöuká, but his étalpos, viii. 31.
(m) Socrates criticises an opinion Sup-
ported by Pausanias (in Some speech
or writing, it would appear) in de-
fence of some such institution as the
Theban “Sacred band " " [said to
have been the creation of Gorgidas
(Trans. vol. ii. p. xlvi.)] as a formi-
dable military machine, Kairot IIav-
a'avtas ye ā ‘Ayá0ajuos Toi) troumro0
épaaths &ToMo'yotºpeuos ūTép Tów
dikpaq (Q. óryka)\lvöoupévov eſpnkev
dºs kal otpd Tevua d\kupatóTatov Šv
'yevotto èk Trauðuków Te Kai époq’tóv.
toūTovs yöp &v éq m olea-6at pad Xuota
alòeſoróat d\\?\ovs dºtroXettreuv,
K.T. A., viii. 32, 33. [Query, Had
Pausanias, the lover of Agathon
the poet (who is undoubtedly one
of the interlocutors in Plato's
Symposium, and in men's minds
associated with Agathon, see Plat.
Protag. 315 E) possibly written an
AtroXoyta, in which he defended
such an institution as the Theban
‘‘Sacred band,” to the scandal of
Xenophon politically and morally PJ
(m) Socrates proceeds in the same con-
text(viii. 33) scornfully to throw aside
a “piece of evidence” produced by
the apologist Pausanias in citing
the institutions of the Thebans and
Eleians, ékelvous pièv yöp Tajra
vöpupa, huſy Ö'étrovetóuota, and then
[quite in the manner of Xenophon]
cites per contra the institutions of
the Lacedaemonians. Cf. Pol. Lac.
ii. I2, I3 (Trans. Vol. ii. p. 3OI);
Cyrop. VII. i. 30.
PLATO'S SYMPOSIUM.
two, and that Achilles was the
youngest and most beautiful of the
Greeks,” Aloxº)\os éé pXvape?
qda Kaju 'AXiXXéa IIatpók\ov ćpāv,
ôs àv ka)\\tov ot, plávov IIatpók\ov
&\\& Kai Tôv hpëwv, Kai étu d'Yé-
wetos, Štreita veðrepos ToM%, Ös
qºma w "Opampos, 180 A.
(m) Phaedrus (AV. B. not Pausanias)
argues in his speech that the
greatest of the benefits which love
confers on man ‘‘is the sense of
honour and dishonour. The lover
is ashamed to be seen by the
beloved doing or suffering any
cowardly or mean act. And a
state or army which was made up
only of lovers and their loves would
be invincible, for love will convert
the veriest coward into an inspired
hero " (Jowett, Symp. Introd.),
Tatröv 6é Toàro Kai Töv ćpúpevov
ôpópeu ätt övaqepövta's Toys épaq Tós
aloxºveral, 6tav Óq,0m éu aloxp(g
Tuva div. ei otºv p.mxavº Tus yewotto
Öare tróXu Yevéa 6aw 7) a TpatóTeóov
€paorév Te Kai Trauðuków, oùk éo Tuv
öTws &v Čiueuvov oikºaetav Tiju
€avTóu ) dºtrexépévot Távtwv Tów
aloxpóv Kal (pt)\otipoiſºevot Tpós
d)\\?\ovs, K.T. A., 178 E, I79 A.
(n) Pausanias, in his speech, begin-
ning with the distinction between
the Heavenly and the Common or
Earthly Aphrodite (already referred
to, parallel Å), proceeds to note
the different vöplot of different com-
munities with regard to passionate
attachments, Kai Öh Kal & Tepi Tôv
épayra vöpios év pºèu Taºs &\\als
tróNeat voja at #66tos ãTAós yāp
Öpua raw ö 6’ ev6áðs (i.e. at Athens)
[kai év Aakeóatpuovu, which Winckel-
1 Socrates does not name the Sacred band, but from the context I infer that Xenophon
was probably thinking of some such institution, and comparing it unfavourably with the
corresponding Dorian (or Lycurgean) institution. See Poč, Lac. ii. (Trans. vol. ii.
p. 301).
lxiv
INTRODUCTION
XENOPHON'S SPMPOSIUM.
(o) In his peroration Socrates exhorts
Callias to inflame the soul of his
friend with ambition and the love
of honour, pu)\otipata, and refers to
the great examples of Themistocles
and Pericles, Solon and Lycurgus ;
and by way of kindling a like spirit
in the lover himself, ends with a
graceful compliment to Callias “as
priest of great Erechtheus' line,”
and an allusion to the mysteries,
viii. 37-41. Callias was, we know,
ôq800xos in the “mysteries”; see
Aell. VI. iii. 3 (Trans. vol. ii. p.
153). [Note the development of
the theme in the parallel passages
0 and q.]
PLATO'S SPMPOSIUM.
mann first bracketed as a gloss]
trouk(Xos. “Now here and in Lace-
daemon the rules about love are
perplexing, but in most cities they
are simple and easily intelligible; in
Elis and Boeotia and in countries
having no gifts of eloquence they are
very straightforward, etc.” (Jowett),
év "HXtów prev Y&p kai év Bowrots,
Kal of pº a.opol Aéºyev, &t)\ós
wevopo6étmrat Ka)\ov Tó Xapt{e06at
épao Taºs, kal oëk Čív Tus etºirot ot/Te
véos offre tra)\atós, òs aloxpóv, Šva,
oluat, Ah Tpdypat' éxoov \óYq,
Teup&pºevot Tetêety Toys véovs, Šte
&öðvatou Xéºyeuv. Tijs 6é 'Iovias Kal
ãNA00 troX\axoſ, aloxpov vevó-
puto Tat, Šoot WTö 8apſ3ápots olkoúat.
K. T. A., I82 B.
(o) Socrates (repeating his conversa-
tion with Diotina) tells how he
was brought to see that love is of
immortality. “I was astonished
at her words, and said, ‘Is this
really true, O thou wise Diotima P'
And she answered with all the
authority of a sophist : “Of that,
Socrates, you may be assured ;
think only of the ambition of men,
and you will wonder at the sense-
lessness of their ways, unless you
consider how they are stirred by
the love of an immortality of
fame,’” Tel kal Tóv čv6pétrov
el éðé\els eis Thu (pt)\ottputav
3\épat, K.T.A., 208 C. “This is
the reason why parents love their
children—for the sake of immor-
tality; and this is why men love
the immortality of fame.” This
thesis is developed with growing
eloquence. “Who, when he thinks
of Homer and Hesiod and other
great poets, would not rather have
their children than ordinary human
Ones 2 Who would not emulate
them in the creation of children
Such as theirs, who have preserved
their memory and given them ever-
lasting glory? or who would not
PARALLEL PASSAGES lxv
XENOPHON'S SPMPOS/Ulſ.
(?) Socrates' resemblance to Silenus,
Trévraju Xel'Amvóv Tóv év roſs
orativpukofs ataxiotos &v eimv,
Critobulus remarks sotto voce, or
playfully, iv. 29, and Socra-
tes himself carries on the jest
against himself, Natóes 6eal ofqat
Toys Xet)\muoys égol Ógototépous
Tiktovolv 7) orot, v. 7. [This topic
(like the shrewishness of Xanthippe,
See ii. Io) could scarcely be omitted
in any attempt to draw Socrates
from the life. The goggle, crab-
like eyes, the turned-up nose, the
“Silenus mask” are obviously
Stage properties, and Xenophon's
method of introducing them is
(g) Suitable enough to the somewhat
uproarious humour of the supper-
party he had set himself to depict
realistically. “Most part of the
Scene is broad farce in the manner,
though not with all the humour,
of Aristophanes,” as Grote truly
Says. One must look to Plato to
See to what account the mighty
master will turn these stage pro-
perties ; with what metaphysical
skill he will shape to fine issues all
these singularities of body, manner,
talk, etc., which were so familiar
VOL. III— I
PLATO'S SPIPOS/Ulſ.
have such children as Lycurgus
left behind him to be the saviour
not only of Lacedaemon but of
Hellas, as one may say P There
is Solon, too, who is the revered
father of Athenian laws . . . ,”
etc., 209 D, E. The prophetess
continues : “These are the lesser
mysteries of love into which even
you, Socrates, may enter; to the
greater and more hidden ones which
are the crown of these, and to
which, if you pursue them in a
right Spirit, they will lead, I know
not whether you will be able to
attain,” rajra pºév oëv Tà épa Tukč.
to ws, & 200kpates, Köv gº uvmbetms,
Tå Öé TéAéa Kai étroTruká, K.T.A.,
2 IO A.
(?) Diſſo, ‘‘the Silenus mask or out-
ward man" (Jowett); p.mut Yáp
ö) épouóratov at rôv cival Toſs
ot\muoſs Toºtous toſs év toſs épplo-
'y)\vºetous Kaffnpuévous, . . . Alcibiades
Says “in a figure,” 215 A., “I say
also that he is like Marsyas the
Satyr," ib. B [see parallel g] and
below, 2I 6 D, Tooto ot, atNo)-
vööes ; a q6ópa ye. Toàro yöp
otros éa,0ev Tepušé9Amtat, Šotrep
ô yey)\vpplévos ouxmvós : évôoffew dé
&votx0els Trögms oieq 0e yépet, &
divöpes orvpatróTat, orayºpogºv’ms; “Is
he not like a Silenus in this P
Yes, surely : his outer mask is the
carved head of the Silenus ; but,
(q) O my companions in drink, when
he is opened, what temperance
there is residing within " (Jowett);
and again (below, 22I D), as his
praise of Socrates reaches its climax
Alcibiades says, “You may innagine
Brasidas and others to have been
like Achilles, or you may imagine
Nestor and Antenor to have been
like Pericles; and the same may be
said of other famous men ; but of
this strange being you will never
be able to find any likeness, how-
ever remote, either among men
€
lxvi
INTRODUCTION
XENOPHON'S SYMPOSIUM.
to every one in Athens, and had
been caricatured so often on the
comic stage by Aristophanes, Eu-
polis, and others; see Plat. Symp.
221 B, *Tetta èpovy’ 666ket, &
'Aptotópaves, Tô alôv Öh Toºro, kai
éke? (at the battle of Delium) Öta-
tropečeo 6av čo Tep Kai évôāöe (here
in the streets of Athens), “6pey-
Övöpſevos Kai Tūq,0a)\p& Tapa-
8d x\aſy " (“cocking his nose and
rolling his crab-like eyes,” see Arist.
Clouds, 362), ºpépa trapaakotrów Kai
Toys ºpt)\tovskai Toys Toxeulovs, 6% os
êv travti Kai Távv Tóppa,6ev, &rt et
Tus à petal Toºtov toº &vöpós, pºéXa
€ppa/Mévos d'Avvettau.]
Xen. Symp. v. 5, as to his eyes,
of 6é époi Kai Tô &k TXaytov (Öpdat)
ôté, Tó étruiróXavot elvat, and his
nose (ib. 6), Tô 6é 67) alpêv Tijs pivos
Tós Toà épéoù Ká\\tov : "Oru, Épm,
oëk &vtuq påttel, &XX & et,00s Tās
öbels öpāv & &v 800Xavtat, K.T.M.
(r) After the discourse is ended,
Lycon, who is about to leave along
with his son Autolycus (whose time
has come to take his “constitu-
tional"), turns and apostrophises
Socrates “as a good and honour-
able man, if ever there was one,”
Nī) Thu "Hpav, & 26kpates, KaNós
'ye Kāya.0ös 60kets plot àv6patros
elvau, ix. I.
The last resemblance is “structural” for the most part. There must
be a karáNvots, a “finale,” to the supper-party; which is thus developed—
According to Xenophon :
(s) At a certain stage of the proceed-
ings Socrates challenges Hermo-
PLATO'S SYMPOSIUM.
who now are or who ever have been,
except that which I have already
suggested of Silenus and the Satyrs,
and they represent in a figure not
only himself, but also his words.
For, although I forgot to mention
this to you before, his words are
like the images of Silenus which
open ; Śrt kal oi Xóryot attoo
ôpotóratot elaſt toſs ot)\muoſs roſs
ôtotyopaevots, 22I D. They are
ridiculous when you first hear
them ; he clothes himself in lan-
guage that is as the skin of the
wanton Satyr, TotaúTa kal Óvápata
Kai p?pata ééa,6ev Treptaputréxovtat,
a'atºpov Tuvá ú8ptoroú Öopáv, 221 E,
for his talk is of pack-asses and
Smiths and cobblers and curriers
(See Mem. I. ii. 37, below, p. 14),
and he is always repeating the
same things in the same words
(see Mem. IV. iv. 5, 6, below, p.
I54), So that an ignorant man who
did not know him might feel dis-
posed to laugh at him ; but he
who opens the mask and sees
what is within will find that they
are the only words which have a
meaning in them, and also the
most divine, abounding in fair ex-
amples of virtue, and of the widest
(r) comprehension, or rather extend-
ing to the whole duty of a good
and honourable man, p.6\\ov 6é
éri Täv Šalov Tpoorſket a kotteſv Tó
puéNNovru ka?\@ kal &ya.06 &aſeo.6at,
222 A.
According to Plato:
(s) “When Alcibiades has done
Speaking, a dispute [corresponding
STRUCTURAL RESEMBLANCE lxvii
According to Xenophon.
genes, the “goodman dull” of the
Company, to give a definition of
trapotuta. A sort of mock Tapouta
ensues, vi. I-5. The Syracusan
ballet-master meanwhile, piqued to
find his exhibition ill appreciated,
vents his spleen on Socrates. He
“is described as jealous of Socrates,
and as addressing him some re-
marks of offensive rudeness [d
propos of Aristophanes' play The
Clouds, (real) trapotuta, vi. 6-Io]
which Socrates turns off, and even
begins to sing, for the purpose of
preventing confusion and ill-temper
from spreading among the com-
pany, while he at the same time
gives prudent advice to the Syra-
cusan about the exhibitions likely
to be acceptable” (Grote), vii. I-5;
Whilst the Syracusan is preparing
his more appropriate 6edpata
Socrates discourses on "Epws, viii.
I-43; eace2472: Autolycus and Lycon,
1X. I.
The stage is now cleared for the
exhibition, which turns out to be a
pantomimic representation (a ballet
or operetta) of the marriage of
Dionysus and Ariadne. The emo-
tions of the spectators are strongly
stirred—“So love was crown'd,”
ix. 2-6. Most of the guests depart:
the married in haste to join their
wives, and the unmarried vowing
they will wed. Socrates and the
rest who remained behind pre-
sently set off with Callias to join
Lycon and his son, and share the
walk, the Treptºratos (at the Lyceum
or Some other gymnasium doubt-
less). And So this drinking party
had an end, ix. 7.
According to Plato:
to the first (mock) trapotyla of
Xen, Symp. vi. I-5] begins between
him and Agathon and Socrates.
Socrates piques Alcibiades by a
pretended affection for Agathon,
222 C. Presently another band
of revellers appear who intro-
duce disorder into the feast ; ſcor-
responding to the second (real)
Tapouta of Xen. Symp. vi. 6-Io];
the Sober part of the company,
Eryximachus, Phaedrus, and others,
withdraw ; and Aristodemus, the
follower of Socrates, sleeps during
the whole of a winter's night [a
point of contrast: Xenophon's Sym-
£osium took place in midsummer].
When he wakes at cock-crow the
revellers are nearly all asleep.
Only Socrates, Aristophanes, and
Agathon hold out ; they are drink-
ing out of a large goblet [see
parallel h : Athen. Deipnos. Xi.
504 ef], and Socrates is explaining
to the two others, who are half
asleep, that the genius of tragedy
is the same as that of comedy, and
that the writer of tragedy ought to
be a writer of comedy also. [This
characteristicscene: Socrates dialec-
tically enforcing a paradox on the
two poets of Comedy and Tragedy,
has its counterpart in Xen. Symp.
vii. 2-5, where Socrates dialectic-
ally expounds his views of ‘thau-
maturgy' for the benefit of the
ballet-master.] And first Aristo-
phanes drops, and then as the day
is dawning, Agathon. Socrates
having laid them to rest, takes a
bath [at the Lyceum], and goes
to his daily avocations until the
evening,” Aristodemus following
[at his heels, as was his wont],
223 B, C, D (Jowett).
* See Epictetus, ii. 12, § 14, as to Socrates' good temper in debate and power of
- e * * g 3. Af z 6. * *
soothing angry disputants: et 66Aete yuávav Tóo my v Towto Śiśvapºuv sixév, &voyvöte to
* * z f 2 e *
Eevotbóvtos avutróarvov, Kai Öysoróe tróoros u0(xas ŠuaxéAwke, and ió. iv. 5.
lxviii INTRODUCTION
The question arises, how is so marked a correspondence
of structure and topic, not to speak of the many minor verbal
resemblances, between the two dialogues to be accounted for 2
We have unfortunately nothing to go upon as a help to answer-
ing that question except internal evidence, and this will cer-
tainly be interpreted differently by different people. It is a
matter of aſſorómorts. Every one must form his own conclusion.
Roughly speaking, there would seem to be four alternatives —
(a) On the supposition that both works are genuine :
(I) Either Plato wrote with Xenophon's Symposium before him (in
some sense or other), as Boeckh, Hug, J. J. Hartman, etc.,
think.
(2) Or Xenophon wrote with Plato's Symposium before him, as
Cornarius, Weiske, Schneider, C. F. Hermann, etc., think.
The question of motive on the part of the later writer in either
case is separate.
(3) Or it may be maintained that, in spite of appearances, the two
dialogues are mutually independent, which is the opinion of
A. I. F. Henrichsen,” and apparently of Grote.”
(8) Or, lastly, the genuineness of Xenophon’s Symposium may be
questioned, in which case it would appear to be the work of
an imitator written & propos of Plato's Symposium. This is
a suggestion thrown out by C. O. Müller (in reference to
Symp. viii. 40, in his Commentatio, “De Sacris Minervae
Poliadis,” ap. Sauppe, Praef. ad Xen. Con. p. 68, “Totum
convivium non Xenophontised sophisticae fraudi debetur”),
and countenanced by Jowettº (see his Introduction to the
Symposium of Plato, vol. ii. p. 22).
1 See his Dissertatio de consilio et arte convivil Xenophonzáez eſtaszzee cumz Platoonico
necessitudine, Flenopoli (Flensburg), 1840 : “Die beiden Symposien (sind) nicht nur ohne
Bezugnahme sondern ohne Bekanntschaft des einen mit dem andern geschrieben.”
2 Plato, ii. p. 232, Note K, “Which of these two Symposia was latest in composition
we cannot determine with certainty, though it seems certain that the latest of them was
ºposed in imitation of the earliest.” Grote has no doubt as to the genuineness of
e1 ther.
3 “The Symposium, of Xenophon in which Socrates describes himself as a pander,
and also discourses of the difference between sensual and sentimental love, likewise offers
several interesting points of comparison. But the suspicion which hangs over other
writings of Xenophon, and the numerous minute references to the Phaedrus and
Symposium, as well as to some other writings of Plato, throw a doubt on the genuineness
of the work. The Symposium of Xenophon, if written by him at all, would certainly
show that he wrote against Plato, and was acquainted with his works. Of this there is
no trace in the Memorabilia. Such a rivalry is more characteristic of an imitator than
of an original writer. This (so-called) Symposiuſz of Xenophon may therefore have no
more title to be regarded as genuine than the confessedly spurious Azºology.” This
opinion I quote in cºrtenso, fºietatis causa, and because I am personally swayed by the
WHICH IS THE EARLIER P lxix
Of these alternatives, the first, as I have already said, seems to me to
be the more probable. If Xenophon’s Symposium was not (what internal
evidence and a comparison of the above parallelisms tend, I think, to show
that it was) the earlier, certainly, from an artistic point of view, it ought
to have been, since it stands in relation to the more beautiful product of
Plato's pen much, to use a trite instance, as the Aeginetan marbles to the
frieze of the Parthenon. It is also of the two clearly the more historical.
I do not mean that Xenophon's Socrates is by any means so dramatically
well conceived as Plato's ; in fact, I look upon Plato's Symposium as afford-
ing far the best and truest portraiture of Socrates which we possess. It
makes us know the man ; whereas Xenophon makes us know his own
honest conception of the man (a very different matter). But, at the same
time, the mise-en-scène of Xenophon's dialogue I take to be the more matter-
of-fact and historical. I believe Xenophon was faithfully endeavouring to
depict a real scene—the abstraction of many similar supper-parties at which
he had “assisted.” I feel, moreover, that there is some point in Hug's
question in reference to the type of writing, “Why a symposium if there
was not a real symposium to begin with ?” There had been many épa Tukoi
Xóyot doubtless spoken and written before the days of Xenophon and Plato,
and the institution itself of the Symposion was old enough. But we have no
reason to believe that, before the earlier of the two dialogues in question,
this particular type of literature existed. That it became a fashionable
type of writing after it was set going is natural enough, but why never
before ? Is not something of the nature of an historical account to work
upon almost implied, as a sine gua 7zon to Plato's idealisation ? It is as if
the Zast Supper (the illustration is Hug's) could have been invented by
the painter and the poet without a real historic basis—the impression made
on His disciples by the Lord. As to priority the ancient authorities do not
help us. In one passage Athenaeus would seem to imply that Xenophon's
was the earlier, xi. 504 e," but in another, v. 216 f, he takes the opposite
view. What he is more concerned with is the polemical motive, the
“jealous rivalry’ (m)\otviria), of the two writers.
late Master's critical instinct even where I cannot admit the force of his argument.
There are two strong points in favour of the genuineness of Xenophon's Symposium : (1)
the undoubted testimony of the ancient world ; (2) internal evidence. The “imi-
tator” must have had an extraordinary acquaintance with Xenophon's writings, style,
and manner of thought, to imitate him so exactly, and what would have been his object 2
in what sense could he be said to write against Plato? As to C. O. Müller's suggestion,
one finds (on the authority of Sauppe) that he wrote a marginal note to his own copy (of
the Commentatio), “Audacius dictum quam vellem.”
1 One of the interlocutors in the Deiànosoft/lists is made to say: sis to otá Tws &tro-
8Xérov tº roi, kaxod Eevodºuros, étrayvyvºorkov Svvio'etat #y sixe Tpºs attöv 6 Aag Tpótatos
IIAátov ŠmAotviriau' à Tâxa buxoveikos eixov &px?6ev Tpos éovtov's oi &vöpes oitou kai toos
kai trepi tſpotstov [which shows how much more highly Xenophon was thought of as a
philosophic writer in those times (or how much more poorly Plato was esteemed) than
nowadays, when the very notion sounds preposterous] §ted poºroº où p.61,ov Čš &v Tepi
Kūpov eipſikaav tekpo.upou.évows ºutv, &\\ó Kák Töv airtów viroðéoreov' oup.Tógvo uévyāp
yeypépaavi čupóTepot, kai év attois à pºv tás atºmtpāas Šk6áA\et [parallel Al kai 6 Mév,
lxx INTRODUCTION
For the sake of clearness I repeat what I have already said
as to the main characteristics of the work in my first volume."
Like the AEconomist, the Symposium is more idealistic
than the mass of Memorabilia. The Symposium is indeed
so far based on matters of fact that the discussions prob-
ably had all been heard or overheard by Xenophon, like
those of the Memorabi/ia, but at no particular Supper-party.
Rather this is the quintessence of many supper-parties, and
serves as a setting, as Plutarch says, quoting Xenophon, for
“those lighter and yet really serious thoughts of the philo-
sopher, since in conversation good men even in their sports
and at their wine let fall sayings that are worth preserving.”
The work itself is an early specimen (earlier, as I think, than
&s Tpóksvtat, trapatteltow trivew u.eyāAots Trotmptovs’ 6 Šč Töv ×okpármv trpoéyév tá Abuktmpt
Tívovta pºéxpt tºns éto. As regards motive I agree with Hug that Athenaeus', theory
savours of wukpoil/v)&ia, “mean self-seeking” on the part of the critic himself, who
detracts from past greatness to glorify his own pettiness. The spirit is visible in
Athenaeus elsewhere, xi. 507 b c ; v. 180 a ; 182 a ; 187 c f; 188 a c ; 215 a-216 c d ; and
listen to this stricture of Plato, ze “anachronism ' ' 217 a (ib. c): 8Aos 3& Añpós éort tº
IIAárov to avpiróa'vov, 6tt öé troXAá 6 IIAártov Tapa toûs xpóvows &paptável 6786v Šatv čk
troAAóv karū yap Töv eitróvta Towntºv “6ttu, kev ém' &kaupiuav ySøttav čA6m” tooto
pº, 8vakpāvas ypgdev. As Grote remarks: “If Athenaeus was anxious to prove ana:
chronism against Plato, I am surprised that he did not notice that of the 8voikma vs of
Mantineia [383 B.C.] mentioned in a conversation supposed to have taken place in the
presence of Sokrates, who died in 399 B.C.’” (P/ato, ii. p. 233, note AE); and for other
pertinent criticisms of Athenaeus see what Grote, 6 Sikatos avyypadeiſs, says (ib. 208,
note c.; 225, r, 228, 2 ; 231, J.). A similar view, however, with regard to polemical
motive has obtained in modern times. Thus J. J. Hartman, following in the steps of
Gustav Teichmüller, de litibus literariis, remarks : “Nemo (enim) qui cum sano
judicio utrumque convivium perlegerit, dubitare potest, quin aut Plato Xenophontis
librum in manibus habuerit, ejusque tanquam censuram egerit, aut Xenophon Platonico
Convivio suum opposuerit” (Am. Åen. p. 217); and again: “Aut Plato suo libro Xeno-
phontem improbare et corrigere studuit, aut suum Convivium Xenophon opposuit
Platonico” (ib. ib.); “Quaeretur ergo : uter utrius censuram egit?' sive, utrius liber
prius scriptus est?” and he thus sums up his argument: “Credo ergo Xenophontis Con-
vivium ante Platonicum editum esse, Platonemgue suum librum scripsisse, ut Xeno-
phontem reſutaret, derideret, in aequalium contemptionem adduceret” (ib. p. 119). As
to the priority of Xenophon's work to Plato's I am strongly inclined to agree; as to
Plato's motive I feel differently. Why should not Plato merely have taken a hint from
Xenophon, and worked out the earlier writer's motif with stupendous effect and without
malice, much to the glorification not only of his theme but of his hero? (see above).]
Hug to my mind is nearer the mark (see his essay, Ueber das gegenseitige Verhältniss
der Symiſosiem des Xenoff/on rend Plato) in arguing that, given the works are by Xeno-
phon and Plato respectively (as to which he entertains no doubt whatever), there seems
an a Żriori probability of the one having been composed in reference to the other,
because they were more or less contemporary and “damals die literarischen Verkehrs-
behåltnisse ziemlich ausgebildeter waren als man es sich gewöhnlich worstellt”; and a
Žosteriori there are Arima /acie analogies of situation, thought, expression, on the one
hand, and striking differences (piquante Differenzen), on the other, pointing to the same
conclusion. As to priority, after rehandling the whole question, the conclusion Hug
comes to is : “Dass aus genauer Prüfung nicht mur mit Wahrscheinlichkeit, sondern mit
klarer Gewissheit erhellt: Plato hat auf das inm vorliegende Xenophontische Gastmahl
Rücksicht genommen und es vielfach (auch zu polemischen Gegensatz) benutzt.” I
think that Hug lays undue weight on the historical matter-of-factness of Xenophon's
Symposium. For the rest I almost entirely agree with him. As regards the paren-
thetically suggested motive, atéch 276 folemischen Gegensatz, I do not feel so certain.
1 Page liv. note I.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK lxxi
Plato's more famous Symposium) of a type of composition
said to have been invented by Xenophon. The mise-en-scène
was chosen quite independently of chronology and the relative
ages of the interlocutors, who appear as the young and old of
our dreams. Thus Autolycus, in whose honour the entertain-
ment took place at the house of Callias, won the pankration
of the boys in the Panathenaea of 422 B.C. (since, as Athenaeus
tells us, Autolycus' victory was satirised by Eupolis in the
next year, 42 I B.C.), and was killed by the Spartan commandant
in the employ of the Thirty in 403 B.C. His death was a
scandal, and no doubt made an impression on Xenophon,
who takes him as his boy-hero. Socrates, who in 422 B.C.
would not have been more than forty-seven, appears as an old
man. Nicératus, the son of Nicias, is introduced as already
managing his patrimony, whereas Nicias only died in 413 B.C.
So, too, Critobulus, who was really not much older than
Xenophon himself, appears as a young man lately married, a
part assigned to him also in the Economist.
“Thus from the laureat fraternity of poets, riper years and the ceaseless
round of study and reading led me to the shady spaces of philosophy; but
chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato and his equal Xenophon : where, if 1
should tell ye what I learnt of chastity and love, I mean that which is truly
so, whose charming cup is only virtue, which she bears in her hand to those
that are worthy; (the rest are cheated with a thick intoxicating potion, which
a certain sorceress, the abuser of love's name, carries about;) and how the
first and chiefest office of love begins and ends in the soul, producing those
happy twins of her divine generation, knowledge and virtue. With such
abstracted sublimities as these, it might be worth your listening, readers, as
I may one day hope to have ye in a still time, when there shall be no
chiding.”—MILTON, A7, Apology for Smecty/int/s.
lxxii INTRODUCTION
THE ///ERO
We pass by an easy transition from the “Socratic” writings
to the 7%reatise on Zyranny, the earliest in date perhaps of
Xenophon's ethico-political essays." In this quasi-Socratic
dialogue the joys and Sorrows of a despotic monarch as Com-
pared with those of the private citizen are set forth under the
form of an “imaginary conversation " held between two well-
known characters in history, the poet Simonides of Ceos and
the friend and patron of philosophers Hieron, son of Deino-
menes, tyrant of Syracuse, 478-467 B.C.
Though for the purposes of the discussion Socrates is no
longer a suitable dramafi's persona, the author adheres to his
accustomed literary mould—the argument is Socratically con-
ducted ; the part of the inquisitive searcher after truth is
naturally assigned to the poet, who, as the more philosophic
disputant, interrogates and extracts answers, self-contradictory
at times, from the less self-conscious man of action ; and after
the manner of EX (the Xenophontean Socrates) concludes
with a homily: the one Salvation open to the tyrant who
would escape the doom of Tantalus [see Oecom. xxi. ad fin.”
is to win the love of his subordinates, to éðexóvtov Špxetv.”
More than that, although the scene of the debate is
dramatically thrown back a hundred years from the present
time, the topics treated of are, ethically speaking, ever new ;
nor was the moral of the piece ever more applicable than
* Earlier, that is, than the Polity of the Zacedaemonians probably, and the Cyropaedia
certainly. See Trans. Vol. i. p. cxxvi. ; 76. 20. p. cxxx. ; ió. vol. ii. p. lxxiv.
* This, by the way, it may be remarked, would seem to be Xenophon's gloss upon the
sacred text of Pindar, where, like an inspired Hebrew prophet, the greatest of lyric poets
warns this same Hieron not to wax proud and kick :
> * Af 3. jº * > z *
ei Šē 6); Tuv' &vöpa 6vatov 'OXúpatrov orkotrol
* a * e º p ^ * a
étiu.o.orgv, #v Tóvtaxos ojtos’ &AAö yöp ka Tatré ſaw
z 3} y * z Af * *
Weyov 6A8ov ovk Śēvuáo.6m, kópºp 8' éAev
*f 4. z *
ātav Štrépot)\ov.—Olymp. i. 86 foll.
“For surely, if ever there was a mortal man that the guardians of Olympus honoured
that man was Tantalus. But he was not able to digest his great happiness, but through
excess of it he got an overwhelming woe" (Holden). And so enlarging on his theme
with a like prophetic ardour, Simonides [that is to say, Xenophon] concludes his appeal
to Hieron [that is to say, the tyrant Dionysius] in language as near to that of "lyric
poetry, I take it, as a prose writer of Xenophon's or any other age might venture on : «ă,
tºūta Totfis, eú to 9: Távrov Tóv čv čvépôtrots KáAAta-tov kai pakapuáratov kripa kekräget.
eiðauplovóu yöp of $60 violet (see below, p. 389),
3 Cf. He/Z. V. i. 3 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 91).
THE HIERO lxxiii
at the time when it was written (circa 383 B.C.). In other
words, under the masks of Simonides and Hieron we seem
to catch the intonation of the publicist Xenophon carrying on
a discussion more suo, in a manner of his own—which is not
the manner of Lysias," or Isocrates,” or Plato,” still less of
Aristotle," but convincing enough—with the most notable
tyrant of the day, the most powerful, moreover, of Hieron's
successors on the throne of Syracuse—the elder Dionysius, on
whose behaviour the fortunes, not of the western world alone,
but of Hellas proper, seemed to hang.”
.*.*.
*...* The Hiero, both as regards its subject matter and the historical
incident to which, in a certain sense, it possibly owed its origin, has
been treated with such fulness by Grote (and other critics and
commentators) that little remains to be said. The student of Greek
literature has ample material upon which to form his own conclusion.
I content myself with the following notes:—
(I) A supplementary note to Trans. vol. i. Sketch, pp. cxxvi. cxxvii.
cxxx., where I have drawn attention to the probable effect of his
surroundings on Xenophon's thoughts, ever busy with the problem Tt
dpx?) div6pútraov tt &pxukös div6ptóTøv (see /l/em. I. i. 16; III. ix.
I2, I3): (i.) during his sojourn in Lacedaemon itself, 394-387 B.C.;
(ii.) and at Scillus, in the neighbourhood of Olympia, 387-37 I B.C.
(He may well have listened to the Olympiakos of Lysias, 388 B.C.,
I See his OZympiakos.
2 See his Panegyrikos, Letter to Nikokles, Wikokles or The Cyßzians, Letter to
Dionysios. 3 Ep. vii. if genuine. 4 Polit. V. ii. 7, 10.
5 Cf. Lysias, Olympiakos, 384 B.C. (Grote after Diodorus), al. 388, “The year before
the Peace of Antalkidas, by which the Corinthian war was brought to a close, Athens,
Thebes, Argos, and Corinth had in 388 been seven years at war with Sparta. During
this time two powers, both dangerous to the freedom of Greece, had been rapidly
growing. In the east the naval strength of Persia had become greater than it had been
for a century; in the west Dionysios, tyrant, since 405, of Syracuse, had reduced Naxos,
Katana, and Leontini ; had twice defeated Carthage; and was threatening the Greek
towns of Italy” (Jebb, Att. Or. i. 204; id. i. 155). This speech, or rather the incidents
in connection with it, were, as Grote first suggested (H. G. xi. 35-74; Plato, iii. 572-578),
not improbably present to the mind of Xenophon when he penned the Hiero. See
Roquette, Yezz. de zit. § 20, de A/ierone; and my own remarks in my Sketch of the
life of Xenophom already referred to. See Diod. xiv. Io9. 6.
The saying év 30.orvåst to Tôv ‘EXAjvoy (see Trans. vol. ii. Introd. p. xliv., Laczzzzae
sub an. 387, 386 B.C.), in reference to the Persian king on the eastern frontier of Hellas,
finds its parallel on the western side, where év typºvvº Tö. Töv ‘EAAjvov would seem
to express the state of affairs in Magna Graecia during the reign of Dionysius. This
tyrant's portentous form loomed large upon the states of central Hellas for the better part
of half a century, 405-367 B.C., now as the destroyer of free cities, and therefore as
natural an enemy to Hellas as the great king himself (see Trans, vol. i. p. cxxi.); now as
the ally of Sparta (Hell. VI. ii. 4, 33, 374, 373 B.C.; VII. i. 20, 28, 369, 368 B.C. ;
Trans, vol. ii. pp. 144, 150, 191, 194), cf. Isocr. Paneg. (circ. 379 B.C., p. 67); now again as
a possible ally of Athens (Lys. de Bon. Arist.); or, lastly, as a possible champion of
united Hellas against Persia (a later dream of Isocrates; see his Zetter to Dionysios,
368 B.C.; Jebb, Att. Or, ii. 239).
lxxiv. INTRODUCTION
al. 384 B.C., and witnessed the occurrences; and to the Panegyrikos
of Isocrates, 384 B.C.)—thoughts which found their expression ere
long in the Aſiero and Aol. Zac., and eventually in the Cyropaedia.
(a) The genuineness of the Hiero can, I think, hardly be doubted.
The treatise is named in the canon of Xenophon’s writings recognised by
Demetrius Magnes, which we owe to Diog. Laertius (see Trans. Vol. i. p.
xlix.). Nor, as far as I am aware, was its authorship ever disputed in ancient
times. Among modern critics, it is true, there is not the same absolute
unanimity, but the dissentients are few and their dissent at times only half
pronounced.
[Caspers, de Xen. Quae fertur Apologia, p. 8, an obiter dictum ; F.
Ranke, Vit. Xen. p. 25. All Ranke says is, “Ob argumenti similitudinem
Cyri disciplinae Hiero libellus adjungi poterit, qui qua ratione vita tyrannorum
et jucundior et utilior esse possit enarrat. In hoc liced multa Xenophozzfea
inveniri concedam, tamen exam esse ab 7/lo revera scriptum affirmare non azadeo’’;
Sitzler, de Xenophontis qui ſertur Hierone, 1876 (a work with which I am
Sorry to say I am not acquainted); and lastly, if he is to be counted as a
dissentient, Prof. Mahaffy, Hisé, GA. Ziff. (ed. 1880), vol. ii. x. p. 279 :
“The whole form of the tract is peculiar, being a dialogue without Socrates,
and being, moreover, more ornately written than is usual with Xenophon.
Nevertheless, critics have been almost unanimous in accepting it as genuine,
and I do not feel my instinctive dissent can be supported with convincing
argument."]
(3) As to the characteristics, external and internal, of the treatise,
enough perhaps has been already said. The student will naturally turn to
Grote (Plato, iii. 572-578), where he will find a “short abstract.” As to
the structure of the dialogue, it is, as Sauppe (l.c. p. IO3) points out,
bipartite, setting forth (i.) that the life of the private citizen is prefer-
able to that of the tyrant, capp. i.-vi. ; (ii.) the means by which the tyrant
may afterwards win the affection of his subjects and lead a happy life,
capp. vii.-xi. But, as some readers may be inclined to think with J. J.
Hartman (A72. Xezz. A. cap. v. 236-256), this treatise, especially in the first
and positive half, labours under the same defects of dvapºaxta, unevenness
of style, awkwardness of expression, etc., which, whatever the cause of it,
we have seen to be the mark of so many of Xenophon's writings. This
earlier half of the treatise is structurally weak and the arguments are clumsily
arranged, defects which (apart from corruption of the text or possibly some
editorial mishandling) may be readily accounted for, when we reflect that
this is perhaps Xenophon's earliest attempt at a philosophic essay. For
the rest, the diction, if more ornate than usual with our author, is
thoroughly Xenophontine.
As to subject matter, I have nothing to add to what has already been
said with his wonted perspicacity by Grote, and others. See, in particular,
Prof. Jebb, Aſt. Or, ii. 22 foll., “On the tendency of the age towards
A “BALLON D’ESSAI " lxxv
Monarchy”; W. L. Newman, Zhe Politics of Aristo/le, p. 544 foll., 7%
Aristotle's seventh book, tenth and eleventh chapters, “Causes of the fall
of Monarchies and means of preventing them.” It is quite possible, I
think, that the philosopher was acquainted with Xenophon's treatise, which
ought at least to be regarded as an admirable balloze d'essa? on a topic
which, even at the present time, is not entirely devoid of practical interest.
(y) As to the date and probable occasion, that is to say, the circum-
stances which led the author to adopt the particular form of composition,
and to select his particular drama/?s personae, see above. As already stated,
I follow Grote in attaching great importance to the historical incidents
in connection with the magnificent but ill-starred Theóry sent by Dionysius
to the Olympic festival of 388 B.C. (or, as others think, 384 B.C.) so often
referred to." If we are asked, however, to discover a model for the hero-
king depicted in the concluding chapters of the dialogue, we must seek it
less in the pages of contemporary history than in the romantic mind of
Xenophon turning to account traits of character in persons like the younger
Cyrus, perhaps, or of Agesilaus and his brother the Spartan admiral
Teleutias. The careers of vigorous leaders like Jason of Pherae,” or
Epaminondas, or Lycomedes, or of a minor tyrant such as Euphron of
Sicyon, fall, I think, too late to have affected the composition of the
Aſiero, though they might well give food for reflection, and serve in some
way as material for the final conception of the Cyropaedia ; in which
rehandling the theme of the Aſiero, Xenophon, in his mature age, essayed
to depict the very image of a good King and happy mortal (see Dion. Hal.
A.A. ad Cºz, Pom/. iv.; Trans. vol. i. Introd, p. xxvi.).
It is fair to add that other opinions as to the date and occasion of the
Aſiero have been supported, e.g. by Delbrueck and I think Dr. Holden,
who look upon the career of Jason as ſurnishing the motif of the treatise;
or by Letronne and Shindler, who find its starting-point in a supposed
I See Diod. xiv. Io9, and cf. Hiero, xi. 6, p. 387, below. For Dionysius the eſder,
son of Herzyzocrates, Tyrant of Syracuse, see Arnold, Hist, of Kouze, vol. i. ch. xxi.;
Grote, H. G. x. ch. lxxxii., xi, ch. lxxxiii.; Freeman, //ist. of Sicily.
Cf. Aſell. II. ii. 24—his accession, 405 B.C. 3 (cf. Diod, xiii. 91-96), Trans, vol. i.
Żó. J.; 4—Lacedaemonian embassy to, 374 B.C., Trans, vol. ii. p. 144.
Żó. VI. ii. 33—his triremes, sent to aid Lacedaemon, captured by Iſh icz’ates off
Corcyra, 373 B.C., Trans. vol. ii. p. 150.
Żó. VII. i. 20—a nazal rein/orcement from (twenty Shiós with a body of Celts,
Iberians, and a squadron of cavalry—exploits of his cavalry), 369 B.C.,
Trans. vol. ii. p. 191.
fö. VII. i. 28—a second reinforcement ſºone, and Jºerthez' exploits, 368 B.C.,
Trans. vol. ii. p. 194.
2 Unless we are to fix the date of the Hiero a good deal later than circa 383 B.C. For
Jason, the forerunner of Alexander the Great, see Hell. VI. i. 4, 18, 374 B.C. : fő. iv. 20,
27, 32, 371 B.c.; Lycomedes, the organiser of the Arcadian League, 368 B.C., see Hell.
VII. i. 23, 39; iv. 2, 3; Euphron, Tyrant of Sicyon, 367, 366 B.C., see //e//, VII, i. 44;
ii. 11 ; iii. 2, 4 ; Epaminondas, a more commanding personality than any of them, if
only half * by Xenophon, see Hell. VII. i. 41 and Žassima (Index to Trans.
vol. ii. s.v.).
lxxvi INTRODUCTION
visit of Xenophon to the court of Dionysius (see Athenaeus, X. 427 E).
Whether this is the elder or younger Dionysius does not appear. The
visit I take to be apocryphal. As Roquette, I think, suggests, it was prob-
ably extracted from some “symposium ” or other, but the story is worth re-
peating for its poetic value: oik eaéðvov be of TáNat . . . “the men of old
were not topers.” Eevopów yoju & Tpºxov trap& Alouvaig Toré Tó 20text&rm
Tſvety &vaykáçovros toū olvoxóov Tpoorayopeto as Övouaori Töv Túpavvov T
ôň, gºn, & Atoviſaſte, oùxī kal & 6potrotos dyadès &v Kal Toukixos &vaykáčev
huās ejoxovuévous éottetv kai uh BovXouévows, d\\& Koopula’s huſy Tapatíðmoſt
Thy rpátrečay guyów, “At all events Xenophon the son of Gryllus, being on
a visit to Dionysius of Sicily on some occasion, when the butler was
over-urgent with the wine-cup, accosted the tyrant by name: “How is it,
Dionysius, that excellent and artistic cook of yours does not insist on our
eating like gourmands whether we choose or not, instead of decently setting
course after course before us to take or pass, and never a word P’”
SIMONIDES AND HIERON
(2) As to the mise-en-scène of the discussion and the dramatās personae,
the choice of these, while natural, shows, I think, originality. Possibly,
as Grote suggests, such an imaginary dialogue might be “suggested by
current traditional conversations like that between Solon and Croesus.”
In some of the discussions even of the Memorabália (e.g. that of Socrates
and the younger Pericles in Bk. III., or those of Socrates with Euthydemus
in Bk. IV.) Xenophon had allowed himself a somewhat free hand. In
the conversation between Socrates and Ischomachus introduced into the
Oecome. he had gone a step farther in giving rein to his imagination, whilst
carefully preserving the personality of Socrates as he conceived it. From
these it was a small step to the purely imaginary discussion of our treatise.
And if we are right in supposing that it is Dionysius the son of Hemocrates
of whom Xenophon is chiefly thinking, then the choice of Hieron and
Simonides as interlocutors [he might conveniently have chosen Hieron and
Pindar, Aeschylus or Bacchylides, Xenophanes or Epicharmus, but Simon-
ides was pre-eminently suitable *]; the juxtaposition of these two—the
1 See Dr. Holden's admirable and exhaustive Introduction to his first and third
editions of the A/iezon of Xenoff/ion (the quotations from Pindar's odes, in which he
celebrates the victories won by Hieron at the Olympian and Pythian games, are
interesting, and for us much to the point); the articles “Hieron,” by E. H. Bunbury,
and “Simonides,” by Philip Smith, in the Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography; and
see pre-eminently, for an appreciation of Simonides, chap. v. entitled “The Lyric
Poets,” pp. 156-164 in vol. ii. of The Greek Poets, by J. A. Symonds. The intimacy of
the tyrant and the poet was also proverbial, as many anecdotes testify, e.g. (Plat.) AE?ist.
ii. 311 A ; Aristot. Rhet. ii. 16, “The Character of Wealth '' . . . “It was this which
gave rise to the saying of Simonides about wisdom and wealth, when he was asked by
the wife of Hiero whether it were preferable to become a man of property or a philosopher.
‘A man of property,’ he said, ‘for I see the philosophers hanging about the doorsteps of
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE lxxvii
poet, whose awqipoa ſum was proverbial, and the tyrannical despot, “con-
verted * partly through illness," Öalpêvuòu Tu, and partly through his
openness to reasoning, was in every way natural.”
the man of property.’” Welldon, p. 171 (cf. Plat. Reg. vi. 489 C); Cic. de M. D. I.
xxii. 60 : “Roges me quidguid aut quale sit deus : auctore utar Simonide, de quo quum
quaesivisset hoc idem tyrannus Hiero, deliberandi sibi unum diem postulavit. Quum
idem ex eo postridie quaereret, biduum petivit. Quum saepius duplicaret numerum
dierum, admiratusque Hiero requireret, cur ita faceret, quia, quanto, inquit, diutius
considero, tanto mihi res videtur obscurior. Sed Simonidem, . . .” According to the
Scholiast ad Pind. Ożymp...ii. 37, it was through the mediation of Simonides that Hieron
and his brother Polyzelus were reconciled, and relations of peace instead of war estab-
lished between himself and Théron, the tyrant of Agrigentum, early in his reign : a
Socratic act on the part of the poet which, if the tale were known to Xenophon, would
have touched bim closely.
1. If the tale was current in Xenophon's time. See Aelian, V. H. iv. 15, Iépová (boat
Töv Xukexas Túpavvov tá Tpſota ióvátmv cival kai &vépôtrov &p.ovarótatov Kai Tàu &ypotkiav
&AAö wºmóē kat' ox{yov too &öeX$6v Švaq,épew too TéMovos, Štrei Šē, gºtº ovuevéx6m
voorfiorat, provaruktótatos &v6ptóTov'éyéveto, thu axoxhu Tàu èk Tús &ppoatãas eis &koúouata
Tsiravöevg.évo kato.6éuevos, floorðsis of v ‘Iépov avviv >uplověm tº Keigº kai IIvvöäpºp
É ©mbatº kai BakxvAtôm tº 'IovXuâtm. 6 Sé TéAov &v6potros &uovo'os. Cf. W. H. ix. 1 ;
auS. 1. 2. 3.
2. “His intimacy with (Simonides) was particularly celebrated (Pseud. Plat. Effist. 2),
and has been made the subject by Xenophon of an imaginary dialogue . . . but from the
advice there put into the mouth of the philosopher, as well as from the hints interspersed
by Pindar, in the midst of his praises and flatteries, we may gather that there was much
to disapprove of in the conduct of Hieron towards his subjects and dependants (see
Boeckh, ad Pind. Ayt/... i. 81-88) [a true prototype this of Dionysius; see Grote, H. G.
xi. 71]. His love of magnificence was especially displayed, as was the custom of the
day, in the great contests of the Graecian games [tempora mutantuz', when we come to
Dionysius], and his victories at Olympia and Delphi have been immortalised by Pindar.
He also sent, in imitation of his brother Gelon [in honour of the victory of ‘Himera,'
won, according to Herodotus, vii. 165, on the same day as ‘Salamis,’ ‘the 20th of
Boedromion,’ 480 B.C.], splendid offerings to the sanctuary at Delphi (Paus. vi. 72, § 1 ;
Athen. vi. 231, 232).”—E. H. B. in Dict. of Biog. “Hieron.” With regard to ieron's
Delphic offerings [see Paus. viii. 42.8], I may perhaps be pardoned for drawing attention to
the great archaeological “find” of the year 1896, thus described by Mr. H. B. Walters,
C2. Review, x. 6, monthly record, Greece, “Delphi’’: “A bronze statue has been recently
found, 5 ft. 9 in. in height, which is supposed to represent Hieron son of Deil omenes,
the tyrant of Syracuse, and to have belonged to a group of figures dedicated to com-
memorate one of his victories in the Pythian games. The group probably resem led that
seen by Pausanias at Olympia representing Hieron on a quadriga, which is said by
Pausanias to have been executed by Calamis and Onatas (vi. 12. 1). This statue is
almost complete, except for the left arm, and wears a diadem and long girt chiton falling
in regular folds. The hair is carefully arranged with long locks falling over the ears and
temples, and the eyes have been inserted in sma/to enamel which is perfectly preserved.
The figure is bearded, and full of grace and naturalness of expression. The right hand
holds part of a horse's bridle, and various fragments of feet and tails of the horses of the
quadriga were also found.” The workmanship points to a period of art corresponding to
that of the Aeginetan marbles.
T H E ME MORAB I LIA
OR
RECOLLECTIONS OF SOCRATES
T H E ME MOR A B I L I A
OR
RECOLLECTIONS OF SOCRATES
BOOK I. I. 1–3
I.—I HAVE Often wondered by what arguments those who
indicted Socrates could have persuaded the Athenians
that his life was justly forfeit to the state. The indictment
was to this effect: “Socrates is guilty of crime in refusing
to recognise the gods acknowledged by the state, and im-
porting strange divinities of his own; he is further guilty
of corrupting the young.”
In the first place, what evidence did they produce that
Socrates refused to recognise the gods acknowledged by
the state P Was it that he did not sacrifice P or that he
dispensed with divination P. On the contrary, he was often
to be seen engaged in Sacrifice, at home or at the common
altars of the state. Nor was his dependence on divination
less manifest. Indeed that saying of his, “A divinity º gives
me a sign,” was on everybody's lips. So much so that, if I
am not mistaken, it lay at the root of the imputation that
he imported novel divinities; though there was no greater
* ot, Ypayáuevot = Melétus (below, IV. iv. 4, viii. 4; Apoſ. 11, 19),
Anytus (A/o/, 29), and Lycon. See Plat. Apol. II. v. 18; Diog. Laert. II. v.
(Socr.); M. Schanz, Plat. Apol, mit deutschem Kommentar, Einleitung, § 5 foll,
* Or, “A divine something.” See Encyc. Brit. “Socrates,” Dr. H.
Jackson ; ZThe Daemove of Socrates, F. W. H. Myers; K. Joel, Der echºſe zozd
der Xenophontische Sokrates, i. p. 70 foll. ; cf. Aristot. M. M. I.182 a Io.
VOL. III— I B
2 IMEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. I. § 3-6
novelty in his case than in that of other believers in oracular
help, who commonly rely on omens of all sorts: the flight or
cry of birds, the utterances of man, chance meetings," or a
victim's entrails. Even according to the popular conception,
it is not the mere fowl, it is not the chance individual one
meets, who knows what things are profitable for a man, but it
is the gods who vouchsafe by such instruments to signify the
same. This was also the tenet of Socrates. Only, whereas
men ordinarily speak of being turned aside, or urged onwards
by birds, or other creatures encountered on the path, Socrates
suited his language to his conviction. “The divinity,” said
he, “gives me a sign.” Further, he would constantly ad-
vise his associates to do this, or beware of doing that, upon
the authority of this same divine voice; and, as a matter of
fact, those who listened to his warnings prospered, whilst he
who turned a deaf ear to them repented afterwards.” Yet, it
will be readily conceded, he would hardly desire to present
himself to his everyday companions in the character of either
knave or fool. Whereas he would have appeared to be both,
supposing * the God-given revelations had but revealed his
own proneness to deception. It is plain he would not have
ventured on forecast at all, but for his belief that the words
he spoke would in fact be verified. Then on whom, or what,
was the assurance rooted, if not upon God P And if he had
faith in the gods, how could he fail to recognise them P
But his mode of dealing with his intimates has another
aspect. As regards the ordinary necessities of life,” his
advice was, “Act as you believe * these things may best
be done.” But in the case of those darker problems, the
* See Aesch. P. V. 487, Évoëtovs Te a vuòóXovs, “and pathway tokens,”
L. Campbell; Arist. Birds, 72 I, a ſuffoxov ćputy : Frogs, 196, tº avvéruxov
€tøv ; Æccl. 792 ; Hor. Od. iii. 27. I-7.
* See Anab. III, i, 4 (Trans, vol. i. p. 146); Symp. iv. 48 (below, p. 323).
* Or, “if his vaunted manifestations from heaven had but manifested
the falsity of his judgment.”
* Or, “in the sphere of the determined,” rô, dváykata = certa, quorum
eventus est necessarius; “things positive, the law-ordained department of
life,” as we might say. See Grote, H. G. i. ch. xvi. 500 and passim.
* Reading dºs vout' ovey, or if dºs évôpušev, translate “As to things with
certain results, he advised them to do them in the way in which he believed
they would be done best"; i.e. he did not say, “follow your conscience,”
but, ‘‘this course seems best to me under the circumstances.”
CH. I. § 6-Io FAITH AND PIETY OF SOCRATES 3
issues of which are incalculable, he directed his friends to con-
sult the oracle, whether the business should be undertaken or
not. “No one,” he would say, “who wishes to manage a
house or city with success: no one aspiring to guide the helm
of state aright, can afford to dispense with aid from above.
Doubtless, skill in carpentering, building, Smithying, farming,
or the art of governing men, together with the theory of these
processes, and the sciences of arithmetic, economy, Strategy,
are affairs of study, and within the grasp of human intelli-
gence. Yet there is a side even of these, and that not the
least important, which the gods reserve to themselves, the
bearing of which is hidden from mortal vision. Thus, let a
man sow field or plant farm never so well, yet he cannot fore-
tell who will gather in the fruits: another may build him a
house of fairest proportion, yet he knows not who will inhabit
it. Neither can a general foresee whether it will profit him to
conduct a campaign, nor a politician be certain whether his
leadership will turn to evil or to good. Nor can the man who
weds a fair wife, looking forward to joy, know whether through
her he shall not reap sorrow. Neither can he who has built
up a powerful connection in the state know whether he shall
not by means of it be cast out of his city. To suppose that
all these matters lay within the scope of human judgment, to
the exclusion of the preternatural, was preternatural folly. Nor
was it less extravagant to go and consult the will of Heaven on
questions which it is given to us to decide by dint of learning.
As though a man should inquire, “Am I to choose an expert
driver as my coachman, or one who has never handled the
reins P” “Shall I appoint a mariner to be skipper of my
vessel, or a landsman P” And so with respect to all we may
know by numbering, weighing, and measuring. To seek
advice from Heaven on such points was a sort of profanity.
“Our duty is plain,” he would observe; “where we are permitted
to work through our natural faculties, there let us by all means
apply them. But in things which are hidden, let us seek to
gain knowledge from above, by divination; for the gods,” he
added, “grant signs to those to whom they will be gracious.”
Again, Socrates ever lived in the public eye; at early
morning he was to be seen betaking himself to one of the
4 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. I. § Io-I4
promenades, or wrestling-grounds; at noon he would appear
with the gathering crowds in the market-place ; and as day
declined, wherever the largest throng might be encountered,
there was he to be found, talking for the most part, while any
one who chose might stop and listen.0)Yet no one ever heard
him say, or saw him do anything impious or irreverent.
Indeed, in contrast to others he set his face against all discus-
sion of such high matters as the nature of the Universe; how
the “kosmos,” as the savants phrase it, came into being ; *
or by what forces the celestial phenomena arise. To trouble
one's brain about such matters was, he argued, to play the
fool." He would ask first: Did these investigators feel their
knowledge of things human so complete that they betook
themselves to these lofty speculations P Or did they maintain
that they were playing their proper parts in thus neglecting
the affairs of man to speculate on the concerns of God *(s)He
was astonished they did not see how far these problems lay
beyond mortal ken ; since even those who pride themselves
most on their discussion of these points differ from each
other, as madmen doſ") For just as some madmen, he said,
have no apprehension of what is truly terrible, others fear
where no fear is ; some are ready to say and do anything
in public without the slightest symptom of shame; * others
think they ought not so much as to set foot among their
fellow-men ; some honour neither temple, nor altar, nor
aught else sacred to the name of God; others bow down to
stocks and stones and worship the very beasts:—so is it with
those thinkers whose minds are cumbered with cares 4 con-
cerning the Universal Nature. One sect” has discovered
that Being is one and indivisible. Another" that it is infinite
in number. If one" proclaims that all things are in a continual
flux, another * replies that nothing can possibly be moved at
* Lit. “the sophists.” See H. Sidgwick, J. of Philol. iv. 1872; v. 1874.
* Reading épu. Cf. Lucian, Icaromenift. xlvi. 4, in imitation of this passage
apparently ; or if Éxet, translate “is arranged." See Grote, H. G. viii. 573.
* See Anab. V. iv. 30 (Trans. vol. i. p. 224).
* See Arist. Clouds, IoI, peptpuoq/pouTuotal ka)\ol Te Kāya.0ot.
* e.g. Xenophanes and Parmenides, see Grote, Plato, I. i. 16 foll.
° e.g. Leucippus and Democritus, ió. 63 foll.
7 e.g. Heraclitus, 25, 27 foll. * e.g. Zeno, iſ, ii. 96.
CH. I. § 14-18 THE PROPER STUDY OF MANIKINID IS MAN 5
any time. The theory of the universe as a process of birth
and death is met by the counter theory, that nothing ever
could be born or ever will die.
('s) But the questioning of Socrates on the merits of these specu-
lators sometimes took another form. The student of human
learning expects, he said, to make something of his studies for
the benefit of himself or others, as he likes. Do these explorers
into the divine operations hope that when they have dis-
covered by what forces the various phenomena occur, they
will create winds and waters at will and fruitful seasons?
Will they manipulate these and the like to suit their needs P
or has no such notion perhaps ever entered their heads, and
will they be content simply to know how such things come
into existence?(6)But if this was his mode of describing those
who meddle with such matters as these, he himself never
wearied of discussing human topics. What is piety P what is
impiety P What is the beautiful? what the ugly P What the
noble? what the base ? What are meant by just and unjust P
what by sobriety and madness? what by courage and
cowardice P What is a state P what is a statesman P what
is a ruler over men P what is a ruling character P and other
like problems, the knowledge of which, as he put it, conferred
a patent of nobility on the possessor," whereas those who lacked
the knowledge might deservedly be stigmatised as slaves.
Now, in so far as the opinions of Socrates were unknown
to the world at large, it is not surprising that the court should
draw false conclusions respecting them ; but that facts patent
to all should have been ignored is indeed astonishing.
At one time Socrates was a member of the Council,” he
had taken the senatorial oath, and sworn “as a member of
that house to act in conformity with the laws.” It was thus
he chanced to be President of the Popular Assembly,” when
that body was seized with a desire to put the nine * generals,
Thrasyllus, Erasinides, and the rest, to death by a single
* Or, “was distinctive of the ‘beautiful and good.’” For the phrase see
below, ii. 2 et passim. 2 Or “Senate.” Lit. ‘‘the AEozz/6.”
* Lit. “Apistates of the Ecclesia.” See Grote, H. G. viii. 271 ; Plat.
Apol. 32 B.
* évváa would seem to be a slip of the pen for Öktú, eight. See He//,
I. v. 16; vi. 16; vi. 29 ; vii. I foll. (Trans. Vol. i. pp. 21, 25, 29 foll.).
6 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. {:}º
inclusive vote. Whereupon, in spite of the bitter resentment
of the people, and the menaces of several influential citizens,
he refused to put the question, esteeming it of greater
importance faithfully to abide by the oath which he had
taken, than to gratify the people wrongfully, or to screen him-
self from the menaces of the mighty. The fact being, that
with regard to the care bestowed by the gods upon men, his
belief differed widely from that of the multitude. Whereas
most people seem to imagine that the gods know in part, and
are ignorant in part, Socrates believed firmly that the gods
know all things—both the things that are said and the things
that are done, and the things that are counselled in the
silent chambers of the heart. Moreover, they are present
everywhere, and bestow signs upon man concerning all the
things of man.
I can, therefore, but repeat my former words. It is a
marvel to me how the Athenians came to be persuaded that
Socrates fell short of sober-mindedness as touching the gods.
A man who never ventured one impious word or deed against
the gods we worship, but whose whole language concerning
them, and his every act, closely coincided, word for word, and
deed for deed, with all we deem distinctive of devoutest piety.
II.-No less surprising to my mind is the belief that Socrates
corrupted the young. This man, who, beyond what has been
already stated, kept his appetites and passions under strict
control, who was pre-eminently capable of enduring winter's
cold and summer's heat and every kind of toil, who was so
schooled to curtail his needs that with the scantiest of means
he never lacked sufficiency, is it credible that such a man
could have made others irreverent or lawless, or licentious, or
effeminate in face of toil? Was he not rather the saving of
many through the passion for virtue which he roused in them,
and the hope he infused that through careful management of
themselves they might grow to be truly beautiful and good,
—not indeed that he ever undertook to be a teacher of virtue,
but being evidently virtuous himself he made those who
associated with him hope that by imitating they might at last
resemble him.
CH. II. § 4-9, SOCRATES NO CORRUPTER OF YOUTH 7
But let it not be inferred that he was negligent of his own
body or approved of those who neglected theirs. If excess of
eating, counteracted by excess of toil, was a dietary of which
he disapproved," to gratify the natural claim of appetite in
conjunction with moderate exercise was a system he favoured,
as tending to a healthy condition of the body without tram-
melling the cultivation of the spirit. On the other hand, there
was nothing dandified or pretentious about him ; he indulged
in no foppery of shawl or shoes, or other effeminacy of living.
Least of all did he tend to make his companions greedy
of money. He would not, while restraining passion generally,
make capital out of the one passion which attached others to
himself; and by this abstinence, he believed, he was best
consulting his own freedom ; in so much that he stigmatised
those who condescended to take wages for their society as
vendors of their own persons, because they were compelled to
discuss for the benefit of their paymasters. What surprised him
was that any one possessing virtue should deign to ask money
as its price instead of simply finding his reward in the acquisi-
tion of an honest friend, as if the new-fledged soul of honour
could forget her debt of gratitude to her greatest benefactor.
For himself, without making any such profession, he was
content to believe that those who accepted his views would
play their parts as good and true friends to himself and one
another their lives long. Once more then : how should a man
of this character corrupt the young P unless the careful cultiva-
tion of virtue be corruption.
But, says the accuser,” by all that's sacred did not Socrates
cause his associates to despise the established laws when he
dwelt on the folly of appointing state officers by ballot P*
a principle which, he said, no one would care to apply in
selecting a pilot or a flute-player or in any similar case, where
a mistake would be far less disastrous than in matters political.
Words like these, according to the accuser, tended to incite the
1 See [Plat..] Erast, 132 C.
* 6 kathyopos = Polycrates possibly. See M. Schanz, op. cit., Einleitung,
§ 6: Die Anklagerede des Polykrates, Introduction, p. xxxii. foll.
3 i.e. staking the election of a magistrate on the colour of a bean.
See Aristot. Azh. Pol. viii. 2, and Dr. Sandys ad loc.
8 - MEMORAIBILIA—BK. I, CH. II, § 9-14
young to contemn the established constitution, rendering them
violent and headstrong. But for myself I think that those who
cultivate wisdom and believe themselves able to instruct their
fellow-citizens as to their interests are least likely to become
partisans of violence. They are too well aware that to
violence attach enmities and dangers, whereas results as good
may be obtained by persuasion safely and amicably. For the
victim of violence hates with vindictiveness as one from whom
something precious has been stolen, while the willing subject
of persuasion is ready to kiss the hand which has done him a
service. Hence compulsion is not the method of him who
makes wisdom his study, but of him who wields power un-
tempered by reflection. Once more : the man who ventures on
violence needs the support of many to fight his battles, while
he whose strength lies in persuasiveness triumphs single-
handed, for he is conscious of a cunning to compel Consent
unaided. And what has such an one to do with the spilling
of blood P since how ridiculous it were to do men to death
rather than turn to account the trusty service of the living.
But, the accuser answers, the two men who wrought the
greatest evils to the state at any time—to wit, Critias and
Alcibiades—were both companions of Socrates, Critias the
oligarch, and Alcibiades the democrat. Where would you
find a more arrant thief, Savage, and murderer” than the one P
where such a portent of insolence, incontinence, and high-
handedness as the other P For my part, in so far as these
two wrought evil to the state, I have no desire to appear as
the apologist of either. I confine myself to explaining what
this intimacy of theirs with Socrates really was.
Never were two more ambitious citizens seen at Athens.
Ambition was in their blood. If they were to have their will,
all power was to be in their hands; their fame was to eclipse
all other. Of Socrates they knew—first that he lived an
absolutely independent life on the scantiest means; next that
he was self-disciplined to the last degree in respect of
* See Hell. I. and II. Žassim (Trans, vol. i. p. 16 foll., p. 4o foll.).
* Reading k\etttaratós Te kal 6tatóTaros kal povakdºratos, or if
TAeovekrto Tatós Te Kai 6tatótatos, translate “such a monster of greed and
violence as the one, of insolence, etc., as the other P " See Grote, A. G.
viii. 337. -
CH. II. § 14-19 AS TO CRITIAS AND ALCIBIADES 9
pleasures; lastly that he was so formidable in debate that
there was no antagonist he could not twist round his little
finger. Such being their views, and such the character of the
pair, which is the more probable : that they sought the Society of
Socrates because they felt the fascination of his life, and were
attracted by the bearing of the man P or because they thought,
if only we are leagued with him we shall become adepts in
statecraft and unrivalled in the arts of speech and action ?
For my part I believe that if the choice from Heaven had
been given them to live such a life as they saw Socrates living
to its close, or to die, they would both have chosen death.
Their acts are a conclusive witness to their characters.
They no sooner felt themselves to be the masters of those they
came in contact with than they sprang aside from Socrates
and plunged into that whirl of politics but for which they
might never have sought his society.
It may be objected : before giving his companions lessons
in politics Socrates had better have taught them sobriety.”
Without disputing the principle, I would point out that a
teacher cannot fail to discover to his pupils his method of
Carrying out his own precepts, and this along with argument-
ative encouragement. Now I know that Socrates disclosed
himself to his companions as a beautiful and noble being, who
would reason and debate with them concerning virtue and
other human interests in the noblest manner. And of these
two I know that as long as they were companions of Socrates
even they were temperate, not assuredly from fear of being
fined or beaten by Socrates, but because they were persuaded
for the nonce of the excellence of such conduct.
Perhaps some self-styled philosophers” may here answer :
“Nay, the man truly just can never become unjust, the
temperate man can never become intemperate, the man who
has learnt any subject of knowledge can never be as though
he had learnt it not.” That, however, is not my own con-
1 gag poorvuſ, = “sound-mindedness,” “temperance.” See below, IV.
iii. I.
* In reference to some such tenet as that of Antisthenes ap. Diog. Laert.
VI. ix. 30, dpéaket 6' at Toſs Kai Tàu dºpetºv Štěakthu cival, Kaffé pmaſtu 'Autt-
a 0éums év Tó ‘Hpak\e? Kal &vatró8XmTov Štrápxelv. Cf. Plat. Profag. 34o D,
344 D.
IO MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. II. § 19-23
clusion. It is with the workings of the soul as with those of
the body; want of exercise of the organ leads to inability of
function, here bodily, there spiritual, so that we can neither
do the things that we should nor abstain from the things
we should not. And that is why fathers keep their sons,
however temperate they may be, out of the reach of wicked
men, considering that if the society of the good is a training
in virtue so also is the society of the bad its dissolution.
To this the poet" is a witness, who says:
“From the noble thou shalt be instructed in nobleness ; but,
and if thou minglest with the base thou wilt destroy what wisdom
thou hast now ’’;
And he ” who says:
“But the good man has his hour of baseness as well as his
hour of virtue’—
to whose testimony I would add my own. For I see that it is
impossible to remember a long poem without practice and
repetition; so is forgetfulness of the words of instruction
engendered in the heart that has ceased to value them.
With the words of warning fades the recollection of the
very condition of mind in which the soul yearned after
holiness; and once forgetting this, what wonder that the man
should let slip also the memory of virtue itself Again I see
that a man who falls into habits of drunkenness or plunges
headlong into licentious love, loses his old power of practising
the right and abstaining from the wrong. Many a man
who has found frugality easy whilst passion was cold, no
sooner falls in love than he loses the faculty at once, and in
his prodigal expenditure of riches he will no longer withhold
his hand from gains which in former days were too base to
invite his touch. Where then is the difficulty of supposing
that a man may be temperate to-day, and to-morrow the
reverse; or that he who once has had it in his power to act
virtuously may not quite lose that power P “ To myself, at all
events, it seems that all beautiful and noble things are the
* Theognis, 35, 36. See Symp. ii. 4 (below, p. 299); Plat. Mem. 95 D.
* The author is unknown. See Plat. Protag. l.c.
* Cf. Cyrop. V. i. 9 foll, ; VI. i. 41.
CH. II, § 23-27 SOCRATES IIRRESPONSIBLE - I I
result of constant practice and training; and pre-eminently the
virtue of temperance, seeing that in one and the same bodily
frame pleasures are planted and spring up side by side with
the soul and keep whispering in her ear, “Have done with
self-restraint, make haste to gratify us and the body.” +
But to return to Critias and Alcibiades, I repeat that as
long as they lived with Socrates they were able by his support
to dominate their ignoble appetites; * but being separated
from him, Critias had to fly to Thessaly,” where he consorted
with fellows better versed in lawlessness than justice. And
Alcibiades fared no better. His personal beauty on the one
hand incited bevies of fine ladies 4 to hunt him down as fair
spoil, while on the other hand his influence in the state and
among the allies exposed him to the corruption of many an
adept in the arts of flattery; honoured by the democracy and
stepping easily to the front rank he behaved like an athlete
who in the games of the Palaestra is so assured of victory that
he neglects his training; thus he presently forgot the duty
which he owed himself.
Such were the misadventures of those two. Is the sequel
extraordinary P Inflated with the pride of ancestry,” exalted
by their wealth, puffed up by power, Sapped to the soul's
core by a host of human tempters, separate moreover for
many a long day from Socrates—what wonder that they
reached the full stature of arrogancy And for the
offences of these two Socrates is to be held responsible !
The accuser will have it so. But for the fact that in early
days, when they were both young and of an age when
dereliction from good feeling and self-restraint might have
been expected, this same Socrates kept them modest and well-
behaved, not one word of praise is uttered by the accuser for
all this. That is not the measure of justice elsewhere meted,
Would a master of the harp or flute, would a teacher of any
sort who has turned out proficient pupils, be held to account
because one of them goes away to another teacher and turns
1 See my remarks, Hellenica Essays, p. 371 foll.
* Cf. [Plat..] Theag, 130 A.
* See Hell. II. iii. 36 (Trans. vol. i. p. 57). * Cf. Plut. Ages., Alcib.
* Or, “became overweening in arrogance.” Cf. Henry VIII. II. iv. IIo :
“But your heart is crammed with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.”
I 2 MEMORABILIA—BR. I. CH. II. § 27-31
out to be a failure ? Or what father, if he have a son who
in the society of a certain friend remains an honest lad,
but falling into the company of some other becomes a good-
for-nothing, will that father straightway accuse the earlier
instructor P Will he not rather, in proportion as the boy
deteriorates in the company of the latter, bestow more heart-
felt praise upon the former ? What father, himself sharing
the society of his own children, is held to blame for their
transgressions, if only his own goodness be established P
Here would have been a fair test to apply to Socrates: Was
he guilty of any base conduct himself? If so let him be set
down as a knave, but if, on the contrary, he never faltered in
sobriety from beginning to end, how in the name of justice is
he to be held to account for a baseness which was not
in him P *
\, . I go further : if, short of being guilty of any wrong
himself, he saw the evil doings of others with approval, reason
were he should be held blameworthy. Listen then : Socrates
was well aware that Critias was attached to Euthydemus,"
aware too that he was endeavouring to deal by him after the
manner of those wantons whose love is carnal of the body.
From this endeavour he tried to deter him, pointing out how
illiberal a thing it was, how ill befitting a man of honour to
appear as a beggar before him whom he loved, in whose eyes
he would fain be precious, ever petitioning for something base
to give and base to get.
But when this reasoning fell on deaf ears and Critias
refused to be turned aside, Socrates, as the story goes, took
Occasion of the presence of a whole company and of Euthy-
demus to remark that Critias appeared to be suffering from a
Swinish affection, or else why this desire to rub himself against
Euthydemus, like a herd of piglings Scraping against stones.
The hatred of Critias to Socrates doubtless dates from this
incident. He treasured it up against him, and afterwards,
when he was one of the Thirty and associated with Charicles
as their official lawgiver,” he framed the law against teaching
! See below, IV. ii. 1 (if the same person).
* Lit. “Nomothetes.” See He/l. II. iii. 2; Dem. 706. For Charicles
See LyS. c. AE?’aéos/h. § 56 ; Aristot. Aol. v. 6, 6.
CH. II. § 31-35 SOCRATES AND THE THIRTY I 3
the art of words' merely from a desire to vilify Socrates. He
was at a loss to know how else to lay hold of him except by
levelling against him the vulgar charge " against philosophers,
by which he hoped to prejudice him with the public. It was
a charge quite unfounded as regards Socrates, if I may judge
from anything I ever heard fall from his lips myself or have
learnt about him from others. But the animus of Critias was
clear. At the time when the Thirty were putting citizens,
highly respectable citizens, to death wholesale, and when they
were egging on One man after another to the commission
of crime, Socrates let fall an observation : “It would be
sufficiently extraordinary if the keeper of a herd of cattle *
who was continually thinning and impoverishing his cattle
did not admit himself to be a sorry sort of herdsman, but
that a ruler of the state who was continually thinning and im-
poverishing the citizens should neither be ashamed nor admit
himself to be a sorry sort of ruler was more extraordinary
still.” The remark being reported to the government, Socrates
was summoned by Critias and Charicles, who proceeded
to point out the law and forbade him to converse with the
young. “Was it open to him,” Socrates inquired of the
speaker, “in case he failed to understand their commands in
any point, to ask for an explanation ?”
“Certainly,” the two assented.
Then Socrates: I am prepared to obey the laws, but to
avoid transgression of the law through ignorance I need
instruction : is it on the supposition that the art of words tends
to correctness of statement or to incorrectness that you bid us
abstain from it? for if the former, it is clear we must abstain
from speaking correctly, but if the latter, our endeavour
should be to amend our speech.
To which Charicles, in a fit of temper, retorted : In con-
sideration of your ignorance,” Socrates, we will frame the pro-
hibition in language better suited to your intelligence: we forbid
you to hold any conversation whatsoever with the young.
* See Diog. Laert. II. v. (Socr.).
* i.e. to row #TTa, Xóyou kpeſtra, Toleºv, “ of making the worse appear the
better cause.” Cf. Arist. Clouds.
* See Dio Chrys. Or. 43. * See Aristot, de Soph. EZ. 183 by.
I4 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. II, § 35-39
Then Socrates: To avoid all ambiguity then, or the
possibility of my doing anything else than what you are
pleased to command, may I ask you to define up to what age
a human being is to be considered young?
For just so long a time (Charicles answered) as he is
debarred from sitting as a member of the Council," as not
having attained to the maturity of wisdom ; accordingly you
will not hold converse with any one under the age of thirty.
Soc. In making a purchase even, I am not to ask,
what is the price of this? if the vendor is under the age of
thirty P -
Cha. Tut, things of that sort : but you know, Socrates,
that you have a way of asking questions, when all the while
you know how the matter stands. Let us have no questions
of that sort.
Soc. Nor answers either, I suppose, if the inquiry con-
cerns what I know, as, for instance, where does Charicles
live P or where is Critias to be found P
Oh yes, of course, things of that kind (replied Charicles),
while Critias added : But at the same time you had
better have done with your shoemakers, carpenters, and
coppersmiths.” These must be pretty well trodden out at
heel by this time, considering the circulation you have given
them.
Soc. And am I to hold away from their attendant topics
also—the just, the holy, and the like P
Most assuredly (answered Charicles), and from cowherds
in particular ; or else see that you do not lessen the number
of the herd yourself.
Thus the secret was out. The remark of Socrates about
the cattle had come to their ears, and they could not forgive
the author of it.
Perhaps enough has been said to explain the kind of
intimacy which had subsisted between Critias and Socrates,
and their relation to one another. But I will venture to
maintain that where the teacher is not pleasing to the pupil
1 The Boulé or Senate. See W. L. Newman, Pol. Aristol. i. 326.
* Cf. Plat. Goºg. 491 A ; Symp, 22I E ; Dio Chrys. Or, 55, 560 D,
564 A.
CH. II. § 39-44 OF ALCIBIADES AND PERICLES I5
there is no education. Now it cannot be said of Critias and
Alcibiades that they associated with Socrates because they
found him pleasing to them. And this is true of the whole
period. From the first their eyes were fixed on the headship
of the state as their final goal. During the time of their
intimacy with Socrates there were no disputants whom they
were more eager to encounter than professed politicians.
Thus the story is told of Alcibiades—how before the age
of twenty he engaged his own guardian Pericles, at that time
prime minister of the state, in a discussion concerning laws.
Alc. Please, Pericles, can you teach me what a law is P
A'e?". To be sure I can.
A/c. I should be so much obliged if you would do so.
One so often hears the epithet “law-abiding ” applied in a
Complimentary sense ; yet, it strikes me, one hardly deserves
the compliment, if one does not know what a law is.
Aer. Fortunately there is a ready answer to your diffi-
culty. You wish to know what a law is P. Well, those are
laws which the majority, being met together in conclave,
approve and enact as to what it is right to do, and what
it is right to abstain from doing.
A/c. Enact on the hypothesis that it is right to do what
is good? or to do what is bad?
Aer. What is good, to be sure, young sir, not what is bad.
A/c. Supposing it is not the majority, but, as in the case
of an oligarchy, the minority, who meet and enact the rules of
conduct, what are these ?
Aer. Whatever the ruling power of the state after
deliberation enacts as our duty to do, goes by the name of
/azv. -
Alc. Then if a tyrant, holding the chief power in the
state, enacts rules of Conduct for the citizens, are these enact-
ments law P
Aer. Yes, anything which a tyrant as head of the state
enacts, also goes by the name of law.
A/c. But, Pericles, violence and lawlessness—how do we
define them P Is it not when a stronger man forces a weaker
to do what seems right to him—not by persuasion but by
compulsion ?
I6 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. II. § 44-4
w
\
Per. I should say so.
A/c. It would seem to follow that if a tyrant, without
persuading the citizens, drives them by enactment to do cer-
tain things, that is lawlessness P
Aer. You are right ; and I retract the statement that
measures passed by a tyrant without persuasion of the citizens
are law.
Alc. And what of measures passed by a minority, not by
persuasion of the majority, but in the exercise of its power
Only P Are we, or are we not, to apply the term violence to
these ?
Aer. I think that anything which any one forces another
to do without persuasion, whether by enactment or not, is
violence rather than law.
Alc. It would seem that everything which the majority,
in the exercise of its power over the possessors of wealth, and
without persuading them, chooses to enact, is of the nature of
violence rather than of law P
To be sure (answered Pericles), adding : At your age
we were clever hands at such quibbles ourselves. It was
just such subtleties which we used to practise our wits upon ;
as you do now, if I mistake not.
To which Alcibiades replied : Ah, Pericles, I do wish
we could have met in those days when you were at your
cleverest in such matters.
Well, then, as soon as the desired superiority over the
politicians of the day seemed to be attained, Critias and
Alcibiades turned their backs on Socrates. They found his
society unattractive, not to speak of the annoyance of being
cross-questioned on their own shortcomings. Forthwith they
devoted themselves to those affairs of state but for which they
would never have come near him at all.
No ; if one would seek to see true companions of Socrates,
one must look to Crito," and Chaerephon, and Chaerecrates, to
Hermogenes, to Simmias and Cebes, to Phaedondes and others,
who clung to him not to excel in the rhetoric of the Assembly
or the law-courts, but with the nobler ambition of attaining to
* For these true followers, familiar to us in the pages of Plato (Crito,
Apol., Phaedo, etc.), see Cobet, Pros. Xen., and below, Index.
ch, II, § 48-52 THE TRUE COMPANIONS OF SOCRATES 17
Such beauty and goodliness of soul as would enable them to
discharge the various duties of life to house and family, to
relatives and friends, to fellow-citizens, and to the state at
large. Of these true followers not one in youth or old age was
ever guilty, or thought guilty, of Committing any evil deed.
“But for all that,” the accuser insists, “Socrates taught
sons to pour contumely on their fathers" by persuading his
young friends that he could make them wiser than their sires,
or by pointing out that the law allowed a son to sue his father
for aberration of mind, and to imprison him, which legal
ordinance he put in evidence to prove that it might be well
for the wiser to imprison the more ignorant.”
Now what Socrates held was, that if a man may with
justice incarcerate another for no better cause than a form of
folly or ignorance, this same person could not justly complain
if he in his turn were kept in bonds by his superiors in know-
ledge; and to come to the bottom of such questions, to dis-
cover the difference between madness and ignorance was
a problem which he was perpetually working at. His opinion
came to this: If a madman may, as a matter of expediency
to himself and his friends, be kept in prison, Surely, as a
matter of justice, the man who knows not what he ought to
know should be content to sit at the feet of those who know,
and be taught.
But it was the rest of their kith and kin, not fathers
only (according to the accuser), whom Socrates dishonoured in
the eyes of his circle of followers, when he said that “the sick
man or the litigant does not derive assistance from his relatives,”
but from his doctor in the one case, and his legal adviser in the
other.” “Listen further to his language about friends,” says the
accuser : “‘What is the good of their being kindly disposed,
unless they can be of some practical use to you? Mere
goodness of disposition is nothing; those only are worthy
of honour who combine with the knowledge of what is right
the faculty of expounding it; ” and so by bringing the young
* See Apol. 20 ; Arist. Clouds, 1407, where Pheidippides “drags his
father Strepsiades through the mire.” * See Grote, H. G. v. 535.
3 Cf. Thuc. ii. 60. Pericles says, “Yet I with whom you are so angry
venture to say of myself, that I am as capable as any one of devising and
explaining a Sound policy.”—Jowett.
VOL. III— I C
I8 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. II. § 52-56
to look upon himself as a superlatively wise person gifted with
an extraordinary capacity for making others wise also, he so
worked on the dispositions of those who consorted with him
that in their esteem the rest of the world Counted for nothing
by comparison with Socrates.”
Now I admit the language about fathers and the rest of a
man's relations. I can go further, and add some other sayings
of his, that “when the soul (which is alone the indwelling centre
of intelligence) is gone out of a man, be he our nearest and
dearest friend, we carry the body forth and bury it out of
sight.” “Even in life,” he used to say, “each of us is ready
to part with any portion of his best possession—to wit, his own
body—if it be useless and unprofitable. He will remove it
himself, or suffer another to do so in his stead. Thus men
cut off their own nails, hair, or corns; they allow surgeons
to cut and cauterise them, not without pains and aches, and
are so grateful to the doctor for his services that they further
give him a fee. Or again, a man ejects the spittle from his
mouth as far as possible." Why? Because it is of no use
while it stays within the system, but is detrimental rather.”
Now by these instances his object was not to inculcate the
duty of burying one's father alive or of cutting oneself to
bits, but to show that lack of intelligence means lack of
worth ; * and so he called upon his hearers to be as sensible
and useful as they could be, so that, be it father or brother or
any one else whose esteem he would deserve, a man should not
hug himself in Careless self-content, trusting to mere relation-
ship, but strive to be useful to those whose esteem he coveted.
But (pursues the accuser) by carefully culling the most
immoral passages of the most famous poets, and using
them as evidences, he taught his associates to be evildoers
and tyrannical : the line of Hesiod * for instance—
No work is a disgrace; slackness of work is the disgrace—
“interpreted,” says the accuser, “by Socrates as if the poet
enjoined upon us to abstain from no work wicked or ignoble;
do everything for the sake of gain.”
* See Aristot. Eth. Æzzd. vii. I.
* i.e. “wit/ess and worthless are synonymous.”
* Works and Days, 309"Epyov 6' ow8év čvetó0s. Cf. Plat. Charm, 163 c.
cH. II. § 57-59 SOCRATES AND HIS FAVOURITE TEXTS I9
Now while Socrates would have entirely admitted the pro-
positions that “it is a blessing and a benefit to a man to be a
worker,” and that “a lazy do-nothing is a pestilent evil,” that
“work is good and idleness a curse,” the question arises,
whom did he mean by workers ? In his vocabulary only those
were good workmen" who were engaged on good work;
dicers and gamblers and others engaged on any other base
and ruinous business he stigmatised as the “idle drones";
and from this point of view the quotation from Hesiod is
unimpeachable—
No work is a disgrace; only idlesse is disgrace.
But there was a passage from Homer * for ever on his lips,
as the accuser tells us—the passage which says concerning
Odysseus,
- What prince, or man of name,
He found flight-giv'n, he would restrain with words of gentlest
blame :
“Good sir, it fits not you to fly, or fare as one afraid,
You should not only stay yourself, but see the people stayed.”
Thus he the best sort us’d ; the worst, whose spirits brake out in
noise,”
He cudgell'd with his sceptre, chid, and said, “Stay, wretch, be
still,
And hear thy betters; thou art base, and both in power and skill
Poor and unworthy, without name in counsel or in war,”
We must not all be kings.
The accuser informs us that Socrates interpreted these lines
as though the poet approved the giving of blows to commoners
and poor folk. Now no such remark was ever made by
Socrates; which indeed would have been tantamount to main-
taining that he ought to be beaten himself. What he did say
was, that those who were useful neither in word nor deed,
who were incapable of rendering assistance in time of need to
the army or the state or the people itself, be they never so
1 See below, III. ix. 9, p. III. * Z. ii. 188 foll., 199 foll. (so Chapman).
3 Lit. “But whatever man of the people he saw and found him shouting.”
—W. Leaf.
2O MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH, II, § 59-63
wealthy, ought to be restrained, and especially if to incapacity
they added effrontery. -
As to Socrates, he was the very opposite of all this—he
was plainly a lover of the people, and indeed of all mankind.
Though he had many ardent admirers among citizens and
strangers alike, he never demanded any fee for his society
from any one," but bestowed abundantly upon all alike of the
riches of his soul—good things, indeed, of which fragments
accepted gratis at his hands were taken and sold at high prices
to the rest of the community by some,” who were not, as he
was, lovers of the people, since with those who had not money
to give in return they refused to discourse. But of Socrates
be it said that in the eyes of the whole world he reflected
more honour on the state and a richer lustre than ever Lichas,”
whose fame is proverbial, shed on Lacedaemon. Lichas
feasted and entertained the foreign residents in Lacedaemon
at the Gymnopaediae most handsomely. Socrates gave a life-
time to the outpouring of his substance in the shape of the
greatest benefits bestowed on all who cared to receive them.
In other words, he made those who lived in his society better
men, and sent them on their way rejoicing.
To no other conclusion, therefore, can I come but that,
being so good a man, Socrates was worthier to have received
honour from the state than death. And this I take to be the
strictly legal view of the case, for what does the law require? 4
“If a man be proved to be a thief, a filcher of clothes, a cut-
purse, a housebreaker, a man-stealer, a robber of temples, the
penalty is death.” Even so ; and of all men Socrates stood
most aloof from such crimes.
To the state he was never the cause of any evil—neither
disaster in war, nor faction, nor treason, nor any other mis-
chief whatsoever. And if his public life was free from all
offence, so was his private. He never hurt a single soul either
by deprivation of good or infliction of evil, nor did he ever lie
under the imputation of any of those misdoings. Where
* See Symp. iv. 43 (below, p. 321); Plat. Hiſp, maj. 300 D ; Apol. 19 E.
* See Diog. Laert. II. viii. 1.
* See Hell. III. ii. 21 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 16); Thuc. v. 5o ; Plut. C#/.
284 C. For the Gymnopaediae, see Paus. III. xi. 9; Athen. xiv. p. 631.
* See Symp. iv. 36 (below, p. 320); Plat. Rep. 575 B; Gorg. 508 E.
::::::::::::) THE AUTHOR'S RECOZZECTIONS 2 I
then is his liability to the indictment to be found 2 Who,
So far from disbelieving in the gods, as set forth in the indict-
ment, was conspicuous beyond all men for service to heaven ;
So far from corrupting the young — a charge alleged with
insistence by the prosecutor—was notorious for the zeal with
which he strove not only to stay his associates from evil desires,
but to foster in them a passionate desire for that loveliest and
queenliest of virtues without which states and families crumble
to decay." Such being his conduct, was he not worthy of high
honour from the state of Athens? J \
\
III.-It may serve to illustrate the assertion that he
benefited his associates partly by the display of his own virtue
and partly by verbal discourse and argument, if I set down my
various recollections” on these heads. And first with regard
to religion and the concerns of heaven. In conduct and lan-
guage his behaviour conformed to the rule laid down by the
Pythia” in reply to the question, “How shall we act P” as
touching a sacrifice or the worship of ancestors, or any similar
point. Her answer is : “Act according to the lazy and custom
of your state, and you will act pious/y.” After this pattern
Socrates behaved himself, and so he exhorted others to behave,
holding them to be but busybodies and vain fellows who acted
on any different principle. - -
His formula of prayer was simple : “Give me that which
is best for me,” 4 for, said he, the gods know best what
good things are—to pray for gold or silver or despotic power
were no better than to make some particular throw at dice or
stake in battle or any such thing the subject of prayer, of .
which the future consequences are manifestly uncertain.”
If with scant means he offered but small sacrifices he
believed that he was in no wise inferior to others who make
frequent and large sacrifices from an ampler store. It were
* Or, “the noblest and proudest virtue by means of which states and
families are prosperously directed.”
* Hence the title of the work, 'Atropºv muoveſpata, Recollections, Memoirs,
Memorabilia. See Diog. Laert. Xen. II. vi. 48.
* The Pythia at Delphi. z
* See Trans. vol. i., Sketch of Life, p. lxxix.
* See (Plat.) Alcib. II. I.42 foll. ; Valerius Max, vii. 2; Spectator, No. 207.
22 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. III. § 3-5
ill surely for the very gods themselves, could they take delight
in large sacrifices rather than in small, else oftentimes must
the offerings of bad men be found acceptable rather than of
good; nor from the point of view of men themselves would
life be worth living if the offerings of a villain rather than of
a righteous man found favour in the sight of Heaven. His
belief was that the joy of the gods is greater in proportion to
the holiness of the giver, and he was ever an admirer of that
line of Hesiod which says,
According to thine ability do sacrifice to the immortal gods."
“Yes,” he would say, “in our dealings with friends and
strangers alike, and in reference to the demands of life in
general, there is no better motto for a man than that : “Jeff a
man do according ſo his ability.’” -
Or to take another point. If it appeared to him that a
sign from heaven had been given him, nothing would have
induced him to go against the heavenly warning : he would
as soon have been persuaded to accept the guidance of a blind
man ignorant of the path to lead him on a journey in place
of one who knew the road and could see ; and so he de-
nounced the folly of others who do things contrary to the
warnings of God in order to avoid some disrepute among
men. For himself he despised all human aids by comparison
with counsel from above. N
The habit and style of living to which he subjected his
soul and body was one which under ordinary circumstances”
would enable any one adopting it to look existence cheerily
in the face and to pass his days serenely : it would certainly
entail no difficulties as regards expense. So frugal was it
that a man must work little indeed who could not earn the
quantum which contented Socrates. Of food he took just
enough to make eating a pleasure—the appetite he brought
to it was sauce sufficient ; while as to drinks, seeing that
he only drank when thirsty, any draught refreshed.” If he
* Hesiod, Works and Days, 336. See Amab. III. ii. 9.
* el puff to 6alpövtov et m, “save under some divinely-ordained calamity.”
Cf. Cyrop. I. vi. 18; Symp. viii. 43 (below, p. 348).
* See Ages. ix. (Trans. vol. ii. p. 265); Cic. Tusc. v. 34, 97 ; de Fin. ii.
28, 9o.
cH. III. § 6-10 THE DANGER OF A KISS 23
accepted an invitation to dinner, he had no difficulty in avoid-
ing the common snare of over-indulgence, and his advice to
people who could not equally control their appetites was to avoid
taking what would allure them to eat if not hungry or to
drink if not thirsty.” Such things are ruinous to the consti-
tution, he said, bad for stomach, brain, and Soul alike ; or as
he used to put it, with a touch of sarcasm,” “It must have
been by feasting men on so many dainty dishes that Circé
produced her pigs; only Odysseus through his continency and
the ‘promptings “ of Hermes’ abstained from touching them
immoderately, and by the same token did not turn into a
swine.” So much for this topic, which he touched thus lightly
and yet seriously.
But as to the concerns of Aphrodite, his advice was to
hold strongly aloof from the fascination of fair forms : once lay
finger on these and it is not easy to keep a sound head and
a sober mind. To take a particular case. It was a mere
kiss which, as he had heard, Critobulus * had some time given
to a fair youth, the son of Alcibiades.” Accordingly Critobulus
being present, Socrates propounded the question.
Soc. Tell me, Xenophon, have you not always believed
Critobulus to be a man of sound sense, not wild and self-willed P
Should you not have said that he was remarkable for his
prudence rather than thoughtless or foolhardy ?
Aen. Certainly that is what I should have said of him.
Soc. Then you are now to regard him as quite the reverse—
a hot-blooded, reckless libertine : this is the sort of man to
throw somersaults into knives," or to leap into the jaws of fire.
Aen. And what have you seen him doing, that you give him
so bad a character P -
Soc. Doing? Why, has not the fellow dared to steal a kiss
* Cf. Plut. Mor. 128 D ; Clement, Paedag. 2, 173, 33 ; Strome. 2, 492,
24 ; Aelian, AW. A. 8, 9.
* “Half in gibe and half in jest,
led them in . . . ''
* Štroffmu.ogºvº), “inspiration.” Cf. Z/. xv. 412 ; Od. xvi. 233.
* For Critobulus (the son of Crito) see below, Econ. i. 1 foll, ; Symp.
i. 3 foll. *
* See Isocr. Or. xvi. Cobet conj. Töv Toij 'Aštěxov vióv, i.e. Clinias.
6 Cf. Symp. ii. Io, iv. 16. See Schneider ad loc.
in ref. to Od. x. 233 ſoll. : “So she
24 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. - CH. III. § 10-14
from the son of Alcibiades, most fair of youths and in the
golden prime? “...
Aem. Nay, then, if that is the foolhardy adventure, it is a
danger which I could well encounter myself.
Soc. Poor soul and what do you expect your fate to be
after that kiss? Let me tell you. On the instant you will lose
your freedom, the indenture of your bondage will be signed ; it
will be yours on compulsion to spend large sums on hurtful
pleasures; you will have scarcely a moment's leisure left for
any noble study; you will be driven to concern yourself most
zealously with things which no man, not even a madman,
would choose to make an object of concern.
Aen. O Heracles | how fell a power to reside in a kiss
Soc. Does it surprise you ? Do you not know that the taran-
tula, which is no bigger than a threepenny bit," has only
to touch the mouth and it will afflict its victim with pains and
drive him out of his senses.
Men. Yes, but then the creature injects something with its
bite. -
Soc. Ah, fool! and do you imagine that these lovely
creatures infuse nothing with their kiss, simply because you
cannot see the poison P Do you not know that this wild
beast which men call beauty in its bloom is all the
more terrible than the tarantula in that the insect must first
touch its victim, but this at a mere glance of the beholder,
without even contact, will inject something into him—yards
away—which will make him mad. And may be that is why
the Loves are called “archers,” because these beauties wound
so far off.” But my advice to you, Xenophon, is, when-
ever you catch sight of one of these fair forms, to run helter-
skelter for bare life without a glance behind ; and to you,
Critobulus, I would say, “Go abroad for a year: so long time
will it take to heal you of this wound.” -
Such (he said), in the affairs of Aphrodité, as in meats and
drinks, should be the circumspection of all whose footing is
* Lit. “a half-obol piece.” For the pa)\dºyytov see Aristot. H. A. ix.
39, I.
* L. Dindorf, etc., regard the sentence as a gloss; cf. below, Symp. iv.
26 [forws 6é Kal . . . Švtup.6tépôv éo Tuv].
:::::::: ***) SOCRATES MADE PEOPLE BETTER 25
CH. Iv. § 1, 2
insecure. At least they should confine themselves to such
diet as the soul would dispense with, save for some necessity
of the body; and which even so ought to set up no disturbance."
But for himself, it was clear, he was prepared at all points
and invulnerable. He found less difficulty in abstaining
from beauty’s fairest and fullest bloom than many others
from weeds and garbage. To sum up : * with regard to eating
and drinking and these other temptations of the sense, the
equipment of his soul made him independent; he could boast
honestly that in his moderate fashion * his pleasures were no
less than theirs who take such trouble to procure them, and
his pains far fewer.
IV.-A belief is current, in accordance with views maintained
Concerning Socrates in speech and writing, and in either case
conjecturally, that, however powerful he may have been in
Stimulating men to virtue as a theorist, he was incapable of
acting as their guide himself.” It would be well for those
who adopt this view to weigh carefully not only what
Socrates effected “by way of castigation * in cross - question-
ing those who conceived themselves to be possessed of all
knowledge, but also his everyday conversation with those
who spent their time in close intercourse with himself. Hav-
ing done this, let them decide whether he was incapable of
making his Companions better.
I will first state what I once heard fall from his lips in a
discussion with Aristodemus,” “the little,” as he was called, on
the topic of divinity.” Socrates had observed that Aristodemus
neither sacrificed nor gave heed to divination, but on the Con-
trary was disposed to ridicule those who did.
* Cf. Symp. iv. 38 (below, p. 320).
* L. Dindorf [brackets] this passage as spurious.
* On the principle ‘‘ enough is as good as a feast,” dpkoúvros.
* Al. “If any one believes that Socrates, as represented in certain dialogues
(e.g. of Plato, Antisthenes, etc.) of an imaginary character, was an adept
(Tpotpéyao 6at) in the art of stimulating people to virtue negatively but
Scarcely the man to guide (Tpodºyely) his hearers on the true path himself.”
Cf. (Plat.) Clitophon, 410 B ; Cic. de O.'. I. xlvii. 204; Plut. Mor. 798 B. See
Grote, Plato, iii. 21 ; K. Joel, op. cit. p. 51 foll, ; cf. below, IV. iii. 2, p. 147.
* See Plat. Symp. 173 B : “He was a little fellow who never wore any
shoes, Aristodemus, of the deme of Cydathenaeum.”—Jowett.
° Or, “the divine element.”
26 MEMORABILIA—BIK. I. cH. Iv. § 2-6
Tell me, Aristodemus (he began), are there any human
beings who have won your admiration for their wisdom P
Az". There are.
Soc. Would you mention to us their names P
Ar. In the writing of epic poetry I have the greatest
admiration for Homer. . . . And as a dithyrambic poet for
Melanippides." I admire also Sophocles as a tragedian, Poly-
Cleitus as a Sculptor, and Zeuxis as a painter. -
Soc. Which should you consider the more worthy of ad-
miration, a fashioner of senseless images devoid of motion or
one who could fashion living creatures endowed with under-
standing and activity P
Ar. Decidedly the latter, provided his living creatures
owed their birth to design and were not the offspring of some
chance.
Soc. But now if you had two sorts of things, the one of
which presents no clue as to what it is for, and the other is
obviously for some useful purpose—which should you judge
to be the result of chance, which of design P
Ar. Clearly that which is produced for some useful end
is the work of design.
Soc. Does it not strike you then that he who made man from
the beginning” did for some useful end furnish him with his
several senses—giving him eyes to behold the visible world,
and ears to catch the intonations of sound P Or again, what
good would there be in odours if nostrils had not been
bestowed upon us? what perception of sweet things and
pungent, and of all the pleasures of the palate, had not a
tongue been fashioned in us as an interpreter of the same P
And besides all this, do you not think this looks like a matter
of foresight, this closing of the delicate orbs of sight with
eyelids as with folding doors, which, when there is need to
use them for any purpose, can be thrown wide open and
firmly closed again in sleep? and, that even the winds of heaven
may not visit them too roughly, this planting of the eyelashes
like a protecting screen P* this coping of the region above the
* Melanippides, 430 B.C. See Cobet, Pros. Xen. s. n. -
* Cf. Aristot. de Part. Animal. I. For the “teleological" views see
IV. iii. 2 foll. (below, p. 148). * “Like a sieve " or “colander.”
CH. IV. § 6-8 SOCRATES AND ARISTODEMUS ON DEITY 27
eyes with Cornice-work of eyebrow so that no drop of sweat
fall from the head and injure them P again this readiness
of the ear to catch all sounds and yet not to be surcharged P
this capacity of the front teeth of all animals to cut and of
the “grinders” to receive the food and reduce it to pulp ?
the position of the mouth again, close to the eyes and
nostrils as a portal of ingress for all the creature's supplies P
and lastly, seeing that matter passing out 4 of the body is
unpleasant, this hindward direction of the passages, and their
removal to a distance from the avenues of sense P I ask you,
when you see all these things constructed with such show of
foresight can you doubt whether they are products of chance
or intelligence P -
Ar. To be sure not Viewed in this light they would seem
to be the handiwork of some wise artificer,” full of love for all
things living.”
Soc. What shall we say of this passion implanted in man
to beget offspring, this passion in the mother to rear her
babe, and in the creature itself, once born, this deep desire
of life and fear of death P
Ar. No doubt these do look like the contrivances of some
One deliberately planning the existence of living creatures.
Soc. Well, and doubtless you feel to have a spark of
wisdom yourself?
Ar. Put your questions, and I will answer.
Soc. And yet you imagine that elsewhere no spark of
wisdom is to be found P And that, too, when you know that
you have in your body a tiny fragment only of the mighty
earth, a little drop of the great waters, and of the other ele-
ments, vast in their extent, you got, I presume, a particle of each
towards the compacting of your bodily frame P Mind alone, it
would seem, which is nowhere to be found,” you had the lucky
Chance to Snatch up and make off with, you cannot tell how.
* “That which goeth out of a man.” * “Demiurge.”
* Passage referred to by Epictetus ap. Stob. Flor. 121, 29.
* Cf. Plat. Phileb. 30 B : “Soc. May our body be said to have a soul?
Pro. Clearly. Soc. And whence comes that soul, my dear Protarchus, unless
the body of the universe, which contains elements similar to our bodies but
finer, has also a soul ? Can there be any other source 7"-Jowett. Cic.
de AW. O. ii. 6 ; iii. T.I.
28 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. Iv. § 8-12
And these things around and about us, enormous in size,
infinite in number, owe their orderly arrangement, as you
Suppose, to some vacuity of wit?
Ar. It may be, for my eyes fail to see the master agents
of these, as one sees the fabricators of things produced on
earth.
Soc. No more do you see your own soul, which is the
master agent of your body; SO that, as far as that goes, you
may maintain, if you like, that you do nothing with intelligence,"
but everything by chance.
At this point Aristodemus : I assure you, Socrates, that
I do not disdain the Divine power. On the contrary, my
belief is that the Divinity is too grand to need any service
which I could render.
Soc. But the grander that power is, which deigns to
tend and wait upon you, the more you are called upon to
honour it.
Ar. Be well assured, if I could believe the gods take
thought at all for men, I would not neglect them.
Soc. How can you suppose that they do not so take
thought? Who, in the first place, gave to man alone of
living creatures his erect posture, enabling him to see farther
in front of him and to contemplate more freely the height
above, and to be less subject to distress than other creatures
ſendowed like himself with eyes and ears and mouth].” Con-
sider next how they gave to the beast of the field & feet as a
means of progression only, but to man they gave in addition
hands—those hands which have achieved so much to raise us
in the scale of happiness above all animals. Did they not
make the tongue also P which belongs indeed alike to man
and beast, but in man they fashioned it so as to play on
different parts of the mouth at different times, whereby we
can produce articulate speech, and have a Code of signals to
express our every want to one another. Or consider the
pleasures of the sexual appetite: limited in the rest of the
animal kingdom to certain seasons, but in the case of man a
* Or, “by your wit,” Yvdºpºm.
* See Kühner for an attempt to cure the text.
* @ptreroſs, a “poetical” word. Cf. Od, iv. 418 ; Herod. i. 140.
CH. Iv. § 12-16 TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 29
series prolonged unbroken to old age. Nor did it content
the Godhead merely to watch over the interests of man's
body. What is of far higher import, he implanted in man
the noblest and most excellent type of soul. For what other
creature, to begin with, has a soul to appreciate the existence
of the gods who have arranged this grand and beauteous
universe P What other tribe of animals save man can render
service to the gods? How apt is the spirit of man to take
precautions against hunger and thirst, Cold and heat, to
alleviate disease and foster strength ! how suited to labour
with a view to learning ! how capable of garnering in the
storehouse of his memory all that he has heard or seen or
understood | Is it not most evident to you that by the side
of other animals men live and move a race of gods—by nature
excellent, in beauty of body and of Soul Supreme P For, mark
you, had a creature of man's wit been encased in the body of
an ox," he would have been powerless to carry out his wishes,
just as the possession of hands divorced from human wit is
profitless. And then you come, you who have obtained these
two most precious attributes, and give it as your opinion that
the gods take no thought or care for you. Why, what will
you have them to do, that you may believe and be persuaded
that you too are in their thoughts P
Ar. When they treat me as you tell us they treat you,
and send me counsellors to warn me what I am to do and
what abstain from doing,” I will believe.
Soc. Send you counsellors | Come now, what when the
people of Athens make inquiry by Oracle, and the gods’
answer comes P Are you not an Athenian P. Think you not
that to you also the answer is given P What when they send
portents to forewarn the states of Hellas? Or to all mankind P
Are you not a man? a Hellene? Are not these intended for
you also P Can it be that you alone are excepted as a signal
instance of Divine neglect? Again, do you suppose that the
gods could have implanted in the heart of man the belief in
their capacity to work him weal or woe had they not the
power P Would not men have discovered the imposture in all
1 See Aristot, de Parf. Animal. iv. Io.
* See IV. iii. 12 (below, p. 151).
3O MEMORABILIA—BIK. I. (ººº-
this lapse of time P Do you not perceive that the wisest and
most perdurable of human institutions—be they cities or tribes
of men—are ever the most God-fearing ; and in the individual
man the riper his age and judgment, the deeper his religious-
ness? Ah, my good sir (he broke forth), lay to heart and
understand that even as your own mind within you can turn
and dispose of your body as it lists, so ought we to think that
the wisdom which abides within the universal frame does so
dispose of all things as it finds agreeable to itself; for hardly
may it be that your eye is able to range over many a league,
but that the eye of God is powerless to embrace all things at
a glance ; or that to your Soul it is given to dwell in thought
on matters here or far away in Egypt or in Sicily, but that the
wisdom and thought of God is not sufficient to include all
things at one instant under His care. If only you would
copy your own behaviour" where human beings are concerned.
It is by acts of service and of kindness that you discover
which of your fellows are willing to requite you in kind. It
is by taking another into your counsel that you arrive at the
secret of his wisdom. If, on like principle, you will but make
trial of the gods by acts of service, whether they will choose
to give you counsel in matters obscure to mortal vision, you
shall discover the nature and the greatness of Godhead to be
such that they are able at once to see all things and to hear
all things and to be present everywhere, nor does the least
thing escape their watchful care.
To my mind the effect of words like these was to cause
those about him to hold aloof from unholiness, baseness, and
injustice, not only whilst they were seen of men, but even in
the solitary place, since they must believe that no part of their
conduct could escape the eye of Heaven. -
v.–I suppose it may be taken as admitted that self-control
is a noble acquirement for a man.” If so, let us turn and
consider whether by language like the following he was likely
to lead his listeners onwards “ to the attainment of this virtue.
“Sirs,” he would say, “if a war came upon us and we wished
* Or, “reason as you are wont to do.”
* Lit. “a beautiful and brave possession.” * Tpoë813a; e.
CH. v. § 1-5 SELF-MASTERY THE KELSON OF VIRTUE 3 I
to choose a man who would best help us to save ourselves and
to subdue our enemy, I suppose we should scarcely select one
whom we knew to be a slave to his belly, to wine, or lust, and
prone to succumb to toil or sleep. Could we expect such an
one to save us or to master our foes? Or if one of us were
nearing the end of his days, and he wished to discover some
one to whom he might entrust his sons for education, his
maiden daughters for protection, and his property in general
for preservation, would he deem a libertine worthy of such
offices P Why, no one would dream of entrusting his flocks
and herds, his storehouses and barns, or the superintendence
of his works to the tender mercies of an intemperate slave.
If a butler or an errand boy with such a character were offered
to us we would not take him as a free gift. And if he would
not accept an intemperate slave, what pains should the master
himself take to avoid that imputation." For with the incon-
tinent man it is not as with the self-seeker and the covetous.
These may at any rate be held to enrich themselves in depriv-
ing others. But the intemperate man cannot claim in like
fashion to be a blessing to himself if a curse to his neighbours;
nay, the mischief which he may cause to others is nothing by
comparison with that which redounds against himself, since it
is the height of mischief to ruin—I do not say one's own
house and property—but one's own body and one's own soul.
Or to take an example from social intercourse, no one cares
for a guest who evidently takes more pleasure in the wine and
the viands than in the friends beside him—who stints his
comrades of the affection due to them to dote upon a mistress.
Does it not come to this, that every honest man is bound to
look upon self-restraint as the very corner-stone of virtue: *
which he should seek to lay down as the basis and foundation
of his soul? Without self-restraint who can lay any good lesson .
to heart or practise it when learnt in any degree worth speaking
of P Or, to put it conversely, what slave of pleasure will not
suffer degeneracy of soul and body ? By Hera,” well may
* Or, “how should the master himself beware lest he fall into that
category.” * kpmſtröa. See Pind. Py/h. iv. 138; ió. vii. 3 ; b. fr. 93.
* See below, III. x. 9, xi. 5; IV. ii. 9, iv. 8; Æcon. x. 1 ; CyroA. I. iv.
12 ; Plat. Phaedr. 230 B. Cf. Shakesp. “by'r Lakin.”
32 MEMORABILIA—BK. I.
{: V. § 5, 6–
CH. VI. § I-4
every free man pray to be saved from the service of such
a slave ; and well too may he who is in bondage to such
pleasures supplicate Heaven to send him good masters, seeing
that is the one hope of salvation left him.”
Well-tempered words: yet his self-restraint shone forth
even more in his acts than in his language. Not only was
he master over the pleasures which flow from the body, but
of those also which are fed by riches, his belief being that he
who receives money from this or that chance donor sets up
over himself a master, and binds himself to an abominable
slavery.
VI.-In this context some discussions with Antiphon the
sophistl deserve record. Antiphon approaches Socrates in
hope of drawing away his associates, and in their presence thus
accosts him.
Antiphon. Why, Socrates, I always thought it was expected
of students of philosophy to grow in happiness daily; but you
seem to have reaped other fruits from your philosophy. At
any rate, you exist, I do not say live, in a style such as no
slave serving under a master would put up with. Your meat
and your drink are of the cheapest sort, and as to clothes,
you cling to one wretched cloak which serves you for summer
and winter alike; and so you go the whole year round, without
shoes to your feet or a shirt to your back. Then again, you
are not for taking or making money, the mere seeking of
which is a pleasure, even as the possession of it adds to the
sweetness and independence of existence. I do not know
whether you follow the common rule of teachers, who try to
fashion their pupils in imitation of themselves,” and propose
to mould the characters of your companions; but if you
do you ought to dub yourself professor of the art of
wretchedness.” -
Thus challenged, Socrates replied : One thing to me
is certain, Antiphon; you have conceived so vivid an idea of
* 6 reparookóiros, “jealous of Socrates,” according to Aristotle ap, Diog.
Laert. II. v. 25. See Cobet, Pros. Xen.
? Or, ‘‘try to turn out their pupils as copies of themselves.”
* See Arist. Clouds, Öy 6 kako6alpaju 2wkpárms kal Xalpeqów.
CH. VI. § 4-9 SOCRATES AND ANTIPHON THE SOPHIST 33
my life of misery that for yourself you would choose death
Sooner than live as I do. Suppose now we turn and consider
what it is you find so hard in my life. Is it that he who
takes payment must as a matter of contract finish the work
for which he is paid, whereas I, who do not take it, lie under
no constraint to discourse except with whom I choose P Do
you despise my dietary on the ground that the food which I
eat is less wholesome and less strengthening than yours, or
that the articles of my consumption are so scarce and so much
costlier to procure than yours? Or have the fruits of your
marketing a flavour denied to mine? Do you not know the
sharper the appetite the less the need of sauces, the keener
the thirst the less the desire for out-of-the-way drinks P And as
to raiment, clothes, you know, are changed on account of cold
or else of heat. People only wear boots and shoes in order
not to gall their feet and be prevented walking. Now I ask
you, have you ever noticed that I keep more within doors
than others on account of the cold P. Have you ever seen me
battling with any one for shade on account of the heat P or
prevented walking to my heart's content by a sore heel ? Do
you not know that even a weakling by nature may, by dint of
exercise and practice, Come to outdo a giant who neglects
his body ? He will beat him in the particular point of
training, and bear the strain more easily. But you apparently
will not have it that I, who am for ever training myself to endure
this, that, and the other thing which may befall the body, can
brave all hardships more easily than yourself for instance, who
perhaps are not so practised. And to escape slavery to the belly
or to sleep or lechery, can you suggest more effective means
than the possession of some more powerful attraction, some
L^
counter-charm which shall gladden not only in the using, but
by the hope enkindled of its lasting usefulness? And yet this"
you do know : joy is not to him who feels that he is doing
well in nothing — it belongs to one who is persuaded that
things are progressing with him, be it tillage or the work-
ing of a vessel," or any of the thousand and one things on
which a man may chance to be employed. To him it is
given to rejoice as he reflects, “I am doing well.” But is the
1 “The business of a shipowner or skipper.”
WOL. III— I D
34 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. VI. § 9-13
pleasure derived from all these put together half as joyous as
the consciousness of becoming better oneself, of acquiring
better and better friends P. That, for my part, is the belief I
continue to cherish.
Again, if it be a question of helping one's friends or country,
which of the two will have the larger leisure to devote to these
objects—he who leads the life which I lead to-day, or he who
lives in the style which you deem so fortunate P Which of the
two will adopt a soldier's life more easily—the man who cannot
get on without expensive living, or he to whom whatever comes
to hand suffices P. Which will be the readier to capitulate and
cry “mercy” in a siege—the man of elaborate wants, or he
who can get along happily with the readiest things to hand?
You, Antiphon, would seem to suggest that happiness consists
in luxury and extravagance; I hold a different Creed. To
have no wants at all is, to my mind, an attribute of God-
head;" to have as few wants as possible the nearest approach
to Godhead ; and as that which is divine is mightiest, so that
is next mightiest which comes closest to the divine.
Returning to the charge at another time, this same
Antiphon engaged Socrates in conversation thus. -
Ant. Socrates, for my part, I believe you to be a good and
upright man; but for your wisdom I cannot say much. I
fancy you would hardly dispute the verdict yourself, since,
as I remark, you do not ask a money payment for your
society; and yet if it were your cloak now, or your house, or
any other of your possessions, you would set some value upon
it, and never dream, I will not say of parting with it gratis,
but of exchanging it for less than its worth. A plain proof,
to my mind, that if you thought your society worth anything,
you would ask for it not less than its equivalent in gold.”
Hence the conclusion to which I have come, as already
Stated : good and upright you may be, since you do not
cheat people from pure selfishness; but wise you cannot be
since your knowledge is not worth a cent.
To this onslaught Socrates : Antiphon, it is a tenet
which we cling to that beauty and wisdom have this in
common, that there is a fair way and a foul way in which to
* Cf. Aristot. Æth. W. x. vii. I. - ? Or rather “money,” lit. ‘‘silver.”
...” APOZoCIA PRO WITA SVA 35
dispose of them. The vendor of beauty purchases an evil
name, but supposing the same person have discerned a soul
of beauty in his lover and makes that man his friend, we
regard his choice as sensible.” So is it with wisdom ; he who
sells it for money to the first bidder we name a sophist,” as
though one should say a man who prostitutes his wisdom ;
but if the same man, discerning the noble nature of another,
shall teach that other, every good thing, and make him his
friend, of such an one we say he does that which it is the
duty of every good citizen of gentle soul to do. In accordance
with this theory, I too, Antiphon, having my tastes, even as
another finds pleasure in his horse and his hounds,” and
another in his fighting Cocks, so I too take my pleasure in
good friends; and if I have any good thing myself I teach
it them, or I commend them to others by whom I think they
will be helped forwards in the path of virtue. The treasures
also of the wise of old, written and bequeathed in their
books,” I unfold and peruse in common with my friends. If
our eye light upon any good thing we cull it eagerly, and
regard it as great gain if we may but grow in friendship with
one another.
As I listened to this talk I could not but reflect that he,
the master, was a person to be envied, and that we, his hearers,
were being led by him to beauty and nobility of soul.
Again on some occasion the same Antiphon asked
Socrates how he expected to make politicians of others
when, even if he had the knowledge, he did not engage in
politics himself. -
Socrates replied : I will also put to you a question,
Antiphon : Which were the more statesmanlike proceeding,
to practise politics myself single-handed, or to devote myself
to making as many others as possible fit to engage in that
pursuit P
VII.—Let us here turn and consider whether by deterring his
associates from quackery and false seeming he did not directly
1 Add “and a sign of modesty,” ordiq pova vopºlšowev.
* oroquoités. See Grote, H. G. viii, 482 foll, ; Hunting, xi, foll,
* Cf. Plat. Lys, 2II E. * Cf. Symp. iv. 27 (below, p. 317).
36 MEMORABILIA—BK. I. CH. VII. § 1-4
stimulate them to the pursuit of virtue." He used often to
say there was no better road to renown than the one by
which a man became good in that wherein he desired to
be reputed good.” The truth of the precept he enforced as
follows : “Let us reflect on what a man would be driven to do
who wanted to be thought a good flute player, without really
being so. He would be forced to imitate the good flute
player in the externals of his art, would he not P and first of
all, seeing that these artists always have a splendid equipment,”
and travel about with a long train of attendants, he must have
the same ; in the next place, they can command the plaudits
of a multitude, he therefore must pack a conclave of clackers.
But one thing is clear : nothing must induce him to give a
performance, or he will be exposed at once, and find himself
a laughing-stock not only as a Sorry sort of flute player,
but as a wretched impostor. And now he has a host of
expenses to meet ; and not one advantage to be reaped ;
and worse than all his evil reputation. What is left him
but to lead a life stale and unprofitable, the scorn and
mockery of men P Let us try another case. Suppose a man
wished to be thought a good general or a good pilot, though
he were really nothing of the sort, let us picture to our minds
how it will fare with him. Of two misfortunes one : either
with a strong desire to be thought proficient in these matters,
he will fail to get others to agree with him, which will be bad
enough ; or he will succeed, with worse result ; since it stands
to reason that any one appointed to work a vessel or lead an
army without the requisite knowledge will speedily ruin a
number of people whom he least desires to hurt, and will
make but a sorry exit from the stage himself.” Thus first by
one instance and then another would he demonstrate the
unprofitableness of trying to appear rich, or courageous, or
strong, without really being the thing pretended. “You are
sure sooner or later to have commands laid upon you beyond
your power to execute, and failing just where you are credited
* &troTpétrov Tpotºrpetrev. See K. Joel, op. cit, p. 450 foll.
* Cf. Cyrop. I. vi. 22.
* Or, “furniture of the finest,” like Arion's in Herod. i. 24. Schneid. cf.
Demosth. 565. 6.
CH. VII. § 5 THE RUIN OF FALSE-SEEMING 37
with capacity, the world will give you no commiseration.”
“I call that man a cheat, and a great cheat too,” he would
say, “who gets money or goods out of some one by per-
suasion, and defrauds him ; but of all impostors he surely
is the biggest who can delude people into thinking that he
is fit to lead the state, when all the while he is a worth-
less creature.”
* Here follows the sentence [époi peu offv éööket kal toº d\aćovelſea'6at
&Torpétrely toys avvövtas Totòe 6ta\eyögevos], which, for the sake of con-
venience, I have attached to the first sentence of Bk. II. ch. i. (over the page),
[éööket 6é pou . . . tróvov.] I believe that the commentators are right in
bracketing both one and the other as editorial interpolations. See next note.
B O O K II. I. I–2
I.—Now if the effect of such discourses was, as I imagine,
to deter his hearers from the paths of quackery and false-seem-
ing," so I am sure that language like the following was calculated
to stimulate his followers to practise self-control and endur-
ance : self-control in the matters of eating, drinking, sleeping,
and the cravings of lust; endurance of cold and heat and toil
and pain. He had noticed the undue licence which one of
his acquaintances allowed himself in all such matters.” Accord-
ingly he thus addressed him :
Tell me, Aristippus (Socrates said), Supposing you had
two children entrusted to you to educate, one of whom,
must be brought up with an aptitude for government, and the
other without the faintest propensity to rule—how would
you educate them P What do you say P Shall we begin our
inquiry from the beginning, as it were, with the bare elements
of food and nutriment P
Ar. Yes, food to begin with, by all means, being a first
principle,” without which there is no man living but would
perish.
Soc. Well, then, we may expect, may we not, that a desire
to grasp food at certain seasons will exhibit itself in both the
children P V
Ar. It is to be expected.
Soc. Which, then, of the two must be trained, of his own
free will,” to prosecute a pressing business rather than gratify
the belly P p
* This sentence in the Greek concludes Bk. I. There is something wrong
or very awkward in the text here. See Introductory Remarks, p. xx.
* Cf. Grote, Plato, III. xxxviii. p. 53o.
* Aristippus plays upon the word ápxń. * Tpoaipeats.
©
CH. I. § 2-4 SOCRATES AND ARISTIPPUS 39
Ar. No doubt the one who is being trained to govern,
if we would not have affairs of state neglected during 4 his
government.
Soc. And the same pupil must be furnished with a power
of holding out against thirst also when the craving to quench
it comes upon him P
Ar. Certainly he must.
Soc. And on which of the two shall we confer such self-
control in regard to sleep as shall enable him to rest late and
rise early, or keep vigil, if the need arise P
Ar. To the same one of the two must be given that
endurance also.
Soc. Well, and a continence in regard to matters sexual so
great that nothing of the sort shall prevent him from doing
his duty P Which of them claims that P
Ar. The same one of the pair again.
Soc. Well, and on which of the two shall be bestowed, as
a further gift, the voluntary resolution to face toils rather
than turn and flee from them P
Ar. This, too, belongs of right to him who is being trained
for government.
Soc. Well, and to which of them will it better accord to
be taught all knowledge necessary towards the mastery of
antagonists?
Ar. To our future ruler certainly, for without these parts
of learning all his other capacities will be merely waste.
Soc. *Will not a man so educated be less liable to be
entrapped by rival powers, and so escape a common fate of
living creatures, some of which (as we all know) are hooked
through their own greediness, and often even in spite of a
native shyness; but through appetite for food they are drawn
towards the bait, and are caught ; while others are similarly
ensnared by drink?
Ar. Undoubtedly.
Soc. And others again are victims of amorous heat, as
quails, for instance, or partridges, which, at the cry of the hen-
bird, with lust and expectation of such joys grow wild, and
! Lit. ‘‘ along of.”
* [Š$ 4, 5, L. Dind. ed. Lips, l.
4O MEMORABILIA—BK. II. - CH. I. § 4-7
lose their power of computing dangers: on they rush, and
fall into the snare of the hunter P
Aristippus assented.
Soc. And would it not seem to be a base thing for a man
to be affected like the silliest bird or beast P as when the
adulterer invades the innermost sanctum" of the house, though
he is well aware of the risks which his crime involves,” the
formidable penalties of the law, the danger of being caught in
the toils, and then suffering the direst contumely. Consider-
ing all the hideous penalties which hang over the adulterer's
head, considering also the many means at hand to release him
from the thraldom of his passion, that a man should so drive
headlong on to the quicksands of perdition *—what are we to
say of such frenzy P. The wretch who can so behave must
surely be tormented by an evil spirit P*
Ar. So it strikes me.
Soc. And does it not strike you as a sign of strange in-
difference that, whereas the greater number of the indispensable
affairs of men, as, for instance, those of war and agriculture,
and more than half the rest, need to be conducted under the
broad canopy of heaven,” yet the majority of men are quite
untrained to wrestle with cold and heat P
Aristippus again assented.
Soc. And do you not agree that he who is destined to rule
must train himself to bear these things lightly P
Ar. Most certainly.
Soc. And whilst we rank those who are self-disciplined
in all these matters among persons fit to rule, we are bound
to place those incapable of such conduct in the category of
persons without any pretension whatsoever to be rulers ?
Az'. I assent.
Soc. Well, then, since you know the rank peculiar to either
Section of mankind, did it ever strike you to consider to which
of the two you are best entitled to belong?
* els Tús eipkrás, the penetralia.
* Or, “he knows the risks he runs of suffering those penalties with which
the law threatens his crime should he fall into the snare, and being caught,
be mutilated.'' * Or, “leap headlong into the jaws of danger.”
* Kako6alpovávros. See above, I. i. 9, p. 3, Öaipovăv.
* Or, “in the open air."
CH. I. § 8-10 SELF-CONTROL V. SELF-INDULGENCE 4 I
Yes, I have (replied Aristippus). I do not dream for
a moment of ranking myself in the class of those who wish to
rule. In fact, considering how serious a business it is to
Cater for one's own private needs, I look upon it as the mark
of a fool not to be content with that, but to further saddle
oneself with the duty of providing the rest of the com-
munity with whatever they may be pleased to want. That, at
the cost of much personal enjoyment, a man should put him-
self at the head of a state, and then, if he fail to carry through
every jot and tittle of that state's desire, be held to criminal
account, does seem to me the very extravagance of folly.
Why, bless me ! states claim to treat their rulers precisely as
I treat my domestic slaves. I expect my attendants to furnish
me with an abundance of necessaries, but not to lay a finger
on one of them themselves. So these states regard it as the
duty of a ruler to provide them with all the good things
imaginable, but to keep his own hands off them all the while."
So then, for my part, if anybody desires to have a heap of
pother himself,” and be a nuisance to the rest of the world, I
will educate him in the manner suggested, and he shall take
his place among those who are fit to rule; but for myself, I
beg to be enrolled amongst those who wish to spend their
days as easily and pleasantly as possible.
Soc. Shall we then at this point turn and inquire which of the
two are likely to lead the pleasanter life, the rulers or the ruled P
Ar. By all means let us do so.
Soc. To begin then with the nations and races known to
ourselves.” In Asia the Persians are the rulers, while the
Syrians, Phrygians, Lydians are ruled ; and in Europe we find
the Scythians ruling, and the Maeotians being ruled. In Africa “
the Carthaginians are rulers, the Libyans ruled. Which of
these two sets respectively leads the happier life, in your
Opinion ? Or, to come nearer home—you are yourself a
Hellene—which among Hellenes enjoy the happier existence,
think you, the dominant or the subject states ?
* Or, “but he must have no finger in the pie himself.”
* See Kühner ad loc.
* Or, “the outer world, the non-Hellenic nationalities and races of which
we have any knowledge.” 4 Lit. “Libya."
42 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. I. § 11-14
Nay,” I would have you to understand (exclaimed Aristippus)
that I am just as far from placing myself in the ranks of slavery ;
there is, I take it, a middle path between the two which it is
my ambition to tread, avoiding rule and slavery alike ; it lies
through freedom—the high road which leads to happiness.
Soc. True, if only your path could avoid human beings,
as it avoids rule and slavery, there would be something in
what you say. But being placed as you are amidst human
beings, if you purpose neither to rule nor to be ruled, and do
not mean to dance attendance, if you can help it, on those who
rule, you must Surely see that the stronger have an art to seat
the weaker on the stool of repentance” both in public and in
private, and to treat them as slaves. I daresay you have
not failed to note this common case : a set of people has
Sown and planted, whereupon in comes another set and cuts
their corn and fells their fruit-trees, and in every way lays
siege to them because, though weaker, they refuse to pay
them proper court, till at length they are persuaded to accept
slavery rather than war against their betters. And in private
life also, you will bear me out, the brave and powerful are
known to reduce the helpless and the cowardly to bondage,
and to make no small profit out of their victims.
Ar. Yes, but I must tell you I have a simple remedy
against all such misadventures. I do not confine myself to
any single civil community. I roam the wide world a foreigner.
Soc. Well, now, that is a masterly stroke, upon my word | *
Of course, ever since the decease of Sinis, and Sciron, and
Procrustes,” foreign travellers have had an easy time of it. But
still, if I bethink me, even in these modern days the members
of free communities do pass laws in their respective countries
for self-protection against wrong-doing. Over and above
their personal connections, they provide themselves with
a host of friends; they gird their cities about with walls and
* Or, “Pardon me interrupting you, Socrates; but I have not the slightest
intention of placing myself.” See W. L. Newman, op. cit. i. 306.
* See below, Symp. iii, II ; Cyrop. II. ii. 14 ; Plat. Jon, 535 E ; L. Dindorf
ad loc.
* Or, “Well foiled !” “A masterly fall ! my prince of wrestlers.”
* For these mythical highway robbers, see Diod. iv. 59 ; and for Sciron in
particular, Plut. Theseus, Io.
CH. I. § 14-17 NO WZA /l/ZZO/A 43
battlements; they collect armaments to ward off evil-doers;
and to make security doubly sure, they furnish themselves
with allies from foreign states. In spite of all which defensive
machinery these same free citizens do occasionally fall victims
to injustice. But you, who are without any of these aids;
you, who pass half your days on the high roads where iniquity is
rife;" you, who, into whatever city you enter, are less than
the least of its free members, and moreover are just the sort of
person whom any one bent on mischief would single out for
attack—yet you, with your foreigner's passport, are to be
exempt from injury? So you flatter yourself. And why? Will
the state authorities cause proclamation to be made on your
behalf: “The person of this man Aristippus is secure ; ſet his
going out and his coming in be free from danger” P Is
that the ground of your confidence? or do you rather rest
Secure in the consciousness that you would prove such a slave
as no master would care to keep P For who would care to
have in his house a fellow with so slight a disposition to work
and so strong a propensity to extravagance P Suppose we
stop and Consider that very point : how do masters deal with
that sort of domestic P If I am not mistaken, they chastise
his wantonness by starvation ; they balk his thieving tendencies
by bars and bolts where there is anything to steal; they hinder
him from running away by bonds and imprisonment; they
drive the sluggishness out of him with the lash. Is it not so P
Or how do you proceed when you discover the like tendency
in one of your domestics? * S
Ar. I correct them with all the plagues, till I force them
to serve me properly. But, Socrates, to return to your pupil
educated in the royal art,” which, if I mistake not, you hold
to be happiness : how, may I ask, will he be better off than
others who lie in evil case, in spite of themselves, simply
because they suffer perforce, but in his case the hunger and
the thirst, the cold shivers and the lying awake at nights, with
all the changes he will ring on pain, are of his own choosing P
1 Or, “where so many suffer wrong.”
* Cf. below, IV, ii. II ; Plat. Statesm. 259 B ; Euthyd. 291 C ; K. Joel,
op. cit. p. 387 foll. “Aristippus anticipates Adeimantus" (Rep. 419),
W. L. Newman, op. cit, i. 395.
44 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. I. § 18-20
For my part I cannot see what difference it makes, pro-
vided it is one and the same bare back which receives the
stripes, whether the whipping be self-appointed or unasked
for ; nor indeed does it concern my body in general, provided
it be my body, whether I am beleaguered by a whole armament
of such evils" of my own will or against my will—except only
for the folly which attaches to self-appointed suffering.
Soc. What, Aristippus, does it not seem to you that, as
regards such matters, there is all the difference between
voluntary and involuntary suffering, in that he who starves of
his own accord can eat when he chooses, and he who thirsts
of his own free will can drink, and so for the rest ; but he
who suffers in these ways perforce cannot desist from the
suffering when the humour takes him P Again, he who suffers
hardship voluntarily, gaily confronts his troubles, being
buoyed on hope”—just as a hunter in pursuit of wild beasts,
through hope of capturing his quarry, finds toil a pleasure,
and these are but prizes of little worth in return for their
labours; but what shall we say of their reward who toil to
obtain to themselves good friends, or to subdue their enemies,
or that through strength of body and soul they may administer
their households well, befriend their friends, and benefit the
land which gave them birth P Must we not suppose that these
too will take their sorrows lightly, looking to these high ends?
Must we not suppose that they too will gaily confront exist-
ence, who have to support them not only their conscious
virtue, but the praise and admiration of the world?” And
once more, habits of indolence, along with the fleeting
pleasures of the moment, are incapable, as gymnastic trainers
Say, of setting up 4 a good habit of body, or of implanting in
the soul any knowledge worthy of account; whereas by pains-
taking endeavour in the pursuit of high and noble deeds, as
good men tell us, through endurance we shall, in the end
attain the goal. So Hesiod somewhere says:"
* Cf. “suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”
* Cf. above, I. vi. 8.
* Or, “in admiration of themselves, the praise and envy of the world at
large." 4 See Hippocrates, V. Med. I8.
* Hesiod, Works and Days, 285. See Plat. Prof. 34o C ; Rep. ii. 364 D ;
Alazus, iv. 718 E. -
CH. I. § 20-22 HESIOD, EPICHARMUS, PRODICUS 45
Wickedness may a man take wholesale with ease, Smooth
is the way and her dwelling-place is very nigh ; but in front of
virtue the immortal gods have placed toil and sweat, long is the
path and steep that leads to her, and rugged at the first, but
when the summit of the pass is reached, then for all its roughness
the path grows easy.
And Epicharmus * bears his testimony when he says:
The gods sell us all good things in return for our labours.
And again in another passage he exclaims:
Set not thine heart on soft things, thou knave, lest thou
light upon the hard.
And that wise man Prodicus” delivers himself in a like
strain concerning virtue in that composition of his about
Heracles, which crowds have listened to.” This, as far as I
can recollect it, is the substance at least of what he says:
“When Heracles was emerging from boyhood into the
bloom of youth, having reached that season in which the
young man, now standing upon the verge of independence,
shows plainly whether he will enter upon the path of virtue or
of vice, he went forth into a quiet place, and sat debating
with himself which of those two paths he should pursue ; and
as he there sat musing, there appeared to him two women
of great stature which drew nigh to him. The one was fair
to look upon, frank and free by gift of nature,” her limbs
adorned with purity and her eyes with bashfulness; sobriety
set the rhythm of her gait, and she was clad in white apparel.
The other was of a different type; the fleshy softness of her
limbs betrayed her nurture, while the complexion of her skin
was embellished that she might appear whiter and rosier
than she really was, and her figure that she might seem taller
* Epicharmus of Cos, the chief comic poet among the Dorians, fl. 500 B.C.
Cf. Plat. ZTheaet. I 52 E, ‘‘the prince of comedy"; Goºg. 505 D.
* Prodicus of Ceos. See Plat. lºſen. 24; Cratyl. I ; Philostr. Vit.
Soph. i. I2.
* Or, “which he is fond of reciting as a specimen of style.” The title of
the étriðeußis was’Qpat according to Suidas, IIpóðukos.
* Reading éNev6éptov piſa.et, . . . or if \ev6éptov, pögel . . . translate
“nature had adorned her limbs. ". . .
46 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. I. § 22-27
than nature made her; she stared with wide-open eyes, and
the raiment wherewith she was clad served but to reveal
the ripeness of her bloom. With frequent glances she sur-
veyed her person, or looked to see if others noticed her ;
while ever and anon she fixed her gaze upon the shadow of
herself intently. -
“Now when these two had drawn nearer to Heracles, she who
was first named advanced at an even pace" towards him, but the
other, in her eagerness to Outstrip her, ran forward to the youth,
exclaiming, “I see you, Heracles, in doubt and difficulty what
path of life to choose ; make me your friend, and I will lead
you to the pleasantest road and easiest. This I promise you :
you shall taste all of life's Sweets and escape all bitters. In
the first place, you shall not trouble your brain with war or
business; other topics shall engage your mind; * your only
speculation, what meat or drink you shall find agreeable
to your palate ; what delight” of ear or eye; what pleasure
of smell or touch ; what darling lover's intercourse shall
most enrapture you ; how you shall pillow your limbs in
softest slumber ; how cull each individual pleasure without
alloy of pain ; and if ever the suspicion steal upon you that
the stream of joys will one day dwindle, trust me I will not
lead you where you shall replenish the store by toil of body
and trouble of Soul. No others shall labour, but you shall
reap the fruit of their labours ; you shall withhold your
hand from nought which shall bring you gain. For to all my
followers I give authority and power to help themselves freely .
from every side.’ v'
“Heracles hearing these words made answer: “What, O
lady, is the name you bear P’ To which she ‘Know that
my friends call me Happiness, but they that hate me have
their own nicknames * for me, Vice and Naughtiness.’
“But just then the other of those fair women approached
1 Or, “without change in her demeanour.”
* Reading Övéan . . . or öuota et, “you shall continue speculating solely.”
* It will be recollected that Prodicus prided himself on 6p6órms duopºdrov.
Possibly Xenophon is imitating (caricaturing 2) his style. Tepp6etms, ja:0elms,
eūq pav0etms. -
* So the vulg. Ütrokopuśćpevot is interpreted. Cobet (Pros. Xen. p. 36)
suggests ijtrokvušópºevol = “quippe qui desiderio pungantur.”
CH. I. § 27-30 “THE CHOICE OF HERACLES 47
and spoke : ‘Heracles, I too am come to you, seeing that your
parents are well known to me, and in your nurture I have
gauged your nature; wherefore I entertain good hope that if
you choose the path which leads to me, you shall greatly bestir
yourself to be the doer of many a doughty deed of noble
emprise; and that I too shall be held in even higher honour
for your sake, lit with the lustre shed by valorous deeds.' I
will not cheat you with preludings of pleasure,” but I will
relate to you the things that are according to the ordinances
of God in very truth. Know then that among things that are
lovely and of good report, not one have the gods bestowed
upon mortal man apart from toil and pains. Would you
obtain the favour of the gods, then must you pay these same
gods service; would you be loved by your friends, you must
benefit these friends; do you desire to be honoured by the
state, you must give the state your aid ; do you claim admira-
tion for your virtue from all Hellas, you must strive to do
some good to Hellas; do you wish earth to yield her fruits
to you abundantly, to earth must you pay your court; do you
seek to amass riches from your flocks and herds, on them
must you bestow your labour; or is it your ambition to be
potent as a warrior, able to save your friends and to subdue
your foes, then must you learn the arts of war from those who
have the knowledge, and practise their application in the field
when learned ; or would you e'en be powerful of limb and
body, then must you habituate limbs and body to obey the
mind, and exercise yourself with toil and sweat.’
“At this point (as Prodicus relates) Vice broke in exclaim-
ing: ‘See you, Heracles, how hard and long the road is
by which yonder woman would escort you to her festal joys.”
But I will guide you by a short and easy road to happiness.’
“Then spoke Virtue : ‘Nay, wretched one, what good
thing hast thou? or what Sweet thing art thou acquainted with
—that wilt stir neither hand nor foot to gain it? Thou, that
mayest not even await the desire of pleasure, but, or ever that
desire springs up, art already Satiated : eating before thou
1 Or, “bathed in the splendour of thy virtues.”
* Or, ‘‘honeyed overtures of pleasure.”
* Hesiod, Theog, 909 ; Milton, L'Allegro, I2.
48 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. I. § 30-32
hungerest, and drinking before thou thirstest ; who to eke out
an appetite must invent an army of Cooks and Confectioners;
and to whet thy thirst must lay down costliest wines, and
run up and down in search of ice in Summer-time ; to
help thy slumbers soft coverlets suffice not, but couches and
feather-beds must be prepared thee and rockers to rock thee
to rest ; since desire for sleep in thy case springs not from
toil but from vacuity and nothing in the world to do. Even
the natural appetite of love thou forcest prematurely by every
means thou mayest devise, confounding the sexes in thy
service. Thus thou educatest thy friends: with insult in the
night season and drowse of slumber during the precious hours
of the day. Immortal, thou art cast forth from the company
of gods, and by good men art dishonoured : that sweetest
sound of all, the voice of praise, has never thrilled thine
ears ; and the fairest of all fair visions is hidden from thine
eyes that have never beheld one bounteous deed wrought
by thine own hand. If thou openest thy lips in speech,
who will believe thy words P. If thou hast need of aught,
none shall satisfy thee. What sane man will venture to
join thy rabble rout? Ill indeed are thy revellers to look
upon, young men impotent of body, and old men witless
in mind: in the heyday of life they batten in sleek idleness,
and wearily do they drag through an age of wrinkled wretched-
ness : and why? they blush with shame at the thought of
deeds done in the past, and groan for weariness at what is
left to do. During their youth they ran riot through their
sweet things, and laid up for themselves large store of bitter-
ness against the time of eld. But my companionship is with
the gods; and with the good among men my conversation ;
no bounteous deed, divine or human, is wrought without
my aid. Therefore am I honoured in Heaven pre-eminently,
and upon earth among men whose right it is to honour me; *
as a beloved fellow-worker of all craftsmen ; a faithful guardian
of house and lands, whom the owners bless; a kindly help-
meet of servants;” a brave assistant in the labours of peace;
an unflinching ally in the deeds of war; a sharer in all friend-
* Reading ois trpoofſket, or if trpool’ſkaj, translate “to whom I am attached.”
* Cf. below, Econ. v. 8, p. 219.
::::::::: *} “ENISUs ARCES ATTIGIT IGNEAs 49
- \
ships indispensable. V To my friends is given an enjoyment
of meats and drinks, which is sweet in itself and devoid of
trouble," in that they can endure until desire ripens, and sleep
more delicious visits them than those who toil not. Yet they
are not pained to part with it; nor for the sake of slumber do
they let slip the performance of their duties. Among my
followers the youth delights in the praises of his elders, and
the old man glories in the honour of the young ; with joy .
they call to memory their deeds of old, and in to-day's well-
doing are well pleased. For my sake are they dear in the
sight of God, beloved of their friends and honoured by the
country of their birth. When the appointed goal is reached
they lie not down in oblivion with dishonour, but bloom
afresh—their praise resounded on the lips of men for ever.”
Toils like these, O son of noble parents, Heracles, it is yours
to meet with, and having endured, to enter into the heritage
assured you of transcendent happiness.’”
This, Aristippus, in rough sketch is the theme which Pro-
dicus pursues * in his “Education of Heracles by Virtue,” only
he decked out his sentiments, I admit, in far more magnificent
phrases than I have ventured on. Were it not well, Aristippus,
to lay to heart these sayings, and to strive to bethink you
somewhat of that which touches the future of our life P
II.-At another time he had noticed the angry temper
shown by Lamprocles, the elder of his sons, towards their
mother, and thus addressed himself to the lad.
Soc. Pray, my son, did you ever hear of certain people
being called ungrateful ?
That I have (replied the young man).
Soc. And have you understood what it is they do to get
that bad name P
Zamp. Yes, I have : when any one has been kindly
treated, and has it in his power to requite the kindness
but neglects to do so, men call him ungrateful.
* See above, $ 30, Trépufféovoſa as opposed to dTpáypov here.
* Or “so true is it, a branch is left them ; undying honour to their
name ! ”
* Reading Öttöket, al. Öuffices = “so Prodicus arranged the parts of his dis-
course."
V() [.,.. III — I E.
5O MEMORABILIA—-BK. II. CH. II. § 1-5
Soc. And you admit that people reckon the ungrateful
among wrongdoers ?
Jam/. I do.
Soc. And has it ever struck you to inquire whether, as
regards the right or wrong of it, ingratitude may not perhaps
resemble some such conduct as the enslavement, say, of
prisoners, which is accounted wrong towards friends but justi-
fiable towards enemies?
Aamp. Yes, I have put that question to myself. In my
opinion, no matter who confers the kindness, friend or foe,
the recipient should endeavour to requite it, failing which he
is a wrongdoer.
Soc. Then if that is how the matter stands, ingratitude
must be an instance of pure unadulterate wrongdoing?
Lamprocles assented to the proposition.
Soc. It follows then, that in proportion to the greatness of
the benefit conferred, the greater his misdoing who fails to
requite the kindness?
Lamprocles again assented.
Socrates continued : And where can we hope to find
greater benefits than those which children derive from their
parents—the father and mother who brought them out of
nothingness into being, who granted them to look upon all
these fair sights, and to partake of all those blessings which the
gods bestow on man, things so priceless in our eyes that one
and all we shudder at the bare thought of leaving them, and
states have made death the penalty for the greatest crimes,
because there is no greater evil through fear of which to stay
iniquity. -
You do not suppose that human beings produce children
for the sake of carnal pleasure * merely ; were this the motive,
street and bordell are full of means to quit them of that thrall;
whereas nothing is plainer than the pains we take to seek out
wives who shall bear us the finest children.” With these we
wed, and carry on the race. The man has a twofold duty to
perform : partly in cherishing her who is to raise up children
along with him, and partly towards the children yet unborn in
* Lit. “the joys of Aphrodite.”
* “For the procreation of children." See below, IV. iv. 22 ; Po/. Lac, i.
CH. II, § 5-8 SOCRATES AND HIS SON LAMPROCLES 5 I
providing them with things that he thinks will contribute to
their well-being—and of these as large store as possible. The
woman, conceiving, bears her precious burthen with travail and
pain, and at the risk of life itself—sharing with that within
her womb the food on which she herself is fed. And when
with much labour she has borne to the end and brought forth
her offspring, she feeds it and watches over it with tender
care—not in return for any good thing previously received,
for indeed the babe itself is little conscious of its benefactor
and cannot even signify its wants; only she, the mother, making
conjecture of what is good for it and what will please it,
essays to satisfy it; " and for many months she feeds it night
and day, enduring the toil nor recking what return she shall
receive for all her trouble. Nor does the care and kindness of
parents end with nurture; but when their children seem of an
age to learn, they teach them themselves whatever cunning
they possess, as a guide to life, or where they feel that another
is more competent, to him they send them to be taught at their
expense. Thus they watch over their children, doing all in their
power to enable them to grow up to be as good as possible.
So be it (the youth answered); but even if she have
done all that, and twenty times as much, no soul on earth
could endure my mother's Cross-grained temper.
Then Socrates: Which, think you, would be harder to bear
—a wild beast's savagery or a mother's P
Zamp. To my mind, a mother's—at least if she be such
as mine.
Soc. Dear me ! And has this mother ever done you any
injury—such as people frequently receive from beasts, by bite
Or kick P -
Zamp. If she has not done quite that, she uses words which
any one would sooner sell his life than listen to.
Soc. And how many annoyances have you caused your
mother, do you suppose, by fretfulness and peevishness in
word and deed, night and day, since you were a little boy P
How much sorrow and pain, when you were ill?
Zamp. Well, I never said or did anything to bring a blush
to her cheeks.
* Lit. “to leave nought lacking.'
52 MEMORABILIA—BIK. II. CH. II. § 9-12
Soc. Nay, come now ! Do you suppose it is harder for
you to listen to your mother's speeches than for actor to listen
to actor on the tragic stage," when the floodgates of abuse are
opened P
Zamſ. Yes; for the simple reason that they know it is all talk
on their parts. The inquisitor may cross-question, but he will
not inflict a fine ; the threatener may hurl his menaces, but
he will do no mischief—that is why they take it all so easily.
Soc. Then Ought you to fly into a passion, who know well
enough that, whatever your mother says, she is so far from
meaning you mischief that she is actually wishing blessings to
descend upon you beyond all others? Or do you believe that
your mother is really ill disposed towards you ?
Zamp. No, I do not think that.
Soc. Then this mother, who is kindly disposed to you,
and takes such tender care of you when you are ill to make
you well again, and to see that you want for nothing which may
help you ; and, more than all, who is perpetually pleading for
blessings in your behalf and offering her vows to Heaven,”
—can you say of her that she is cross-grained and harsh P For
my part, I think, if you cannot away with such a mother, you
cannot away with such blessings either.
But tell me (he proceeded), do you owe service to any
living being, think you? Or are you prepared to stand alone?
Prepared not to please or try to please a single soul P to follow
none P To obey neither general nor ruler of any sort P Is
that your attitude, or do you admit that you owe allegiance to
somebody ? .
Alamp. Yes; certainly I owe allegiance.
Soc. May I take it that you are willing to please at any rate
your neighbour, so that he may kindle a fire for you in your
need, may prove himself a ready helpmate in good for-
tune, or if you chance on evil and are stumbling, may friendlily
stand by your side to aid P
Zamſ. I am willing.
Soc. Well, and what of the chance companion—your
fellow-traveller by land or sea P what of any others, you may
light upon P is it indifferent to you whether these be friends or
* See Grote, H. G. viii. 457; Plut. Solon, xxix. * Or, “paying vows.”
CH. II. § 12-14–
:::::::::: *} A SON's DUTY TO HIS MOTHER 53
not, or do you admit that the goodwill of these is worth
Securing by Some pains on your part P
Zamp. I do.
Soc. It stands thus then : you are prepared to pay attention
to this, that, and the other stranger, but to your mother
who loves you more than all else, you are bound to render
no service, no allegiance P Do you not know that whilst
the state does not concern itself with ordinary ingratitude or
pass judicial sentence on it ; whilst it overlooks the thankless-
ness of those who fail to make return for kindly treatment, it
reserves its pains and penalties for the special case ? If a
man render not the service and allegiance due to his parents,
on him the finger of the law is laid; his name is struck off
the roll; he is forbidden to hold the archonship, which is as
much as to say, “Sacrifices in behalf of the state offered by such
a man would be no offerings, being tainted with impiety; nor
could aught else be ‘well and justly performed of which he
is the doer.” Heaven help us ! If a man fail to adorn the
sepulchre of his dead parents the state takes cognisance of the
matter, and inquisition is made in the scrutiny of magistrates."
And as for you, my son, if you are in your sober senses, you
will earnestly entreat Heaven to pardon you wherein you have
offended against your mother, lest the very gods take you to
be an ungrateful being, and on their side also refuse to do you
good ; and you will beware of men also, lest they should
perceive your neglect of your parents, and with one Consent
hold you in dishonour;” and so you find yourself in a desert
devoid of friends. For if once the notion be entertained that
here is a man ungrateful to his parents, no one will believe
that any kindness shown you would be other than thrown
away.
III.-At another time the differences between two brothers
named Chaerephon and Chaerecrates, both well known to him,
had drawn his attention ; and on seeing the younger of the
two he thus addressed him.
Soc. Tell me, Chaerecrates, you are not, I take it, one of
* Lit, “the docimasia.” See Gow, Companion, xiv.
* “Visit with atimia.” See Trans, vol. ii. p. 28o.
v \ S.
54 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. III. § I-6
those strange people who believe that goods are better and more
precious than a brother ; * and that too although the former
are but senseless chattels which need protection, the latter a
sensitive and sensible being who can afford it ; and what is
more, he is himself alone, whilst as for them their name is
legion. And here again is a marvellous thing : that a man
should count his brother a loss, because the goods of his
brother are not his ; but he does not count his fellow-citizens
loss, and yet their possessions are not his ; only it seems in
their case he has wits to see that to dwell securely with many
and have enough is better than to own the whole wealth of a
community and to live in dangerous isolation ; but this same
doctrine as applied to brothers they ignore. Again, if a man
have the means, he will purchase domestic slaves, because he
wants assistants in his work; he will acquire friends, because
he needs their support ; but this brother of his—who cares
about brothers ? It seems a friend may be discovered in an
ordinary citizen, but not in a blood relation who is also a
brother. And yet it is a great vantage-ground towards friend-
ship to have sprung from the same loins and to have been
Suckled at the same breasts, since even among beasts a certain
natural craving and sympathy springs up between creatures
reared together.” Added to which, a man who has brothers
commands more respect from the rest of the world than the
man who has none, and who must fight his own battles.”
Chaer. I daresay, Socrates, where the differences are not
profound, reason would a man should bear with his brother,
and not avoid him for some mere trifle's sake, for a brother of
the right sort is, as you say, a blessing; but if he be the very
antithesis of that, why should a man lay to his hand to achieve
the impossible P
Soc. Well now, tell me, is there nobody whom Chaerephon
can please any more than he can please yourself; or do some
people find him agreeable enough P
Chaer. Nay, there you hit it. That is just why I have a
* Cf. Merchant of Venice, II, viii. 17 : “Justice the law my ducats, and
my daughter 1"
* Or, “a yearning after their foster-brothers manifests itself in animals.”
See Cyrop, VIII. vii. I4 foll. for a parallel to this discussion.
° Lit. ‘‘and is less liable to hostility.”
CH. III. § 6-11 SOCRATES AND CHAERECRATES 55
right to detest him. He can be pleasing enough to others,
but to me, whenever he appears on the scene, he is not a
blessing—no but by every manner of means the reverse.
Soc. May it not happen that just as a horse is no gain to
the inexpert rider who essays to handle him, so in like manner,
if a man tries to deal with his brother after an ignorant fashion,
this same brother will kick P
Chaer. But is it likely now P How should I be ignorant
of the art of dealing with my brother if I know the art of
repaying kind words and good deeds in kind P But a man
who tries all he can to annoy me by word and deed, I can
neither bless nor benefit, and, what is more, I will not try.
Soc. Well now, that is a marvellous statement, Chaerecrates.
Your dog, the serviceable guardian of your flocks, who will
fawn and lick the hand of your shepherd, when you come near
him can only growl and show his teeth. Well; you take no
notice of the dog's ill-temper, you try to propitiate him by kind-
ness; but your brother ? If your brother were what he ought
to be, he would be a great blessing to you—that you admit ;
and, as you further confess, you know the secret of kind acts
and words, yet you will not set yourself to apply means to
make him your best of friends.
Chaer. I am afraid, Socrates, that I have no wisdom or
Cunning to make Chaerephon bear himself towards me as
he should.
Soc. Yet there is no need to apply any recondite or
novel machinery. Only bait your hook in the way best known
to yourself, and you will capture him ; whereupon he will
become your devoted friend.
Chaer. If you are aware that I know some love-charm,
Socrates, of which I am the happy but unconscious possessor,
pray make haste and enlighten me.
Soc. Answer me then. Suppose you wanted to get some
acquaintance to invite you to dinner when he next keeps holy
day," what steps would you take P . .
Chaer. No doubt I should set him a good example by
inviting him myself on a like occasion.
* “When he next does sacrifice”; see below, Hiero, viii. 3. Cf. Theophr.
Char. xv. 2, and Prof. Jebb's note ad loc.
56 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. III. § 12-16
Soc. And if you wanted to induce some friend to look
after your affairs during your absence abroad, how would you
achieve your purpose P *
Chaer. No doubt I should present a precedent in under-
taking to look after his in like circumstance.
Soc. And if you wished to get some foreign friend to take
you under his roof while visiting his country, what would
you do? *
Chaer. No doubt I should begin by offering him the
shelter of my own roof when he came to Athens, in order to
enlist his zeal in furthering the objects of my visit ; it is
plain I should first show my readiness to do as much for him
in a like case.
Soc. Why, it seems you are an adept after all in all the
philtres known to man, only you chose to conceal your know-
ledge all the while ; or is it that you shrink from taking the
first step because of the scandal you will cause by kindly
advances to your brother ? And yet it is commonly held to
redound to a man’s praise to have outstripped an enemy in
mischief or a friend in kindness. Now if it seemed to me
that Chaerephon were better fitted to lead the way towards
this friendship," I should have tried to persuade him to take
the first step in winning your affection, but now I am per-
suaded the first move belongs to you, and to you the final
victory. ſe
Chaer. A startling announcement, Socrates, from your
lips, and most unlike you, to bid me the younger take pre-
cedence of my elder brother. Why, it is contrary to the
universal custom of mankind, who look to the elder to take
the lead in everything, whether as a speaker or an actor.
Soc. How so P Is it not the custom everywhere for the
younger to step aside when he meets his elder in the street
and to give him place P Is he not expected to get up and
offer him his seat, to pay him the honour of a soft couch,
to yield him precedence in argument P e
My good fellow, do not stand shilly-shallying,” but put
* Reading Tpós Tºv pu)\tau, or if pºorly, transl. “natural disposition.”
* Lit. “with a soft bed,” or, as we say, ‘‘the best bedroom.”
* Or, “ have no fears, essay a soothing treatment.”
CH. III. § 16-19 A HOMILY ON BROTHERLY LOVE 57
out your hand caressingly, and you will see the worthy
Soul will respond at once with alacrity. Do you not note
your brother's character, proud and frank and sensitive to
honour P He is not a mean and sorry rascal to be caught by
a bribe—no better way indeed for such riff-raff. No 1 gentle
natures need a finer treatment. You can best hope to work
on them by affection.
Chaer. But suppose I do, and suppose that, for all my
attempts, he shows no change for the better P
Soc. At the worst you will have shown yourself to be a
good, honest, brotherly man, and he will appear as a sorry
creature on whom kindness is wasted. But nothing of the
Sort is going to happen, as I conjecture. My belief is that as
Soon as he hears your challenge he will embrace the con-
test ; pricked on by emulous pride, he will insist upon getting
the better of you in kindness of word and deed.
At present you two are in the condition of two hands
formed by God to help each other, but which have let go
their business, and have turned to hindering one another all
they can. You are a pair of feet fashioned on the Divine
plan to work together, but which have neglected this in order
to trammel each other's gait. Now is it not insensate stupidity"
to use for injury what was meant for advantage P And yet
in fashioning two brothers God intends them, methinks, to be
of more benefit to one another than either two hands, or two
feet, or two eyes, or any other of those pairs which belong to
man from his birth.” Consider how powerless these hands of
Ours if Called upon to combine their action at two points more
than a single fathom's length apart ; * and these feet could not
stretch asunder * even a bare fathom ; and these eyes, for all
the wide-reaching range we claim for them, are incapable of
seeing simultaneously the back and front of an object at even
closer quarters. But a pair of brothers, linked in bonds of
amity, can work each for the other's good, though seas divide
them.”
‘‘ Boorishness verging upon monomania.”
“With which man is endowed at birth.”
“More than an ‘arms'-stretch ' asunder.’’
Lit. “reach at one stretch two objects, even over that Small distance."
‘‘Though leagues separate them.”
:
58 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. Iv. § I-4
IV.-I have at another time heard him discourse on the
kindred theme of friendship in language well calculated, as it
seemed to me, to help a man to choose and also to use his
friends aright.
He (Socrates) had often heard the remark made that
of all possessions there is none equal to that of a good and
sincere friend ; but, in spite of this assertion, the mass of
people, as far as he could see, concerned themselves about
nothing so little as the acquisition of friends. Houses, and
fields, and slaves, and cattle, and furniture of all sorts
(he said) they were at pains to acquire, and they strove
hard to keep what they had got ; but to procure for them-
selves this greatest of all blessings, as they admitted a friend
to be, or to keep the friends whom they already possessed,
not one man in a hundred ever gave himself a thought.
It was noticeable, in the case of a sickness befalling a
man's friend and one of his own household simultaneously,
the promptness with which the master would fetch the doctor
to his domestic, and take every precaution necessary for
his recovery, with much expenditure of pains; but meanwhile
little account would be taken of the friend in like condition,
and if both should die, he will show signs of deep annoyance
at the death of his domestic, which, as he reflects, is a positive
loss to him ; but as regards his friend his position is in no
wise materially affected, and thus, though he would never
dream of leaving his other possessions disregarded and ill cared
for, friendship's mute appeal is met with flat indifference."
Or to take (said he) a crowning instance: * with regard to
ordinary possessions, however multifarious these may be, most
people are at least acquainted with their number, but if you
ask a man to enumerate his friends, who are not so very many
after all perhaps, he cannot ; or if, to oblige the inquirer, he
essays to make a list, he will presently retract the names of
some whom he had previously included.” Such is the amount
of thought which people bestow upon their friends.
* Or, “the cry of a friend for careful tending falls on deaf ears."
* Or, “Nor had he failed to observe another striking contrast.” Cf. Cic.
Zael. I7 ; Diog. Laert. ii. 30.
° i.e. “like a chess-player recalling a move.”
º,”) THREE DISCOURSES ON FRIENDSHIP 59
And yet what thing else that a man may call his own is
Comparable to this one best possession what rather will not
serve by contrast to enhance the value of an honest friend
Think of a horse or of a yoke of oxen; they have their worth ;
but who shall gauge the worth of a worthy friend ? Kindlier
and more Constant than the faithfullest of slaves—this is
that possession best named all-serviceable." Consider what
the post is that he assigns himself! to meet and supplement
what is lacking to the welfare of his friends, to promote their
private and their public interests, is his concern. Is there
need of kindly action in any quarter P he will throw in the
full weight of his support. Does some terror confound 2 he
is at hand to help and defend by expenditure of money and
of energy,” by appeals to reason or resort to force. His the
privilege alike to gladden the prosperous in the hour of success
and to sustain their footing who have well-nigh slipped. All
that the hands of a man may minister, all that the eyes of
each are Swift to see, the ears to hear, and the feet to com-
pass, he with his helpful arts will not fall short of Nay, not
Seldom that which a man has failed to accomplish for himself,
has missed seeing or hearing or attaining, a friend acting
in behalf of friend will achieve vicariously. And yet, albeit
to try to tend a tree for the sake of its fruit is not uncommon,
this copious mine of wealth—this friend—attracts only a lazy
and listless attention on the part of more than half the world.
v.—I remember listening to another argument of his, the
effect of which would be to promote self-examination. The
listener must needs be brought to ask himself, “Of what worth
am I to my friends P” It happened thus. One of those who
were with him was neglectful, as he noted, of a friend who
was at the pinch of poverty (Antisthenes).” Accordingly, in
the presence of the negligent person and of several others, he
proceeded to question the sufferer.
* “A vessel fit for all work indeed is this friend.” Cf. Ar. Ach. 936,
Tráyxpmotov &yºyos éotat, like the “leather bottel.”
* Or, ‘‘ by dint of his diplomacy.”
* Antisthenes, ‘‘ cynicorum et stoicorum parens.” Cic. de Or. iii. 17 ;
ad Aff. xii. 38. See below, Mem. III. iii. I7 ; Symp, passim ; Diog. Laert.
II. v. ; VI. i.
6o MEMORABILIA—BIK, II. {º
Soc. What say you, Antisthenes P-have friends their values
like domestic slaves P One of these latter may be worth per-
haps two minae," another only half a mina, a third five, and
a fourth as much as ten ; while they do say that Nicias,” the
son of Niceratus, paid a whole talent for a Superintendent of
his silver mines. And so I propound the question to myself as
follows: “Have friends, like slaves, their market values P.”
Not a doubt of it (replied Antisthenes). At any rate, I
know that I would rather have such an one as my friend than
be paid two minae, and there is such another whose worth I
would not estimate at half a mina, and a third with whom I
would not part for ten, and then again a fourth whose friend-
ship would be cheap if it cost me all the wealth and pains in
the world to purchase it.
Well then (continued Socrates), if that be so, would it not
be well if every one were to examine himself: “What after
all may I chance to be worth to my friends?” Should he
not try to become as dear as possible, so that his friends will
not care to give him up 2 How often do I hear the com-
plaint : “My friend So-and-so has given me up "; or “Such
an one, whom I looked upon as a friend, has sacrificed me
for a mina.” And every time I hear these remarks, the ques-
tion arises in my mind : If the vendor of a worthless slave
is ready to part with him to a purchaser for what he will fetch
—is there not at least a strong temptation to part with a base
friend when you have a chance of making something on the
exchange P Good slaves, as far as I can see, are not so
knocked down to the hammer ; no, nor good friends so lightly
parted with.
VI.-Again, in reference to the test to be applied, if we
would gauge the qualifications of a friend worth the winning,
the following remarks of Socrates could not fail, I think, to
prove instructive.”
**
* A mina = 44 circ. See Trans. Vol. ii. p. lxxxvi. note I.
* For Nicias see Thuc. vii. 77 foll. ; Revenues, iv. 14; Plut. AVic. IV. v. ;
LyS. de Öon. Aristoph. 648. *
* Or, “Again, as to establishing a test of character, since a friend worth
having must be of a particular type, I cannot but think that the following
remarks would prove instructive.”
CH. VI. § I-4 SOCRATES AND CRITOBULUS 6 I
Tell me (said Socrates, addressing Critobulus), supposing
we stood in need of a good friend, how should we set about
his discovery P. We must, in the first place, I suppose, seek
Out one who is master of his appetites, not under the dominion,
that is, of his belly, not addicted to the wine - cup or to
lechery or sleep or idleness, since no one enslaved to such
tyrants could hope to do his duty either by himself or by his
friends, could he P
Certainly not (Critobulus answered).
Soc. Do you agree, then, that we must hold aloof from
every one so dominated P
Cri. Most assuredly.
Well then (proceeded Socrates), what shall we say of
the spendthrift who has lost his independence and is for ever,
begging of his neighbours; if he gets anything out of them he
cannot repay, but if he fails to get anything, he hates you for
not giving—do you not think that this man too would prove
but a disagreeable friend ?
Cri. Certainly.
Soc. Then we must keep away from him too P
Cri. That we must,
Soc. Well ! and what of the man whose strength lies in
monetary transactions P*. His one craving is to amass money;
and for that reason he is an adept at driving a hard bargain *
—glad enough to take in, but loath to pay out.
Cri. In my opinion he will prove even a worse fellow than
the last.
Soc. Well ! and what of that other whose passion for money-
making is so absorbing that he has no leisure for anything
else, save how he may add to his gains P
Cri. Hold aloof from him, say I, since there is no good
to be got out of him or his society.
Soc. Well what of the quarrelsome and factious person 3
whose main object is to saddle his friends with a host of
enemies P
Cri. For God’s sake let us avoid him also.
* Or, ‘‘the money-lender P He has a passion for big money-bags."
* Or, “hard in all his dealings.”
* “The partisan.”
62 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. VI. § 4-9
Soc. But now we will imagine a man exempt indeed
from all the above defects—a man who has no objection to
receive kindnesses, but it never enters into his head to do a
kindness in return.
Cri. There will be no good in him either. But, Socrates,
what kind of man shall we endeavour to make our friend ?
what is he like P
Soc. I should say he must be just the converse of the
above: he has control over the pleasures of the body, he is
kindly disposed," upright in all his dealings,” very zealous is
he not to be outdone in kindness by his benefactors, if only
his friends may derive some profit from his acquaintance.
Cri. But how are we to test these qualities, Socrates,
before acquaintance P .
Soc. How do we test the merits of a sculptor P-not by
inferences drawn from the talk of the artist merely. No, we
look to what he has already achieved. These former statues
of his were nobly executed, and we trust he will do equally
well with the rest.
Cri. You mean that if we find a man whose kindness to
older friends is established, we may take it as proved that he
will treat his newer friends as amiably P
Soc. Why, certainly, if I see a man who has shown skill
in the handling of horses previously, I argue that he will
handle others no less skilfully again.
Cri. Good l and when we have discovered a man
whose friendship is worth having, how ought we to make him
our friend ?
Soc. First we ought to ascertain the will of Heaven whether
it be advisable to make him our friend.
Cri. Well ! and how are we to effect the capture of this
friend of our choice, whom the gods approve P will you tell me
that P
Not, in good sooth (replied Socrates), by running him down
like a hare, nor by decoying him like a bird, or by force like
a wild boar.” To capture a friend against his will is a toil-
* Reading ethovs, or if etopkos, transl. “a man of his word.”
* Or, “easy to deal with.”
* Reading KáTpot, al. 6x6pot, ‘‘an enemy.”
CH. VI. § 9-13 HOW TO WIN A FRIEND’S LOVE 63
some business, and to bind him in fetters like a slave by no
means easy. Those who are so treated are apt to become foes
instead of friends."
Cri. But how convert them into friends P
Soc. There are certain incantations, we are told, which
those who know them have only to utter, and they can make
friends of whom they list; and there are certain philtres also
which those who have the secret of them may administer to
whom they like and win their love.
Cri. From what source shall we learn them P
Soc. You need not go farther than Homer to learn that
which the Sirens sang to Odysseus,” the first words of which
run, I think, as follows:
Hither, come hither, thou famous man, Odysseus, great glory
of the Achaeans !
Cri. And did the magic words of this spell serve for all
men alike P Had the Sirens only to utter this one incanta-
tion, and was every listener constrained to stay P
Soc. No ; this was the incantation reserved for souls athirst
for fame, of virtue emulous.
Cri. Which is as much as to say, we must suit the incan-
tation to the listener, so that when he hears the words he
shall not think the enchanter is laughing at him in his sleeve.
I cannot certainly conceive a method better calculated to
excite hatred and repulsion than to go to Some one who
knows that he is small and ugly and a weakling, and to
breathe in his ears the flattering tale that he is beautiful and
tall and stalwart. But do you know any other love-charms,
Socrates ? -
Soc. I cannot say that I do ; but I have heard that
Pericles 8 was skilled in not a few, which he poured into the
ear of our city and won her love.
Cri. And how did Themistocles + win our city's love?
Soc. Ah, that was not by incantation at all. What
1 Or, ‘‘ Hate rather than friendship is the outcome of these methods.”
* Od. xii. 184.
8 See above, I. ii. 4o ; below, Symp, viii. 39.
4 See below, III. vi. 2; IV. ii. 2.
64 MEMORABILIA—BIX. II. CH. VI. § 13-18
he did was to encircle our city with an amulet of Saving
virtue."
Cri. You would imply, Socrates, would you not, that if
we want to win the love of any good man we need to be good
ourselves in speech and action P
And did you imagine (replied Socrates) that it was possible
for a bad man to make good friends P
Cri. Why, I could fancy I had seen some sorry speech-
monger who was fast friends with a great and noble statesman ;
or again, some born commander and general who was boon
companion with fellows quite incapable of generalship.”
Soc. But in reference to the point we were discussing, may
I ask whether you know of any one who can attach a useful
friend to himself without being of use in return ?? Can service
ally in friendship with disservice P
Cri. In good sooth no. But now, granted it is impossible
for a base man to be friends with the beautiful and noble,“ I
am concerned at once to discover if one who is himself of a
beautiful and noble character can, with a wave of the hand, as
it were, attach himself in friendship to every other beautiful
and noble nature.
Soc. What perplexes and Confounds you, Critobulus, is
the fact that so often men of noble conduct, with souls aloof
from baseness, are not friends but rather at strife and discord
with one another, and deal more harshly by one another than
they would by the most good-for-nothing of mankind.
Cri. Yes, and this holds true not of private persons only,
but states, the most eager to pursue a noble policy and to
repudiate a base one, are frequently in hostile relation to one
another. As I reason on these things my heart fails me, and
the question, how friends are to be acquired, fills me with
despondency. The bad, as I see, cannot be friends with one
I See Herod. vii. 143, “the wooden wall”; Thuc. i. 93, ‘‘‘the walls' of
Athens.”
? Or, “Why, yes, when I see some base Orator fast friends with a great
leader of the people; or, again, Some fellow incapable of generalship a
comrade to the greatest captains of his age."
* Add, “Can service ally in friendship with disservice P Must there not
be a reciprocity of service to make friendship lasting P "
* ka)\oys kāya.000s.
CH. VI. § 19-23 ELECTIVE AFFINITY OF THE GOOD 65
another. For how can such people, the ungrateful, or reck-
less, or covetous, or faithless, or incontinent, adhere together
as friends P. Without hesitation I set down the bad as born
to be foes not friends, and as bearing the birthmark of inter-
necine hate. But then again, as you suggest, no more can
these same people harmonise in friendship with the good.
For how should they who do evil be friends with those who hate
all evil-doing P And if, last of all, they that cultivate virtue
are torn by party strife in their struggle for the headship of
the states, envying one another, hating one another, who are
left to be friends? where shall goodwill and faithfulness be
found among men P
Soc. The fact is there is some subtlety in the texture
of these things." Seeds of love are implanted in man by
nature. Men have need of one another, feel pity, help each
other by united efforts, and in recognition of the fact show
mutual gratitude. But there are seeds of war implanted
also. The same objects being regarded as beautiful or
agreeable by all alike, they do battle for their possession ; a
spirit of disunion * enters, and the parties range themselves
in adverse camps. Discord and anger sound a note of war :
the passion of more-having, staunchless avarice, threatens
hostility; and envy is a hateful fiend.”
But nevertheless, through all opposing barriers friendship
steals her way and binds together the beautiful and good
among mankind.* Such is their virtue that they would rather
possess scant means painlessly than wield an empire won by
war. In spite of hunger and thirst they will share their meat
and drink without a pang. Nor bloom of lusty youth, nor love's
delights can warp their self-control; nor will they be tempted
to cause pain where pain should be unknown. It is theirs
not merely to eschew all greed of riches, not merely to make
a just and lawful distribution of wealth, but to supply what is
lacking to the needs of one another. Theirs is it to compose
strife and discord not in painless oblivion simply, but to the
! i.e. a cunning intertwining of the threads of warp and woof.
* Cf. Shelley, “The devil of disunion in their souls.”
* The diction is poetical.
* Or, as we say, “the élite of human kind."
WOL. III— I F
66 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. VI. § 23-27
general advantage. Theirs also to hinder such extravagance
of anger as shall entail remorse hereafter. And as to envy
they will make a clean sweep and clearance of it : the good
things which a man possesses shall be also the property of his
friends, and the goods which they possess are to be looked
upon as his. Where then is the improbability that the beauti-
ful and noble should be sharers in the honours 4 of the state
not only without injury, but even to their mutual advantage P
They indeed who covet and desire the honours and offices
in a state for the sake of the liberty thereby given them to
embezzle the public moneys, to deal violently by their fellow-
creatures, and to batten in luxury themselves, may well be
regarded as unjust and villainous persons incapable of harmony
with one another. But if a man desire to obtain these self-
same honours in order that, being himself secure against
wrong-doing, he may be able to assist his friends in what is
right, and, raised to high position,” may essay to confer some
blessing on the land of his fathers, what is there to hinder him
from working in harmony with some other of a like spirit P
Will he, with the “beautiful and noble” at his side, be less
able to aid his friends? or will his power to benefit the com-
munity be shortened because the flower of that community are
fellow-workers in that work? Why, even in the contests of
the games it is obvious that if it were possible for the stoutest
combatants to combine against the weakest, the chosen band
would come off victors in every bout, and would carry off all
the prizes. This indeed is against the rules of the actual arena ;
but in the field of politics, where the beautiful and good hold
empery, and there is nought to hinder any from combining with
whomsoever a man may choose to benefit the state, it will be a
clear gain, will it not, for any one engaged in state affairs to
make the best men his friends, whereby he will find partners
and co-operators in his aims instead of rivals and antagonists P
And this at least is obvious : in case of foreign war a man will
need allies, but all the more if in the ranks opposed to him
should stand the flower of the enemy.” Moreover, those who
are willing to fight your battles must be kindly dealt with, that
1 “And the offices.” * “As archon,” or “raised to rule.”
* Lit. ‘‘the beautiful and good.”
CH. v1. § 27-32 COUNSEL OF AN ADEPT IN LOVE'S LORE 67
goodwill may quicken to enthusiasm ; and one good man * is
better worth your benefiting than a dozen knaves, since a
little kindness goes a long way with the good, but with the
base the more you give them the more they ask for.
So keep a good heart, Critobulus; only try to become
good yourself, and when you have attained, set to your hand
to capture the beautiful and good. Perhaps I may be able to
give you some help in this quest, being myself an adept in
Love's lore.” No matter who it is for whom my heart is
aflame ; in an instant my whole soul is eager to leap forth.
With vehemence I speed to the mark. I, who love, demand
to be loved again; this desire in me must be met by counter
desire in him ; this thirst for his society by thirst reciprocal for
mine. And these will be your needs also, I foresee, whenever
you are seized with longing to contract a friendship. Do not
hide from me, therefore, whom you would choose as a friend,
since, owing to the pains I take to please him who pleases
me, I am not altogether unversed, I fancy, in the art of catch-
ing men.” -
Critobulus replied : Why, these are the very lessons of
instruction, Socrates, for which I have been long athirst, and
the more particularly if this same love's lore will enable me
to capture those who are good of soul and those who are
beautiful of person.
Soc. Nay, now I warn you, Critobulus, it is not within the
province of my science to make the beautiful endure him who
would lay hands upon them. And that is why men fled from
Scylla, I am persuaded, because she laid hands upon them ;
but the Sirens were different—they laid hands on nobody, but
sat afar off and chanted their spells in the ears of all ; and there-
fore, it is said, all men endured to listen, and were charmed.
Cri. I promise I will not lay violent hands on any ; there-
fore, if you have any good device for winning friends, instruct
your pupil.
1 Or, “the best, though few, are better worth your benefiting than the
many base.”
2 “An authority in matters of love.” Cf. Plat. Symp. 177 D ; and below,
Symp. viii. 2. . -
3 See below, III. xi. 7 ; cf. Plat. Soph, 222 ; N.T. Matt. iv. 19, ÖAleſs
&v6pútrav. -
68 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. VI. § 32-36
Soc. And if there is to be no laying on of the hands, there
must be no application either of the lips; is it agreed P
Cri. No, nor application of the lips to any one—not
beautiful.
Soc. See now you cannot open your mouth without some
luckless utterance. Beauty suffers no such liberty, however
eagerly the ugly may invite it, making believe some quality of
soul must rank them with the beautiful.
Cri. Be of good cheer then ; let the compact stand thus:
“Kisses for the beautiful, and for the good a rain of kisses.”
So now teach us the art of catching friends.
Soc. Well then, when you wish to win some one's
affection, you will allow me to lodge information against
you to the effect that you admire him and desire to be his
friend ?
Cri. Lodge the indictment, with all my heart. I never
heard of any one who hated his admirers.
Soc. And if I add to the indictment the further charge that
through your admiration you are kindly disposed towards him,
you will not feel I am taking away your character P
Cri. Why, no ; for myself I know a kindly feeling springs
up in my heart towards any one whom I conceive to be
kindly disposed to me.
Soc. All this I shall feel empowered to say about you to those
whose friendship you seek, and I can promise further help ;
only there is a comprehensive if to be considered : if you will
further authorise me to say that you are devoted to your
friends; that nothing gives you so much joy as a good friend;
that you pride yourself no less on the fine deeds of those you
love than on your own; and on their good things equally
with your own ; that you never weary of plotting and planning
to procure them a rich harvest of the same ; and lastly, that
you have discovered a man's virtue is to excel his friends in
kindness and his foes in hostility. If I am authorised thus
to report of you, I think you will find me a serviceable fellow-
hunter in the quest of friends, which is the conquest of the
good.
Cri. Why this appeal to me P-as if you had not free per-
mission to say exactly what you like about me.
cH. vi. § 36-38 BE WHAT YOU WOULD FAIN BE THOUGHT 69
Soc. No ; that I deny, on the authority of Aspasia.' I
have it from her own lips. “Good matchmakers,” she said to
me, “were clever hands at cementing alliances between people,
provided the good qualities they vouched for were truthfully
reported ; but when it came to their telling lies, for her part
she could not compliment them.” Their poor deluded dupes
ended by hating each other and the go-betweens as well.”
Now I myself am so fully persuaded of the truth of this that I
feel it is not in my power to say aught in your praise which
I cannot say with truth.
Cri. Really, Socrates, you are a wonderfully good friend
to me—in so far as I have any merit which will entitle me
to win a friend, you will lend me a helping hand, it seems ;
otherwise you would rather not forge any pretty fiction for my
benefit.
Soc. But tell me, how shall I assist you best, think you ?
By praising you falsely or by persuading you to try to be a
good man P. Or if it is not plain to you thus, look at the matter
by the light of some examples. I wish to introduce you to a
shipowner, or to make him your friend : I begin by singing
your praises to him falsely thus, “You will find him a good
pilot’’; he catches at the phrase, and entrusts his ship to you,
who have no notion of guiding a vessel. What can you expect
but to make shipwreck of the craft and yourself together P or
suppose by similar false assertions I can persuade the state at
large to entrust her destinies to you—“a man with a fine
genius for command,” I say, “a practised lawyer,” “a politician
born,” and so forth. The odds are, the state and you may
come to some grief through you. Or to take an instance from
everyday life. By my falsehoods I persuade some private
person to entrust his affairs to you as “a really careful and
business-like person with a head for economy.” When put
to the test would not your administration prove ruinous, and
* Aspasia, daughter of Axiochus, of Miletus. See below, Econ. iii. I4;
Plat. Menex. 235 E ; Aesch. Socrat. ap. Cic. de Invent. I. xxxi. 51. See
Grote, H. G. vi. I 32 foll. ; Cobet, Pros. Xen.
* Reading oil, é06)\etv ćTatveiv, or if oğk &qeXéïv étrauoſo as with Kühner
transl. “Good matchmakers, she told me, have to consult truth when report-
ing favourably of any one : then indeed they are terribly clever at bringing
people together : whereas false flatterers do no good ; their dupes,” etc.
7o MEMORABILIA—BIK, II. {: º **
the figure you cut ridiculous P No, my dear friend, there is
but one road, the shortest, safest, best, and it is simply this :
An zwhatsoever you desire to be esſeemed good, endeavour to be
good. For of all the virtues namable among men, consider,
and you will find there is not one but may be increased by
learning and practice. For my part then, Critobulus, these are
the principles on which we ought to go a-hunting; but if you
take a different view, I am all attention, please instruct me.
Then Critobulus: Nay, Socrates, I should be ashamed to
gainsay what you have said ; if I did, it would neither be a
noble statement nor a true."
VII.-He had two ways of dealing with the difficulties of
his friends: where ignorance was the cause, he tried to meet
the trouble by a dose of common sense ; or where want and
poverty were to blame, by lessoning them that they should
assist one another according to their ability; and here I may
mention certain incidents which occurred within my own
knowledge.” How, for instance, he chanced upon Aristarchus
wearing the look of one who suffered from a fit of the “sullens,”
and thus accosted him.
Soc, You seem to have some trouble on your mind,
Aristarchus; if so, you should share it with your friends.
Perhaps together we might lighten the weight of it a
little.
Aristarchus answered : Yes, Socrates, I am in sore straits
indeed. Ever since the party strife declared itself in the
city,” what with the rush of people to Piraeus, and the whole-
sale banishments, I have been fairly at the mercy of my
poor deserted female relatives. Sisters, nieces, cousins, they
have all come flocking to me for protection. I have fourteen
free-born souls, I tell you, under my single roof, and how
are we to live? We can get nothing out of the soil—that
is in the hands of the enemy; nothing from my house
property, for there is scarcely a living soul left in the city;
my furniture ? no one will buy it; money P there is none
to be borrowed—you would have a better chance to find it
* Ka}\& . . . d)\mb%. * See Trans. vol. i. Sketch, p. lxxvii.
* i.e. circa 404–403 B.C. See Hell. II, iv. (Trans, vol. i. p. 63 foll.).
CH. VII. § 2-5 SOCRATES A WISE PHYSICIAN - 71
by looking for it on the road than to borrow it from a banker.
Yes, Socrates, to stand by and see one's relatives die of
hunger is hard indeed, and yet to feed so many at such a
pinch impossible.
After he had listened to the story, Socrates asked : How
comes it that Ceramon," with so many mouths to feed, not
only contrives to furnish himself and them with the neces-
Saries of life, but to realise a handsome surplus, whilst you
being in like plight” are afraid you will one and all perish of
starvation for want of the necessaries of life P
Ar. Why, bless your soul, do you not see he has only
slaves and I have free-born souls to feed P
Soc. And which should you say were the better human
beings, the free-born members of your household or Ceramon's
slaves P
Ar. The free souls under my roof without a doubt.
Soc. Is it not a shame, then, that he with his baser folk
to back him should be in easy circumstances, while you and
your far superior household are in difficulties P
Ar. To be sure it is, when he has only a set of handi-
craftsmen to feed, and I my liberally-educated household.
Soc. What is a handicraftsman P Does not the term
apply to all who can make any sort of useful product or
commodity ?
Ar. Certainly.
Soc. Barley meal is a useful product, is it not P
Ar. Pre-eminently so.
Soc. And loaves of bread P
A7. No less.
Soc. Well, and what do you say to cloaks for men and for
women—tunics, mantles, vests P* -
Ar. Yes, they are all highly useful commodities.
Soc. Then your household do not know how to make any
Of these ?
Ar. On the contrary, I believe they can make them all.
1 An employer of labour, apparently, on a grand Scale.
2 Lit. “with your large family to feed.” L. Dindorf would like to read
or) 6é 6\tºyous, “you with your small family.”
3 For these articles of dress see Becker's Charic/es, Exc. i. to Sc. xi. ‘‘Dress.”
72 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. CH. vii. § 6-8
Soc. Then you are not aware that by means of the
manufacture of one of these alone — his barley meal
store — Nausicydes 4 not only maintains himself and his
domestics, but many pigs and cattle besides, and realises
such large profits that he frequently contributes to the
state benevolences; ” while there is Cyrébus, again, who,
out of a bread factory, more than maintains the whole of
his establishment, and lives in the lap of luxury ; and Démeas
of Collytus gets a livelihood out of a cloak business, and
Menon as a mantua-maker, and so, again, more than half
the Megarians “by the making of vests.
Ar. Bless me, yes | They have got a set of barbarian
fellows, whom they purchase and keep, to manufacture by
forced labour whatever takes their fancy. My kinswomen, I
need not tell you, are free-born ladies.
Soc. Then, on the ground that they are free-born and your
kinswomen, you think that they ought to do nothing but
eat and sleep? Or is it your opinion that people who live
in this way—I speak of free-born people in general—lead
happier lives, and are more to be congratulated, than those
who give their time and attention to such useful arts of life
as they are skilled in P Is this what you see in the world,
that for the purpose of learning what it is well to know, and
of recollecting the lessons taught, or with a view to health and
strength of body, or for the sake of acquiring and preserving
all that gives life its charm, idleness and inattention are found
to be helpful, whilst work and study are simply a dead loss?
Pray, when those relatives of yours were taught what you
tell me they know, did they learn it as barren information
which they would never turn to practical account, or, on the
contrary, as something with which they were to be seriously
concerned some day, and from which they were to reap
solid advantage P Do human beings in general attain to
well-tempered manhood by a course of idling, or by carefully
* Nausicydes. Cobet, Pros. Xen. cf. Aristoph. Eccles. 426.
* Lit. “state liturgies,” or “to the burden of the public services.” For
these see Gow, Companion, xviii. “Athenian Finance.”
* Cf. Arist. Acharmians, 519, Čavkopóvret Meyapéou Tà XXavloſkva. See
Dr. Merry's note ad loc.
CH. VII. § 8-12 SOCRATES AND ARISTARCHUS 73
attending to what will be of use P Which will help a man the
more to grow in justice and uprightness, to be up and doing,
Or to sit with folded hands revolving the ways and means of
existence P As things now stand, if I am not mistaken, there
is no love lost between you. You cannot help feeling that they
are costly to you, and they must see that you find them a
burthen P. This is a perilous state of affairs, in which hatred
and bitterness have every prospect of increasing, whilst the
pre-existing bond of affection * is likely to be snapped.
But now, if only you allow them free scope for their
energies, when you come to see how useful they can be, you
will grow quite fond of them, and they, when they perceive
that they can please you, will cling to their benefactor warmly.
Thus, with the memory of former kindnesses made sweeter,
you will increase the grace which flows from kindnesses ten-
fold ; you will in consequence be knit in closer bonds of
love and domesticity. If, indeed, they were called upon to
do any shameful work, let them choose death rather than that ;
but now they know, it would seem, the very arts and accom-
plishments which are regarded as the loveliest and the most
suitable for women; and the things which we know, any of
us, are just those which we can best perform, that is to say,
with ease and expedition; it is a joy to do them, and the
result is beautiful.” Do not hesitate, then, to initiate your
friends in what will bring advantage to them and you alike ;
probably they will gladly respond to your summons.
Well, upon my word (Aristarchus answered), I like so
well what you say, Socrates, that though hitherto I have not
been disposed to borrow, knowing that when I had spent
what I got I should not be in a condition to repay, I think
I can now bring myself to do so in order to raise a fund for
these works.
Thereupon a capital was provided ; wools were pur-
chased ; the goodman's relatives set to work, and even whilst
they breakfasted they worked, and on and on till work was
ended and they supped. Smiles took the place of frowns;
they no longer looked askance with suspicion, but full into
* Or, ‘‘the original stock of kindliness will be used up.”
* Or, “with ease, rapidity, pleasure and effect.”
74 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. {º-
each other's eyes with happiness. They loved their kinsman
for his kindness to them. He became attached to them as
helpmates; and the end of it all was, he came to Socrates
and told him with delight how matters fared ; “and now,”
he added, “they tax me with being the only drone in the
house, who sit and eat the bread of idleness.”
To which Socrates: Why do not you tell them the fable
of the dog?" Once on a time, so goes the story, when
beasts could speak, the sheep said to her master, “What a
marvel is this, master, that to us, your own sheep, who pro-
vide you with fleeces and lambs and cheese, you give nothing,
save only what we may nibble off earth’s bosom ; but with
this dog of yours, who provides you with nothing of the sort,
you share the very meat out of your mouth.” When the dog
heard these words, he answered promptly, “Ay, in good
Sooth, for is it not I who keep you safe and sound, you
sheep, so that you are not stolen by man nor harried by
wolves; since, if I did not keep watch over you, you would
not be able so much as to graze afield, fearing to be de-
stroyed.” And so, says the tale, the sheep had to admit that
the dog was rightly preferred to themselves in honour. And
so do you tell your flock yonder that like the dog in the
fable you are their guardian and overseer, and it is thanks to
you that they are protected from evil and evildoers, so that
they work their work and live their lives in blissful security.
VIII.-At another time chancing upon an old friend
whom he had not seen for a long while, he greeted him
thus.
Soc. What quarter of the world do you hail from,
Euthèrus P
The other answered : From abroad, just before the close
of the war; but at present from the city itself.” You see,
since we have been denuded of our possessions across the
* See Joseph Jacobs, The Fables of Aesop, vol. i. p. 26 foll., for “a com-
plete list of the Fables given in Greek literature up to the fall of Greek
independence.” Cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 202 foll, ; Archilochus, 89 (60),
Bergk ; Herod. i. 141 ; Aesch. Myrmid. fr. 123; Aristot. Rhet. II. xx.
* Lit. ‘‘ from here.” The conversation perhaps takes place in Piraeus
4O4. B. C.
CH. VIII. § I-6 SOCRATES AND EUTH£RUs 75
frontier," and my father left me nothing in Attica, I must
needs bide at home, and provide myself with the necessaries
of life by means of bodily toil, which seems preferable to
begging from another, especially as I have no security on
which to raise a loan.
Soc. And how long do you expect your body to be equal
to providing the necessaries of life for hire P
Auth. Goodness knows, Socrates—not for long.
Soc. And when you find yourself an old man, expenses
will not diminish, and yet no one will care to pay you for the
labour of your hands.
Auth. That is true.
Soc. Would it not be better then to apply yourself at
once to such work as will stand you in good stead when
you are old—that is, address yourself to some large pro-
prietor who needs an assistant in managing his estate P” By
Superintending his works, helping to get in his crops, and
guarding his property in general, you will be a benefit to the
estate and be benefited in return.
I could not endure the yoke of slavery, Socrates (he
exclaimed).
Soc. And yet the heads of departments in a state are not
regarded as adopting the badge of slavery because they
manage the public property, but as having attained a higher
dignity of freedom rather.
Fuſh. In a word, Socrates, the idea of being held to
account to another is not at all to my taste.
Soc. And yet, Euthèrus, it would be hard to find a work
which did not involve some liability to account; in fact it is
difficult to do anything without some mistake or other, and
no less difficult, if you should succeed in doing it immaculately,
to escape all unfriendly criticism. I wonder now whether you
find it easy to get through your present occupations entirely
without reproach. No P Let me tell you what you should do.
You should avoid censorious persons and attach yourself to
the considerate and kind-hearted, and in all your affairs
accept with a good grace what you can and decline what you
1 Or, “colonial possessions.” Cf. Symp, iv. 31.
* Cf. Cyrop. VIII. iii. 48.
76 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. {: 1-4
CH. 6–
VIII. § IX. § feel you cannot do. Whatever it be, do it heart and soul, and
make it your finest work." There lies the method at once to
silence fault-finders and to minister help to your own diffi-
culties. Life will flow smoothly, risks will be diminished,
provision against Old age Secured.
Ix.—At another time, as I am aware, he had heard a
remark made by Crito” that life at Athens was no easy matter
for a man who wished to mind his own affairs.
As, for instance, at this moment (Crito proceeded) there
are a set of fellows threatening me with lawsuits, not because
they have any misdemeanour to allege against me, but simply
under the conviction that I will sooner pay a sum of money
than be troubled further.
To which Socrates replied : Tell me, Crito, you keep dogs,
do you not, to ward off wolves from your flocks P
Cr. Certainly ; it pays to do so.
Soc. Then why do you not keep a watchman willing and
competent to ward off this pack of people who seek to injure
you ?
I should not at all mind (he answered), if I were not
afraid he might turn again and rend his keeper.
What I (rejoined Socrates), do you not see that to gratify
a man like yourself is far pleasanter as a matter of self-interest
than to quarrel with you? You may be sure there are plenty
of people here who will take the greatest pride in making you
their friend.
Accordingly they sought out Archedémus,” a practical
man with a clever tongue in his head 4 but poor; the fact
being, he was not of the sort to make gain by hook or by
crook, but a lover of honesty and of too good a nature
himself to make his living as a pettifogger.” Crito would
1 Or, “study to make it your finest work, the expression of a real enthu-
*"crio. See above, I. ii. 48; Cobet, P. X., cf. Plat. Rep. viii. 549 c.
* Archedémus, possibly the demagogue, Hell. I. vii. 2 (Trans. vol. i.
p. 29). So Cobet, P. X., but see Grote, H. G. viii. 245. -
4 Lit. “very capable of speech and action "-the writer's favourite formula
for the well-trained Athenian who can speak fluently and reason clearly, and
act energetically and opportunely.
* Reading kal etiquéatepos &u [or 3) dis] . . . dtrö ovkopavtów [or ovko-
CH. IX. § 4-8 HOW SOCRATES HELPED CRITO 77
then take the opportunity of times of harvesting and put
aside Small presents for Archedémus of corn and oil, or
wine, or wool, or any other of the farm produce forming
the staple commodities of life, or he would invite him to a
Sacrificial feast, and otherwise pay him marked attention.
Archedémus, feeling that he had in Crito's house a harbour of
refuge, could not make too much of his patron, and ere long
he had hunted up a long list of iniquities which could be
lodged against Crito's pettifogging persecutors themselves,
and not only their numerous crimes but their numerous
enemies; and presently he prosecuted one of them in a public
suit, where sentence would be given against him “what to
suffer or what to pay.” ". The accused, conscious as he was
of many rascally deeds, did all he could to be quit of
Archedémus, but Archedémus was not to be got rid of. He
held on until he had made the informer not only loose his
hold of Crito but pay himself a sum of money; and now that
Archedémus had achieved this and other similar victories, it
is easy to guess what followed.” It was just as when some
shepherd has got a very good dog, all the other shepherds
wish to lodge their flocks in his neighbourhood that they too
may reap the benefit of him. So a number of Crito's friends
came begging him to allow Archedémus to be their guardian
also, and Archedémus was overjoyed to do anything to gratify
Crito, and so it came about that not only Crito abode in
peace, but his friends likewise. If any of those people with
whom Archedémus was not on the best of terms were dis-
posed to throw it in his teeth that he accepted his patron's
benefits and paid in flatteries, he had a ready retort: “Answer
me this question—which is the more scandalous, to accept
kindnesses from honest folk and to repay them, with the result
that I make such people my friends but quarrel with knaves,
or to make enemies of honourable gentlemen 3 by attempts to
do them wrong, with the off-chance indeed of winning the
qavričv1, after Cobet, P. X. s. v. Archedémus. The MSS. give kal épm
§§otov eivat—“nothing is easier,” he said, “than recovering from sycophants.”
* For this formula cf. Econ. vi. 24. Cf. Plat. Statesm. 299 A.
* #öm Tóre. Cf. Plat. Laws, vi. 778 C.
* Lit, the ka)\ot kāya.0ot, which like Xpmoto's and Tovmpoſſ has a political
as well as an ethical meaning.
78 MEMORABILIA—BK. II. {jº.
friendship of some scamps in return for my co-operation, but
the certainty of losing in the tone of my acquaintance?”."
The net result of the whole proceedings was that
Archedémus was now Crito's right hand,” and by the rest of
Crito's friends he was held in honour.
X.—Again I may cite, as known to myself,” the following
discussion; the arguments were addressed to Diodórus, one
of his companions. The master said:
Tell me, Diodórus, if one of your slaves runs away, are
you at pains to recover him P
More than that (Diodórus answered), I summon others to
my aid and I have a reward cried for his recovery. -
Soc. Well, if one of your domestics is sick, do you tend
him and call in the doctors to save his life P
AXiod. Decidedly I do.
Soc. And if an intimate acquaintance who is far more
precious to you than any of your household slaves is about to
perish of want, you would think it incumbent on you to take
pains to save his life P. Well now you know without my
telling you that Hermogenes 4 is not made of wood or stone.
If you helped him he would be ashamed not to pay you
in kind. And yet—the opportunity of possessing a willing,
kindly, and trusty assistant well fitted to do your bidding,
and not merely that, but capable of originating useful ideas
himself, with a certain forecast of mind and judgment, I
say such a man is worth dozens of slaves. Good economists
tell us that when a precious article may be got at a low price
we ought to buy. And nowadays when times are so bad it
is possible to get good friends exceedingly cheap. -
Diodôrus answered : You are quite right, Socrates ; bid
Hermogenes come to me.
Soc. Bid Hermogenes come to you !—not I indeed since
for aught I can understand you are no better entitled to
* Lit. “must associate with these (the Tovmpoſs) instead of those (the
ka)\ots Te Kāyaôoſs).”
* He was No. 1 —éïs.
& Or, “for which I can personally vouch.”
* Hermogenes, presumably the son of Hipponicus. See above, I. ii. 48.
CH. X. § 5, 6 DIODôRUS AND HERMOGENES 79
summon him than to go to him yourself, nor is the advantage
more on his side than your own.
Thus Diodôrus went off in a trice to seek Hermogenes,
and at no great outlay won to himself a friend—a friend
whose one concern it now was to discover how, by word or
deed, he might help and gladden Diodôrus.
BOOK III I. 1–3
1.—ASPIRANTs to honour and distinction * derived similar help
from Socrates, who in each case stimulated in them a perse-
vering assiduity towards their several aims, as the following
narratives tend to show. He had heard on one occasion of
the arrival in Athens of Dionysodorus,” who professed to teach
the whole duty of a general.” Accordingly he remarked to
one of those who were with him—a young man whose anxiety
to obtain the office of Strategos 4 was no secret to him :
Soc. It would be monstrous on the part of any one who
sought to become a general” to throw away the slightest
opportunity of learning the duties of the office. Such a
person, I should say, would deserve to be fined and punished
by the state far more than the charlatan who without having
learnt the art of a sculptor undertakes a contract to carve a
statue. Considering that the whole fortunes of the state are
entrusted to the general during a war, with all its incidental
peril, it is only reasonable to anticipate that great blessings or
great misfortunes will result in proportion to the success or
bungling of that officer. I appeal to you, young sir, do you
not agree that a candidate who, while taking pains to be
elected neglects to learn the duties of the office, would richly
deserve to be fined P
With arguments like these he persuaded the young man
* Töv ka? (ju = everything which the ka)\ós Te Ká'ya.0ös should aim at, but
especially the honourable offices of state such as the Archonship, Strategia,
Hipparchia, etc. See Plat. Laches.
* Dionysodorus of Chios, presumably. See Plat. Euthyd. 271 c foll.
* A professor of the science and art of Strategy.
* Lit. “that honour,” sc, the Strategia.
* i.e. “‘head of the war department and commander-in-chief,” etc.
CH. I. § 3-6 SOCRATES AND ASPIRANTS TO OFFICE 8I
to go and take lessons. After he had gone through the
course he came back, and Socrates proceeded playfully to
banter him.
Soc. Behold our young friend, sirs, as Homer says of
Agamemnon, of mien majestical," so he ; does he not seem
to móve-more majestically, like one who has studied to be
a general P Of course, just as a man who has learned to
play the harp is a harper, even if he never touch the instru-
ment, or as one who has studied medicine is a physician,
though he does not practise, so our friend here from this time
forward is now and ever shall be a general, even though he
does not receive a vote at the elections. But the dunce who
has not the science is neither general nor doctor, no, not even
if the whole world appointed him. But (he proceeded, turn-
ing to the youth), in case any of us should ever find ourselves
captain or colonel” under you, to give us some smattering of
the science of war, what did the professor take as the starting-
point of his instruction in generalship P Please inform us.
Then the young man : He began where he ended ; he
taught me tactics”—tactics and nothing else.
Yet surely (replied Socrates) that is only an infinitesi-
mal part of generalship. A general * must be ready in
furnishing the material of war : in providing the Commis-
sariat for his troops; quick in devices, he must be full
of practical resource ; nothing must escape his eye or tax
his endurance ; he must be shrewd and ready of wit, a Com-
bination at once of clemency and fierceness, of simplicity and
of insidious craft ; he must play the part of watchman, of
robber; now prodigal as a spendthrift, and again close-fisted as
a miser, the bounty of his munificence must be equalled by
the narrowness of his greed; impregnable in defence, a very
dare-devil in attack—these and many other qualities must he
possess who is to make a good general and minister of war;
they must come to him by gift of nature or through Science.
1 /l. iii. I69, 17o.
? Or, “brigadier or captain,” lit. taxiarch or lochágos.
3 Cf. Cyrop. I. vi. 12 foll.; VIII. v. 15.
4. A stratégos. For the duties and sphere of action of this officer, see Gow,
op. cit. xiv. 58.
WOL. III— I G
82 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. I. § 7-Io
No doubt it is a grand thing also to be a tactician, since
there is all the difference in the world between an army
properly handled in the field and the same in disorder; just
as stones and bricks, woodwork and tiles, tumbled together in
a heap are of no use at all, but arrange them in a certain order
at bottom and atop materials which will not crumble or rot,
such as stones and earthen tiles, and in the middle between
the two put bricks and woodwork, with an eye to architectural
principle," and finally you get a valuable possession—to wit,
a dwelling-place.
The simile is very apt, Socrates” (replied the youth), for
in battle, too, the rule is to draw up the best men in front
and rear, with those of inferior quality between, where they
may be led on by the former and pushed on by the hinder.
Soc. Very good, no doubt, if the professor taught you to
distinguish good and bad ; but if not, where is the use of
your learning P. It would scarcely help you, would it, to
be told to arrange coins in piles, the best coins at top and
bottom and the worst in the middle, unless you were first
taught to distinguish real from counterfeit. &
The Youth. Well no, upon my word, he did not teach
us that, so that the task of distinguishing between good and
bad must devolve on ourselves. -
Soc. Well, shall we see, then, how we may best avoid
making blunders between them P
I am ready (replied the youth). -
Soc. Well then | Let us suppose we are marauders, and
the task imposed upon us is to carry off some bullion ; it will be
a right disposition of our forces if we place in the vanguard
those who are the greediest of gain Pº
The Youth. I should think so.
Soc. Then what if there is danger to be faced P Shall
the vanguard consist of men who are greediest of honour?
The Youth. It is these, at any rate, who will face danger
for the sake of praise and glory.* Fortunately such people
* “As in the building of a house.” See Vitruvius, ii. 3 ; Plin. xxv. 14.
* Cf. Il. iv. 297 foll. ; Cyrop. VI. iii. 25; Polyb. x. 22.
3 “Whose fingers itch for gold.” -
* Cf. Shakesp. “seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's
mouth.” -
:...'...") THE DUTIES OF A STRATÉGos 83
are not hid away in a corner; they shine forth conspicuous
everywhere, and are easy to be discovered.
Soc. But tell me, did he teach you how to draw up
troops in general, or specifically where and how to apply each
particular kind of tactical arrangement P
The Youth. Nothing of the sort. -
Soc. And yet there are and must be innumerable circum-
stances in which the same Ordering of march or battle will be
out of place. -
The Youth. I assure you he did not draw any of these
fine distinctions. •
He did not, did not he? (he answered). Bless me! Go
back to him again, then, and ply him with questions; if he
really has the science, and is not lost to all sense of shame,
he will blush to have taken your money and then to have
sent you away empty.
II.-At another time he fell in with a man who had been
chosen general and minister of war, and thus accosted him.
Soc. Why did Homer, think you, designate Agamemnon
“shepherd of the peoples”?" Was it possibly to show that,
even as a shepherd must care for his sheep and see that
they are safe and have all things needful, and that the
objects of their rearing be secured, so also must a general
take care that his soldiers are safe and have their supplies,
and attain the objects of their soldiering P Which last is that
they may get the mastery of their enemies, and so add to
their own good fortune and happiness; or tell me, what made
him praise Agamemnon, saying—
He is both a good king and a warrior bold 2 %
Did he mean, perhaps, to imply that he would be a “warrior
bold,’ not merely in standing alone and bravely battling
against the foe, but as inspiring the whole of his host with
like prowess ; and by a ‘good king,’ not merely one who
should stand forth gallantly to protect his own life, but
1 II. ii. 243. “The People's Pastor,” Chapman.
* Il. iii. 179; cf. Symp. iv. 6. A favourite line of Alexander the Great's,
it is said.
84 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. {:::::::::::
who should be the source of happiness to all over
whom he reigns P Since a man is not chosen king in order to
take heed to himself, albeit nobly, but that those who chose
him may attain to happiness through him. And why do men
go soldiering except to ameliorate existence?" and to this
end they choose their generals that they may find in them
guides to the goal in question. He, then, who undertakes
that office is bound to procure for those who chose him the
thing they seek for. And indeed it were not easy to find any
nobler ambition than this, or aught ignobler than its opposite.
After such sort he handled the question, what is the
virtue of a good leader? and by shredding off all superficial
qualities, laid bare as the kernel of the matter that it is the
function of every leader to make those happy whom he may
be called upon to lead.”
III.—The following conversation with a youth who had
just been elected hipparch” (or commandant of cavalry), I
can also vouch for.”
Soc. Can you tell us what set you wishing to be a general
of cavalry, young sir? What was your object P I suppose
it was not simply to ride at the head of the “knights,” an
honour not denied to the mounted archers,” who ride even in
front of the generals themselves P
Aſipp. You are right.
Soc. No more was it for the sake merely of public
notoriety, since a madman might boast of that distinction."
Aſſºp. You are right again.
Soc. Is this possibly the explanation ? you think to improve
the cavalry—your aim would be to hand it over to the state
in better condition than you find it ; and, if the cavalry
chanced to be called Out, you at their head would be the
cause of some good thing to Athens?
Aſſºp. Most certainly.
Soc. Well, and a noble ambition too, upon my word—if
1 Or, “that life may reach some flower of happiness.”
2 Cf. Plat. Rep. 342. * Cf. Hiſ/arch ; Trans, vol. i. pp. lxxx. cxl.
4 Lit. “I know he once held.”
* Lit. “Hippotoxotai." See Boeckh, P. E. A. II. xxi. p. 264 (Eng. tr.).
6 Or, “as we all know, ‘Tom Fool' can boast,” etc.
ch, III, § 2-7 SOCRATES AND A YOUTHFUL HIPPARCH 85
you can achieve your object. The command to which you
are appointed concerns horses and riders, does it not P
Aſº. It does, no doubt.
Soc. Come then, will you explain to us first how you
propose to improve the horses P
Alſº, Ah, that will scarcely form part of my business,
I fancy. Each trooper is personally responsible for the con-
dition of his horse. -
Soc. But suppose, when they present themselves and their
horses," you find some have brought beasts with bad feet or
legs or otherwise infirm, and others such ill-fed jades that they
cannot keep up on the march ; others, again, brutes so ill broken
and unmanageable that they will not keep their place in the
ranks, and others such desperate plungers that they can-
not be got to any place in the ranks at all. What becomes
of your cavalry force then P. How will you charge at the head
of such a troop, and win glory for the state P
Aſiſp. You are right. I will try to look after the horses
to my utmost. -
Soc. Well, and will you not lay to your hand to improve
the men themselves P
Aſipp. I will.
Soc. The first thing will be to make them expert in
mounting their chargers ?
Aſipp. That certainly, for if any of them were dismounted
he would then have a better chance of saving himself.
Soc. Well, but when it comes to the hazard of engagement,
what will you do then P Give orders to draw the enemy
down to the sandy ground * where you are accustomed to
manoeuvre, or endeavour beforehand to put your men through
their practice on ground resembling a real battlefield P
Aſipp. That would be better, no doubt. -
Soc. Well, shall you regard it as a part of your duty to see
that as many of your men as possible can take aim and
shoot on horseback P*
Aſ?. It will be better, certainly.
Soc. And have you thought how to whet the courage
* For this phrase, see Schneider and Kühner ad ſoc.
* e.g. the hippodrome at Phaleron. * Cf. Hipparch, i. 21.
86 MEMORABILIA—BIS. III. CH. III. § 7-II
of your troopers? to kindle in them rage to meet the enemy P
—which things are but stimulants to make stout hearts stouter.
Aſiſp. If I have not done so hitherto, I will try to make
up for lost time now. -
Soc. And have you troubled your head at all to consider
how you are to secure the obedience of your men? for without
that not one particle of good will you get, for all your horse
and troopers so brave and so stout. -
Aſº. That is a true saying ; but how, Socrates, should a
man best bring them to this virtue P+
Soc. I presume you know that in any business what-
ever, people are more apt to follow the lead of those
whom they look upon as adepts; thus in Case of sickness
they are readiest to obey him whom they regard as the
cleverest physician ; and so on a voyage the most skilful
pilot ; in matters agricultural the best farmer, and so forth.
Aſſºp. Yes, certainly.
Soc. Then in this matter of the cavalry also we may
reasonably suppose that he who is looked upon as knowing
his business best will command the readiest obedience.
Hipp. If, then, I can prove to my troopers that I am
better than all of them, will that suffice to win their
obedience P
Soc. Yes, if along with that you can teach them that
obedience to you brings greater glory and surer safety to
themselves.
Aſipp. How am I to teach them that P
Soc. Upon my word . How are you to teach them that P
Far more easily, I take it, than if you had to teach them
that bad things are better than good, and more advantageous
to boot.
Aſipp. I suppose you mean that, besides his other quali-
fications, a commandant of cavalry must have Command of
speech and argument P*
Soc. Were you under the impression that the commandant
* Tporpé pagóat. See above, I. ii. 64, p. 21 ; below, IV. v. I, p. 162.
* Or, “practise the art of oratory "; “express himself clearly and
rationally.” See Grote, H. G. VIII. lxvii. p. 463 mote ; Trans. vol. i.
p. cxxvii.; Hipparch, i. 24; viii. 22.
CH. III. § 1 I-14 THE DUTIES OF A HIPPARCH 87
was not to open his mouth P Did it never occur to you that
all the noblest things which custom 4 compels us to learn, and
to which indeed we owe our knowledge of life, have all been
learned by means of speech” and reason; and if there be any
Other noble learning which a man may learn, it is this same
reason whereby he learns it; and the best teachers are those
who have the freest command of thought and language, and
those that have the best knowledge of the most serious things
are the most brilliant masters of disputation. Again, have
you not observed that whenever this city of ours fits out
one of her choruses—such as that, for instance, which is
sent to Delos”—there is nothing elsewhere from any quarter
of the world which can compete with it; nor will you find
in any other state collected so fair a flower of manhood as
in Athens P4
A///. You say truly.
Soc. But for all that, it is not in sweetness of voice that
the Athenians differ from the rest of the world so much,
nor in stature of body or strength of limb, but in ambition
and that love of honour" which most of all gives a keen edge
to the spirit in the pursuit of things lovely and of high esteem.
Aſºpp. That, too, is a true saying.
Soc. Do you not think, then, that if a man devoted him-
self to our cavalry also, here in Athens, we should far
outstrip the rest of the world, whether in the furnishing of
arms and horses, or in orderliness of battle-array, or in
eager hazardous encounter with the foe, if only we could
persuade ourselves that by so doing we should obtain honour
and distinction ? -
Aſipp. It is reasonable to think so.
Soc. Have no hesitation, therefore, but try to guide your
men into this path,” whence you yourself, and through you
your fellow-citizens, will reap advantage.
Yes, in good sooth, I will try (he answered).
* Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. I2, oi véot Tetralòevvtat Útrö Tod vôpov plóvov.
* 6t& Xóyov. * See Thuc. iii. Ioa ; and below, IV. viii. 2, p. 179.
* See references ap. Schneider and Kühner; and below, Symp. iv. 17.
See below, v. 3, p. 91 ; Dem. de Cor. 28 foll.
Or, ‘‘to conduct which will not certainly fail of profit to yourself or
through you to . . . "
88 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. Iv. § 1-4
Iv.–At another time, seeing Nicomachides on his way back
from the elections (of magistrates)," he asked him : Who are
elected generals, Nicomachides P
And he Is it not just like them, these citizens of
Athens—just like them, I say—to go and elect, not me,
who ever since my name first appeared on the muster-roll
have literally worn myself out with military service—now as
a Captain, now as colonel—and have received all these wounds
from the enemy, look you ! (at the same time, and suiting
the action to the word, he bared his arms and proceeded
to show the scars of ancient wounds), — they elect not
me (he went on), but, if you please, Antisthenes who never
served as a hoplite” in his life nor in the cavalry ever made
a brilliant stroke, that I ever heard tell of ; no in fact, he
has got no science at all, I take it, except to amass stores of
wealth.
But still (returned Socrates), surely that is one point in his
favour—he ought to be able to provide the troops with
Supplies.
AWic. Well, for the matter of that, merchants are good
hands at collecting stores; but it does not follow that a
merchant or trader will be able to command an army.
But (rejoined Socrates) Antisthenes is a man of great
pertinacity, who insists on winning, and that is a very
necessary quality in a general.” Do not you see how each
time he has been choragos4 he has been successful with one
chorus after another P -
AWic. Bless me ! yes; but there is a wide difference
between standing at the head of a band of singers and
dancers and a troop of soldiers.
Soc. Still, without any practical skill in singing or in the
training of a chorus, Antisthenes somehow had the art to
select the greatest proficients in both.
* Cf. Pol. Aſh. i. 3; Aristot. Aſh. Pol. 44. 4; and Dr. Sandys' note ad
Joc. p. 165 of his edition. * Cf. Lys. xiv. Io.
* See Grote, Plato, i, 465 foll. - -
* Choir-master, or Director of the Chorus. It was his duty to provide
and preside over a chorus to sing, dance, or play at any of the public festivals,
defraying the cost as a state service or \ettovpyta. See Pol. Aſh. iii. 4;
AE/zero, ix. 4 ; Aristot. Pol. Ath. 28. 3.
CH. Iv. § 4-9 SOCRATES AND NICOMACHIDES 89
AVic, Yes, and by the same reasoning we are to infer
that on a campaign he will find proficients, some to marshal
the troops for him and others to fight his battles P
Soc. Just so. If in matters military he only exhibits the
same skill in selecting the best hands as he has shown in
matters of the chorus, it is highly probable he will here
also bear away the palm of victory; and we may presume
that if he expended so much to win a choric victory with
a single tribe," he will be ready to expend more to secure
a victory in war with the whole state to back him.
AVic. Do you really mean, Socrates, that it is the function
of the same man to provide efficient choruses and to act as
commander-in-chief ?
Soc. I mean this, that, given a man knows what he needs
to provide, and has skill to do so, no matter what the depart-
ment of things may be—house or city or army—you will find
him a good chief and director * of the same.
Then Nicomachides: Upon my word, Socrates, I should
never have expected to hear you say that a good housekeeper”
and steward of an estate would make a good general.
Soc. Come then, suppose we examine their respective duties,
and so determine 4 whether they are the same or different.
AVăc. Let us do so.
Soc. Well then, is it not a common duty of both to
procure the ready obedience of those under them to their
Orders P
AVic. Certainly. /
Soc. And also to assign to those best qualified to perform
them their distinctive tasks P
That, too, belongs to both alike (he answered).
Soc. Again, to chastise the bad and reward the good
belongs to both alike, methinks P
AWic. Decidedly. *
Soc. And to win the kindly feeling of their subordinates
must surely be the noble ambition of both P
2
* See Dem. against Left. 496. 26. Each tribe nominated such of its
members as were qualified to undertake the burden.
* Or, “representative.” * Or, “economist"; cf. Cyrop, I. vi. 12.
* Lit. “get to know.” -
90 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. IV. § 9-12
That too (he answered).
Soc. And do you consider it to the interest of both alike
to win the adherence of supporters and allies P*
AWic. Without a doubt. .
Soc. And does it not closely concern them both to be
good guardians of their respective charges P -
AWic. Very much so.
Soc. Then it equally concerns them both to be pains-
taking and prodigal of toil in all their doings P
AWic. Yes, all these duties belong to both alike, but the
parallel ends when you come to actual fighting.
Soc. Yet they are both sure to meet with enemies P
AWic. There is no doubt about that.
Soc. Then is it not to the interest of both to get the
upper hand of these ? w
AWic. Certainly ; but you omit to tell us what service
Organisation and the art of management will render when
it comes to actual fighting.
Soc. Why, it is just then, I presume, it will be of most
service, for the good economist knows that nothing is SO
advantageous or so lucrative as victory in battle, or to put it
negatively, nothing so disastrous and expensive as defeat. He
will enthusiastically seek out and provide everything conducive
to victory, he will painstakingly discover and guard against
all that tends to defeat, and when satisfied that all is ready
and ripe for victory he will deliver battle energetically, and
what is equally important, until the hour of final preparation
has arrived,” he will be cautious to deliver battle. Do
not despise men of economic genius, Nicomachides; the
difference between the devotion requisite to private affairs
and to affairs of state is merely one of quantity. For
the rest the parallel holds strictly, and in this respect pre-
eminently, that both are concerned with human instruments :
which human beings, moreover, are of one type and tempera-
ment, whether we speak of devotion to public affairs or of the
administration of private property. To fare well in either
* In reference to the necessity of building up a family connection or .
political alliances cf. Arist. Pol. iii. 9, 13.
* Lit. “as long as he is unprepared.”
CH. IV. § 12–
S
CH. V. $ 1-3 } SOCRATES AND PERICLES (THE YOUNGER) 91
case is given to those who know the secret of dealing with
humanity, whereas the absence of that knowledge will as cer-
tainly imply in either case a fatal note of discord."
v.—A conversation held with Pericles the son of the great
statesman may here be introduced.” Socrates began :
I am looking forward, I must tell you, Pericles, to a great
improvement in Our military affairs when you are minister of
war.” The prestige of Athens, I hope, will rise; we shall gain
the mastery over our enemies.
Pericles replied : I devoutly wish your words might be
fulfilled, but how this happy result is to be obtained, I am at
a loss to discover.
Shall we (Socrates continued), shall we balance the argu-
ments for and against, and consider to what extent the
possibility does exist?
Pray let us do so (he answered).
Soc. Well then, you know that in point of numbers the
Athenians are not inferior to the Boeotians ?
Aer. Yes, I am aware of that.
Soc. And do you think the Boeotians could furnish a
better pick of fine healthy men than the Athenians?
Aer. I think we should very well hold our own in that
respect.
Soc. And which of the two would you take to be the more
united people—the friendlier among themselves P
Aer. The Athenians, I should say, for so many sections
of the Boeotians, resenting the selfish policy” of Thebes, are ill
disposed to that power, but at Athens I see nothing of the
SOrt.
Soc. But perhaps you will say that there is no people more
jealous of honour or haughtier in spirit.” And these feelings
* L. Dindorf, Index Graec. Ox. ed. ; cf. Hor. Ep. II. ii. I44, ‘‘sed
verae numerosque modosque ediscere vitae,” “the harmony of life,” Conington.
* Or, “On one occasion Pericles was the person addressed in conversa-
tion.” For the ideal date of this discussion see Introd. Remarks; for Pericles
see Hell. I. v. 16 ; vii. I 5 ; Plut. Pericl, 37 (Clough, i. 368).
* “Stratégos.” * “The self-aggrandisement.”
* Reading peºya Aoqipovéotarot, after Cobet. See Hipparch, vii. 3.; or if
as vulg. pt)\oq povéo Tatou, transl. “more affable.”
92 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. V. § 3-6
are no weak spurs to quicken even a dull spirit to hazard all
for glory's sake and fatherland.
Aer. Nor is there much fault to find with Athenians in
these respects. -
Soc. And if we turn to consider the fair deeds of ancestry,"
to no people besides ourselves belongs so rich a heritage of
stimulating memories, whereby so many of us are stirred to
pursue virtue with devotion and to show ourselves in our turn
also men of valour like our sires. *
Aer. All that you say, Socrates, is most true, but do you
observe that ever since the disaster of the thousand under
Tolmides at Lebadeia, coupled with that other under Hippo-
crates at Delium,” the prestige of Athens by comparison with
the Boeotians has been lowered, whilst the spirit of Thebes
as against Athens has been correspondingly exalted, so that
those Boeotians who in old days did not venture to give
battle to the Athenians even in their own territory unless they
had the Lacedaemonians and the rest of the Peloponnesians to
help them, do nowadays * threaten to make an incursion into
Attica single-handed ; and the Athenians, who formerly, if they
had to deal with Boeotians 4 only, made havoc of their
territory, are now afraid the Boeotians may some day harry
Attica.
To which Socrates: Yes, I perceive that this is so,
but it seems to me that the state was never more tractably
disposed, never so ripe for a really good leader, as to-day.
For if boldness be the parent of carelessness, laxity, and
insubordination, it is the part of fear to make people more
disposed to application, obedience, and good Order. A proof
of which you may discover in the behaviour of people on ship-
board. It is in seasons of calm weather when there is
nothing to fear that disorder may be said to reign, but as
soon as there is apprehension of a storm, or an enemy in
• * *
* See Wesley's anthem, Eccles. xlivi I, “Let us now praise famous
men and our fathers that begat us.”
* Lebadeia, 447 B.C. ; Delium, 424 B.C. For Tolmides and Hippo-
crates see Thuc. i. 113 ; iv. Ioo foll. ; Grote, H. G. V. 471 ; vi. 533.
* For the date see Introd. Remarks.
* Reading &re B. p.6vot, al, où p.600t, “when the Boeotians were not
unaided.”
cH. v. § 6-io ATHENS AND BOEOTIA 93
sight, the scene changes; not only is each word of command
obeyed, but there is a hush of silent expectation ; the mariners
wait to catch the next signal like an orchestra with eyes upon
the leader.
Per. But indeed, given that now is the opportunity to
take obedience at the flood, it is high time also to explain
by what means we are to rekindle in the hearts of our
countrymen" the old fires—the passionate longing for antique
valour, for the glory and the wellbeing of the days of old.
Well (proceeded Socrates), supposing we wished them to lay
claim to certain material wealth now held by others, we could
not better stimulate them to lay hands on the objects coveted
than by showing them that these were ancestral possessions”
to which they had a natural right. But since our object is
that they should set their hearts on virtuous pre-eminence,
we must prove to them that such headship combined with
virtue is an old time-honoured heritage which pertains to them
beyond all others, and that if they strive earnestly after it they
will soon out-top the world.
Aer. How are we to inculcate this lesson P
Soc. I think by reminding them of a fact already registered
in their minds,” that the oldest of our ancestors whose names
are known to us were also the bravest of heroes.
Per. I suppose you refer to that judgment of the gods
which, for their virtue's sake, Cecrops and his followers were
called on to decide P*
Soc. Yes, I refer to that and to the birth and rearing of
Erechtheus,” and also to the war" which in his days was waged
to stay the tide of invasion from the whole adjoining con-
tinent ; and that other war in the days of the Heraclidae 7
against the men of Peloponnese ; and that series of battles
fought in the days of Theseus *—in all which the virtuous
1 Reading &vepao,0āvat, Schneider's emendation of the vulg. āvepta 6%uat.
* Cf. Solon in the matter of Salamis, Plut. Sol. 8 ; Bergk, Poet. Lyr.
Gr. Solom, XAAAMI2, i. 2, 3.
8 Or, “to which their ears are already opened.”
* See Apollodorus, iii. I4.
5 Cf. Il. ii. 547, 'Epex070s pſeya)\#Topos K. T.N.
6 Cf. Isoc. Paneg. 19, who handles all the topics.
7 Commonly spoken of as “the Return.” See Grote, H. G. II. ch. xviii.
8 Against the Amazons and Thracians; cf. Herod. ix. 27 ; Plut. Thes, 27.
94 MEMORABILIA—BIK. III. CH. V. § Io-I4
pre-eminence of our ancestry above the men of their own
times was made manifest. Or, if you please, we may
come down to things of a later date, which their descend-
ants and the heroes of days not so long anterior to our
own wrought in the struggle with the lords of Asia, nay of
Europe also, as far as Macedonia : a people possessing a
power and means of attack far exceeding any who had gone
before — who, moreover, had accomplished the doughtiest
deeds. These things the men of Athens wrought partly
single-handed,” and partly as sharers with the Peloponnesians
in laurels won by land and sea. Heroes were these men also,
far outshining, as tradition tells us, the peoples of their time.
Aer. Yes, so runs the story of their heroism.
Soc. Therefore it is that, amidst the many changes of
inhabitants and the migrations which, wave after wave, swept
over Hellas, these maintained themselves in their own land,
unmoved ; so that it was a common thing for others to turn
to them as to a court of appeal on points of right, or to flee
to Athens as a harbour of refuge from the hand of the op-
pressor.” -
Then Pericles : And the wonder to me, Socrates, is how
our city ever came to decline.
Soc. I think we are victims of our own success. Like
some athlete,” whose facile preponderance in the arena has
betrayed him into laxity until he eventually succumbs to
punier antagonists, so we Athenians, in the plenitude of our
superiority, have neglected ourselves and are become de-
generate.
Per. What then ought we to do now to recover our
former virtue P
Soc. There need be no mystery about that, I think.
We can rediscover the institutions of our forefathers—apply-
ing them to the regulation of our lives with something of
their precision, and not improbably with like success; or we
can imitate those who stand at the front of affairs to-day,”
1 The “Persian "wars; cf. Thucyd. I. i.
2 He omits the Plataeans. * Cf. (Plat.) Menex. ; Isocr. Paneg.
4 Reading &0\m Tat Tuves, or if &\\ot Tuvès, translate “any one else.”
* Sc. the Lacedaemonians. See W. L. Newman, op. cit. i. 396.
cH. v. § 14-18 ATHENS AND LACEDAEMON 95
adapting to ourselves their rule of life, in which case, if we
live up to the standard of our models, we may hope at least
to rival their excellence, or, by a more conscientious adherence
to what they aim at, rise Superior.
You would seem to suggest (he answered) that the spirit of
beautiful and brave manhood has taken wings and left our city;”
as, for instance, when will Athenians, like the Lacedaemonians,
reverence old age—the Athenian, who takes his own father as
a starting-point for the contempt he pours upon grey hairs P
When will he pay as strict an attention to the body, who
is not content with neglecting a good habit,” but laughs to
scorn those who are careful in the matter P. When shall
we Athenians so obey our magistrates—we who take a pride,
as it were, in despising authority ? When, Once more, shall
we be united as a people—we who, instead of combining to
promote common interests, delight in blackening each other's
characters,” envying one another more than we envy all the
world besides; and—which is our worst failing—who, in private
and public intercourse alike, are torn by dissension and are
caught in a maze of litigation, and prefer to make Capital Out
of our neighbours' difficulties rather than to render mutual
assistance P To make our conduct consistent, indeed, we
treat our national interests no better than if they were the
concerns of some foreign state ; we make them bones of
contention to wrangle over, and rejoice in nothing so much
as in possessing means and ability to indulge these tastes.
From this hotbed is engendered in the state a spirit of blind
folly 4 and cowardice, and in the hearts of the citizens
spreads a tangle of hatred and, mutual hostility which, as
I often shudder to think, will some day cause Some disaster
to befall the state greater than it can bear.”
Do not (replied Socrates), do not, I pray you, permit
* Or, “is far enough away from Athens.”
* See below, III. xii. 5, p. 123 ; Pol. Aſh. i. 13 ; Rev. iv. 52 (Trans.
vol. ii. pp. 279, 345).
* Or, “to deal despitefully by one another.” .
4 Reading &rmpla. See L. Dindorf ad ſoc., Ox. ed. lxii. Al. direupta,
a want of skill, or &tašta, disorderliness, Cf. Pol. Ath. i. 5.
5 Possibly the author is thinking of the events of 406, 405 B.C. (see Hell.
I. vii. and II.), and history may repeat itself.
96 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. V. § 18-21
yourself to believe that the Athenians are smitten with so
incurable a depravity. Do you not observe their discipline
in all naval matters? Look at their prompt and orderly
obedience to the Superintendents at the gymnastic contests,"
their quite unrivalled subservience to their teachers in the
training of our choruses.
Yes (he answered), there's the wonder of it; to think that
all those good people should so obey their leaders, but that
Our hoplites and Our Cavalry, who may be supposed to rank
before the rest of the citizens in excellence of manhood,”
should be so entirely unamenable to discipline.
Then Socrates : Well, but the council which sits on
Areopagos is composed of citizens of approved 3 character,
is it not P - -
Certainly (he answered).
Soc. Then can you name any similar body, judicial or
executive, trying cases or transacting other business with
greater honour, stricter legality, higher dignity, or more im-
partial justice P
No, I have no fault to find on that score (he answered).
Soc. Then we ought not to despair as though all sense
of orderliness and good discipline had died out of our
countrymen. -
Still (he answered), if it is not to harp upon one string, I
maintain that in military service, where, if anywhere, sobriety
and temperance, orderliness and good discipline are needed,
none of these essentials receives any attention.
May it not perhaps be (asked Socrates) that in this
department they are officered by those who have the least
knowledge P* Do you not notice, to take the case of harp-
players, choric performers, dancers, and the like, that no one
would ever dream of leading if he lacked the requisite know-
ledge P and the same holds of wrestlers or pancratiasts.
Moreover, while in these cases any one in command can tell
you where he got the elementary knowledge of what he presides
1 Epistatai, i.e. stewards and training-masters. * kakokāya.6ta.
* Technically, they must have passed the Öokupuaata. And for the “Areo-
pagos" see Grote, H. G. v. 498; Aristot. Pol. ii. I2 ; Ath. Pol. 4. 4, where
see Dr. Sandys' note, p. 18. * étruo Tàum. See below, III. ix. Io.
ch. v. § 2; 27 ANOTHER ATHENS SHALL ARISE 97
over, most generals are amateurs and improvisers.' I do not at
all suppose that you are one of that sort. I believe you could
give as clear an account of your schooling in strategy as you
could in the matter of wrestling. No doubt you have
got at first hand many of your father’s “rules for general-
ship,” which you carefully preserve, besides having collected
many others from every quarter whence it was possible to
pick up any knowledge which would be of use to a future
general. Again, I feel sure you are deeply concerned to
escape even unconscious ignorance of anything which will be
serviceable to you in so high an office ; and if you detect in
yourself any ignorance, you turn to those who have knowledge
in these matters (sparing neither gifts nor gratitude) to supple-
ment your ignorance by their knowledge and to secure their
help.
To which Pericles: I am not so blind, Socrates, as to
imagine you say these words under the idea that I am truly
so careful in these matters ; but rather your object is to teach
me that the would-be general must make such things his care.
I admit in any case all you say.
Socrates proceeded : Has it ever caught your observa-
tion, Pericles, that a high mountain barrier stretches like a
bulwark in front of our country down towards Boeotia —
cleft, moreover, by narrow and precipitous passes, the only
avenues into the heart of Attica, which lies engirdled by a
ring of natural fortresses P*
Aer. Certainly I have.
Soc. Well, and have you ever heard tell of the Mysians
and Pisidians living within the territory of the great king,”
who, inside their mountain fortresses, lightly armed, are able
to rush down and inflict much injury on the king's territory
by their raids, while preserving their own freedom P
Aer. Yes, the circumstance is not new to me.
And do you not think (added Socrates) that a corps of
young able-bodied Athenians, accoutred with lighter arms,” and
1. Cf. Pol. Lac. xiii. 5 (Trans. Vol. ii. p. 320).
2 The mountains are Cithaeron and Parnes N., and Cerata, N.W.
3 For this illustration see Anab, III. ii. 23 (Trans. Vol. i. p. I57); cf. Econ.
iv. 18 (below, p. 216), where Socrates (EX) refers to Cyrus' expedition and death.
4 Cp, the reforms of Iphicrates. See Trans, vol. i. p. xci.
VOL. III— I H
98 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. (º-
holding our natural mountain rampart in possession, would
prove at once a thorn in the enemy's side offensively, whilst
defensively they would form a splendid bulwark to protect
the country P
To which Pericles: I think, Socrates, these would be all
useful measures, decidedly.
If, then (replied Socrates), these suggestions meet your
approbation, try, O best of men, to realise them,--if you can
carry out a portion of them, it will be an honour to yourself
and a blessing to the state ; while, if you fail in àny point, there
will be no damage done to the city nor discredit to yourself.
VI.-Glaucon,” the son of Ariston, had conceived such an
ardour to gain the headship of the state that nothing could
hinder him but he must deliver a course of public speeches,”
though he had not yet reached the age of twenty. His
friends and relations tried in vain to stop him making himself
ridiculous and being dragged down from the bema.” Socrates,
who took a kindly interest in the youth for the sake of
Charmides 4 the son of Glaucon, and of Plato, alone succeeded
in restraining him. It happened thus. He fell in with him,
and first of all, to get him to listen, detained him by some
such remarks as the following: *
Ah, Glaucon (he exclaimed), so you have determined to
become prime minister Pº
G/auc. Yes, Socrates, I have.
Soc. And what a noble aim if aught human ever deserved
1 Glaucon, Plato's brother. Grote, Plato, i. 508.
* “Harangue the People.”
* See Plat. Protag. 31.9 C : “And if some person offers to give them
advice who is not supposed by them to have any skill in the art [sc. of
politics], even though he be good-looking, and rich, and noble, they will not
listen to him, but laugh at him, and hoot him, until either he is clamoured
down and retires of himself; or if he persist, he is dragged away or put out
by the constables at the command of the prytanes” (Jowett). Cf. Aristoph.
A nights, 665, Kä6’ ei)\kov attöv oi Tpvrávels kal Tošórat.
* For Charmides (maternal uncle of Plato and Glaucon, cousin of Critias)
see ch. vii, below, p. 103; Plato the philosopher, Glaucon's brother, see Cobet,
Aros. Xen. p. 28.
* Or, “and in the first instance addressing him in such terms he could
not choose but hear, detained him." See above, II. vi. II, p. 63. Socrates
applies his own theory. * Tpoo rateúeiv.
CH. VI. § 2-6 SOCRATES AND GLAUCON 99
to be called noble ; since if you succeed in your design, it
follows, as the night the day, you will be able not only to
gratify your every wish, but you will be in a position to benefit
your friends, you will raise up your father's house, you will
exalt your fatherland, you will become a name thrice famous
in the city first, and next in Hellas, and lastly even among bar-
barians perhaps, like Themistocles; but be it here or be it there,
wherever you be, you will be the observed of all beholders."
The heart of Glaucon swelled with pride as he d ink in
the words, and gladly he stayed to listen. *
Presently Socrates proceeded : Then this is clear, Glaucon,
is it not? that you must needs benefit the city, since you
desire to reap her honours ?
Glauc. Undoubtedly.
Then, by all that is sacred (Socrates continued), do not
keep us in the dark, but tell us in what way do you propose
first to benefit the state P what is your starting-point P* When
Glaucon remained with sealed lips, as if he were now for the
first time debating what this starting-point should be, Socrates
continued: I presume, if you wished to improve a friend’s
estate, you would endeavour to do so by adding to its wealth,
would you not P So here, maybe, you will try to add to the
wealth of the state P
Most decidedly (he answered).
Soc. And we may take it the state will grow wealthier in
proportion as her revenues increase ?
Glauc. That seems probable, at any rate.
Soc. Then would you kindly tell us from what sources
the revenues of the state are at present derived, and what is
their present magnitude P No doubt you have gone carefully
into the question, so that if any of these are failing you may
make up the deficit, or if neglected for any reason, make some
new provision.” -
G/auc. Nay, to speak the truth, these are matters I have
not thoroughly gone into.
! “The centre of attraction—the cynosure of neighbouring eyes.”
* Or, “tell us what your starting-point will be in the path of benefaction.”
3 Or, “ or if others have dropped out or been negligently overlooked, you
may replace them.”
:
:
:
IOO MEMORABILIA—BK. III. ch, vi. § 6-10
Never mind (he said) if you have omitted the point; but
you might oblige us by running through the items or heads
of expenditure. Obviously you propose to remove all those
which are superfluous P
Glauc. Well, no. Upon my word I have not had time to
look into that side of the matter either as yet.
Soc. Then we will postpone for the present the problem of
making the state wealthier ; obviously without knowing the
outgoings and the incomings it would be impossible to deal
with the matter seriously.
But, Socrates (Glaucon remarked), it is possible to enrich
the state out of the pockets of her enemies
Yes, to be sure, considerably (answered Socrates), in the
event of getting the better of them ; but in the event of being
worsted, it is also possible to lose what we have got.
A true observation (he replied).
And therefore (proceeded Socrates), before he makes up
his mind with what enemy to go to war, a statesman should
know the relative powers of his own city and the adversary's, so
that, in case the superiority be on his own side, he may throw
the weight of his advice into the scale of undertaking war;
but if the opposite he may plead in favour of exercising
caution.
You are right (he answered).
Soc. Then would you for our benefit enumerate the land
and naval forces first of Athens and then of our opponents P
G/auc. Pardon me. I could not tell you them off-hand
at a moment’s notice. -
Or (added Socrates), if you have got the figures on paper,
you might produce them. I cannot tell how anxious I am to
hear your statement. -
G/auc. No, I assure you, I have not got them even on
paper yet.
Soc. Well then, we will defer tendering advice on the
topic of peace or war, in a maiden speech at any rate.' I
can understand that, owing to the magnitude of the questions,
in these early days of your ministry you have not yet fully
examined them. But come, I am Sure that you have studied
* See below, Econ. xi. I, p. 247.
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CH. VI. § Io-13 GLAUCON CONVINCED OF IGNORANCE IOI
the defences of the country, at all events, and you know
exactly how many forts and outposts are serviceable * and
how many are not; you can tell us which garrisons are strong
enough and which defective ; and you are prepared to throw
in the weight of your advice in favour of increasing the
Serviceable outposts and sweeping away those that are Super-
fluous P
Glauc. Yes, sweep them all away, that’s my advice; for
any good that is likely to come of them | Defences indeed so
maintained that the property of the rural districts is simply
pilfered.
But suppose you sweep away the outposts (he asked), may
not something worse, think you, be the consequence P will
not sheer plundering be free to any ruffian who likes P . . .
But may I ask is this judgment the result of personal
inspection ? have you gone yourself and examined the
defences P or how do you know that they are all maintained
as you say ?
Glauc. I conjecture that it is so.
Soc. Well then, until we have got beyond the region of
conjecture shall we defer giving our advice on the matter P
(It will be time enough when we know the facts.)
Possibly it would be better to wait till then (replied
Glaucon).
Soc. Then there are the mines,” but, of course, I am aware
that you have not visited them in person, so as to be able to
say why they are less productive than formerly.
Well, no; I have never been there myself (he answered).
Soc. No, Heaven help us an unhealthy district by all
accounts; so that, when the moment for advice on that topic
arrives, you will have an excuse ready to hand.
I see you are making fun of me (Glaucon answered).
Soc. Well, but here is a point, I am sure, which you have
not neglected. No, you will have gone thoroughly into it, and
you can tell us. For how long a time could the Corn Supplies
from the country districts support the city P how much is
1 Or, “advantageously situated." See the author's own tract on
Revenues (Trans, vol. ii.).
* Again the author's tract on Revenues is a comment on the matter.
I O2 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. VI. § 13-17
requisite for a single year, so that the city may not run short
of this prime necessary, before you are well aware; but on
the contrary you with your full knowledge will be in a position
to give advice on so vital a question, to the aid or may be
the salvation of your country P
It is a colossal business this (Glaucon answered), if I am to
be obliged to give attention to all these details.
Soc. On the other hand, a man could not even manage his
own house or his estate well, without, in the first place, knowing
what he requires, and, in the second place, taking pains, item
by item, to supply his wants. But since this city consists of
more than ten thousand houses, and it is not easy to pay minute
attention to so many all at once, how is it you did not practise
yourself by trying to augment the resources of one at any rate
of these—I mean your own uncle's P The service would not
be thrown away. Then if your strength suffices in the single
case you might take in hand a larger number ; but if you
fail to relieve one, how could you possibly hope to succeed
with many P How absurd for a man, if he cannot carry half
a hundredweight, to attempt to carry a whole !"
Glauc. Nay, for my part, I am willing enough to assist my
uncle's house, if my uncle would only be persuaded to listen
to my advice.
Soc. Then, when you cannot persuade your uncle, do you
imagine you will be able to make the whole Athenian people,
uncle and all, obey you ? Be careful, Glaucon (he added), lest
in your thirst for glory and high repute you come to the
opposite. Do you not see how dangerous it is for a man to
speak or act beyond the range” of his knowledge? To take
the cases known to you of people whose conversation or con-
duct clearly transcends these limits: should you say they
gain more praise or more blame on that account P Are they
admired the rather or despised ? Or, again, consider those who
do know what they say and what they do ; and you will find, I
venture to say, that in every sort of undertaking those who enjoy
repute and admiration belong to the class of those endowed
with the highest knowledge; whilst conversely the people of
* Lit. “a single talent's weight . . . to carry two.”
* Or, “to talk of things which he does not know, or to meddle with them.”
:...'...") SOCRATES AND CHARMIDES IO3
sinister reputation, the mean and the contemptible, emanate
from some depth of ignorance and dulness. If therefore what
you thirst for is repute and admiration as a statesman, try
to make sure of one accomplishment: in other words, the
knowledge as far as in you lies of what you wish to do." If,
indeed, with this to distinguish you from the rest of the world
you venture to concern yourself with state affairs, it would not
Surprise me but that you might reach the goal of your
ambition easily.
VII.-Now Charmides,” the son of Glaucon, was, as Socrates
observed, a man of mark and influence : a much more power-
ful person in fact than the mass of those devoted to politics at
that date, but at the same time he was a man who shrank from
approaching the people or busying himself with the concerns
of the state. Accordingly Socrates addressed him thus:
Tell me, Charmides, supposing some one competent to win a
victory in the arena and to receive a crown,” whereby he will gain
honour himself and make the land of his fathers more glorious
in Hellas,” were to refuse to enter the lists—what kind of
person should you set him down to be P
Clearly an effeminate and cowardly fellow (he answered).
Soc. And what if another man, who had it in him, by
devotion to affairs of state, to exalt his city and win honour
himself thereby, were to shrink and hesitate and hang back—
would he too not reasonably be regarded as a coward P
Possibly (he answered); but why do you address these
questions to me? -
Because (replied Socrates) I think that you, who have this
power, do hesitate to devote yourself to matters which, as
being a citizen, if for no other reason, you are bound to take
part in.”
* Or, “try as far as possible to achieve one thing, and that is to know the
business which you propose to carry out.”
* See last chapter for his relationship to Glaucon (the younger) and Plato :
for a conception of his character, Plato's dialogue Charmides ; Theag. I28 E
Hell. II, iv. 19 (Trans, vol. i. p. 67); Symp, iv. 31 (below, p. 318); Grote,
Plato, i. 48o.
* In some conquest (e.g. of the Olympic games) where the prize is a mere
wreath.
* Cf. Pindar passim. ° Or add, “and cannot escape from.”
IO4 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. VII. § 3-7
Charm. And wherein have you detected in me this power,
that you pass so severe a sentence upon me?
Soc. I have detected it plainly enough in those gatherings"
in which you meet the politicians of the day, when, as I
observe, each time they consult you on any point you have
always good advice to offer, and when they make a blunder
you lay your finger on the weak point immediately.
Charm. To discuss and reason in private is one thing,
Socrates, to battle in the throng of the assembly is another.
Soc. And yet a man who can count, counts every bit as well
in a crowd as when seated alone by himself; and it is the best
performer on the harp in private who carries off the palm of
victory in public.
Charm. But do you not see that modesty and timidity are
feelings implanted in man's nature ? and these are much more
powerfully present to us in a crowd than within the circle of
our intimates.
Soc. Yes, but what I am bent upon teaching you is that
while you feel no such bashfulness and timidity before the
wisest and strongest of men, you are ashamed of opening your
lips in the midst of weaklings and dullards.” Is it the fullers
among them of whom you stand in awe, or the cobblers, or the
carpenters, or the Coppersmiths, or the merchants, or the
farmers, or the hucksters of the market-place exchanging their
wares, and bethinking them how they are to buy this thing
cheap and to sell the other dear—is it before these you are
ashamed, for these are the individual atoms out of which the
Public Assembly is composed ?? And what is the difference,
pray, between your behaviour and that of a man who, being the
superior of trained athletes, quails before a set of amateurs ?
Is it not the case that you who can argue so readily with the
foremost statesmen in the city, Some of whom affect to look
down upon you—you, with your vast Superiority over practised
popular debaters—are no sooner Confronted with a set of
folk who never in their lives gave politics a thought, and
into whose heads certainly it never entered to look down
* See above, I. v. 4, p. 31 ; here possibly of political club conversazioni.
* Cf. Cic. Tusc. v. 36, IoA ; Plat. Goyg. 452 E, 454 B.
* Cf. Plat. Protag. 319 C. See W. L. Newman, op. cil. i. Io9.
CH. VII. § 7-9– ON SELF-DEPRECIATION IO5
CH. VIII. § 1, 2
upon you—than you are afraid to open your lips in mortal
terror of being laughed at P
Well, but you would admit (he answered) that sound
argument does frequently bring down the ridicule of the
Popular Assembly.
Soc. Which is equally true of the others." And that is
just what rouses my astonishment, that you who can cope
so easily with these lordly people (when guilty of ridicule).
should persuade yourself that you cannot stand up against a
set of commoners.” My good fellow, do not be ignorant of
yourself | * do not fall into that commonest of errors—theirs
who rush off to investigate the concerns of the rest of the
world, and have no time to turn and examine themselves.
Yet that is a duty which you must not in cowardly sort draw
back from ; rather must you brace yourself to give good heed
to your own self; and as to public affairs, if by any manner of
means they may be improved through you, do not neglect
them. Success in the sphere of politics means that not only
the mass of your fellow-citizens, but your personal friends and
you yourself last but not least, will profit by your action.
VIII. —Once when Aristippus * set himself to subject
Socrates to a cross-examination, such as he had himself under-
gone at the hands of Socrates on a former occasion,” Socrates,
being minded to benefit those who were with him, gave his
answers less in the style of a debater guarding against per-
versions of his argument, than of a man persuaded of the
Supreme importance of right conduct."
Aristippus asked him “if he knew of anything good,” "
* oi &repot, i.e. “the foremost statesmen" mentioned before. Al, “the
opposite party,’” the “Tories,” if one may so say, of the political clubs.
* Lit. ‘‘ those . . . these.”
* Ernesti aptly cf. Cic. ad Quint. iii. 6. See below, III. ix. 6; IV.
ii. 24.
* For Aristippus see above, p. 38; for the connection, 8ovXógevos Toys
ovvövtas (bqeXeiv, between this and the preceding chapter, See above, Con-
Spectus, p. xxvi.
* Possibly in reference to the conversation above, p. 38 foll. In reference
to the present dialogue see Grote, Plato, I. xi. p. 38o foll.
* For Tpdtreu Tà 6éovta cf. below, III. ix. 4, II, pp. Io9, III ; Plat.
Charm. I64 B ; but see J. J. Hartman, An. Xen. p. 141.
7 See Grote, Plato, ii. 585, on Philebus.
Ioé MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. VIII. § 2-5
intending in case he assented and named any particular good
thing, like food, or drink, or wealth, or health, or strength, or
courage, to point out that the thing named was sometimes bad.
But he, knowing that if a thing troubles us, we immediately
want that which will put an end to our trouble, answered
precisely as it was best to do."
Soc. Do I understand you to ask me whether I know any-
thing good for fever ? -
No (he replied), that is not my question.
Soc. Then for inflammation of the eyes?
Aristić. No, nor yet that.
Soc. Well then, for hunger ?
Aristºft. No, nor yet for hunger.
Well, but (answered Socrates) if you ask me whether I
know of any good thing which is good for nothing, I neither
know of it nor want to know.
And when Aristippus, returning to the charge, asked him
“if he knew of any thing beautiful,”
He answered : Yes, many things.
Aristić. Are they all like each other ?
Soc. On the contrary, they are often as unlike as possible.
How then (he asked) can that be beautiful which is unlike
the beautiful ? -.
Soc. Bless me ! for the simple reason that it is possible for
a man who is a beautiful runner to be quite unlike another
man who is a beautiful boxer,” or for a shield, which is a
beautiful weapon for the purpose of defence, to be absolutely
unlike a javelin, which is a beautiful weapon of swift and sure
discharge. . -
Aristºft. Your answers are no better now than * when I
asked you whether you knew any good thing. They are both
of a pattern.
Soc. And so they should be. Do you imagine that
One thing is good and another beautiful? Do not you know
that relatively to the same standard all things are at once
* Or, “made the happiest answer.”
* See Grote, H. G. x. 164, in reference to Epaminondas and his gymnastic
training ; below, III. x. 6, p. II 5.
* Or, “You answer precisely as you did when . .
3 *
CH. viii. § 5-8 SOCRATES AND ARISTIPPUS : TO KAAON Io?
beautiful and good P* In the first place, virtue is not a good
thing relatively to one standard and a beautiful thing relatively
to another standard ; and in the next place, human beings, on
the same principle” and relatively to the same standard, are
called “beautiful and good"; and so the bodily frames of men
relatively to the same standards are seen to be “beautiful and
good,” and in general all things capable of being used by man
are regarded as at once beautiful and good relatively to the
same standard—the standard being in each case what the
things happen to be useful for.”
Azisłż. Then I presume even a basket for carrying dung *
is a beautiful thing?
Soc. To be sure, and a spear of gold an ugly thing, if
for their respective uses—the former is well and the latter ill
adapted. -
Aristiff. Do you mean to assert that the same things may
be beautiful and ugly P -
Soc. Yes, to be sure ; and by the same showing things may
be good and bad : as, for instance, what is good for hunger
may be bad for fever, and what is good for fever bad for
hunger; or again, what is beautiful for wrestling is often ugly
for running ; and in general everything is good and beautiful
when well adapted for the end in view, bad and ugly when ill
adapted for the same.
Similarly when he spoke about houses,” and argued
that “the same house must be at once beautiful and useful”
—I could not help feeling that he was giving a good lesson on
the problem : “how a house ought to be built.” He investi-
gated the matter thus:
Soc. “Do you admit that any one purposing to build a
perfect house" will plan to make it at once as pleasant and as
1 Or, “good and beautiful are convertible terms: whatever is good is
beautiful, or whatever is beautiful is good.”
* Or, “in the same breath.” Cf. Plat. Hipp, maj. 295 D ; Gorg. 474 D.
3 Or, “and this standard is the serviceableness of the thing in question."
4 Cf. Plat. Hipp, maj. 288 D, 290 D ; and Grote's note, loc, cit. p. 381 :
“in regard to the question wherein consists rô Ka)\ów P "
* See K. Joel, op. cit, p. 488; Classical Review, vii. 262.
6 Or, “the ideal house"; lit. ‘‘a house as it should be.”
CH. VIII. § 8-Io-
CH. IX. § 1
IO8 MEMORAIBILIA—BK. III.
useful to live in as possible P” and that point being admitted,"
the next question would be :
“It is pleasant to have one's house cool in summer and
warm in winter, is it not P” and this proposition also having
obtained assent, “Now, supposing a house to have a southern
aspect, sunshine during winter will steal in under the verandah,”
but in summer, when the Sun traverses a path right over Our
heads, the roof will afford an agreeable shade, will it not P
If, then, such an arrangement is desirable, the Southern side of
a house should be built higher to catch the rays of the winter
Sun, and the northern side lower to prevent the cold winds
finding ingress; in a word, it is reasonable to suppose that the
pleasantest and most beautiful dwelling-place will be one in
which the owner can at all seasons of the year find the pleasantest
retreat, and stow away his goods with the greatest security.”
Paintings” and ornamental mouldings are apt (he said) to
deprive one of more joy 4 than they confer.
The fittest place for a temple or an altar (he maintained)
was some site visible from afar, and untrodden by foot of man : *
since it was a glad thing for the worshipper to lift up his eyes
afar off and offer up his Orison ; glad also to wend his way
peacefully to prayer unsullied."
Ix.—Being again asked by Some one : could courage be
taught," or did it come by nature P he answered : I imagine
that just as one body is by nature stronger than another body
to encounter toils, so one soul by nature grows more robust
than another soul in face of dangers. Certainly I do note that
people brought up under the same Condition of laws and
1 See below, IV. vi. I 5. * Or, ‘‘porticoes" or “colonnade.”
* See below, Econ. ix. 2 ; Plat. Hipp. maj. 298 A ; Rep. 529; Becker,
Charicles, 268 (Engl. trans.). -
* etºpogºvas, archaic or “poetical" = “joyance.” See below, Hiero, vi. I.
* e.g. the summit of Lycabettos, or the height on which stands the temple
of Phygaleia. Cf. Eur. Phoen. I372, IIa)\\&öos Xpwada Tru60s (3)\épas Tpós oikov
miſſato of Eteocles.
* See Vitruvius, i. 7, iv. 5, ap. Schneid. ad loc.; W. L. Newman, op. cit. i. 338.
7 Or, “When some one retorted upon him with the question : “Can
courage be taught P’ ” and for this problem see IV. vi. Io, II ; Symp. ii. 12
(below, pp. 172, 301); Plat. Lach. ; Protag. 349; Phaedr. 269 D ; K. Joel,
op. cit. p. 325 foll, ; Grote, Plato, i. 468 foll., ii. 60 ; Jowett, Plato, i. 77,
II9 ; Newman, op. cit, i. 343.
CH. IX. § 1-4 OF COURAGE, WISDOM, WYRTUE IO9
customs differ greatly in respect of daring. Still my belief is
that by learning and practice the natural aptitude may always
be strengthened towards courage. It is clear, for instance, that
Scythians or Thracians would not venture to take shield and
spear and contend with Lacedaemonians; and it is equally
evident that Lacedaemonians would demur to entering the
lists of battle against Thracians if limited to their light shields
and javelins, or against Scythians without some weapon more
familiar than their bows and arrows." And as far as I can see,
this principle holds generally : the natural differences of one man
from another may be compensated by artificial progress, the
result of care and attention. All which proves clearly that
whether nature has endowed us with keener or blunter sensi-
bilities, the duty of all alike is to learn and practise those
things in which we would fain achieve distinction.
Between wisdom and sobriefly of soul (which is temperance)
he drew no distinction.” Was a man able on the one hand to
recognise things beautiful and good sufficiently to live in them P
Had he, on the other hand, knowledge of the “base and foul.”
so as to beware of them P If so, Socrates judged him to be
wise at once and sound of soul (or temperate).”
And being further questioned whether “he considered
those who have the knowledge of right action, but do not
apply it, to be wise and self-controlled P”—“Not a whit
more,” he answered, “than I consider them to be unwise
and intemperate.* Every one, I conceive, deliberately chooses
what, within the limits open to him, he considers most con-
* Or, “against Thracians with light shields and javelins, or against Scythians
with bows and arrows”; and for the national arms of these peoples respectively
see Arist. Lysisłr. 563; Anab. III. iv. I 5 (Trans, vol. i. p. 165); VI., VII.
Żassim.
* But cf. IV. vi. 7 (below, p. 170); K. Joel, op. cit. p. 363.
* Reading &\\& Tø . . . kai Tig, or more lit. “he discovered the wise man
and sound of soul in his power not only to recognise things ‘beautiful and
good,' but to live and move and have his being in them ; as also in his gift
of avoiding consciously things base.” Or if &\\& Töv . . . kal Töv . . .
transl. “The man who not only could recognise the beautiful and good, but
lived, etc., in that world, and who moreover consciously avoided things base,
in the judgment of Socrates was wise and Sound of Soul.” Cf. Plat. Charm.
* For the phrase “not a whit the more ” see below, III. xii. 1, p. 122 ;
Econ. xii. 18, p. 256. A l. “I should by no means choose to consider them
wise and self-controlled rather than foolish and intemperate.''
I IO MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. IX. § 4-7
ducive to his interest, and acts accordingly. I must hold
therefore that those who act against rule and crookedly 4 are
neither wise nor self-controlled.
He said that justice,” moreover, and all other virtue is
zwisdom. That is to say, things just, and all things else that
are done with virtue, are “beautiful and good”; and neither
will those who know these things deliberately choose aught else
in their stead ; nor will he who lacks the special knowledge
of them be able to do them, but even if he makes the
attempt he will miss the mark and fail. So the wise alone can
perform the things which are “beautiful and good”; they that
are unwise cannot, but even if they try they fail. Therefore,
since all things just, and generally all things “beautiful and
good,” are wrought with virtue, it is clear that justice and all
other virtue is wisdom.
On the other hand, madness (he maintained) was the
opposite to wisdom ; not that he regarded simple ignorance as
madness,” but he put it thus: for a man to be ignorant of
himself, to imagine and suppose that he knows what he knows
not, was (he argued), if not madness itself, yet something very
like it. The mass of men no doubt hold a different language:
if a man is all abroad on some matter of which the mass of
mankind are ignorant, they do not pronounce him “mad’’; * but
a like aberration of mind, if only it be about matters within
the scope of ordinary knowledge, they call madness. For
instance, any one who imagined himself too tall to pass under
a gateway of the Long Wall without Stooping, or so strong as to
* “Who cannot draw a straight line, ethically speaking.”
* The argument may be thus presented to the eye :—
Enunciation. Justice, etc. = wisdom.
Premiss a. Just and all other virtuously-wrought things=
Proof Xà 3. 66.
(based on - Kalaa, kayata. v >
three Premiss 8. Those who know ka?\& kāya.04 cannot choose but
do them, while those who have not the science
X: 0-, 1. cannot even do them if they try.
3. Premiss y aliter. The wise do the ka)\& kāya.0á, the non-
Aévd.). wise even if they try fail,
Conclusion.—Since (a) just things and other Ka)\& Kāya.04 are wrought with
virtue, ergo, justice, etc. = wisdom. Q. E. D. See Newman, op. cit, i. 393.
* See K. Joel, op. cit. p. 346; Grote, Plato, i. 4oo, -
* Or, “they resent the term ‘mad' being applied to people who are all
abroad,” etc. See Comte, Pos. Pol. i. 575 ; ii. 373 (Engl. trans.).
CH. Ix. $ 7-11 MADNESS, EAWVY, ZEZSURE, RULERS I II
try to lift a house, or to attempt any other obvious impossi-
bility, is a madman according to them ; but in the popular
sense he is not mad, if his obliquity is confined to small
matters. In fact, just as strong desire goes by the name of
passion in popular parlance, so mental obliquity on a grand
scale is entitled madness.
In answer to the question : what is enzy P he discovered
it to be a certain kind of pain; not certainly the sorrow felt
at the misfortunes of a friend or the good fortune of an
enemy—that is not envy ; but, as he said, “envy is felt by
those alone who are annoyed at the successes of their
friends.” And when some one or other expressed astonish-
ment that any one friendlily disposed to another should be
pained at his well-doing, he reminded him of a common tend-
ency in people: when any one is faring ill their sympathies
are touched, they rush to the aid of the unfortunate ; but
when fortune Smiles On others, they are somehow pained.
“I do not say,” he added, “this could happen to a thoughtful
person ; but it is no uncommon condition of a silly mind.” +
In answer to the question : what is leisure ? I discover
(he said) that most men do something : * for instance, the
dice player,” the gambler, the buffoon, do something, but
these have leisure ; they can, if they like, turn and do some-
thing better ; but nobody has leisure to turn from the better
to the worse, and if he does so turn, when he has no leisure,
he does but ill in that.
(To pass to another definition.) They are not kings or
rulers (he said) who hold the sceptre merely, or are chosen by
fellows out of the street,” or are appointed by lot, or have stepped
into office by violence or by fraud; but those who have the
special knowledge” how to rule. Thus having won the admis-
sion that it is the function of a ruler to enjoin what ought to be
done, and of those who are ruled to obey, he proceeded to point
1 Or, “a man in his senses . . . a simpleton ’’; for the sentiment
L. Dind. cf. Isocr. ad Demonic. 7 D.
* See above, I. ii. 57, p. 19 ; and in ref. to these definitions, K. Joel,
op. cit, p. 347 foll.
3 For “dice-playing" see Becker, Charic/. 354 (Engl. trans.); for
“buffoonery,” ib. 98 ; below, Symp. “ Tom, Dick, and Harry (as we say).
5 The étriotſpºn. See above, III. v. 21 ; Newman, op. ciſ, i. 256.
II 2 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. IX. § II-I4
out by instances that in a ship the ruler or captain is the man
of special knowledge, to whom, as an expert, the shipowner
himself and all the others on board obey. So likewise, in the
matter of husbandry, the proprietor of an estate ; in that of
sickness, the patient ; in that of physical training of the body,
the youthful athlete going through a course; and, in general,
every one directly concerned in any matter needing attention
and care will either attend to this matter personally, if he thinks
he has the special knowledge; or, if he mistrusts his own science,
will be eager to obey any expert on the spot, or will even send
and fetch one from a distance. The guidance of this expert
he will follow, and do what he has to do at his dictation.
And thus, in the art of spinning wool, he liked to point out
that women are the rulers of men—and why? because they
have the knowledge of the art, and men have not.
And if any one raised the objection that a tyrant has it in
his power not to obey good and correct advice, he would retort:
“Pray, how has he the option not to obey, considering the
penalty hanging over him who disobeys the words of wisdom P
for whatever the matter be in which he disobeys the word of
good advice, he will fall into error, I presume, and falling into
error, be punished.” And to the suggestion that the tyrant
could, if he liked, cut off the head of the man of wisdom, his
answer was : “Do you think that he who destroys his best ally
will go scot free, or suffer a mere slight and passing loss? Is
he more likely to secure his Salvation that way, think you, or
to compass his own swift destruction ?”"
When some one asked him : “What he regarded as the
best pursuit or business” for a man P” he answered : “Successful
conduct’’;3 and to a second question : “Did he then regard
good fortune as an end to be pursued P”—“On the contrary,”
he answered, “for myself, I consider fortune and conduct to
be diametrically opposed. For instance, to succeed in some
desirable course of action without seeking to do so, I hold to
1 Or, “Is that to choose the path of safety, think you? Is it not rather
to sign his own death-warrant P” L. Dind. cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 293.
See Newman, op. cit. i. 393-397. * Or, “the noblest study.”
3 ediſpašta, eú Trpátreuv-to do well, in the sense both of well or right doing,
and of welfare, and is accordingly opposed to eitvYla, mere good luck or
success. Cf. Plat. Ezzāhyd. 281 B.
:: *, *, *) SOCRATES AND PARRHASIUS II.3
be good fortune; but to do a thing well by dint of learning
and practice, that according to my creed is successful conduct,"
and those who make this the serious business of their life seem
to me to do well.” -
They are at once the best and the dearest in the sight of
God * (he went on to say) who for instance in husbandry do
well the things of farming, or in the art of healing all that
belongs to healing, or in statecraft the affairs of state; whereas
the man who does nothing well—nor well in anything—is (he
added) neither good for anything nor dear to God.
x.—But indeed,” if chance brought him into conversation
with any one possessed of an art, and using it for daily purposes
of business, he never failed to be useful to this kind of person.
For instance, stepping one time into the studio of Parrhasius *
the painter, and getting into Conversation with him—
I suppose, Parrhasius (said he), painting may be defined as
“a representation of visible objects,” may it not P* That is to
Say, by means of colours and palette you painters represent
and reproduce as closely as possible the ups and downs, lights
and shadows, hard and soft, rough and Smooth surfaces, the
freshness of youth and the wrinkles of age, do you not P
You are right (he answered), that is so.
Soc. Further, in portraying ideal types of beauty, seeing it
is not easy to light upon any one human being who is absolutely
devoid of blemish, you cull from many models the most
beautiful traits of each, and so make your figures appear
completely beautiful?"
* Lit. “well-doing ”; and for the Socratic view see Newman, op. cit, i.
3O5, 4OI. - -
* Or, “most divinely favoured.” Cf. Plat. Æuthyphro, 7 A.
* &\\& Ajju ka? . . . “But indeed the sphere of his helpfulness was not
circumscribed ; if,” etc.
* For Parrhasius of Ephesus, the son of Evenor and rival of Zeuxis, see
Woltmann and Woermann, Hist. of Painting, p. 47 foll, ; Cobet, Pros. Xen.
p. 50 (cf. in particular Quint. XII. x. 627). At the date of the conversation
(real or ideal) he may be supposed to have been a young man.
* Reading with Schneider, L. Dind., etc., after Stobaeus, h Ypapukň éa Tav
elkaola, or if the vulg. Ypaqukň éativ h elkagia, trans. “A”ainting is the term
applied to a particular representation,” etc.
* Cf. Cic. de Invent. ii. I ad in. of Zeuxis ; Max, Tyr. Disserſ. 23, 3, ap.
Schneider ad loc,
VOL. III— I I
I I4 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. ch. x. § 2-5
Parrh. Yes, that is how we do."
Well, but stop (Socrates continued); do you also pretend
to represent in similar perfection the characteristic moods
of the soul, its captivating charm and Sweetness, with its
deep wells of love, its intensity of yearning, its burning
point of passion P or is all this quite incapable of being
depicted P
Nay (he answered), how should a mood be other than
inimitable, Socrates, when it possesses neither linear pro-
portion * nor colour, nor any of those qualities which you
named just now ; when, in a word, it is not even visible P
Soc. Well, but the kindly look of love, the angry glance of
hate at any one, do find expression in the human subject, do
they not P 3
Aarrh. No doubt they do.
Soc. Then this look, this g/ance, at any rate may be imitated
in the eyes, may it not P
Undoubtedly (he answered).
Soc. And do anxiety and relief of mind occasioned by the
good or evil fortune of those we love both wear the same
expression ?
By no means (he answered); at the thought of good we are
radiant, at that of evil a cloud, hangs on the brow.
Soc. Then here again are looks which it is possible to
represent P .*
Aarrh. Decidedly.
Soc. Furthermore, as through some chink or crevice, there
pierces through the countenance of a man, through the very
posture of his body as he stands or moves, a glimpse of his
nobility and freedom, or again of something in him low and
grovelling—the calm of self-restraint and wisdom, or the
Swagger of insolence and vulgarity P
You are right (he answered).
Soc. Then these too may be imitated P
* Or, “that is the secret of our creations,” or “our art of composition.”
* Lit. “Symmetry.” Cf. Plin. xxxv. Io, “primus symmetriam picturae
dedit,” etc.
* Or, “the glance of love, the scowl of hate, which one directs towards
another, are recognised expressions of human feeling.” Cf. the description of
Parrhasius's own portrait of Démos, ap, Plin, loc, cit.
CH. x. § 5-7 SOCRATES AND CLEITON A SCULPTOR II 5
No doubt (he said).
Soc. And which is the pleasanter type of face to look at, do
you think—one on which is imprinted the characteristics of a
beautiful, good, and lovable disposition, or one which bears
the impress of what is ugly, and bad, and hateful ?”
Aarrh. Doubtless, Socrates, there is a vast distinction
between the two.
At another time he entered the workshop of the sculptor
Cleiton,” and in course of conversation with him said:
You have a gallery of handsome people here,” Cleiton,
runners, and wrestlers, and boxers, and pancratiasts *—that I
See and know ; but how do you give the magic touch of life
to your creations, which most of all allures the soul of the
beholder through his sense of vision ?
As Cleiton stood perplexed, and did not answer at once,
Socrates added: Is it by closely imitating the forms of living
beings that you succeed in giving that touch of life to your
statues P
No doubt (he answered).
Soc. It is, is it not, by faithfully copying the various
muscular contractions of the body in obedience to the play of
gesture and poise, the wrinklings of flesh and the sprawl of
limbs, the tensions and the relaxations, that you succeed in
making your statues like real beings—make them “breathe ”
as people Say?
C/ei/. Without a doubt. . . .
Soc. And does not the faithful imitation of the various
affections of the body when engaged in any action impart
a particular pleasure to the beholder?
Cleit. I should say so.
Soc. Then the threatenings in the eyes of warriors engaged
* For this theory cp. Ruskin, Mod. P. ii. 94 foll, and indeed passim.
* An unknown artist. Coraes conj. KXéajva. Cf. Plin. xxxiv. 19 ; Paus.
v. 17, vi. 3. He excelled in portrait statues. See Jowett, Plato, iv.; Laws,
p. I23.
* Reading after L. Dind. Ka}\ot oils, or if vulg, d\\otovs, translate “You
have a variety of types, Cleiton, not all of one mould, but runners,” etc.; al.
“I see quite well how you give the diversity of form to your runners,” etc.
* See Trans, vol. i. p. 208 ; above, p. 96; and below, Symp. p. 293 ;
Grote, H. G. x. I64.
II6' MEMORABILIA—BK, III. CH. x. $ 7-12
in battle should be carefully copied, or again you should
imitate the aspect of a conqueror radiant with Success P
Cleit. Above all things.
Soc. It would seem then that the sculptor is called upon to
incorporate in his ideal form the workings and energies also of
the Soul? - .*
Paying a visit to Pistias,” the corselet maker, when that
artist showed him some exquisite samples of his work, Socrates
exclaimed : - -
By Héra !” a pretty invention this, Pistias, by which you
contrive that the corselet should cover the parts of the person
which need protection, and at the same time leave free play
to the arms and hands. . . . But tell me, Pistias (he added),
why do you ask a higher price for these corselets of yours if
they are not stouter or made of costlier material than others ?
Because, Socrates (he answered), mine are of much finer
proportion.
Soc. Proportion . Then how do you make this quality
apparent to the customer so as to justify the higher price—by
measure or weight? For I presume you cannot make them all
exactly equal and of one pattern—if you make them fit, as of
course you do?
Fit indeed that I most distinctly do (he answered), take
my word for it: no use in a corselet without that.
But then are not the wearers' bodies themselves (asked
Socrates) some well proportioned and others ill?
Decidedly so (he answered).
Soc. Then how do you manage to make the corselet well
proportioned if it is to fit an ill-proportioned body ?”
Aist. To the same degree exactly as I make it fit. What
fits is well proportioned.
Soc. It seems you use the term ‘well-proportioned not
in an absolute sense, but in reference to the wearer, just
* Cf. Athen. iv. 20, where the same artist is referred to apparently as
IItaraju, and for the type of person see the “Portrait of a Tailor” by Moroni
in the National Gallery—see Handbook, Edw. T. Cook, p. 152.
* See above, I. v. 6.
* Or, “how do you make a well-proportioned corselet fit an ill-proportioned
body ? how well proportioned?”
; :º) SOCRATES AND PISTIAS, II.
as you might describe a shield as well proportioned to thi
individual it suits; and so of a military cloak, and so of the
rest of things, in your terminology P But maybe there is
another considerable advantage in this “fitting ”?
Aist. Pray instruct me, Socrates, if you have got an idea.
Soc. A corselet which fits is less galling by its weight than
one which does not fit, for the latter must either drag from
the shoulders with a dead weight or press upon some other
part of the body, and so it becomes troublesome and uncom-
fortable; but that which fits, having its weight distributed
partly along the collar-bone and shoulder-blade, partly over the
shoulders and chest, and partly the back and belly, feels like
another natural integument rather than an extra load to carry."
Pist. You have named the very quality which gives my
work its exceptional value, as I consider ; still there are cus-
tomers, I am bound to say, who look for something else in a
corselet—they must have them ornamental or inlaid with gold.
For all that (replied Socrates), if they end by purchasing an
ill-fitting article, they only become the proprietors of a curiously-
wrought and gilded nuisance, as it seems to me. But (he
added), as the body is never in one fixed position, but is at
one time curved, at another raised erect, how can an exactly-
modelled corselet fit P
Asſ. It cannot fit at all.
You mean (Socrates continued) that it is not the exactly-
modelled corselet which fits, but that which does not gall the
wearer in the using P
Aist. There, Socrates, you have hit the very point. I see
you understand the matter most precisely.”
xi.-There was once in the city a fair woman named
Theodoté.” She was not only fair, but ready to consort with
1 Schneider ad loc. cf. Eur. Electr. 192, Tpoo 6%uata dy)\atas, and for
the weight cf. Aristoph. Peace, I224.
2 Or, “There, Socrates, you have hit the very phrase. I could not state
the matter more explicitly myself.”
3 For Theodoté see Athen. v. 200 F, xiii. 574 F : Liban. i. 582. Some
say that it was Theodoté who stood by Alcibiades to the last, though there
are apparently other better claimants to the honour. Plut. A/c. (Clough, ii.
p. 50).






II.8 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. ch. xi. § 1-4
ny suitor who might win her favour. Now it chanced that
ome one of the company mentioned her, saying that her
beauty beggared description. “So fair is she,” he added,
“that painters flock to draw her portrait, to whom, within the
limits of decorum, she displays the marvels of her beauty.”
“Then there is nothing for it but to go and see her,” answered
Socrates, “since to comprehend by hearsay what is beyond
description is clearly impossible.” Then he who had intro-
duced the matter replied: “Be quick then to follow me";
and on this wise they set off to seek Theodoté. They found
her “posing” to a certain painter; and they took their stand
as spectators. Presently the painter had ceased his work ;
whereupon Socrates:
“Do you think, sirs, that we ought to thank Theodoté for
displaying her beauty to us, or she us for coming to gaze at
her P . . . It would seem, would it not, that if the exhibition
of her charms is the more profitable to her, the debt is on
her side; but if the spectacle of her beauty confers the greater
benefit on us, then we are her debtors.”
Some one answered that “was an equitable statement of
the case.”
Well then (he continued), as far as she is concerned, the
praise we bestow on her is an immediate gain ; and presently,
when we have spread her fame abroad, she will be further
benefited ; but for ourselves the immediate effect on us
is a strong desire to touch what we have seen ; by and by,
too, we shall go away with a sting inside us, and when we
are fairly gone we shall be consumed with longing. Con-
sequently it seems that we should do her service and she
accept our Court.
Whereupon Theodoté: Oh dear ! if that is how the matter
stands, it is I who am your debtor for the spectacle."
At this point, seeing that the lady herself was expensively
attired, and that she had with her her mother also, whose
dress and style of attendance” were out of the common, not
* In reference to the remark of Socrates above ; or, “ have to thank you
for coming to look at me.”
* Or, “her mother there with her in a dress and general get-up (9epaireta)
which was out of the common.” See Becker, Charicles, p. 247 (Eng. tr.).



CH. XI. § 4-7 SOCRATES AND THEODOTÉ I IQ
to Speak of the waiting-women—many and fair to look upon,
who presented anything but a forlorn appearance; while in
every respect the whole house itself was sumptuously furnished,
—Socrates put a question :
Pray tell me, Theodoté, have you an estate in the
country P
Theod. Not I indeed. -
Soc. Then perhaps you possess a house and large revenues
along with it P
Z%eod. No, nor yet a house.
Soc. You are not an employer of labour on a large scale Pl
Z%eod. No, nor yet an employer of labour.
Soc. From what source, then, do you get your means of
subsistence?”
Theod. My friends are my life and fortune, when they care
to be kind to me.
Soc. By heaven, Theodoté, a very fine property indeed, and
far better worth possessing than a multitude of sheep or goats
or cattle. A flock of friends ! . . . But (he added) do you
leave it to fortune whether a friend lights like a fly on your
hand at random, or do you use any artifice” yourself to attract
him P -
Theod. And how might I hit upon any artifice to attract
him P
Soc. Bless me ! far more naturally than any spider. You
know how they capture the creatures on which they live; * by
weaving webs of gossamer, is it not P and woe betide the fly
that tumbles into their toils | They eat him up.
Theod. So then you would counsel me to weave myself
Some sort of net P
Soc. Why, surely you do not suppose you are going to en-
snare that noblest of all game—a lover, to wit—in so artless a
fashion ? Do you not see (to speak of a much less noble sort
of game) what a number of devices are needed to bag a hare P"
* Lit. “You have not (in your employ) a body of handicraftsmen of any
Sort P." * Or, Anglice, “ derive your income.”
* Or, ‘‘means and appliances,’’ ‘‘machinery.”
* Lit. “the creatures on which they live.”
* See the author's own treatise on Hunting, vi. 6 foll.
I2O MEMORABILIA—BK. III. CH. XI. § 8-ro
The creatures range for their food at night ; therefore the
hunter must provide himself with night dogs. At peep of
dawn they are off as fast as they can run. He must therefore
have another pack of dogs to scent out and discover which way
they betake them from their grazing ground to their forms;”
and as they are so fleet of foot that they run and are out of
sight in no time, he must once again be provided with other
fleet-footed dogs to follow their tracks and overtake them ; *
and as some of them will give even these the slip, he must,
last of all, set up nets on the paths at the points of escape, so
that they may fall into the meshes and be caught.
Theod. And by what like contrivance would you have me
catch my lovers ? -
Soc. Well now ! what if in place of a dog you can get a
man who will hunt up your wealthy lover of beauty and dis-
cover his lair, and having found him, will plot and plan to .
throw him into your meshes P
Theod. Nay, what sort of meshes have I?
Soc. One you have, and a close-enfolding net it is,” I trow :
to wit, your own person ; and inside it sits a soul that teaches
you 4 with what looks to please and with what words to cheer ;
how, too, with smiles you are to welcome true devotion, but to
exclude all wantons from your presence.” It tells you, you are
to visit your beloved in sickness with solicitude, and when he
has wrought some noble deed you are greatly to rejoice with
him ; and to one who passionately cares for you, you are to
make surrender of yourself with heart and soul. The secret
of true love I am sure you know : not to love softly merely,
but devotedly." And of this too I am sure : you can con-
vince your lovers of your fondness for them not by lip phrases,
but by acts of love. •
Theod. No, upon my word, I have none of these devices.
1 Lit. “from pasture to bed.”
* Or, “close at their heels and run them down.” See Hunting; cf. Cyrop,
I. vi. 40.
* Or, “right well woven.” * Lit. ‘‘ by which you understand.”
* Or, “with what smiles to lie in wait for (cf. Cyrop. II. iv. 20 ; Herod.
vi. IoA) the devoted admirer, and how to banish from your presence the
voluptuary.”
° Or, “that it should not be simply soft, but full of tender goodwill.”
, ch. xi. § 11-16 SOCRATIS ARS AMA 7'ORIA I 2 I
Soc. And yet it makes all the difference whether you
approach a human being in the natural and true way, since it
is not by force certainly that you can either catch or keep a
friend. Kindness and pleasure are the only means to capture
this fearful wild-fowl man and keep him constant. -
Theod. You are right.
Soc. In the first place you must make such demands only
of your well-wisher as he can grant without repentance; and
in the next place you must make requital, dispensing your
favours with a like economy. Thus you will best make
friends whose love shall last the longest and their generosity
know no stint." And for your favours you will best win your
friends if you suit your largesse to their penury; for, mark you,
the sweetest viands presented to a man before he wants them
are apt to prove insipid, or, to one already sated, even nause-
ous ; but create hunger, and even coarser stuff seems honey-
SWeet.
Theod. How then shall I create this hunger in the heart of
my friends P
Soc. In the first place you must not offer or make sugges-
tion of your dainties to jaded appetites until satiety has ceased
and starvation cries for alms. Even then shall you make but
a faint suggestion to their want, with most modest Converse,_-
like one who would fain bestow a kindness . . . and lo! the
vision fades and she is gone,—until the very pinch of hunger;
for the same gifts have then a value unknown before the
moment of supreme desire.
Then Theodoté: Oh why, Socrates, why are you not by
my side (like the huntsman's assistant) to help me catch my
friends and lovers ?
Soc. That will I be in good sooth if only you can woo and
win me.
7%eod. How shall I woo and win you ? -
Soc. Seek and you will find means, if you truly need me.
Theod. Come then in hither and visit me often.
And Socrates, poking sly fun at his own lack of business
occupation, answered : Nay, Theodoté, leisure is not a com-
1 Or, “That is the right road to friendship—permanent and open-handed
friendship.” -
I 22 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. {º
modity in which I largely deal. I have a hundred affairs of
my own too, private or public, to occupy me; and then there
are my lady-loves, my dear friends, who will not suffer me day
or night to leave them, for ever studying to learn love-charms
and incantations at my lips.
Theod. Why, are you really versed in those things, Socrates ?
Soc. Of course, or else how is it, do you suppose, that
Apollodorus' here and Antisthenes never leave me; or why
have Cebes and Simmias come all the way from Thebes to
stay with me? Be assured these things cannot happen with-
out diverse love-charms and incantations and magic wheels.
Theod. I wish you would lend me your magic wheel,” then,
and I will set it spinning first of all for you.
Soc. Ah but I do not wish to be drawn to you. I wish
you to come to me.
Theod. Then I will come. Only, will you be “at home”
to me? --
Soc. Yes, I will welcome you, unless some one still dearer
holds me engaged, and I must needs be “not at home.”
XII.-Seeing one of those who were with him, a young
man, but feeble of body, named Epigenes,” he addressed him.
Soc. You have not the athletic appearance of a youth in
training,” Epigenes.
And he That may well be, seeing I am an amateur and
not in training.
Soc. As little of an amateur, I take it, as any one who ever
entered the lists at Olympia, unless you are prepared to make
light of that contest for life and death against the public foe
which the Athenians will institute when the day comes.” And
1 For Apollodorus see below, Apol. 28 ; Plat. Symp. 172 A ; Phaed.
59 A, 117 D. For Antisthenes see above, p. 59. For Cebes and Simmias
See above, I. ii. 48; Plat. Crit. 45 B ; Phaed, passim.
2 Cf. Theocr. ii. 17 ; Schneider ad loc.
3 Epigenes, possibly the son of Antiphon. See Plat. Apol. 33 E
Phaed. 59 B.
4 iówrukós, lit. of the person untrained in gymnastics. See A. R. Cluer
ad loc. Cf. Plat. Laws, 839 E ; I. ii. 4; III. V. I5 (above, p. 95); Symp.
ii. 17 (below, p. 303).
* Or, “should chance betide.” Is the author thinking of a life-and-death
struggle with Thebes 2
ch. xii. § 2-5 SOCRATES AND EPIGENES I23
yet they are not a few who, owing to a bad habit of body,
either perish outright in the perils of war, or are ignobly
saved. Many are they who for the self-same cause are taken
prisoners, and being taken must, if it so betide, endure the
pains of slavery for the rest of their days; or, after falling into
dolorous straits,” when they have paid to the uttermost farthing
of all, or may be more than the worth of all, that they possess,
must drag on a miserable existence in want of the barest
necessaries till death release them. Many also are they who
gain an evil repute through infirmity of body, being thought
to play the coward. Can it be that you despise these penalties
affixed to an evil habit? Do you think you could lightly
endure them P Far lighter, I imagine, nay, pleasant even by
comparison, are the toils which he will undergo who duly
cultivates a healthy bodily condition. Or do you maintain
that the evil habit is healthier, and in general more useful
than the good P Do you pour contempt upon those bless-
ings which flow from the healthy state? And yet the very
opposite of that which befalls the ill attends the sound
condition. Does not the very soundness imply at Once
health and strength P” Many a man with no other talisman
than this has passed safely through the Ordeal of war ;
stepping, not without dignity,” through all its horrors un-
scathed. Many with no other support than this have come to
the rescue of friends, or stood forth as benefactors of their
fatherland; whereby they were thought worthy of gratitude,
and obtained a great renown and received as a recompense
the highest honours of the State; to whom is also reserved
a happier and brighter passage through what is left to them of
life, and at their death they leave to their children the legacy of
a fairer starting-point in the race of life.
Because our city does not practise military training in public,”
* e.g. the prisoners in the Latomiae. Thuc. vii. 87.
* It is almost a proverb–º Sound of body and limb is hale and strong,"
“Qui valet praevalebit.”
3 e.g. Socrates himself, according to Alcibiades, ap. Plat. Symp. 221 B ;
and for the word ečaxmuávas see Arist. Wasps, I2 Io, “like a gentleman ";
L. and S. ; Cyr. I. iii. 8 ; Ar stot. Eſh. M. i. Io, 13, ''gracefully."
4 Cf. Pol. Aſh. i. 13 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 279); and above, III.
V. I 5.
I24 MEMORABILIA—BK. III. {:};
that is no reason for neglecting it in private, but rather a
reason for making it a foremost care. For be you assured
that there is no contest of any sort, nor any transaction, in
which you will be the worse off for being well prepared in
body; and in fact there is nothing which men do for which
the body is not a help. In every demand, therefore, which
can be laid upon the body it is much better that it should be
in the best condition ; since, even where you might imagine
the claims upon the body to be slightest—in the act of
reasoning—who does not know the terrible stumbles which
are made through being out of health P. It suffices to say
that forgetfulness, and despondency, and moroseness, and
madness take occasion often of ill-health to visit , the in-
tellectual faculties so severely as to expel all knowledge 4
from the brain. But he who is in good bodily plight has
large security. He runs no risk of incurring any such cata-
strophe through ill-health at any rate; he has the expecta-
tion rather that a good habit must procure consequences the
opposite to those of an evil habit; * and surely to this end
there is nothing a man in his senses would not undergo. . . .
It is a base thing for a man to wax old in careless self-neglect
before he has lifted up his eyes and seen what manner of man
he was made to be, in the full perfection of bodily strength
and beauty. But these glories are withheld from him who is
guilty of self-neglect, for they are not wont to blaze forth un-
bidden.” X-
XIII.-Once when some One was in a fury of indignation
because he had bidden a passer-by good-day and the saluta-
tion was not returned, Socrates said : “It is enough to make
one laugh ! If you met a man in a wretched condition of
body, you would not fall into a rage ; but because you
stumble upon a poor soul somewhat boorishly disposed, you
feel annoyed.”
To the remark of another who complained that he did
* Or, “whole branches of knowledge” (Tâs étuarhuas).
* Or, “he may well hope to be insured by his good habit against the
evils attendant on its opposite.”
* Or, “to present themselves spontaneously.”
CH. XIII. § 2-5 SOCRATIC HUMOUR I25
not take his food with pleasure, he said : “Acumenus 1
has a good prescription for that.” And when the other
asked: “And what may that be P” “To stop eating,” he
Said. “On the score of pleasure, economy, and health, total
abstinence has much in its favour.””
And when some one else lamented that “the drinking-
water in his house was hot,” he replied: “Then when you
want a warm bath you will not have to wait.”
The Other. But for bathing purposes it is cold.
- Soc. Do you find your domestics seem to mind drinking it
or washing in it P
Zhe Offer. Quite the reverse ; it is a constant marvel to
me how contentedly they use it for either purpose.
Soc. Which is hotter to the taste—the water in your house
or the hot spring in the temple of Asclepius P*
The Other. The water in the temple of Asclepius.
Soc. And which is colder for bathing—yours or the cold
spring in the cave of Amphiaraus P4
The Offier. The water in the cave of Amphiaraus.
Soc. Then please to observe : if you do not take care, they
will set you down as harder to please than a domestic servant
or an invalid.”
A man had administered a severe whipping to the slave in
attendance on him, and when Socrates asked : “Why he was
so wroth with his own serving-man P” excused himself on the
ground that “the fellow was a lazy, gourmandising, good-for-
nothing dolt—fonder of money than of work.” To which
Socrates : “Did it ever strike you to consider which of the
two in that case the more deserves a whipping—the master
Or the man P”
When some one was apprehending the journey to Olympia,
“Why are you afraid of the long distance P” he asked. “Here
* A well-known physician. See Plat. Phaedr. 227 A, 269 A ; Symp.
176 B. A similar story is told of Dr. Abernethy, I think.
* Lit. “he would live a happier, thriftier, and healthier life, if he stopped
eating.”
3 in the Hieron at Epidauros probably. See Baedeker, Greece, p.
240 foll.
4 Possibly at Oropos. Cf. Paus. i. 34. 3.
5 i.e. “the least and the most fastidious of men.”
I 26 MEMORABILIA—BIK. III. {::::::: *
at home you spend nearly all your day in taking walks." Well,
on your road to Olympia you will take a walk and breakfast,
and then you will take another walk and dine, and go to bed.
Do you not see, if you take and tack together five or six days’
length of walks, and stretch them out in one long line, it will
soon reach from Athens to Olympia P I would recommend you,
however, to set off a day too soon rather than a day too late.
To be forced to lengthen the day's journey beyond a reasonable
amount may well be a nuisance ; but to take one day's journey
beyond what is necessary is pure relaxation. Make haste to
start, I say, and not while on the road.””
When some one else remarked “he was utterly prostrated
after a long journey,” Socrates asked him : “Had he had any
baggage to Carry P”
“Not I,” replied the complainer; “only my cloak.”
Soc. Were you travelling alone, or was your man-servant
with you?
Aſe. Yes, I had my man.
Soc. Empty-handed, or had he something to carry P
Aſe. Of course ; carrying my rugs and other baggage.
Soc. And how did he come off on the journey P
Aſe. Better than I did myself, I take it.
Soc. Well, but now suppose you had had to carry his
baggage, what would your condition have been like P
Aſe. Sorry enough, I can tell you ; or rather, I could not
have carried it at all.
Soc. What a confession | Fancy being capable of so
much less toil than a poor slave boy Does that sound like
the perfection of athletic training?
XIV.-On the occasion of a common dinner-party “ where
some of the company would present themselves with a small, and
others with a large supply of viands, Socrates would bid the ser-
vant 4 throw the small supplies into the general stock, or else to
help each of the party to a share all round. Thus the grand
victuallers were ashamed in the One case not to share in the
* Teputate's, “promenading up and down.”
“Festina lente ’’-that is your motto.
For the type of entertainment see Becker, Charicles, p. 315 (Eng. tr.).
“The boy.”
CH. XIV. $ 1-3 SOCRATIC TABLE-TALK 127
common stock, and in the other not to throw in their supplies
also." Accordingly in went the grand supplies into the common
stock. And now, being no better off than the small contributors,
they soon ceased to cater for expensive delicacies.
At a Supper-party one member of the Company, as
Socrates chanced to note, had put aside the plain fare and
was devoting himself to certain dainties.” A discussion was
going on about names and definitions, and the proper applica-
tions of terms to things.” Whereupon Socrates, appealing to
the company: “Can we explain why we call a man a ‘dainty
fellow ’P What is the particular action to which the term
applies P*—since every one adds some dainty to his food
when he can get it.” But we have not quite hit the definition
yet, I think. Are we to be called dainty eaters because we
like our bread buttered P”"
No hardly (some member of the company replied).
Soc. Well, but now suppose a man confine himself to eating
venison or other dainty without any plain food at all, not as a
matter of training," but for the pleasure of it: has such a man
earned the title? “The rest of the world would have a poor
chance against him,” “some one answered. “Or,” interposed
another, “what if the dainty dishes he devours are out of all
proportion to the rest of his meal—what of him P””
1 Or, “were ashamed not to follow suit by sharing in the common stock
and contributing their own portion.”
* For the distinction between aſtros and Šipov see Plat. Rep. 372 C.
8 Or, “The conversation had fallen upon names : what is the precise thing
denoted under such and such a term P Define the meaning of SO and so.”
* 6 popáyos = an Šipov (or relish) eater, and so a “gourmand " or “ epi-
cure” ; but how to define a gourmand P
* Lit. '' takes some &pov (relish) to his gºtos (food)."
° Lit. ‘‘simply for that ” (sc. the taking some sort of Öyou. For étri Towtºp
cf. Plat. Soph, 218 C ; Parmen. I47 D.
7 Lit. “ dipov (relish) by itself, not for the sake of training," etc. The
English reader will bear in mind that a raw beefsteak or other meat prescribed
by the gymnastic trainer in preference to farinaceous food (attos) would be
ôyou.
8 Or, more lit. “Hardly any one could deserve the appellation better.”
9 Lit. ‘‘ and what of the man who eats much Šyou on the top of a little
(gºros)?” éirea 6tov = follows up one course by another, like the man in a frag-
ment of Euripides, Incert. 98 : kpéaou 80etous x\apó orwic' étrio 64ev, who
“followed up his beefsteak with a garnish of green figs,”
I28 MEMORABILIA—BIS. III. cH. xiv. § 2-7
Soc. He has established a very fair title at any rate to the
appellation, and when the rest of the world pray to heaven
for a fine harvest : “May our corn and oil increase !” he may
reasonably ejaculate, “May my fleshpots multiply l’
At this last Sally the young man, feeling that the conversation
set somewhat in his direction, did not desist indeed from his
Savoury viands, but helped himself generously to a piece of
bread. Socrates was all-observant, and added: Keep an eye on
Our friend yonder, you others next him, and see fair play be-
tween the sop and the sauce."
Another time, seeing one of the company using but One
sop of bread º to test several savoury dishes, he remarked :
Could there be a more extravagant style of cookery, or more
murderous to the dainty dishes themselves, than this wholesale
method of taking so many dishes together P-why, bless me,
twenty different sorts of seasoning at one swoop | * First of
all he mixes up actually more ingredients than the cook himself
prescribes, which is extravagant ; and secondly, he has the
audacity to commingle what the chef holds incongruous,
whereby if the cooks are right in their method he is wrong in
his, and consequently the destroyer of their art. Now is it not
ridiculous first to procure the greatest Zirtuosi to cook for
us, and then without any claim to their skill to take and alter
their procedure P But there is a worse thing in store for the
bold man who habituates himself to eat a dozen dishes at once :
when there are but few dishes served, out of pure habit he will
feel himself half starved, whilst his neighbour, accustomed to
send his sop down by help of a single relish, will feast merrily,
be the dishes never so few.
He had a saying that ejoxeſoróat, to “make good cheer,” “
1 Lit. “see whether he will make a relish of the staple or a staple of the
relish '' (“butter his bread or bread his butter”).
* popós, a sop or morsel of bread (cf. poptov, N.T., in mod. Greek=
“bread”).
* Huckleberry Finn (p. 2 of that young person's Adventures) propounds the
nationale of the system : “In a barrel of odds and ends it is different ; things
get mixed up, and the juice kind of Swaps around, and the things go
better.”
* eſſaxétaffat, cf. Cyrop. IV. v. 7 ; Pol, Ath. ii. 9; Kühner cf. Eustath.
ad ZZ. ii. p. 212, 37, ‘Axaloi Tàu Tpophu 6xhu Aéyova'u Öğvróvas. Athen.
viii. 363 B. See Hipparch, viii. 4, of horses, Cf. Arist. H. A. viii. 6.
CH. xiv. § 7 SOCRATIC ETYMOLOGY I29
was in Attic parlance a synonym for “eating,” and the affix e?
(the attributive “good”) connoted the eating of such things as
would not trouble soul or body, and were not far to seek or
hard to find. So that to “make good cheer” in his vocabulary
applied to a modest and well-ordered style of living."
* See below, Symp. vi. 7, p. 333; and for similar far-fetched etymologies,
Plat. Crat, passim.
VOIL. III— I K
BOOK IV. I. I–2
I.—SUCH was Socrates; * so helpful under all circumstances
and in every way that no observer, gifted with ordinary sensi-
bility, could fail to appreciate the fact, that to be with Socrates,
and to spend long time in his society (no matter where nor what
the circumstances), was indeed a priceless gain. Even the
recollection of him, when he was no longer present, was felt as
no small benefit by those who had grown accustomed to be
with him, and who accepted him. Nor indeed was he less
helpful to his acquaintance in his lighter than in his graver
moods.
Let us take as an example that saying of his, so often
on his lips : “I am in love with so and so *; and all the while
it was obvious the going-forth of his soul was not towards
excellence of body in the bloom of beauty, but rather towards
faculties of the soul unfolding in virtue.” And these “good
natures” he detected by certain tokens: a readiness to learn that
to which the attention was directed; a power of retaining in the
memory the lessons learnt ; and a passionate predilection for
those studies in particular which serve to good administration
of a house or of a state,” and in general to the proper handling
of man and human affairs. Such beings, he maintained, needed
only to be educated * to become not only happy themselves
and happy administrators of their private households, but to
* As to the relation of this Book to the preceding, see Introd. Remarks.
* Or, “not excellence of body in respect of beauty, but of the soul as
regards virtue ; and this good natural disposition might be detected by the
readiness of its possessor to learn,” etc. Cf. Plat. Rep. 535 B.
* Cf. above, I. i. 7, p. 3.
* Or, “A person of this type would, if educated, not only prove a fortune-
favoured individual himself and,” etc. Al. Kühner, “Eos, qui ita instituti
Sunt, ut tales sint.”
CH. I. § 2-4 SOCRATIC ERós AND IRONY I3 I
be capable of rendering other human beings as states or indi-
viduals happy also.
He had indeed a different way of dealing with different
kinds of people." Those who thought they had good natural
ability and despised learning he instructed that the most
highly-gifted nature stands most in need of training and
education ; * and he would point out how in the case of horses
it is just the spirited and fiery thoroughbred which, if properly
broken in as a colt, will develop into a serviceable and superb
animal, but if left unbroken will turn out utterly intractable and
good for nothing. Or take the case of dogs : a puppy exhibiting
that zest for toil and eagerness to attack wild creatures which
are the marks of high breeding,” will, if well brought up, prove
excellent for the chase or for any other useful purpose ; but
neglect his education and he will turn out a stupid, crazy
brute, incapable of obeying the simplest command. It is just
the same with human beings; here also the youth of best
natural endowments—that is to say, possessing the most robust
qualities of spirit and a fixed determination to carry out what-
ever he has laid his hand to—will, if trained and taught what
it is right to do, prove a superlatively good and useful man.
He achieves, in fact, what is best upon the grandest scale.
But leave him in boorish ignorance untrained and he will
prove not only very bad but very mischievous,” and for this
reason, that lacking the knowledge to discern what it is right
to do, he will frequently lay to his hand to villainous practices;
whilst the very magnificence and vehemence of his character
render it impossible either to rein him in or to turn him aside
from his evil courses. Hence in his case also his achievements
are on the grandest scale but of the worst.”
Or to take the type of person so eaten up with the pride
1 Or, His method of attack was not indeed uniformly the same. It
varied with the individual.”
* Or, “If any one was disposed to look down upon learning and study
in reliance upon his own natural ability, he tried to lesson him that it is just
the highly-gifted nature which stands,” etc. See Newman, op. cit. i. 397.
8 Cf. Aristot. H. A. ix. I ; and Hunting, iii. II.
4 Or, “and the same man may easily become a master villain of the most
dangerous sort.”
5 Kühner ad loc, after Fr. Hermann cf. Plat. Crito, 44 E ; Hipp.
min, 375 E ; Rep. vi. 491 E ; Gong. 526 A ; Polº, 303 A.
I 32 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. {: º
of riches that he conceives himself dispensed from any further
need of education—since it is “money makes the man,” and
his wealth will amply suffice him to carry out his desires and
to win honours from admiring humanity." Socrates would
bring such people to their senses by pointing out the folly of
supposing that without instruction it was possible to draw the
line of demarcation * between what is gainful and what is
hurtful in conduct; and the further folly of supposing that,
apart from such discrimination, a man could help himself by
means of wealth alone to whatever he liked or find the path
of expediency plain before him ; and was it not the veriest
simplicity to suppose that, without the power of labouring
profitably, a man can either be doing well or be in any
sort of way sufficiently equipped for the battle of life? and
again, the veriest simplicity to suppose that by mere wealth
without true knowledge it was possible either to purchase a
reputation for some excellence, or without such reputation to
gain distinction and celebrity P
II.—Or to come to a third kind—the class of people who
are persuaded that they have received the best education, and
are proud of their wisdom ; his manner of dealing with these I
will now describe. t -
Euthydemus * “the beautiful” had (Socrates was given to
understand) collected a large library, consisting of the most
celebrated poets and philosophers,” by help of which he
already believed himself to be more than a match for his
fellows in wisdom, and indeed might presently expect to out-
top them all in capacity of speech and action.” At first, as
Socrates noted, the young man by reason of his youth had
* Or, “and to be honoured by mankind.”
* Or, “that without learning the distinction it was possible to distinguish
between,” etc. t;
* Euthydemus, the son of Diocles, perhaps. See Plat. Symp. 222 B, and
Jowett ad loc.; Cobet, Prosop. Xen. S. n. ; K. Joel, op. cit, p. 372 foll. For
Töv kaAöv cf. Phaedr. 278 E, “Isocrates the fair.” For the whole chapter
cf. Plat. Alc. i. ; Lys. 210 E. See above, Mem. I. ii. 29 ; Grote, Plato, i. ch.
X. ſassim. - -
* Lit. “Sophists.” See Grote, H. G. viii. p. 480, note. For private
libraries see Becker, Char. p. 272 foll, (Eng. tr.). -
* See Trans, vol. i., Sketch, pp. cxxvii. cxxxvi. ; Hipparch, i. 24; Cyrop.
V. v. 46.
CH. II. § 1-5 HIS INSIGHT AS AN EDUCATOR I33
not as yet set foot in the agora," but if he had anything
to transact, his habit was to seat himself in a saddler's
shop hard by. Accordingly to this same saddler's shop
Socrates betook himself with some of those who were with
him. And first the question was started by some one :
“Was it through consorting with the wise,” or by his own un-
aided talent, that Themistocles came so to surpass his fellow-
citizens that when the services of a capable man were needed
the eyes of the whole community instinctively turned to
him P” Socrates, with a view to stirring * Euthydemus,
answered: There was certainly an ingenuous simplicity in the
belief that superiority in arts of comparatively little worth could
only be attained by aid of qualified teachers, but that the
leadership of the state, the most important concern of all, was
destined to drop into the lap of anybody, no matter whom,
like an accidental windfall.”
On a subsequent occasion, Euthydemus being present,
though, as was plain to see, somewhat disposed to withdraw
from the friendly concourse,” as if he would choose anything
rather than appear to admire Socrates on the score of wisdom,
the latter made the following remarks.
Soc. It is clear from his customary pursuits, is it not, sirs,
that when our friend Euthydemus here is of full age, and the
state propounds some question for Solution, he will not abstain
from offering the benefit of his advice P One can imagine the
pretty exordium to his parliamentary speeches which, in his
anxiety not to be thought to have learnt anything from anybody,
he has ready for the occasion.” Clearly at the outset he will
deliver himself thus: “Men of Athens, I have never at
any time learnt anything from anybody; nor, if I have
ever heard of any one as being an able statesman, well
* See above, III. vi. I, p. 98 ; Schneid. cf. Isocr. Areop. 149 C.
* Cf. Soph. fr. 12, gopol Túpavuot Töv Goghāv Švvovortg.
* L. and S. cf. Plat. Lys. 223 A ; Rep. 329 B : “Wishing to draw him
out.”
* Cf. Plat. Alc. i. 118 c : “And Pericles is said not to have got his
wisdom by the light of nature, but to have associated with several of the philo-
sophers” (Jowett). * a vueóplas, “the council.”
" Or, “the pretty exordium . . . now in course of composition. He
must at all hazards avoid the suspicion of having picked up any crumb of
learning from anybody; how can he help therefore beginning his speech thus?”
I34 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. II. § 5, 6
versed in speech and capable of action, have I sought to
come across him individually. I have not so much as
been at pains to provide myself with a teacher from amongst
those who have knowledge ; * on the contrary, I have
persistently avoided, I will not say learning from others,
but the very faintest Suspicion of so doing. However, any-
thing that occurs to me by the light of nature I shall be glad
to place at your disposal.” . . . How appropriate * would
such a preface sound on the lips of any one seeking, say, the
office of state physician,” would it not P How advantageously
he might begin an address on this wise: “Men of Athens, I
have never learnt the art of healing by help of anybody, nor
have I sought to provide myself with any teacher among
medical men. Indeed, to put it briefly, I have been ever on
my guard not only against learning anything from the profession,
but against the very notion of having ever studied medicine at
all. If, however, you will be so good as to confer on me this
post, I promise I will do my best to acquire skill by experi-
menting on your persons.” Every one present laughed at the
exordium (and there the matter dropped).
Presently, when it became apparent that Euthydemus had
got so far that he was disposed to pay attention to what was
said, though he was still at pains not to utter a sound himself,
as if he hoped by silence to attach to himself some reputation
for sagacity, Socrates, wishing to cure him of that defect,
proceeded. -
Soc. Is it not surprising that people anxious to learn to
play the harp or the flute, or to ride, or to become proficient
in any like accomplishment, are not content to work unremit-
tingly in private by themselves at whatever it is in which they
desire to excel, but they must sit at the feet of the best-
esteemed teachers, doing all things and enduring all things for
the sake of following the judgment of those teachers in every-
thing, as though they themselves could not otherwise become
1 Or, “scientific experts.” -
* AZ. “Just as if one seeking the office of state physician were to begin
with a like exordium." Öppógete= “it would be consistent (with what has
gone before).” -
* Schneider cf. Plat. Laws, iv. 720 A; Gorg. 456 A.; and for “the parish
doctor,” Polić, 259 A; Arist. Achazºn. Io90.
CH. II. § 6-10 SOCRATES AND EUTHYDEMUS I35
famous ; whereas, among those who aspire to become eminent
politically as orators and statesmen,” there are some who
cannot see why they should not be able to do all that politics
demand, at a moment's notice, by inspiration as it were, without
any preliminary pains or preparation whatsoever ? And yet it
would appear that the latter concerns must be more difficult of
achievement than the former, in proportion as there are more
competitors in the field but fewer who reach the goal of their
ambition, which is as much as to say that a more sustained
effort of attention is needed on the part of those who embark
upon the sea of politics than is elsewhere called for.
Such were the topics on which Socrates was wont in the
early days of their association to dilate in the hearing of
Euthydemus ; but when the philosopher perceived that the
youth not only could tolerate the turns of the discussion more
readily but was now become a somewhat eager listener, he
went to the saddler's shop alone,” and when Euthydemus was
seated by his side the following conversation took place.
Soc. Pray tell me, Euthydemus, is it really true what people
tell me, that you have made a large collection of the writings
of “the wise,” as they are called?”
Euthydemus answered : Quite true, Socrates, and I mean
to go on collecting until I possess all the books I can possibly
lay hold of
Soc. By Héra !“ I admire you for wishing to possess
treasures of wisdom rather than of gold and silver, which
shows that you do not believe gold and silver to be the means
of making men better, but that the thoughts” of the wise alone
enrich with virtue their possessors. --
And Euthydemus was glad when he heard that saying, for,
thought he to himself, “In the eyes of Socrates I am on the
high road to the acquisition of wisdom.” But the latter,
perceiving him to be pleased with the praise, Continued.
* Or, more lit. “powerful in speech and action within the sphere of
politics.”
* The question arises : how far is the conversation historical or imaginary 2
* Or, “ have collected several works of our classical authors and
philosophers.”
* See above, I. v. 5, p. 31.
* Lit. “gnomes,” maxims, sententiae. Cf. Aristot. Rhet. ii, 21.
I 36 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. II. § Io, II
Soc. And what is it in which you desire to excel, Euthy-
demus, that you collect books P -
And when Euthydemus was silent, considering what answer
he should make, Socrates added : Possibly you want to be a
great doctor P Why, the prescriptions" of the Pharmacopoeia
would form a pretty large library by themselves.
No indeed, not II (answered Euthydemus).
Soc. Then do you wish to be an architect? That too
implies a man of well-stored wit and judgment.”
I have no such ambition (he replied).
Soc. Well, do you wish to be a mathematician, like
Theodorus P3
Auth. No, nor yet a mathematician.
Soc. Then do you wish to be an astronomer ?4 or (as the
youth signified dissent) possibly a rhapsodist P* (he asked),
for I am told you have the entire works of Homer in your
possession.” -
Nay, God forbid not I (ejaculated the youth). Rhap-
sodists have a very exact acquaintance with epic poetry, I
know, of course ; but they are empty-pated creatures enough
themselves."
At last Socrates said: Can it be, Euthydemus, that you are
an aspirant to that excellence through which men become
statesmen and administrators fit to rule and apt to benefit *
the rest of the world and themselves P .
Yes (replied he), that is the excellence I desire—beyond
IQ62,SliTC.
Upon my word (said Socrates), then you have indeed
selected as the object of your ambition the noblest of virtues
and the greatest of the arts, for this is the property of kings,
and is entitled “royal”; but (he continued) have you considered
* avy Ypdupara, or ‘‘medical treatises." See Aristot. Eth. x. 9, 21.
2 Or, “To be that implies a considerable store of well-packed wisdom.”
° Of Cyrene (cf. Plat. Theaet.) taught Plato. Diog. Laert. ii. 8, 19.
Cf. below, IV. vii. 4, p. I76.
. See below, Symp. iii. 6, p. 307 ; Plat. Zon.
See Jowett, Plato, i. 229 ; Grote, Plato, i. 455.
7 Or, “are simply perfect in the art of reciting epic poetry, but are apt to
be the veriest simpletons themselves.”
* Or, “statesmen, and economists, and rulers, and benefactors of the rest
of the world and themselves.”
:
6
CH. II. § 11-14 HE APPLIES HIS EI,ENCHUS I37
whether it is possible to excel in these matters without being
just and upright?"
Auth. Certainly I have, and I say that without justice and
uprightness it is impossible to be a good citizen.
No doubt (replied Socrates) you have accomplished that
initial step P
Futh. Well, Socrates, I think I could hold my own against
all Comers as an upright man.
And have upright men (continued Socrates) their distinc-
tive and appropriate works like those of carpenters or shoe-
makers P
Futh. To be sure they have.
Soc. And just as the carpenter is able to exhibit his works
and products, the righteous man should be able to expound
and set forth his, should he not P
I see (replied Euthydemus) you are afraid I cannot ex-
pound the works of righteousness | Why, bless me! of course
I can, and the works of unrighteousness into the bargain, since
there are not a few of that sort within reach of eye and ear
every day.
Shall we then (proceeded Socrates) write the letter R on
this side,” and on that side the letter W.; and then anything
that appears to us to be the product of righteousness we will
place to the R account, and anything which appears to be the
product of wrong-doing and iniquity to the account of WP
By all means do so (he answered), if you think that it
assists matters.
Accordingly Socrates drew the letters, as he had suggested,
and continued.
Soc. Zying exists among men, does it not P
Auth. Certainly.
To which side of the account then shall we place it? (he
asked).
1 Just, Justice,
ölkatos ôukatoo ſum
eousness, N.T. To quote a friend : “The Greek 6tkavos combines the active
dealing out of justice with the self-reflexive idea of preserving justice in our
conduct, which is what we mean by “upright.'”
* The letter R (to stand for Right, Righteous, Upright, Just).
The letter W (to stand for Wrong, Umrighteous, Unjust).
} = upright, righteous. } = social uprightness=right-
138 MEMORABILIA—BIK. IV. CH. II. § 14-16
Auth. Clearly on the side of wrong and injustice.
Soc. Zeceit too is not uncommon P
Auth. By no means. -
Soc. To which side shall we place deceit *
Auth. Deceit clearly on the side of wrong.
Soc. Well, and chicanery + or mischief of any sort P
A uſh. That too.
Soc. And the ens/azememf of free-born men P”
Auth. That too.
Soc. And we cannot allow any of these to lie on the R
side of the account, to the side of right and justice, can we,
Euthydemus P -
It would be monstrous (he replied).
Soc. Very good. But supposing a man to be elected
general, and he succeeds in enslaving an unjust, wicked, and
hostile state, are we to say that he is doing wrong P
Auſ/. By no means.
Soc. Shall we not admit that he is doing what is right P
Auth. Certainly.
Soc. Again, suppose he deceives the foe while at war with
them P -
Euth. That would be all fair and right also.
Soc. Or steals and pillages their property P would he not be
doing what is right?
Auth. Certainly ; when you began I thought you were
limiting the question to the case of friends.
Soc. So then everything which we set down on the side of
Wrong will now have to be placed to the credit of Right?
Auth. Apparently.
Soc. Very well then, let us so place them; and please, let us
make a new definition—that while it is right to do such things
to a foe, it is wrong to do them to a friend, but in dealing
with the latter it behoves us to be as straightforward as
possible.”
* Reading Tô Kakovpyeſu (= furari, Sturz); al, k\étrely, Stob.
* Or, “the kidnapping men into slavery.” Tô &vöpatroööeorðat = the
reduction of a free-born man to a state of slavery, Slavery itself (êovXela)
being regarded as the normal condition of a certain portion of the human
race and not in itself immoral. -
* Or, “an absolutely straightforward course is necessary.”
CH. II. § 16-19 THE MAIEUTIC PROCESS I39
I quite assent (replied Euthydemus).
So far so good (remarked Socrates); but if a general,
Seeing his troops demoralised, were to invent a tale to the
effect that reinforcements were coming, and by means of
this false statement should revive the courage of his men, to
which of the two accounts shall we place that act of fraud?"
On the side of right, to my notion (he replied).
Soc. Or again, if a man chanced to have a son ill and in need
of medicine, which the child refused to take, and supposing
the father by an act of deceit to administer it under the guise
of something nice to eat, and by service of that lie to restore
the boy to health, to which account shall we set down this
fraud P *
Auth. In my judgment it too should be placed to the
Same a CCOUInt. -
Soc. Well, supposing you have a friend in deplorably low
spirits, and you are afraid he will make away with himself—
accordingly you rob him of his knife or other such instrument:
to which side ought we to set the theft P
Auth. This too must surely be placed to the score of
right behaviour.
Soc. I understand you to say that a straightforward course
is not in every case to be pursued even in dealing with friends P
Heaven forbid (the youth exclaimed). If you will allow
me, I rescind my former statement.”
Soc. Allow you ! Of course you may—anything rather than
make a false entry on our lists. . . . But there is just another
point we ought not to leave uninvestigated. Let us take the
case of deceiving a friend to his detriment: which is the more
wrongful—to do so voluntarily or unintentionally P
Æuth. Really, Socrates, I have ceased to believe in my
own answers, for all my former admissions and conceptions
seem to me other than I first supposed them.” Still, if I may
hazard one more opinion, the intentional deceiver, I should
say, is worse than the involuntary.
* Cf. Hell. IV. iii. Io (Trans, vol. ii. p. 54); Cyrop, I. vi. 31.
* See above, I. ii. 44, p. 16 (duatt0epal). -
* Or, “all my original positions seem to me now other than I first
conceived them "; or, “everything I first asserted seems now to be twisted
topsy-turvy.”
I4O MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. II. § 20, 21
Soc. And is it your opinion that there is a lore and science
of Right and Justice just as there is of letters and grammar P*
Auth. That is my opinion.
Soc. And which should you say was more a man of letters,”
—he who intentionally misspells or misreads, or he who does
so unconsciously P
Auth. He who does so intentionally, I should say,
because he can spell or read correctly whenever he chooses.
Soc. Then the voluntary misspeller may be a lettered
person, but the involuntary offender is an illiterate P*
Auth. True, he must be. I do not see how to escape from
that conclusion.
Soc. And which of the two knows what is right—he who
intentionally lies and deceives, or he who lies and deceives
unconsciously P*
Auth. The intentional and conscious liar clearly.
Soc. Well then, your statement is this: on the one hand,
the man who has the knowledge of letters is more lettered
than he who has no such knowledge Pº
A. użh. Yes.
Soc. And, on the other, he who has the knowledge of
what is right is more righteous than he who lacks that
knowledge?
Auth. I suppose it is, but for the life of me I cannot make
head or tail of my own admission.”
Soc. Well (look at it like this). Suppose a man to be
* A60mous kal étrio Tijum tod ólkatov–a doctrine and a knowledge of the
Just. * Or, “more grammatical”; “the better grammarian.”
* Or, “In fact, he who sins against the lore of grammar intentionally
may be a good grammarian and a man of letters, but he who does so
involuntarily is illiterate and a bad grammarian P”
* Or, Soc. And does he who lies and deceives with intent know what is
right rather than he who does either or both unconsciously P
Bath. Clearly he does.
* Or, Soc. It is a fair inference, is it not, that he who has the étruatºjum of
grammar is more grammatical than he who has no such étruo Thum?
Ezzāh. Yes.
Soc. And he who has the étruatºpum of things rightful is more righteous
than he who lacks, the étruatºpum ? See Plat. Hiſp. min. ; Arist. Eth. Eud.
VI. v. 7.
* Lit. “Apparently ; but I appear to myself to be saying this also,
heaven knows how.” See Jowett, Plato, ii. p. 416 (ed. 2).
CH. II. § 2 I-23 CONVICTION OF IGNORANCE I4 I
anxious to speak the truth, but he is never able to hold
the same language about a thing for two minutes together,
First he says: “The road is towards the east,” and then he
says: “No, it’s towards the west’”; or, running up a column
of figures, now he makes the product this, and again he
makes it that, now more, now less—what do you think of such
a man P
Auth. Heaven help us ! clearly he does not know what he
thought he knew. -
Soc. And you know the appellation given to certain
people—“slavish,” 4 or, “little better than a slave” P
Az//h. I do.
Soc. Is it a term suggestive of the wisdom or the ignorance
of those to whom it is applied ?
Auth. Clearly of their ignorance.
Soc. Ignorance, for instance, of Smithying P
Auth. No, certainly not.
Soc. Then possibly ignorance of carpentering P
Auth. No, nor yet ignorance of carpentering.
Soc. Well, ignorance of shoemaking P
Auth. No, nor ignorance of any of these : rather the
reverse, for the majority of those who do know just these
matters are “little better than slaves.”
Soc. You mean it is a title attaching particularly to those
who are ignorant of the beautiful, the good, the just P*
It is, in my opinion (he replied).
Soc. Then we must in every way strain every nerve to
avoid the imputation of being slaves P
Auth. Nay, Socrates, by all that is holy, . I did flatter
myself that at any rate I was a student of philosophy, and on
the right road to be taught everything essential to One who
would fain make beauty and goodness his pursuit.” So that
* &vöpatroë6öets, which has the connotation of mental dulness, and a
low order of intellect ; cf. “boorish,” “rustic,” “loutish '' (“pariah,” con-
ceivably). “Slavish,” “servile,” with us connote moral rather than intellectual
deficiency, I suppose. Hence it is impossible to preserve the humour of the
Socratic argument. See Newman, op. cit. i. IO7.
* Cf. Goethe's “In Ganzen Guten Schönen resolut zu leben.”
* Tâs ka)\okäya&tas, the virtue of the ka)\ós Te kāya.06s–nobility of Soul.
Cf. above, I. vi. I4. -
I42 MEMORABILIA—BIK. IV. CH. II. § 23-26
now you may well imagine my despair when, for all my pains
expended, I cannot even answer the questions put to me
about what most of all a man should know ; and there is no
path of progress open to me, no avenue of improvement left.
Thereupon Socrates: Tell me, Euthydemus, have you ever
been to Delphi P
Yes, certainly ; twice (said he).
Soc. And did you notice an inscription somewhere on the
temple: TNQ0I XEAYTON.—KNOW THYSELFP
A uſ/. I did. -
Soc. Did you, possibly, pay no regard to the inscription ?
or did you give it heed and try to discover who and what you
were P
I can safely say I did not (he answered). That much
I made quite sure I knew, at any rate ; since if I did not
know even myself, what in the world did I know P
Soc. Can a man be said, do you think, to know himself
who knows his own name and nothing more P or must he not
rather set to work precisely like the would-be purchaser of a
horse, who certainly does not think that he has got the
knowledge he requires until he has discovered whether the
beast is tractable or stubborn, strong or weak, quick or slow,
and how it stands with the other points, serviceable or the
reverse, in reference to the use and purpose of a horse? So, I
say, must a man in like manner interrogate his own nature in
reference to-a man's requirements, and learn to know his own
capacities, must he not P
Auth. Yes, so it strikes me: he who knows not his own
ability knows not himself.
Soc. And this too is plain, is it not : that through self-
knowledge men meet with countless blessings, and through
ignorance of themselves with many evils P Because, the man
who knows himself knows what is advantageous to himself; he
discerns the limits of his powers, and by doing what he knows,
he provides himself with what he needs and so does well ; or,
conversely, by holding aloof from what he knows not, he
avoids mistakes, and thereby mishaps. And having now a
test to gauge other human beings he uses their need as a
stepping-stone to provide himself with good and to avoid evil.
CH. II. § 27-31 TNQ0I XEAYTON I43
Whereas he who does not know himself, but is mistaken as to
his own capacity, is in like predicament with regard to the rest
of mankind and all human matters else; he neither knows
what he wants, nor what he is doing, nor the people whom he
deals with ; and being all abroad in these respects, he misses
what is good and becomes involved in what is ill.
Again, he that knows what he is doing through the success
of his performance attains to fame and honour; his peers and
Co-mates are glad to make use of him, whilst his less success-
ful neighbours, failing in their affairs, are anxious to secure his
advice, his guidance, his protection ; they place their hopes of
happiness in him, and for all these causes * single him out as
the chief object of their affection. He, on the contrary, who
knows not what he does, who chooses amiss and fails in what
he puts his hands to, not only incurs loss and suffers chastise-
ment through his blunders, but step by step loses reputation
and becomes a laughing-stock, and in the end is doomed to a
life of dishonour and contempt.
What is true of individuals is true also of communities.”
That state which in ignorance of its power goes to war with a
stronger than itself ends by being uprooted or else reduced
to slavery. -
Thereupon Euthydemus: Be assured I fully concur in
your opinion ; the precept KNOW THYSELF cannot be too highly
valued ; but what is the application ? What the starting-point
of self-examination ? I look to you for an explanation, if you
would kindly give one.* -
Well (replied Socrates), I presume you know quite well
the distinction between good and bad things : your knowledge
may be relied upon so far?
Why, yes, to be sure (replied the youth); for without
that much discernment I should indeed be worse than any
slave.”
* Cf. Dante, “Tu duca, tu maestro, tu signore.”
* Reading, Övö, Trávta rajra, or, if Ötö Tajta, translate “and therefore.”
* Or, more lit. “A law which applies, you will observe, to bodies
politic.”
* Or, “at what point to commence the process of Self-inspection ?—there
is the mystery. I look to you, if you are willing, to interpret it.”
° Lit. “if I did not know even that.”
I44. MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. II. § 31-33
Come then (said he), do you give me an explanation of
the things so termed.
That is fortunately not hard (replied the youth). First
of all, health in itself I hold to be a good, and disease in
itself an evil; and in the next place the sources of either of
those aforenamed, meats and drinks and habits of life,' I
regard as good or evil according as they contribute either to
health or to disease.
Soc. Then health and disease themselves when they prove
to be sources of any good are good, but when of any evil,
evil P -
And when (asked he), can health be a source of evil, or
disease a source of good P
Why, bless me! often enough (replied Socrates). In
the event, for instance, of some ill-starred expedition or of some
disastrous voyage or other incident of the sort, of which
veritably there are enough and to spare, when those who
owing to their health and strength take a part in the affair
are lost; whilst those who were left behind—as hors de combat,
on account of ill-health or other feebleness—are saved.
Auth. Yes, you are right; but you will admit that there
are advantages to be got from strength and lost through
weakness.
Soc. Even so ; but ought we to regard those things which
at one moment benefit and at another moment injure us in
any strict sense good rather than evil? -
Auth. No, certainly not, according to that line of argu-
ment. But wisdom,” Socrates, you must on your side admit,
is irrefragably a good; since there is nothing which or in
which a wise man would not do better than a fool.
Soc. What say you? Have you never heard of Daedalus,”
how he was seized by Minos on account of his wisdom, and
forced to be his slave, and robbed of fatherland and freedom
at one swoop P and how, while endeavouring to make his
escape with his son, he caused the boy's death without effect-
* Or, “pursuits and occupations”; “manners and customs."
* See above, III. ix. 5. Here orogºta is not = 0.0%poo ſum.
* See Ovid, Met. viii. 159 foll., 261 foll. ; Hygin. Fab. 39, 40; Diod. Sic.
iv. 79 ; Paus. vii. 4. 6. -
CH. II. § 33-36 INSCITIAE CONFESSIO I45
ing his own salvation, but was carried off among barbarians
and again enslaved P
Yes, I know the old story (he answered)."
Soc. Or have you not heard of the “woes of Palamedes,”
that commonest theme of song, how for his wisdom's sake
Odysseus envied him and slew him P
Auth. That tale also is current.
Soc. And how many others, pray, do you suppose have
been seized on account of their wisdom, and despatched to
the great king and at his court enslaved P* -
Well, prosperity, well-being * (he exclaimed), must surely
be a blessing, and that the most indisputable, Socrates ?
It might be so (replied the philosopher) if it chanced not
to be in itself a compound of other questionable blessings.
Euth. And which among the components of happiness
and well-being can possibly be questionable P
None (he retorted), unless of course we are to include among
these components beauty, or strength, or wealth, or reputation,
or anything else of that kind?
Auth. By heaven of course we are to include these, for
what would happiness be without these ? -
Soc. By heaven | yes; only then we shall be including the
commonest sources of mischief which befall mankind. How
many are ruined by their fair faces at the hand of admirers driven
to distraction” by the sight of beauty in its bloom how many,
tempted by their strength to essay deeds beyond their power,
are involved in no small evils | how many, rendered effeminate
by reason of their wealth, have been plotted against and de-
stroyed 19 how many through fame and political power have
suffered a world of woe -
Well (the youth replied), if I am not even right in praising
happiness, I must confess I know not for what one ought to
supplicate the gods in prayer."
Or, “Ah yes, of course; the tale is current.”
See Virg. Aen. ii. 9o; Hygin. Io 5; Philostr. Her. x.
Cf. Herod. iii. 129.
Tô eúðauoveſv, “happiness.” Cf. Herod. i. 86.
Cf. Plat. Rep. vii. 517 D ; Phaedr. 249 D.
e.g. Alcibiades ; see above, p. II. -
See above, p. 21, for Socrates' own form of Supplication.
WOL. III— I L
:
7
I46 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. II. § 36-39
Nay, these are matters (proceeded Socrates) which perhaps,
through excessive confidence in your knowledge of them, you
have failed to examine into ; but since the state, which you
are preparing yourself to direct, is democratically constituted,"
of course you know what a democracy is.
Auth. I presume I do, decidedly.
Soc. Well, now, is it possible to know what a popular state
is without knowing who the people are P
Futh. Certainly not. $
Soc. And whom do you consider to be the people?
Auth. The poor citizens, I should say.
Soc. Then you know who the poor are, of course ?
Auth. Of course I do.
Soc. I presume you also know who the rich are P
Auth. As certainly as I know who are the poor.
Soc. Whom do you understand by poor and rich P
Auth. By poor I mean those who have not enough to pay
for their necessaries,” and by rich those who have more means
than sufficient for all their needs.
Soc. Have you noticed that some who possess a mere
pittance not only find this sufficient, but actually succeed in
getting a surplus out of it; while others do not find a large
fortune large enough P
I have, most certainly ; and I thank you for the reminder
(replied Euthydemus). One has heard of crowned heads and
despotic rulers being driven by want to commit misdeeds like
the veriest paupers.
Then, if that is how matters stand (continued Socrates),
we must class these same crowned heads with the commonalty;
and some possessors of Scant fortunes, provided they are good
economists, with the wealthy P*
Then Euthydemus: It is the poverty of my own wit which
forces me to this admission. I bethink me it is high time to
keep silence altogether; a little more, and I shall be proved
to know absolutely nothing.—And so he went away crest-
* Or, “popularly governed.”
* Al, “who cannot contribute their necessary quota to the taxes (accord-
ing to the census).”
* See below, Econ, p. 205.
:*} SAPIENTIAE INITIUM I47
fallen, in an agony of self-contempt, persuaded that he was
verily and indeed no better than a slave.
Amongst those who were reduced to a like condition by
Socrates, many refused to come near him again, whom he for
his part looked upon as dolts and dullards." But Euthydemus
had the wit to understand that, in order to become worthy of
account, his best plan was to associate as much as possible
with Socrates; and from that moment, save for some necessity,
he never left him—in some points even imitating him in his
habits and pursuits. Socrates, on his side, seeing that this
was the young man's disposition, disturbed him as little as
possible, but in the simplest and plainest manner initiated
him into everything which he held to be needful to know or
important to practise.
III.-It may be inferred that Socrates was in no hurry for
those who were with him to discover capacities for speech and
action or as inventive geniuses,” without at any rate a well-laid
foundation of self-control.” For those who possessed such
abilities without these same saving virtues would, he believed,
only become worse men with greater power for mischief. His
first object was to instil into those who were with him a
wise spirit in their relation to the gods.” That such was the
tenor of his conversation in dealing with men may be seen
from the narratives of others who were present on some par-
ticular occasion.” I confine myself to a particular discussion
with Euthydemus at which I was present.
Socrates said: " Tell me, Euthydemus, has it ever struck
* Or, “as people of dull intelligence and sluggish temperament.” Cf.
Plat. Gorg, 488 A.
* Or, “as speakers” (see ch. vi. below), “and men of action ” (see ch.
v. below), “ or as masters of invention" (see ch. vii. below).
* Or, “but as prior to those excellences must be engrafted in them
awqipoo ſum (the virtues of temperance and sanity of Soul).”
* Lit. “His first object and endeavour was to make those who were with
him awqīpóvas (sound of Soul) as regards the gods.”
* Reading after Herbst, Cobet, etc., Öumyojutat, or if vulg. ôtºry00vro, trans-
late “from the current accounts penned during his lifetime by the other
witnesses.” For & NNot see K. Joel, op. cit. pp. I 5, 23 ; above, Mem. I. iv. I.
6 For the subject matter of this “teleological” chapter, see above, I. iv.
p. 25 foll., K. Joel, op. cit. Appendix, p. 547 foll, in ref. to Dümmler's views.
I48 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. III. § 3-6
you to observe what tender pains the gods have taken to
furnish man with all his needs P
Fuſh. No indeed, I cannot say that it has ever struck me.
Well (Socrates continued), you do not need to be reminded
that, in the first place, we need light; and with light the gods
Supply us.
Auth. Most true, and if we had not got it we should, as
far as our own eyes could help us, be like men born blind.
Soc. And then, again, seeing that we stand in need of rest
and relaxation, they bestow upon us “the blessed balm of
silent night.”"
Yes (he answered), we are much beholden for that boon.
Soc. Then, forasmuch as the sun in his splendour makes
manifest to us the hours of the day and bathes all things in
brightness, but anon night in her darkness obliterates distinc-
tions, have they not displayed aloft the starry Orbs, which
inform us of the watches of the night, whereby we can
accomplish many of our needs P* - -
It is so (he answered).
Soc. And let us not forget that the moon herself not only
makes clear to us the quarters of the night, but of the month
also P - 2-
Certainly (he answered).
Soc. And what of this ; that whereas we need nutriment,
this too the heavenly powers yield us? Out of earth's bosom
they cause food to spring up * for our benefit; and for our
benefit provide appropriate seasons to furnish us in turn not
only with the many and diverse objects of need, but with
the sources also of our joy and gladness? “
Yes (he answered eagerly), these things bear token truly
to a love for man.” .
Soc. Well, and what of another priceless gift, that of water,
which conspires with earth and the seasons to give both birth
and increase to all things useful to us; nay, which helps to
* KáA\to Tov čvatavrºptov. The diction throughout is “poetical.”
* e.g. for temple orientation see Dr. Penrose quoted by Norman
Lockyer, AWature, August 31, 1893.
* Cf. Plat. Laws, 747 D. * Or, “pleasure.”
* Cf. Plat. Laws, 713 D ; Symp, 189 D. “These things are signs of a
beneficent regard for man.”
CH. III. § 6-9 INDEBTEDNESS OF MAN TO GOD I49
nurture Our very selves, and commingling with all that feeds
us, renders it more digestible, more wholesome, and more
pleasant to the taste; and mark you in proportion to the
abundance of our need the superabundance of its supply.
What say you concerning such a boon?
Auth. In this again I see a sign of providential care.
Soc. And then the fact that the same heavenly power has
provided us with fire * — Our assistant against cold, our
auxiliary in darkness, Our fellow-workman in every art and
every instrument which for the sake of its utility mortal man
may invent or furnish himself withal. What of this, since, to
put it compendiously, there is nothing serviceable to the life
of man worth speaking of but owes its fabrication to fire P*
Auth. Yes, a transcendent instance of benevolent design.”
Soc. Again, consider the motions of the Sun," how when
he has turned him about in winter” he again draws nigh to us,
ripening some fruits, and causing others whose time is past to
dry up ; how when he has fulfilled his work he comes no
closer, but turns away as if in fear to scorch us to our hurt
unduly ; and again, when he has reached a point where if he
should prolong his retreat we should plainly be frozen to
death with cold, note how he turns him about and resumes
his 'approach, traversing that region of the heavens where he
may shed his genial influence best upon us.
Yes, upon my word (he answered), these occurrences
bear the impress of being so ordered for the sake of man.
Soc. And then, again, it being manifest that we could not
endure either scorching heat or freezing cold if they came sud-
denly upon us, note how gradually the Sun approaches, and
how gradually recedes, so that we fail to notice how we come
at last to either extreme."
* Lit. “ and then the fact that they had made provision for us of even
fire"; the credit of this boon, according to Hesiod, being due to Prometheus.
* Or, “no life-aiding appliance worthy of the name.”
* Or, “Yes, that may be called an extreme instance of the divine ‘philan-
thropy.’” Cf. Cic. de M. D. ii. 62.
* A single MS. inserts a passage to 6é kal dépa . . . 'Avékºppao Tov.
° i.e. as we say, ‘‘āfter the winter solstice.”
° Or, “note the gradual approach and gradual recession of the sun-god,
so gradual that we reach either extreme in a manner imperceptibly, and before
we are aware of its severity.”
I 50 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH, III. § 9-12
For my part (he replied), the question forces itself upon
my mind, whether the gods have any other Occupation save only
to minister to man ; and I am Only hindered from saying so,
because the rest of animals would seem to share these benefits
along with man.
Soc. Why, to be sure ; and is it not plain that these animals
themselves are born and bred for the sake of man P. At any rate,
no living creature save man derives so many of his enjoyments
from sheep and goats, horses and cattle and asses, and other
animals. He is more dependent, I should suppose, on these
than even on plants and vegetables. At any rate, equally
with these latter they serve him as means of subsistence or
articles of commerce; indeed, a large portion of the human
family do not use the products of the soil as food at all, but
live on the milk and cheese and flesh of their flocks and herds,
whilst all men everywhere tame and domesticate the more
useful kinds of animals, and turn them to account as fellow-
workers in war and for other purposes.
Yes, I cannot but agree with what you say (he answered),
when I see that animals so much stronger than man become
So subservient to his hand that he can use them as he lists.
Soc. And as we reflect on the infinite beauty and utility
and the variety of nature, what are we to say of the fact that
man has been endowed with sensibilities which correspond
with this diversity, whereby we take our fill of every blessing; 4
Or, again, this implanted faculty of reasoning, which enables
us to draw inferences concerning the things which we per-
ceive, and by aid of memory to understand how each set of
things may be turned to our good, and to devise countless
contrivances with a view to enjoying the good and repelling
the evil; or lastly, when we consider the faculty bestowed
upon us of interpretative speech, by which we are enabled to
instruct one another, and to participate in all the blessings
fore-named : to form societies, to establish laws, and to enter
upon a civilised existence,”—what are we to think?
* Or, “Again, when we consider how many beautiful objects there are ser-
viceable to man, and yet how unlike they are to one another, the fact that
man has been endowed with senses adapted to each class of things, and so
has access to a world of happiness.” * Cf. Aristot. Pol. III. ix. 5.
CH. III. § 12-14 PROOFS OF DIVINE BENEVOLENCE I5 I
Auth. Yes, Socrates, decidedly it would appear that the
gods do manifest a great regard, nay, a tender care, towards
mankind.
Soc. Well, and what do you make of the fact that where
we are powerless to take advantageous forethought for our
future, at this stage they themselves lend us their co-operation,
imparting to the inquirer through divination knowledge of
events about to happen, and instructing him by what means
they may best be turned to good account P
Auth. Ay; and you, Socrates, they would seem to treat
in a more friendly manner still than the rest of men, if, with-
out waiting even to be inquired of by you, they show you by
signs beforehand what you must, and what you must not do."
Soc. Yes, and you will discover for yourself the truth of
what I say, if, without waiting to behold the Outward and
visible forms” of the gods themselves, you will be content to
behold their works ; and with these before you, to worship
and honour the Divine authors of them.” I would have you
reflect that the very gods themselves suggest this teaching.”
Not one of these but gives us freely of his blessings; yet they
do not step from behind their veil in order to grant one single
boon.” And pre-eminently He who orders and holds together
the universe,” in which are all things beautiful and good;" who
fashions and refashions it to never-ending use unworn, keeping
it free from sickness or decay,” so that swifter than thought
it ministers to his will unerringly,–this God is seen to perform
the mightiest operations, but in the actual administration of
the same abides himself invisible to mortal ken, Reflect
further, this Sun above our heads, so visible to all—as we
suppose, will not suffer man to regard him too narrowly, but
1 See above, I. iv. I4, p. 29, for a parallel to the train of thought on
the part of Aristodemus “the little,” and of Euthydemus ; and for Socrates'
6aupiðvvov, See above, p. I ; Grote, Plato, i. 4oo.
* Cf. Cic. de N. D. I. xii. 31 ; Lactantius, de Ira, xi. 13.
* See L. Dindorf ad loc. (ed. Ox. 1862), 6eo's ; G. Sauppe, vol. iii.
An, crit, p. xxix., R. Kühner; C. Schenkl.
i.e. “that man must walk by faith.” For üToôeukviſvat cf. Econ. xii. 18.
Schneid. cf. Plat. Craf. 396.
Or, ‘‘the co-ordinator and container of the universe.”
Or, “in whom all beauty and goodness is.”
Cf. Cyrop, VIII. vii. 22 ; above, I. iv. I3, p. 29.
:
I52 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. III. § 14-17
should any essay to watch him with a shameless stare he will
snatch away their power of vision. And if the gods them-
selves are thus unseen, so too shall you find their ministers
to be hidden also ; from the height of heaven above the
thunderbolt is plainly hurled, and triumphs over all that it
encounters, yet it is all-invisible, no eye may detect its
coming or its going or the moment of its Swoop. The winds
also are themselves unseen, though their works are manifest,
and through their approach we are aware of them. And let
us not forget, the soul of man himself, which if aught else
human shares in the divine—however manifestly enthroned
within our bosom, is as wholly as the rest hidden from Our
gaze. These things you should lay to mind, and not despise
the invisible ones, but learn to recognise their power, as re-
vealed in outward things, and to know the divine influence."
Nay, Socrates (replied Euthydemus), there is no danger I
shall turn a deafear to the divine influence even a little; of that
I am not afraid, but I am out of heart to think that no Soul of
man may ever requite the kindnesses of the gods with fitting
gratitude. - -
Be not out of heart because of that (he said); you know
what answer the god at Delphi makes to each one who comes
asking “how shall I return thanks to Heaven P”—“According
to the law and custom of your city”; and this, I presume, is
law and custom everywhere that a man should please the gods
with offerings according to the ability which is in him.” How
then should a man honour the gods with more beautiful or
holier honour than by doing what they bid him 2 but he must
in no wise slacken or fall short of his ability, for when a man
so does, it is manifest, I presume, that at the moment he is
not honouring the gods. You must then honour the gods,
not with shortcoming but according to your ability; and
having so done, be of good cheer and hope to receive the
greatest blessings. For where else should a man of sober
sense look to receive great blessings if not from those who
are able to help him most, and how else should he hope to
* Tô 6alpóvuov, the divinity.
* Or, “and that law, I presume, is universal which says, Let a man,” etc.;
and for the maxim See above, p. 22 ; Anab, III. ii. 9 (Trans, vol. i. p. 154).
CH. III. § 17,
:::::::::::: *} SOCRATES REVERENCE FOR LAw I 53
obtain them save by seeking to please his helper, and how
may he hope to please his helper better than by yielding
him the amplest obedience P
By such words—and conduct corresponding to his words—
did Socrates mould and fashion the hearts of his companions,
making them at once more devout and more virtuous."
IV.-But indeed” with respect to justice and uprightness
he not only made no secret of the opinion he held, but gave
practical demonstration of it, both in private by his law-
abiding and helpful behaviour to all,” and in public by obeying
the magistrates in all that the laws enjoined, whether in the
life of the city or in military service, so that he was a pattern of
loyalty to the rest of the world, and on three several occasions
in particular: first, when as president (Epistates) of the assembly
he would not suffer the sovereign people to take an unconstitu-
tional vote,” but ventured, on the side of the laws, to resist a
current of popular feeling strong enough, I think, to have
daunted any other man. Again, when the Thirty tried to lay
some injunction on him contrary to the laws, he refused
to obey, as for instance when they forbade his conversing
with the young; * or again, when they ordered him and certain
other citizens to arrest a man to be put to death,” he stood
out single-handed on the ground that the injunctions laid
upon him were contrary to the laws. And lastly, when he
appeared as defendant in the suit instituted by Melétus,"
notwithstanding that it was customary for litigants in the law
courts to humour the judges in the conduct of their arguments
by flattery and supplications contrary to the laws,” notwith-
* Or, “sounder of soul and more temperate as well as more pious.”
* L. Dindorf suspects [ŠS I-6, ’AXX& phy . . . Tox\ákus], ed. Lips. I 872.
See also Praef. to Ox. ed. p. viii.
* Or, “by his conduct to all, which was not merely innocent in the eye of
law and custom but positively helpful.” -- -
* See above, I. i. 18, p. 5; Hell. I. vii. I4, I5 (Trans. Vol. i.
p. 32); Grote, H. G. viii. 272. * See above, I. ii. 35, p. 13.
" Leon of Salamis. See Hell. II. iii. 39 (Trans, vol. i. p. 57); Plat.
Apol. 32 C ; Andoc, de Myst, 46.
7 See above, I. i. I, p. I ; Plat. A/o/, 19 C.
8 Kühner cf. Quintil. VI. i. 7 : “Athenis affectus movere etian per
praeconem prohibebatur orator”; Apol. 4; below, p. 186; Plat. Apol. 38
D, E.
I54 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. Iv. § 4-6
standing also that defendants owed their acquittal by the
Court to the employment of such methods, he refused to
do a single thing however habitual in a court of law which
was not strictly legal ; and though by only a slight deflection
from the strict path he might easily have been acquitted by
his judges," he preferred to abide by the laws and die rather
than transgress them and live.
These views he frequently maintained in conversation,
now with one and now with another, and one particular
discussion with Hippias of Elis” on the topic of justice and
uprightness has come to my knowledge.”
Hippias had just arrived at Athens after a long absence,
and chanced to be present when Socrates was telling some
listeners how astonishing it was that if a man wanted to get
another taught to be a shoemaker or carpenter or coppersmith
or horseman, he would have no doubt where to send him for
the purpose: “People say,” 4 he added, “that if a man wants
to get his horse or his ox taught in the right way,” the world
is full of instructors; but if he would learn himself, or have
his son or his slave taught in the way of right, he cannot tell
where to find such instruction.”
Hippias, catching the words, exclaimed in a bantering
tone : What I still repeating the same old talk,” Socrates, which
I used to hear from you long ago?
Yes (answered Socrates), and what is still more strange,
Hippias, it is not only the same old talk but about the same
old subjects. Now you, I daresay, through versatility of
knowledge," never say the same thing twice over on the
same subject P
* See Grote, H. G. viii. p. 663 foll.
* For this famous person see Cob. Pros. Xen. s. n. ; Plat. Hipp, maj. I48;
Quint. xii. II, 21 ; Grote, AZ. G. viii. 524.
* Or, “I can personally vouch for." See pp. 18, 84, 162.
* L. Dindorf, after Ruhnken and Valckenar, omits this sentence ºpaqi
ôé rives . . . Övöašóvray. See Kühner ad loc. For the sentiment see Plat.
Apol. 20 A.
* Cf. Cyrop. II. ii. 26; VIII. iii. 38; also Horsem. iii. 5; Hunting,
V11. 4.
* This tale is repeated by Dio Chrys. Or, III. i. Io9. Cf. Plat. Gorg. 490 E.
7 Or, “such is the breadth of your learning,” troXupaffifts. Cf. Plat.
Aipſ, maj.
cH. iv. § 6-10 SOCRATES AND HIPPIAS ON JUSTICE I 55
To be sure (he answered), my endeavour is to say some-
thing new on all occasions.
What (he asked) about things which you know, as for
instance in a case of spelling, if any one asks you, “How
many letters in Socrates, and what is their order P” 1 I suppose
you try to run off one string of letters to-day and to-morrow
another P or to a question of arithmetic, “Does twice five make
ten ?” your answer to-day will differ from that of yesterday ?
Aſºft. No ; on these topics, Socrates, I do as you do and
repeat myself. However, to revert to justice (and uprightness),”
I flatter myself I can at present furnish you with some remarks
which neither you nor any one else will be able to controvert.
By Héra !” (he exclaimed), what a blessing to have
discovered 14 Now we shall have no more divisions of
Opinion on points of right and wrong; judges will vote
unanimously; citizens will cease wrangling; there will be no
more litigation, no more party faction, states will reconcile
their differences, and wars are ended. For my part I do not
know how I can tear myself away from you, until I have heard
from your own lips all about the grand discovery you have
made. -
You shall hear all in good time (Hippias answered),
but not until you make a plain statement of your Own
belief. What is justice P. We have had enough of your
ridiculing all the rest of the world, questioning and cross-
examining first one and then the other, but never a bit will
you render an account to any one yourself or state a plain
opinion upon a single topic.”
What, Hippias (Socrates retorted), have you not observed
that I am in a chronic condition of proclaiming what I
regard as just and upright?
* Cf. below, Econ. viii. 14 ; Plat. Alc. i. II 3 A.
* Or, “on the topic of the just I have something to say at present
which,” etc.
* See above, I. v. 5, p. 31.
4 Or, “what a panacea are you the inventor of "; lit. “By Héra, you
have indeed discovered a mighty blessing, if juries are to cease recording their
verdicts ‘aye' and ‘no’ ; if citizens are to cease their wranglings on points of
justice, their litigations, and their party strifes ; if states are to cease differing
on matters of right and wrong and appealing to the arbitrament of war.”
* See Plat. Gorg. 465 A. -
156 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. IV. § IO-13
App. And pray what is this theory 4 of yours on the
subject P Let us have it in words.
Soc. If I fail to proclaim it in words, at any rate I do so
in deed and in fact. Or do you not think that a fact is
worth more as evidence than a word P*
Worth far more, I should say (Hippias answered), for
many a man with justice and right on his lips commits
injustice and wrong, but no doer of right ever was a misdoer
or could possibly be. -
Soc. I ask then, have you ever heard or seen or otherwise
perceived me bearing false witness or lodging malicious
information, or stirring up strife among friends or political
dissension in the city, or committing any other unjust and
wrongful act P
No, I cannot say that I have (he answered).
Soc. And do you not regard it as right and just to abstain
from wrong?”
Aſipſ. Now you are caught, Socrates, plainly trying to
escape from a plain statement. When asked what you believe
justice to be, you keep telling us not what the just man does,
but what he does not do.
Why, I thought for my part (answered Socrates) that the
refusal to do wrong and injustice was a sufficient warrant in
itself of righteousness and justice, but if you do not agree, see
if this pleases you better: I assert that what is “lawful” is
“just and righteous.”
Do you mean to assert (he asked) that lawful and just
are synonymous terms ? “
Soc. I do. - -
I ask (Hippias added), for I do not perceive what you
mean by lawful, nor what you mean by ſust.”
* 6 Xóyos.
? Or, “is of greater evidential value,” “ubi res adsunt, quid opus
est verbis P’’
3 Or, “is not abstinence from wrongdoing synonymous with righteous
behaviour P”
4 Lit. ‘‘ that the same thing is (awful and just "; but vöpulpos=
*::::::::: persons } cf. Cyrop. { f º #.
Kühner cf. above, II. vi. 23, p. 65.
* Lit. ‘‘what sort of lawful or what sort of just is spoken of.”
-x,
ch, iv. § 13-15 ZAWFUL AND /UST SYNONYMOUS I 57
Soc. You understand what is meant by laws of a city or
Stafe 2
Yes (he answered).
Soc. What do you take them to be P
Aſift. The several enactments drawn up by the citizens
or members of a state in agreement as to what things should
be done or left undone. -
Then I presume (Socrates continued) that a member
of a state who regulates his life in accordance with these
enactments will be law-abiding, while the transgressor of the
same will be law-less P
Certainly (he answered).
Soc. And I presume the law-loving citizen will do what is
just and right, while the lawless man will do what is unjust and
wrong P
Aſipp. Certainly.
Soc. And I presume that he who does what is just is
just, and he who does what is unjust is unjust P
Aſipº. Of course.
Soc. It would appear, then, that the law-loving man is
just, and the lazy/ess unjust 2
Then Hippias: Well, but laws, Socrates, how should any
one regard as a serious matter either the laws themselves, or
obedience to them, which laws the very people who made them
are perpetually rejecting and altering P
Which is also true of war (Socrates replied); cities are
perpetually undertaking war and then making peace again.
Most true (he answered).
Soc. If so, what is the difference between depreciating
obedience to law because laws will be repealed, and depreciating
good discipline in war because peace will one day be made P
But perhaps you object to enthusiasm displayed in defence
of one's home and fatherland in war P -
No, indeed I do not I heartily approve of it (he
answered). -
Soc. Then have you laid to heart the lesson taught by
Lycurgus to the Lacedaemonians," and do you understand that
if he succeeded in giving Sparta a distinction above other
1. Cf. Pol. Lac. viii. (Trans. vol. ii. p. 310). See Newman, op. cit, i. 396.
158 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. Iv. § 15-17
states, it was only by instilling into her, beyond all else, a
spirit of obedience to the laws P And among magistrates and
rulers in the different states, you would scarcely refuse the
palm of superiority to those who best contribute to make
their fellow-citizens obedient to the laws P And you would
admit that any particular state in which obedience to the laws
is the paramount distinction of the citizens flourishes most in
peace time, and in time of war is irresistible P But, indeed,
of all the blessings which a state may enjoy, none stands
higher than the blessing of unanimity. “Concord among
citizens”—that is the constant theme of exhortation emphasised
in the councils of elders" and by the choice spirits of the
community;” at all times and everywhere through the length
and breadth of Hellas it is an established law that the citizens
be bound together by an oath of concord ; * everywhere they do
actually swear this oath ; not of course as implying that citizens
shall all vote for the same choruses, or give their plaudits
to the same flute-players, or choose the same poets, or limit
themselves to the same pleasures, but simply that they
shall pay obedience to the laws, since in the end that state
will prove most powerful and most prosperous in which
the citizens abide by these ; but without concord neither
can a state be well administered nor a household well organ-
ised.
And if we turn to private life, what better protection can a
man have than obedience to the laws P. This shall be his safe-
guard against penalties, his guarantee of honours at the hands of
the community; it shall be a clue to thread his way through the
mazes of the law courts unbewildered, secure against defeat,
assured of victory.” It is to him, the law-loving citizen, that
men will turn in confidence when seeking a guardian of the
most sacred deposits, be it of money or be it their sons or
daughters. He, in the eyes of the state collectively, is trust-
worthy—he and no other; who alone may be depended on to
! Lit. “the Gerousiai.” 2 or E 2 uses the Spartan phraseology.
* Lit. “ the best men.” X or E X speaks as an “aristocrat.”
* Cf. Hell. II. iv. 43 (Trans. vol. i. p. 75); Lys. xxv. 21 foll. ; Schneid.
cf. Lycurg. v. Leocr. I89. -
* Or, “ignorant of hostile, assured of favourable verdict."
CH. Iv. § 17-19 LAWS WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN I 59
render to all alike their dues—to parents and kinsmen and
servants, to friends and fellow-citizens and foreigners. This is
he whom the enemy will soonest trust to arrange an armistice,
or a truce, or a treaty of peace. They would like to become
the allies of this man, and to fight on his side. This is he
to whom the allies' of his country will most confidently
entrust the command of their forces, or of a garrison, or their
states themselves. This, again, is he who may be counted on
to recompense kindness with gratitude, and who, therefore, is
more sure of kindly treatment than another whose sense of
gratitude is duller.” The most desirable among friends, the
enemy of all others to be avoided, clearly he is not the person
whom a foreign state would choose to go to war with ; encom-
passed by a host of friends and exempt from foes, his very
character has a charm to compel friendship and alliance, and
before him hatred and hostility melt away.
And now, Hippias, I have done my part ; that is my
proof and demonstration that the “lawful” and “law-observ-
ant” are synonymous with the “upright” and the “just";
do you, if you hold a contrary view, instruct us.” -
Then Hippias: Nay, upon my soul, Socrates, I am not
aware of holding any contrary Opinion to what you have
uttered on the theme of justice.*
Soc. But now, are you aware, Hippias, of certain unwritten
laws P 6
Yes (he answered), those held in every part of the world,
and in the same sense.
Can you then assert (asked Socrates) of these unwritten
laws that men made them P
Nay, how (he answered) should that be, for how could
they all have come together from the ends of the earth P
I Lit. ‘‘the Allies,” e.g. of Sparta or of Athens, etc.
2 Lit. “From whom may the doer of a deed of kindness more confidently
expect the recompense of gratitude than from your lover of the law? and whom
would one select as the recipient of kindness rather than a man susceptible of
gratitude?”
3 For the style of this encomium (of the vöpupos) cf. Ages. i. 36 (Trans, vol.
ii. p. 245); and for “Socratic” reverence for law cf. Plat. Crito.
4 Lit. ‘‘the just and upright,” tod ólkalov.
5 See Soph. Antig. 454; Oed. T. 865, and Prof. Jebb ad loc.; Dem. de
Cor. 317, 23; Aristot. Rheſ. I. xiii.
I6O MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. IV. § 19-23
and even if they had so done, men are not all of one
speech P! -
Soc. Whom then do you believe to have been the makers
of these laws P
Aſipp. For my part, I think that the gods must have made
these laws for men, and I take it as a proof that first and
foremost it is a law and custom everywhere to worship and
reverence the gods.
Soc. And, I presume, to honour parents is also customary
everywhere P
Yes, that too (he answered).
Soc. And, I presume, also the prohibition of intermarriage
between parents and children P
Aſipp. No ; at that point I stop, Socrates. That does not
seem to me to be a law of God.
Now, why? (he asked).
Because I perceive it is not infrequently transgressed (he
answered).”
Soc. Well, but there are a good many other things which
people do contrary to law ; only the penalty, I take it,
affixed to the transgression of the divine code is certain ;
there is no escape for the offender after the manner in which
a man may transgress the laws of man with impunity, slipping
through the fingers of justice by stealth, or avoiding it by
violence.
Aſipp. And what is the inevitable penalty paid by those
who, being related as parents and children, intermingle in
marriage P -
Soc. The greatest of all penalties; for what worse calamity
can human beings suffer in the production of offspring than
to misbeget?’”
Aſſºp. But how or why should they breed them ill where
nothing hinders them, being of a good stock themselves and
producing from stock as good P
* Or, “there would be the difficulty of understanding each other, and
a babel of tongues.”
* Or, “as I perceive, it is not of universal application, some trans-
gress it.”
* Or, “in the propagation of the species than to produce misbegotten
children.”
ch, IV, s 23, 24 SANCTION OF NATURAL (DIVINE) LAWS 161
Soc. Because, forsooth, in order to produce good children,
it is not simply necessary that the parents should be good and
of a good stock, but that both should be equally in the prime
and vigour of their bodies." Do you suppose that the seed
of those who are at their prime is like theirs who either have
not yet reached their prime, or whose prime is passed ?
Aſ ºff. No, it is reasonable to expect that the seed will differ.
Soc. And for the better—which P
Aſº. Theirs clearly who are at their prime.
Soc. It would seem that the seed of those who are not yet
in their prime or have passed their prime is not good?
Aſipp. It seems most improbable it should be.
Soc. Then the right way to produce children is not that
way P .
Alpſ. No, that is not the right way.
Soc. Then children so produced are produced not as they
ought to be P
Aſif'ſ. So it appears to me.
What offspring then (he asked) will be ill produced, ill
begotten, and ill born, if not these ? -
I subscribe to that opinion also (replied Hippias).
Soc. Well, it is a custom universally respected, is it not,
to return good for good, and kindness with kindness?
Aſ ºff. Yes, a custom, but one which again is apt to be
transgressed.
Soc. Then he that so transgresses it pays penalty in finding
himself isolated ; bereft of friends who are good, and driven to
seek after those who love him not. Or is it not so that he
who does me kindness in my intercourse with him is my good
friend, but if I requite not this kindness to my benefactor,
I am hated by him for my ingratitude, and yet I must needs
pursue after him and cling to him because of the great gain to
me of his society P
Aſſipp. Yes, Socrates. In all these cases, I admit, there is
an implication of divine authority;” that a law should in itself
* Cf. Plat. Laws, viii. 839 A; Herbst, etc., cf. Grotius, de Juré, ii. 5,
xii. 4. -
* Lit. “Yes, upon my word, Socrates, all these cases look very like (would
seem to point to) the gods.” For this view see above, III. ix. I2, 13, note I.
VOL. III— I M
I62 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. {: ºs-
be loaded with the penalty of its transgression does suggest to
my mind a higher than human type of legislator.
Soc. And in your opinion, Hippias, is the legislation of
the gods just and righteous, or the reverse of what is just and
righteous P .
Aſiſp. Not the reverse of what is just and righteous,
Socrates, God forbid for scarcely could any other legislate
aright, if not God himself.
Soc. It would seem then, Hippias, the gods themselves are
well pleased that “the lawful” and “the just’” should be
synonymous P4 -
By such language and by such conduct, through example
and precept alike, he helped to make those who approached
him more upright and more just.
v.–And now I propose to show in what way he made
those who were with him more vigorous in action.” In the
first place, as befitted one whose creed was that a basis of
self-command is indispensable to any noble performance, he
manifested himself to his companions as one who had pre-
eminently disciplined himself; * and in the next place by
conversation and discussion he encouraged them to a like
self-restraint beyond all others.4 Thus it was that he con-
tinued ever mindful himself, and was continually reminding
all whom he encountered, of matters conducive to virtue;
as the following discussion with Euthydemus, which has
come to my knowledge,” will serve to illustrate—the topic of
the discussion being self-command.
Tell me, Euthydemus (he began), do you believe freedom
to be a noble and magnificent acquisition, whether for a man
or for a state P
I cannot conceive a nobler or more magnificent (he
answered).
1 Or, “it is well pleasing also to the gods that what is lawful is just and
what is just is lawful.”
* Lit. “more practical,” i.e. more energetic and effective.
* “If any one might claim to be a prince of ascetics, it was Socrates; such
was the ineffaceable impression left on the minds of his associates.”
* Or, “he stimulated in these same companions a spirit of self-restraint
beyond all else.” For Tpottpétrero see above, pp. 25, 86.
* Or, “which I can vouch for.” For olòa 6é Tore . . . see above, p. 154.
cH. v. § 3-6 DISCUSSION ON FREEDOM, WSDOM, ETC. 163
Soc. Then do you believe him to be a free man who is
ruled by the pleasures of the body, and thereby cannot perform
what is best ? -
Certainly not (he answered). .
Soc. No 1 for possibly to perform what is best appears
to you to Savour of freedom P And, again, to have some one
Over you who will prevent you doing the like seems a loss of
freedom P
Most decidedly (he answered).
Soc. It would seem you are decidedly of opinion that the
incontinent are the reverse of free P 1
Auth. Upon my word, I much suspect so.
Soc. And does it appear to you that the incontinent man
is merely hindered from doing what is noblest, or that further
he is impelled to do what is most shameful ?
Auth. I think he is as much driven to the one as he is
hindered from the other.
Soc. And what sort of lords and masters are those, think
you, who at once put a stop to what is best and enforce what
is worst P
Auth. Goodness knows, they must be the very worst of
maSterS.
Soc. And what sort of slavery do you take to be the
worst P
I should say (he answered) slavery to the worst masters,
It would seem then (pursued Socrates) that the incontinent
man is bound over to the worst sort of slavery, would it not P
So it appears to me (the other answered).
Soc. And does it not appear to you that this same bel.
dame incontinence shuts out wisdom, which is the best of all
things,” from mankind, and plunges them into the opposite P
Does it not appear to you that she hinders men from attending
to things which will be of use and benefit, and from learning
to understand them ; that she does so by dragging them away
to things which are pleasant ; and often though they are well
aware of the good and of the evil, she amazes and confounds 3
1 Or, “incontinency is illiberal.”
* “Wisdom, the greatest good which men can possess.”
* Schneid, cf. Plat. Protag. 355 A.; and below, Symp. iv. 23, p. 316.
I64 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. V. § 6-9
their wits and makes them choose the worse in place of the
better?
Yes, so it comes to pass (he answered).
Soc. And 4 soundness of soul, the spirit of temperate
modesty P Who has less claim to this than the incontinent
man P. The works of the temperate spirit and the works of
incontinency are, I take it, diametrically opposed ?
That, too, I admit (he answered).
Soc. If this then be so concerning these virtues,” what
with regard to carefulness and devotion to all that ought to
Occupy us? Can anything more seriously militate against
these than this same incontinence?
Nothing that I can think of (he replied).
Soc. And can worse befall a man, think you? Can he be
subjected to a more baleful influence than that which induces
him to choose what is hurtful in place of what is helpful;
which cajoles him to devote himself to the evil and to neglect
the good ; which forces him, will he nill he, to do what every
man in his sober senses would shrink from and avoid P
I can imagine nothing worse (he replied).
Soc. Self-control, it is reasonable to suppose, will be the
cause of opposite effects upon mankind to those of its own
opposite, the want of self-control P
Jºuth. It is to be supposed so.
Soc. And this, which is the source of opposite effects to the
very worst, will be the very best of things?
JEuſh. That is the natural inference.
Soc. It looks, does it not, Euthydemus, as if self-control
were the best thing a man could have P
It does indeed, Socrates (he answered).
Soc. But now, Euthydemus, has it ever occurred to you to
note One fact P
What fact? (he asked).
Soc. That, after all, incontinency is powerless to bring us
to that realm of sweetness which some look upon * as her
* “And if this be so concerning wisdom, gopia, what of a wºpogºum, sound-
ness of soul—sobriety P”
* Or add, “If this be so concerning not wisdom only, but concerning
temperance and soundness of soul, what,” etc.
* Or, “which we are apt to think of as.”
CH. V. § 9-11 CAPACITY BASED ON SELF-CONTROL I65
peculiar province ; it is not incontinency but self-control alone
which has the passport to highest pleasures.
In what way P (he asked). How so?
Why, this way (Socrates answered): since incontinency
will not suffer us to resist hunger and thirst, or to hold out
against sexual appetite, or want of sleep (which abstinences
are the only channels to true pleasure in eating and drinking,
to the joys of love, to sweet repose and blissful slumber won
by those who will patiently abide and endure till each par-
ticular happiness is at the flood) – it comes to this : by
incontinency we are cut off from the full fruition of the more
obvious and constantly recurring pleasures.” To self-control,
which alone enables us to endure the pains aforesaid, alone
belongs the power to give us any pleasure worth remembering
in these common cases.
You speak the words of truth? (he answered).
Soc. Furthermore," if there be any joy in learning aught
“beautiful and good,” or in patient application to such rules
as may enable a man to manage his body aright, or to ad-
minister his household well, or to prove himself useful to his
friends and to the state, or to dominate his enemies—which
things are the sources not only of advantage but of deepest
satisfaction º-to the continent and self-controlled it is given
to reap the fruits of them in their performance. It is the
incontinent who have neither part nor lot in any one of them.
Since we must be right in asserting that he is least concerned
with such things who has least ability to do them, being tied
down to take an interest in the pleasure which is nearest to
hand.
Euthydemus replied : Socrates, you would say, it seems to
me, that a man who is mastered by the pleasures of the body
has no concern at all with virtue.
1 Or, “at its season.” Lit. “is as sweet as possible."
* Or, “from tasting to any extent worth speaking of the most necessary
and all-pervading Sources of happiness."
3 Lit. “What you say is absolutely and entirely true” (the vraie vérité of
the matter).
4 Or, “But indeed, if there be joy in the pursuit of any noble study or of
such accomplishments as shall enable,” etc.
* Or, ‘‘ of the highest pleasures."
I66 MEMORABILIA—BIQ. IV. {º} tº
And what is the distinction, Euthydemus (he asked),
between a man devoid of self-control and the dullest of brute
beasts P A man who foregoes all height of aim, who gives up
searching for the best and strives only to gratify his sense of
pleasure," is he better than the silliest of cattle P’ . . . But
to the self-controlled alone is it given to discover the hid
treasures. These, by word and by deed, they will pick out
and make selection of them according to their kinds, choosing
deliberately the good and holding aloof from the evil.” Thus
(he added) it is that a man reaches the zenith, as it were,
of goodness and happiness, thus it is that he becomes most
capable of reasoning and discussion.* The very name dis-
cussion (600Xéyé0-604) is got from people coming together and
deliberating in common by picking out and selecting things
(6taxéyew) according to their kinds.” A man then is bound to
prepare himself as much as possible for this business, and to
pursue it beyond all else with earnest resolution ; for this is
the right road to excellence, this will make a man fittest to
lead his fellows and be a master in debate."
VI.-At this point I will endeavour to explain in what way
Socrates fostered this greater “dialectic” capacity among his
intimates." He held firmly to the opinion that if a man knew
what each reality was, he would be able to explain this know-
ledge to others; but, failing the possession of that knowledge,
it did not at all surprise him that men should stumble them-
selves and cause others to stumble also.” It was for this
* Or, “and seeks by hook and by crook to do what is pleasantest.”
* i.e. he becomes an animal “feeding a blind life within the brain.”
* Or, “selecting the ore and repudiating the dross.” Kühner cf. Plat.
Laws, v. 735 B.
* Or, “draws nearer to happiness and perfection, and is most capable of
truth-disclosing conversation.” Cf. Plat. Apol. 41 : “What would not a
man give, O judges, to be able to examine the leaders of the great Trojan
expedition, or Odysseus, or Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women
too ! What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and
asking them questions !” (Jowett).
* For Öua)\éyely karū yéum = 6ta)\éyé00at, cf. Grote, H. G. viii. 590.
* Cf. Plat. Aceſ. 534 D; Phaedr. 252 E; Crat. 390 C; Statesm. 286 D foll.
7 Lit. “essayed to make those who were with him more potent in dialectic.”
* Or, “Socrates believed that any one who knew the nature of anything
would be able to let others into. his secret ; but, failing that knowledge, he
CH. VI. § 1-3 SPECIMIENS OF DAZAFC 77C I67
reason that he never ceased inquiring with those who were
with him into the true nature of things that are." It would
be a long business certainly to go through in detail all
the definitions at which he arrived ; I will therefore content
myself with such examples as will serve to show his method of
procedure. As a first instance I will take the question of
piety. The mode of investigation may be fairly represented
as follows.
Tell me (said he), Euthydemus, what sort of thing you
take piety to be P
Something most fair and excellent, no doubt (the other
answered).” -
Soc. And can you tell me what sort of person the pious
man is P*
I should say (he answered) he is a man-who honours the
gods. -
Soc. And is it allowable to honour the gods in any mode
or fashion one likes P
Auth. No ; there are laws in accordance with which one
must do that.
Soc. Then he who knows these laws will know how he
must honour the gods?
I think so (he answered).
Soc. And he who knows how he must honour the gods
conceives that he ought not to do so except in the manner
which accords with his knowledge P* Is it not so P
Acuff. That is so.”
Soc. And does any man honour the gods otherwise than
he thinks he ought P*
thought the best of men would be but blind leaders of the blind, stumbling
themselves and causing others to stumble also.”
1 Or add, “‘What is this among things? and what is its definition ?'—
such was the ever-recurrent question for which he sought an answer.”
* Or, “A supreme excellence, no doubt.”
* Or, “can you give me a definition of the pious man P"; “tell me who
and what the pious man is.”
* i.e. “his practice must square with his knowledge and be the outward
expression of his belief?”
* “That is so ; you rightly describe his frame of mind and persuasion.”
* “As he should and must.” For this Socratic proposition cf. §§ 5, 6,
below, p. 169. See K. Joel, op. cit, p. 322 foll, -
I68 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. VI. § 3-5
I think not (he answered).
Soc. It comes to this, then : he who knows what the law
requires in reference to the gods will honour the gods in the
lawful way Pl
Auth. Certainly.
Soc. But now, he who honours lawfully honours as he
ought?”
Auth. I see no alternative.
Soc. And he who honours as he ought is a pious man P
Euth. Certainly.
Soc. It would appear that he who knows what the law
requires with respect to the gods will correctly be defined as
a pious man, and that is our definition ?
So it appears to me, at any rate (he replied).”
Soc. But now, with regard to human beings: is it allow-
able to deal with men in any way one pleases P*
Auth. No ; with regard to men also, he will be a law-
observing man * who knows what things are lawful as concern-
ing men, in accordance with which our dealings with one
another must be conducted."
Soc. Then those who deal with one another in this way,
deal with each other as they ought?"
Obviously (he answered).
Soc. And they who deal with one another as they ought,
deal well and nobly—is it not so?
1 Or, “he who knows what is lawful with regard to Heaven pays honour
to Heaven lawfully.” * “As he should and must.”
* “I accept it at any rate as mine.” W. B. —In reference to this definition
of Piety, the question is never raised trotév to éatl vögos ; nor yet trotot Tuves
elorlu ol 6eot, but clearly there is a growth in Tó, vöpupa. Cf. the conversation
recorded in St. John iv. 7 foll., and the words (verse 23) rveſ ua 6 €eós kal
Toys trpookvuoſivtas airów év Tveiºpatu Kai d\mteig óeſ Tpogkvueſu, which the
philosopher Socrates would perhaps readily have assented to.
* Or, “may a man deal with his fellow-men arbitrarily according to his
fancy?” See above, II. vii. 8.
* Or, “he is a man full of the law (lawful) and law-abiding who knows,”
GºtC,
* Reading, ka0' & 66. Tpés à)\\?\ovs Xp?gbat, subaud. &\\?\ots, or if vulg.
kaff’ & 6eſ traps d\\?\ous Xp?00au, translate “must be specifically conducted."
Tús = certo quodam modo. See Kühner ad loc.
7 “As they should and must.”
CH. VI. § 5, 6 DEFINITIONS OF PIEZY, JUSTICE I69
Certainly (he answered).
Soc. And they who deal well and nobly by mankind are
well-doers in respect of human affairs P
That would seem to follow (he replied).
Soc. I presume that those who obey the laws do what is
just and right?
Without a doubt (he answered).
Soc. And by things right and just you know what sort of
things are meant P
What the laws ordain (he answered).
Soc. It would seem to follow that they who do what the laws
Ordain both do what is right and just and what they ought?"
Auth. I see no alternative.
Soc. But then, he who does what is just and right is up-
right and just P*
I should say so myself (he answered).
Soc. And should you say that any one obeys the laws
without knowing what the laws ordain P
I should not (he answered).
Soc. And do you suppose that any one who knows what
things he ought to do supposes that he ought not to do
them P 3
No, I suppose not (he answered).
Soc. And do you know of anybody doing other than what
he feels bound to do P4 -
* “What they should and must.” -
* This proposition, as Kühner argues (ad loc.), is important as being the
middle term of the double syllogism (A and B)—
A. Those who do what the law demands concerning men do what is
just and right.
Those who do what is just and right are righteous and just.
Bºgo—Those who do what the law demands concerning men are
righteous and just.
B. Those who know what is just and right ought (and are bound, cf.
above, III. ix. 4, p. Io9) to do also what is just and right.
Those who do what is just and right are righteous and just.
Bygo—Righteous and jusá (6tkatov) may be defined as “Those who
know what the law demands (a/ifer things right and just) con-
cerning men.”
* Or, “and no one who knows what he must and should do inmagines
that he must and should not do it?” *
* Or, “and nobody that you know of does the contrary of what he thinks
he should do P’’
17o MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. vi. § 6, 7
No, I do not (he answered).
Soc. It would seem that he who knows what things are
lawful” as concerning men does the things that are just and
right P
Without a doubt (he answered).
Soc. But then, he who does what is just and right is up-
right and just P* -
Who else, if not he P (he replied). -
Soc. It would seem, then, we shall have got to a right
definition if we name as just and upright those who know the
things which are lawful" as concerning men P
That is my opinion (he answered).
Soc. And what shall we say that wisdom is P Tell me,
does it seem to you that the wise are wise in what they know,”
or are there any who are wise in what they know not?
Auth. Clearly they are wise in what they know ; * for how
could a man have wisdom in that which he does not know P
Soc. In fact, then, the wise are wise in knowledge P
Futh. Why, in what else should a man be wise Save only
in knowledge P
Soc. And is wisdom anything else than that by which a
man is wise, think you ?
Auth. No ; that, and that only, I think.
Soc. It would seem to follow that knowledge and wisdom
are the same P -
Jºuth. So it appears to me.
..Soc. May I ask, does it seem to you possible for a man
to know all the things that are P f
Auth. No, indeed not the hundredth part of them, I
should say.
Soc. Then it would seem that it is impossible for a man
to be all-wise P
Quite impossible (he answered).
1 Or, ‘‘ of lawful obligation.”
* N. B. —In reference to this definition of justice, see K. Joel, op. cit, p.
323 foll., “Das ist eine Karrikatur des Sokratischen Dialogs.”
* Or, “in that of which they have the knowledge (étrio Tijun).”
* Or, “their wisdom is confined to that of which they have the étruo Thum.
How could a man be wise in what he lacks the knowledge of 2 " .
CH. vi. § 7-9 WISDOM, ZHAE GOOD, THE BAEA UTZA'UZ 171
Soc. It would seem the wisdom of each is limited to his
knowledge; each is wise only in what he knows?
Auth. That is my opinion."
Soc. Well ! come now, Euthydemus, as concerning the
good. Ought we to search for the good in this way P
What way P (he asked).
Soc. Does it seem to you that the same thing is equally
advantageous” to all P
No, I should say not (he answered). -
Soc. You would say that a thing which is beneficial to
One is sometimes hurtful to another P
Decidedly (he replied).
Soc. And is there anything else good except that which is
beneficial, should you say P*
Nothing else (he answered).
Soc. It would seem to follow that the beneficial is good
relatively to him to whom it is beneficial P
That is how it appears to me (he answered).
Soc. And the beautiful. can we speak of a thing as beautiful
in any other way than relatively? or can you name any beautiful
thing, body, vessel, or whatever it be, which you know of as
universally beautiful? 4
Æuth. I confess I do not know of any such myself.”
Soc. I presume to turn a thing to its proper use is to apply
it beautifully P
1. Cf. Plat. Theaet. I45 D. Av. B. —For this definition of wisdom see K.
Joel, ib. p. 324 foll. e. * “Beneficial, helpful, useful."
* Or reading (I) &\\o 3’ &v Tu palms 3) dyadèv cival rô dºpéApov , or else
(2) &\\o 6’ &v Tu qaims &ya.0öv eival Tô dºugou ; (in which case (i)\\o Tu =&\\o
Tu j;) translate (1) “and what is beneficial is good (or a good), should you
not say?” lit. “could you say that the beneficial is anything else than good
(or a good)?” or else (2) “and what is beneficial is good (or a good)? Or is
it anything else P."
* i.e. “‘beautiful in all relations into which it enters.” Reading Tô 6é Ka}\öv
éxoupev du Tws àNAws eitely 3) &otiv čvouášev KaNov 7) adºpa ) aſketjos ) d\\'
Ötuoſiv, 6 ola 6a Tpos Távra ka)\ov čv ; Mā At’, oùk éºyayy', Šºm. For other
emendations of the vulg., and the many interpretations which have been given
to the passage, see R. Kühner ad loc.
* Or, adopting the reading #xots &v in place of éxoupéu äu above, trans-
late “I certainly cannot, I confess.”
172 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. VI. § 9-11
Auth. Undoubtedly it is a beautiful appliance.”
Soc. And is this, that, and the other thing beautiful for
aught else except that to which it may be beautifully applied ?
Fuſh. No single thing else.
Soc. It would seem that the useful is beautiful relatively to
that for which it is of use P
So it appears to me (he answered).
Soc. And what of courage,” Euthydemus P I presume you
rank courage among things beautiful? It is a noble quality P*
Nay, one of the most noble (he answered). -
Soc. It seems that you regard courage as useful to no mean
end ?
Auth. Nay, rather the greatest of all ends, God knows.
Soc. Possibly in face of terrors and dangers you would
consider it an advantage to be ignorant of them P
Certainly not (he answered).
Soc. It seems that those who have no fear in face of
dangers, simply because they do not know what they are, are
not courageous P
Most true (he answered); or, by the same showing, a large
proportion of madmen and cowards would be courageous.
Soc. Well, and what of those who are in dread of things
which are not dreadful, are they
Auth. Courageous, Socrates ?—still less so than the former,
goodness knows.
Soc. Possibly, then, you would deem those who are good
in the face of terrors and dangers to be courageous, and
those who are bad in the face of the same to be cowards P
Certainly I should (he answered).
Soc. And Can you suppose any other people to be good in
1 Or, “I presume it is well and good and beautiful to use this, that, and
the other thing for the purpose for which the particular thing is useful ?”—
“That nobody can deny (he answered).” It is impossible to convey simply
the verbal play and the quasi-argumentative force of the Greek ka)\ós éxel
Tpós Tu Tuvu Xp?00aw. See K. Joel, p. 426.
* Or, perhaps better, “fortitude.” See H. Sidgwick, Aisé of Æthics,
P. 43.
* It is one of Tā Ka)\d. See K. Joel, ib. p. 325, and in reference to the
definitions of the Good and of the Beautiful, 20. p. 425 foll.
cH. vi. § 11, 12 COURAGE, KINGSA/IP, 7"YRANNY, POL77'y 173
respect of such things except those who are able to cope with
them and turn them to noble account P 1
No ; these, and these alone (he answered).
Soc. And those people who are of a kind to cope but
badly with the same occurrences, it would seem, are bad P
Who else, if not they P (he asked).
Soc. May it be that both one and the other class do use
these circumstances as they think they must and should P”
Why, how else should they deal with them P (he asked).
Soc. Can it be said that those who are unable to cope well
with them or to turn them to noble account know how they
must and should deal with them Pº
I presume not (he answered).
Soc. It would seem to follow that those who have the
knowledge how to behave are also those who have the
power P 4
Yes; these, and these alone (he said).
Soc. Well, but now, what of those who have made no
egregious blunder (in the matter); can it be they cope ill with
the things and circumstances we are discussing P
I think not (he answered).
Soc. It would seem, conversely, that they who cope ill have
made some egregious blunder P
Futh. Probably ; indeed, it would appear to follow.
Soc. It would seem, then, that those who know * how to
cope with terrors and dangers well and nobly are courageous,
and those who fail utterly of this are cowards P
So I judge them to be (he answered)."
A kingdom and a tyranny" were, he opined, both of themſ)
forms of government, but forms which differed from one
another, in his belief; a kingdom was a government over
willing men in accordance with civil law, whereas a tyranny
* ka)\ós Xpfia.0at, lit. “make a beautiful use of them."
* Or, “feel bound and constrained to do."
* Or, “Can it be said that those who are unable to cope nobly with their
perilous surroundings know how they ought to deal with them 7"
4 ‘‘ He who kens can.” * “Who have the étriotăun.”
* W. B. —For this definition of courage see Plat. Laches, 195 A and passim ;
K. Joel, op. cit, p. 325 foll. 7 Or, “despotism.”
I 74 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. VI. § 12-14
implied the government over unwilling subjects not according
to law, but so as to suit the whims and wishes of the ruler.
There were, moreover, three forms of citizenship or poſity :
in the case where the magistrates were appointed from those
who discharged the obligations prescribed by law, he held the
polity to be an aristocracy (or rule of the best); 4 where the
title to office depended on rateable property, it was a plutocracy
(or rule of wealth); and lastly, where all the citizens without
distinction held the reins of office, that was a democracy (or
rule of the people).
Let me explain his method of reply where the disputant
had no clear statement to make, but without attempt at proof
chose to contend that such or such a person named by him-
Self was wiser, or more of a statesman, or more courageous,
and so forth, than some other person.” Socrates had a way
of bringing the whole discussion back to the underlying pro-
position,” as thus:
Soc. You state that so and so, whom you admire, is a
better citizen than this other whom I admire P -
The Disputant. Yes; I repeat the assertion.
Soc. But would it not have been better to inquire first
what is the work or function of a good citizen P
The Disputant. Let us do so.
Soc. To begin, then, with the matter of expenditure: his
superiority will be shown by his increasing the resources and
lightening the expenditure of the state P4
Certainly (the disputant would answer). -
Soc. And in the event of war, by rendering his state
superior to her antagonists P
The Disputant. Clearly. e
* Or, “in which the due discharge of lawful (law-appointed) obligations
gave the title to magisterial office and government, this form of polity he held
to be an aristocracy (or rule of the best)." See Newman, op. cit. i. 212, 235.
* Or, “if any one encountered him in argument about any topic or person
without any clear statement, but a mere ipse dixit, devoid of demonstration,
that so and so,” etc.
* Or, “question at bottom.” Cf. Plat. Laws, 949 B.
* Or, “In the management of moneys, then, his strength will consist in
his rendering the state better provided with ways and means?”
ſº
:::::::::: *} METHOD OF CONDUCTING DISCUSSION 17;
Soc. Or on an embassy as a diplomatist, I presume, by
Securing friends in place of enemies?
That I should imagine (replies the disputant).
Soc. Well, and in parliamentary debate, by putting a stop
to party strife and fostering civic concord P
The ZXisputant. That is my opinion.
By this method of bringing back the argument to its true
starting-point, even the disputant himself would be affected
and the truth become manifest to his mind.
His own—that is, the Socratic—method of conducting a
rational discussion * was to proceed step by step from one
point of general agreement to another: “Herein lay the real
security of reasoning,” ” he would say ; and for this reason he
was more successful in winning the common assent of his
hearers than any one I ever knew. He had a saying that
Homer had conferred on Odysseus the title of a safe, unerring
orator,” because he had the gift to lead the discussion from
One Commonly accepted opinion to another.
VII.-The frankness and simplicity with which Socrates
endeavoured to declare his own opinions, in dealing with those
who conversed with him,” is, I think, conclusively proved by
the above instances; at the same time, as I hope now to show,
he was no less eager to cultivate a spirit of independence in
others, which would enable them to stand alone in all trans-
actions suited to their powers.
Of all the men I have ever known, he was most anxious
to ascertain in what any of those about him was really versed ;
and within the range of his own knowledge he showed the
greatest zeal in teaching everything which it befits the
true gentleman * to know ; or where he was deficient in know-
* Or, “of threading the mazes of an argument.”
* Reading Taºrmy do páXetav ; aliter, Taºrmv Tiju áo páAelav = “that this
security was part and parcel of reasoning.”
* Od, viii. 171, Ó 6' doga)\éa's dyopetſet, “and his speech runs surely on
its way” (Butcher and Lang), where Odysseus is describing himself. Cf.
Dion. Hal. de Arte Rhet. xi. 8,
* Or, “who frequented his society, is, I hope, clear from what has been
said.”
* Lit. “a beautiful and good man.”
176 MEMORABILIA—BIQ. IV. CH. VII. § I-4
ledge himself," he would introduce his friends to those who
knew.” He did not fail to teach them also up to what point
it was proper for an educated man to acquire empiric know-
ledge of any particular matter.”
To take geometry as an instance: Every one (he would
say) ought to be taught geometry so far, at any rate, as to be
able, if necessary, to take over or part with a piece of land, or
to divide it up or assign a portion for cultivation,4 and in
every case by geometric rule.” That amount of geometry
was so simple indeed, and easy to learn, that it only needed
Ordinary application of the mind to the method of mensuration,
and the student could at once ascertain the size of the piece
of land, and, with the satisfaction of knowing its measurement,
depart in peace. But he was unable to approve of the pursuit
of geometry up to the point at which it became a study of un-
intelligible diagrams.” What the use of these might be, he
failed, he said, to see ; and yet he was not unversed in these
recondite matters himself." These things, he would say, were
enough to wear out a man's life, and to hinder him from many
other more useful studies.”
Again, a certain practical knowledge of astronomy, a
certain skill in the study of the stars, he strongly insisted on.
Every one should know enough of the science to be able to
discover the hour of the night or the season of the month or
year, for the purposes of travel by land or sea—the march,
the voyage, and the regulations of the watch ; * and in general,
* Or, “where he lacked acquaintance with the matter himself." See, for
an instance, below, Ecozz. iii. I4, p. 212.
* “To those who had the special knowledge”; “a connoisseurin the matter.”
* Or, “of any particular branch of learning ”; “in each department of
things.”
* } {pyov &Troöelšaoréat, or, “and to explain the process.” Cf. Plat. Aceſ.
vii. 528 D. See R. Kühner ad loc. for other interpretations of the phrase.
Cf. Max. Tyr. xxxvii. 7.
* Or, “by correct measurement”; lit. “by measurement of the earth.”
* Cf. Aristot. Pol. v. (viii.) 2 ; Cic. Acad. Post. I. iv. 15. For the attitude
compare the attitude of a philosopher in other respects most unlike Socrates—
Auguste Comte, e.g. as to the futility of sidereal astronomy, Pos. Pol. i. 412
(Bridges).
7 Cf. Isocr. On the Antidosis, 258-269, as to the true place of “Eristic'
in education. See above, IV. ii. Io, p. 136.
* Cf. A. Comte as to “perte intellectuelle” in the pursuit of barren studies.
9 Schneid. cf. Plat. Rep. vii. 527 D.
!
CH. VII. § 4-7 LIMITS TO THEORETIC STUDY 177
with regard to all matters connected with the night season, or
with the month, or the year,” it was well to have such reliable
data to go upon as would serve to distinguish the various
times and seasons. But these, again, were pieces of know-
ledge easily learnt from night sportsmen,” pilots of vessels,
and many others who make it their business to know such
things. As to pushing the study of astronomy so far as
to include a knowledge of the movements of bodies out-
side our own orbit, whether planets or stars of eccentric
movement,” or wearing oneself out endeavouring to dis-
cover their distances from the earth, their periods, and their
causes,” all this he strongly discountenanced ; for he saw (he
Said) no advantage in these any more than in the former
studies. And yet he was not unversed" in the subtleties of
astronomy any more than in those of geometry; only these,
again, he insisted, were sufficient to wear out a man's lifetime,
and to keep him away from many more useful pursuits.
And to speak generally, in regard of things celestial he set his
face against attempts to excogitate the machinery by which the
divine power performs its several operations.” Not only were
these matters beyond man's faculties to discover, as he
believed, but the attempt to search out what the gods had not
chosen to reveal could hardly (he supposed) be well pleasing
in their sight. Indeed, the man who tortured his brains about
such subjects stood a fair chance of losing his wits entirely,
just as Anaxagoras," the headiest speculator of them all, in
his attempt to explain the divine mechanism, had somewhat
lost his head. Anaxagoras took on himself to assert that
* “Occurrences connected with the night, the month, or year.” e.g. the
festival of the Karneia, the Tekujiptov (point de repere) of which is the full
moon of August. Cf. Eur, Alc. 449.
* See Plat. Soph, 220 D ; above, Mem. III. xi. 8 ; also Cyrop. I. vi. 4o ;
Auzzing, xii. 6; Hippocr. Aér. 28.
* See Lewis, Astron. of the Ancients, cf. Diog. Laert, vii. I. I.44.
* Or, ‘‘the causes of these.”
* obôé roºtww ye āvīkoos v. He had “heard," it is said, Archelaus,
a pupil of Anaxagoras. Cf. Cic. Tusc. V. iv. Io.
° Or, “he tried to divert one from becoming over-wise in heavenly matters
and the mécanique céleste of the Godhead in His several operations.” See
above, I. i. II, p. 4. See Grote, Plafo, i. 438.
7 Of Clazomenae. Cf. Plat. Apol. 14 ; Diog. Laert. II. vi. ; Cic. Tusc,
V. iv. Io; Cobet, Prosop. Xen. s. n. ; Grote, H. G. i. 501.
VOL. III— I N
178 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. VII. § 7-Io
Sun and fire are identical," ignoring the fact that human
beings can easily look at fire, but to gaze steadily into
the face of the Sun is given to no man ; or that under the
influence of his rays the colour of the skin changes, but under
the rays of fire not.” He forgot that no plant or vegetation
Springs from earth's bosom with healthy growth without the
help of Sunlight, whilst the influence of fire is to parch up
everything, and to destroy life; and when he came to speak
of the Sun as being a “red-hot stone” he ignored another fact,
that a stone in fire neither lights up nor lasts, whereas the
Sun-god abides for ever with intensest brilliancy undimmed.
Socrates inculcated the study of reasoning processes,” but
in these, equally with the rest, he bade the student beware of
vain and idle over-occupation. Up to the limit set by utility,
he was ready to join in any investigation, and to follow Out
an argument with those who were with him ; but there he
stopped. He particularly urged those who were with him to
pay the utmost attention to health. They would learn all it
was possible to learn from adepts, and not only so, but each
One individually should take pains to discover, by a lifelong
observation of his own case, what particular regimen, what
meat or drink, or what kind of work, best suited him ; these he
should turn to account with a view to leading the healthiest
possible life. It would be no easy matter for any one who
would follow this advice, and study his own idiosyncrasy, to
find a doctor to improve either on the diagnosis or the treat-
ment requisite.* - t
Where any one came seeking for help which no human
wisdom Could supply, he would counsel him to give heed to
“divination.” He who has the secret of the means whereby
the gods give signs to men touching their affairs can never
surely find himself bereft of heavenly guidance.”
* Or, “that the Sun was simply a fire, forgetting so simple a fact as that.”
* Or, “the complexion darkens, whereas fire has no such effect.”
* \oytoplots=(1) “arithmetic,” (2) “calculation,” (3) “syllogistic reason-
ing.” Cf. above, iii. II. See L. Dind. Index Gr. s. v., and Kühner ad loc. ,
cf. Plat. Gorg. 451 C. It is important to decide which form of “logism'' is
meant here.
* Or, “to find a doctor better able than himself to ‘diagnose' and prescribe
a treatment congenial to health.” Cf. Tac, Azun. vi. 46; Plut. de San. I36 E,
ap. Schneid. ad loc. * See above, I. i. 9, p. 3.
CH. VIII. $ 1-3 HIS ATTITUDE AT THE TRIAL I79
VIII.-Now if anyone should be disposed to set the statement
of Socrates touching the divinity + which warned him what he
Ought to do or not to do, against the fact that he was sentenced
to death by the board of judges, and argue that thereby
Socrates stood convicted of lying and delusion in respect of
this “divinity” of his, I would have him to note in the first
place that, at the date of his trial, Socrates was already so far
advanced in years that had he not died then his life would
have reached its natural term soon afterwards; and secondly,
as matters went, he escaped life's bitterest load” in escaping
those years which bring a diminution of intellectual force to
all,—instead of which he was called upon to exhibit the full
robustness of his soul and acquire glory in addition,” partly by
the style of his defence—felicitous alike in its truthfulness,
its freedom, and its rectitude *—and partly by the manner in
which he bore the sentence of condemnation with infinite
gentleness and manliness. Since no one within the memory
of man, it is admitted, ever bowed his head to death more
nobly. After the sentence he must needs live for thirty
days, since it was the month of the “Delia,” ” and the law
does not suffer any man to die by the hand of the public
executioner until the sacred embassy return from Delos.
During the whole of that period (as his acquaintances without
exception can testify) his life proceeded as usual. There was
nothing to mark a difference between now and formerly in the
even tenour of its courage; and it was a life which at all times
had been a marvel of cheerfulness and calm content."
[Let us pause and ask how could man die more nobly and
more beautifully than in the way described P or put it thus:
dying so, then was his death most noble and most beautiful;
and being the most beautiful, then was it also the most fortu-
* Or, ‘‘the words of Socrates with regard to a divine something which
warned him,” etc. * The phraseology is poetical.
* Or, “in a manner which redounded to his glory.”
* Or, “marvellous alike for the sincerity of its language, the free unbroken
spirit of its delivery, and the absolute rectitude of the speaker.”
* i.e. the lesser “Delian'' solemnities, an annual festival instituted, it was
said, by Theseus. See Plut. Theseus, 23 (Clough, i. 19); and for the whole
matter see Plat. Phaed. 58 foll.
* Cf. Arist. Frogs, 82; of Sophocles, Ó 6'eijkoxos pév évôāó', eúko)\os 6’
éket.
18O MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. viii. § 3-7
nate and heaven-blest ; and being most blessed of heaven,
then was it also most precious in the sight of God.]"
And now I will mention further certain things which I have
heard from Hermogenes, the son of Hipponicus,” concerning
him. He said that even after Melétus” had drawn up the
indictment, he himself used to hear Socrates conversing and
discussing everything rather than the suit impending, and had
ventured to suggest that he ought to be considering the line
of his defence, to which, in the first instance, the master
answered : “Do I not seem to you to have been practising that
my whole life long?” And upon his asking “How P” added
in explanation that he had passed his days in nothing else save
in distinguishing between what is just and what is unjust (right
and wrong), and in doing what is right and abstaining from
what is wrong; “which conduct” (he added) “I hold to be
the finest possible practice for my defence”; and when he
(Hermogenes), returning to the point again, pleaded with
Socrates: “Do you not see, Socrates, how commonly it
happens that an Athenian jury, under the influence of argu-
ment, Condemns innocent people to death, and acquits real
criminals P”—Socrates replied, “I assure you, Hermogenes,
that each time I have essayed to give my thoughts to the
defence which I am to make before the court, the divinity 4
has opposed me.” And when he (Hermogenes) exclaimed,
“How strange ”—“Do you find it strange” (he continued),
“that to the Godhead it should appear better for me to close
my life at once P Do you not know that up to the present
moment there is no man whom I can admit to have spent a
better or happier life than mine. Since theirs I regard as the
best of lives who study best to become as good as may be, and
theirs the happiest who have the liveliest sense of growth in
goodness; and such, hitherto, is the happy fortune which I
perceive to have fallen to my lot. To such conclusion
I have come, not only in accidental intercourse with others,
* This $ 3 is bracketed as Spurious by Sauppe and other commentators.
But see Cyrop. VIII. ii. 7, 8, for similar ineptitude of style. R. Kühner
defends the passage as genuine.
* See above, II, x, 3, p. 78; below, Symp. i. 3; iii. 14 ; iv. 47 foll. ;
vi. 2 ; Apol. 2 ; Plat. Craſſ. 384.
* See above, I. i. I, p. I. * Tô 6alpóviov—“the divine (voice).”
cH. VIII. § 7-11 WITNESS OF HERMOGENES-SUMMARY I8I
but by a strict comparison drawn between myself and others,
and in this faith I continue to this day; and not I only, but
my friends continue in a like persuasion with regard to me,
not for the lame reason that they are my friends and love me
(or else would others have been in like case as regards their
friends), but because they are persuaded that by being with me
they will attain to their full height of goodness. But, if I am
destined to prolong my days, maybe I shall be enforced to
pay in full the penalties of old age—to see and hear less keenly,
to fail in intellectual force, and to leave school, as it were,
more of a dunce than when I came, less learned and more
forgetful,-in a word, I shall fall from my high estate, and daily
grow worse in that wherein aforetime I excelled. But indeed,
were it possible to remain unconscious of the change, the life
left would scarcely be worth living; but given that there is a
consciousness of the change, then must the existence left to live
be found by comparison insipid, joyless, a death in life, devoid
of life's charm. But indeed, if it is reserved for me to die un-
justly, then on those who unjustly slay me lies the shame [since,
given injustice is base, how can any unjust action whatsoever
fail of baseness?]" But for me what disgrace is it that others
should fail of a just decision and right acts concerning me?
. I see before me a long line of predecessors on this road,
and I mark the reputation also among posterity which they
have left.” I note how it varies according as they did or
suffered wrong, and for myself I know that I too, although I
die to-day, shall obtain from mankind a consideration far differ-
ent from that which will be accorded to those who put me to
death. I know that undying witness will be borne me to this
effect, that I never at any time did wrong to any man, or made
him a worse man, but ever tried to make those better who were
with me.”
Such are the words which he spoke in conversation with
Hermogenes and the rest. But amongst those who knew
Socrates and recognised what manner of man he was, all who
make virtue and perfection their pursuit still to this day cease
1 This passage also may, perhaps, be regarded as spurious. See § 3 above.
2 Or, “There floats before my eyes a vision of the many who have gone
this same gate. I note their legacies of fame among posterity."
I82 MEMORABILIA—BK. IV. CH. VIII. § II
not to lament his loss with bitterest regret, as for one who
helped them in the pursuit of virtue as none else could.”
To me, personally, he was what I have myself endeavoured
to describe: so pious and devoutly religious” that he would
take no step apart from the will of heaven; so just and up-
right that he never did even a trifling injury to any living soul;
so self-controlled, so temperate, that he never at any time
chose the sweeter in place of the better; so sensible, and wise,
and prudent that in distinguishing the better from the worse
he never erred ; nor had he need of any helper, but for the
knowledge of these matters, his judgment was at once infallible
and self-sufficing. Capable of reasonably setting forth and
defining moral questions,” he was also able to test others, and
where they erred, to cross-examine and convict them, and so to
impel and guide them in the path of virtue and noble man-
hood. With these characteristics, he seemed to be the very
impersonation of human perfection and happiness.”
Such is our estimate. If the verdict fail to satisfy, I would
ask those who disagree with it to place the character of any
other side by side with this delineation, and then pass sentence.
1 See Trans. vol. i., Sketch, p. lxxix.
? Or, ‘‘ of such piety and religious devotedness . . . of such rectitude
. of such sobriety and self-control . . . of such sound sense and
wisdom . . .” -
3 Or, “gifted with an ability logically to set forth and to define moral
subtleties.”
4 Or, “I look upon him as at once the best and happiest of men.”
THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES
THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES
§ 1, 2
AMONG the reminiscences of Socrates, none, as it seems to me,
is more deserving of record than the counsel he took with
himself” (after being cited to appear before the court), not only
with regard to his defence, but also as to the ending of his life.
Others have written on this theme, and all without exception
have touched upon * the lofty style of the philosopher,” which
may be taken as a proof that the language used by Socrates was
really of that type. But none of these writers has brought
out clearly the fact that Socrates had come to regard death as
for himself preferable to life; and consequently there is just a
suspicion of foolhardiness in the arrogancy of his address.”
We have, however, from the lips of one of his intimate com-
panions, Hermogenes," the son of Hipponicus, an account of
him which shows the high demeanour in question to have
been altogether in keeping with the master's rational purpose."
Hermogenes says that, seeing Socrates discoursing on every
1 Or, “Socrates' Defence before the Dicasts." For the title of the work
see Grote, H. G. viii. 641 ; Schneid, ap. L. Dindorf's note trpès toys 5ukaarás,
ed. Ox. 1862, and Dindorf's own note; L. Schmitz, “On the Apology of
Socrates, commonly attributed to Xenophon,” Class. Mus. v. 222 foll, ; G.
Sauppe, Praef, vol. iii. p. 117, ed. Ster. ; J. J. Hartman, An. Xen. p. 111
foll.; E. Richter, Xen. Stud, pp. 61-96; M. Schanz, Platos Apologia.
? Or possibly “his deliberate behaviour.”
* Or, “have succeeded in hitting off"; “done full justice to.”
* Or, “the magniloquence of the master.”
* Or, “so that according to them his lofty speech seems rather foolhardy."
* See above, p. 180 (Mem. IV. viii. 4 foll.), a passage of which this is
either an ébauchemen/ or a réchauffé. See Introd. p. xxxix, foll.
7 Or, “the philosopher's cast of thought.”
I86 THE AIPOLOGY OF SOCRATES § 3-7
topic rather than that of his impending trial, he roundly put
it to him whether he ought not to be debating the line of his
defence, to which Socrates in the first instance answered :
“What! do I not seem to you to have spent my whole life in
meditating my defence?” And when Hermogenes asked him,
“How P” he added: “By a lifelong persistence in doing
nothing wrong, and that I take to be the finest practice for his
defence which a man could devise.” Presently reverting to the
topic, Hermogenes demanded : “Do you not see, Socrates,
how often Athenian juries 1 are constrained by arguments to
put quite innocent people to death, and not less often to
acquit the guilty, either through some touch of pity excited by /
the pleadings, or that the defendant had skill to turn some
charming phrase ?” Thus appealed to, Socrates replied
“Nay, solemnly I tell you, twice already I have essayed tó
consider my defence, and twice the divinity” hinders me”;
and to the remark of Hermogenes, “That is strange l’ he
answered again : “Strange, do you call it, that to God it
should seem better for me to die at once P Do you not
know that up to this moment I will not concede to any man to
have lived a better life than I have ; since what can exceed
the pleasure, which has been mine, of knowing * that my
whole life has been spent holily and justly P And indeed this
verdict of self-approval I found re - echoed in the opinion
which my friends and intimates have formed concerning me.*
And now if my age is still to be prolonged,” I know that I
cannot escape paying" the penalty of old age, in increas-
ing dimness of sight and dulness of hearing. I shall find
myself slower to learn new lessons, and apter to forget the
lessons I have learnt. And if to these be added the con-
sciousness of failing powers, the sting of self-reproach,
what prospect have I of any further joy in living P It may
be, you know,” he added, “that God out of his great
* Dikastëries. See Trans. vol. i. p. 30 ; vol. ii. p. 279.
* Tô 6alpövtov. See above, p. 179. * #öeuv, i.e. at any moment.
* For the phrase laxupés àyápºevos épautóv cf. Mem. II. i. 19 (above,
p. 44).
* L. Dindorf cf. Dio Chrys. Or. 28, &váykm Yap abró #v trpoſłalvovrt àvrl
pºev ka?\latov aloxporépºp yi-yveg 0at K.T. A.
" &tore)\eforóat. In Mem. IV. viii. 8, €triteXeſaròat,
§ 7-ro THE AAIMONION JUSTIFIED I87
kindness is intervening in my behalf” to suffer me to close
^ my life in the ripeness of age, and by the gentlest of deaths.
For if at this time sentence of death be passed upon me, it is
plain I shall be allowed to meet an end which, in the opinion
of those who have studied the matter, is not only the easiest
in itself, but one which will cause the least trouble to one's
friends,” while engendering the deepest longing for the departed.
For of necessity he will only be thought of with regret and
longing who leaves behind nothing unseemly or discomfortable
to haunt the imagination of those beside him, but, sound of
body, and his soul still capable of friendly response, fades
tranquilly away.”
“No doubt,” he added, “the gods were right in opposing
me at that time (touching the inquiry, what I was to say in
my defence),” when you all thought the great thing was to
discover some means of acquittal; * since, had I effected
that, it is clear I should have prepared for myself, not that
surcease from life which is in store for me anon, but to end my
days wasted by disease, or by old age, on which a confluent
stream of evil things most alien to joyousness converges.” "
“No,” he added, “God knows I shall display no ardent
zeal to bring that about." On the contrary, if by proclaiming
all the blessings which I owe to gods and men ; if, by blazon-
ing forth the opinion which I entertain with regard to myself,
I end by wearying the court, even so will I choose death
rather than supplicate in servile sort for leave to live a little
longer merely to gain a life impoverished in place of death.”
It was in this determination, Hermogenes states, that,
when the prosecution accused him of not recognising the
gods recognised by the state, but introducing novel divinities
and corrupting the young, Socrates stepped forward and said :
* Or, “God of his good favour vouchsafes as my protector that I should,”
etc. For Tpoševe? cf. Anab. VI. v. 14 ; Soph. O. C. 465, and O. T. I483;
and Prof. Jebb's notes ad loc, “the god's kindly offices grant to me that
I should lose my life.”
2 Cf. Plat. A/aed, 66.
* tº toſ, Xóyov ćttaſkéipei. Cf. Plat. Rep. 456 C.
4 Or, if huiv, transl., “we all were for thinking that the main thing was.”
° Or, “that sink into which a confluent stream of evil humours discharge
most incompatible with gaiety of mind.” Schneid, conj. Špmuov sc, yāpas.
9 Or, “I will give no helping hand to that.”
I88 THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES stoº
“In the first place, sirs, I am at a loss to imagine on what
ground 1 Melétus asserts that I do not recognise the gods which
are recognised by the state, since, as far as Sacrificing goes,
the rest of the world who have chanced to be present have
been in the habit of seeing me so engaged at common festivals,
and on the public altars; and so might Melétus himself, if he
had wished. And as to novel divinities, how, pray, am I
supposed to introduce them by stating that I have a voice”
from God which clearly signifies to me what I ought to do?
Why, what else do those who make use of the cries of birds
or utterances of men draw their conclusions from if not from
voices P Who will deny that the thunder has a voice and is
a very mighty omen; * and the priestess on her tripod at
Pytho,4 does not she also proclaim by voice the messages from
the god? The god, at any rate, has foreknowledge, and pre-
monishes whom he will of what is about to be. That is a
thing which all the world believes and asserts even as I do.
Only, while they describe these premonitions under the name
of birds and utterances, tokens P and soothsayers, I speak of a
divinity, and in using that designation I claim to speak at once
more exactly and more reverentially than they do who ascribe
the power of the gods to birds. And that I am not lying
against the Godhead I have this as a proof: although I have
reported to numbers of friends the counsels of heaven, I have
never at any time been shown to be a deceiver or deceived.”
As they listened to these words the judges murmured
their dissent, some as disbelieving what was said, and others
out of simple envy that Socrates should actually receive from
heaven more than they themselves; whereupon Socrates
returned to the charge. “Come,” he said, “lend me your
ears while I tell you something more, so that those of you
who choose may go a still greater length, in refusing to
believe that I am thus highly honoured by the divine
powers. Chaerephon" once, in the presence of many
* Cf. Mem. I. i. 2 (above, p. 1). * Cf. Plat. Apol. 19.
* Cf. Anab. III. ii. II (Trans. vol. i. p. 154); Aristoph. Birds, 720.
* Delphi.
* Or, “the objects that meet us.” See Prof. Jebb ad Theophr. Ch. xxviii. 5.
6
L. Dindorf cf. Athen. v. 218 E . Hermesianax ap. Athen. xiii. 599 A;
§ 14-17 THE ANSWER OF APOLLO JUSTIFIED I89
witnesses, put a question at Delphi Concerning me, and
Apollo answered that there was no human being more liberal,
or more upright, or more temperate than myself.” And when
once more on hearing these words the judges gave vent, as was
only natural, to a fiercer murmur of dissent, Socrates once
again spoke: “Yet, sirs, they were still greater words which
the god spake in Oracle concerning Lycurgus," the great lawgiver
of Lacedaemon, than those concerning me. It is said that as
he entered the temple the god addressed him with the words:
‘I am considering whether to call thee god or man.’ Me he
likened not indeed to a god, but in excellence” preferred me
far beyond other men. -
“Still I would not have you accept this even on the faith of
the god too rashly ; rather I would have you investigate, point
by point, what the god has said. I ask you, is there any one *
else, you know of, less enslaved than myself to the appetites *
of the body ? Can you name another man of more inde-
pendent spirit than myself, seeing that I accept from no one
either gifts or pay P Whom have you any right to believe to
be more just 9 than one so suited with what he has, that the
things of others excite no craving in him P' Whom would
one reasonably deem wise, rather than such a one as myself,
who, from the moment I began to understand things spoken,"
have never omitted to inquire into and learn every good thing
in my power P And that I laboured not in vain, what more
conclusive evidence than the fact that so many of my fellow-
Liban. vol. iii. pp. 34, 35 ; Plat. Apol. 2I A ; Paus. i. 22, 8; Schol. ad
Aristoph. Clouds, I44 ; Grote, H. G. viii. 567 foll.
1 See Herod. i. 65 :
#kets, & Avkóopye, égèv trott triova umów,
Zmvi pixos Kai Tâatu 'OXàutta 660 at #xovoſt.
Šušāº ?) ore fleou plaureto ouat 3) duffpaſtrov.
âNN &rt kal pâ)\\ov 6ečv č\trogat, & Avkóopye.
Cf. Plut. Lyc. 5 (Clough, i. 89).
* Or, “gave judgment beforehand that I far excelled.”
* Lit. “whom do you know,” and so throughout.
4 Cf. Plat, Ahaed, 66 C,
* Or, “so attempered and adjusted.” The phrase Savours of “cynic”
theory.
6 Or, “present no temptation to him”; lit. “that he stands in no further
need of what belongs to his neighbours.”
7 tº Xeyópeva, “the meaning of words and the force of argument.”
I90 THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES § 17-20
citizens who make virtue their pursuit, and many strangers
also, choose my society in preference to that of others ?"
And how are we to explain the fact that though all know well
enough that I am wholly unable to repay them in money, so
many are eager to present me with some gift P* And what
do you make of this—while no one dreams of dunning me
for benefits conferred, hosts of people acknowledge debts of
gratitude to myself? And what of this, that during the siege,”
while others were pitying themselves * I lived in no greater
straits than when the city was at the height of her prosperity ?
and of this, that while others provide themselves with
delicacies" of the market at great cost, mine are the dainties
of the soul more sweet than theirs," procured without expense P
If in all I have said about myself no one can convict me of
lying, is it not obvious that the praise I get from gods and
men is justly earned P And yet in spite of all, Melétus, you
will have it that by such habits I corrupt the young. We
know, I fancy, what such corrupting influences are ; and
perhaps you will tell us if you know of any one who, under
my influence, has been changed from a religious into an
irreligious man ; who, from being sober-minded, has become
violent ; from being a man of frugal habit has become a
prodigal; from being a moderate drinker has become a wine-
bibber and a drunkard ; from being a lover of healthy honest
toil has become effeminate, or under the thrall of some other
wicked pleasure.” º,
“Nay, bless my soul,” exclaimed Melétus, “I know those
* ék Trávrov. Cf. Thuc. i. 120, Öo Tep Kai év ć)\\ous ék Tövtov Tportpøvrat
(ot hyepôves), “as they (leaders) are first in honour, they should be first in
the fulfilment of their duties” (Jowett).
* The commentators quote Libanius, A/o/, vol. iii. p. 39, Kal 6té, Tooro
éká)\et uév EöpúAoxos Ó Xaptatios, ékáAet 66 2kótras 6 Kpavāvuos, oùx #kuota
ôé Ó Makeóðvøv ćpxwu 'Apxé\aos, Öeópºevot, Trépatroutes Toys dišovitas, étruo TéA-
\ovtes, Štruo Xvoúpºevou. Cf. Diog. Laert. ii. 31, Xappatóov oikéras a WTºp
ôtöövtos, ºv' &T' airów Tpogoóeſotto, oùx e!Nero. Cf. id. 65, 74.
* See Hell. II. ii. Io (Trans, vol. i. p. 46).
* oikteipelv čavroſs. See L. Dind, ad loc. For an incident in point see
above, Mem. II. vii.
* Plat. Rep. iii. 404 D, “refinements of Attic confectionery.”
° ék Tàs puxºis, possibly “by a healthy appetite.” Cf. Symp. iv. 41
(below, p. 321). The same sentiment ex ore Antisthenis. See Joel, op. cit.
i. 382 ; Schanz, Plat. Apol, p. 88, § 26.
§ 20-23 LOFTY STYLE OF HIS DEFENCE I9 I
whom you have persuaded to obey yourself rather than the
fathers who begat them.” "
“I admit it,” Socrates replied, “in the case of education,
for they know that I have made the matter a study ; and with
regard to health a man prefers to obey his doctor rather than
his parents; in the public assembly the citizens of Athens, I
presume, obey those whose arguments exhibit the soundest
wisdom rather than their own relations. And is it not the
Case that, in your choice of generals, you set your fathers and
brothers, and, bless me ! your own selves aside, by comparison
with those whom you believe to be the wisest authorities on
military matters ?”
“No doubt, Socrates,” replied Melétus, “because it is ex-
pedient and customary so to do.” -
“Well then,” rejoined Socrates, “does it not strike even
you, Melétus, as wonderful that in all ordinary concerns the
best people should obtain, I do not say only an equal share,
but an exclusive preference; but in my case, simply because
I am Selected by certain people as an adept in respect of the
greatest treasure men possess — education, I am on that
account to be prosecuted by you, sir, on the capital charge P.”
Much more than this, it stands to reason, was urged,
whether by himself or by the friends who advocated his
cause.” But my object has not been to mention everything
that arose out of the suit. It suffices me to have shown on
the one hand that Socrates, beyond everything, desired not to
display impiety to heaven,” and injustice to men; and on the
other, that escape from death was not a thing, in his opinion, to
be clamoured for importunately—on the contrary, he believed
that the time was already come for him to die. That such
was the conclusion to which he had come was made still more
evident later when the case had been decided against him.
In the first place, when called upon to suggest a Counter-
penalty,” he would neither do so himself nor suffer his friends to
* Cf. Mem. I. ii. 49.
* a vyayopetºeuv, L. and S. cf. Thuc. vi. 6, ‘‘partisans,” viii. 84, ‘‘pleaded
the case of " (Jowett).
3 Or, “laid the greatest stress on not being guilty of impiety "; “attached
the greatest importance to the fact that he was never guilty of impiety."
4 jiroTuáo 9at. See L. Dind. cf. Cic. Orat. i. 54 ; the technical word is
I92 THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES § 23-26
do so for him, but went so far as to say that to propose a counter-
penalty was like a confession of guilt. And afterwards, when
his companions wished to steal him out of prison," he would not
follow their lead, but would seem to have treated the idea as a
jest, by asking “whether they happened to know of some
place outside Attica where death was forbidden to set foot P”
When the trial drew to an end, we are told, the master
said:” “Sirs, those who instructed the witnesses that they
ought to perjure themselves and bear false witness against me,
alike with those who listened to their instruction, must be
conscious to themselves of a deep impiety and injustice.”
But for myself, what reason have I at the present time to
hold my head less high than I did before sentence was passed
against me, if I have not been convicted of having done any
of those things whereof my accusers accused me P. It has not
been proved against me that I have sacrificed to novel
divinities in place of Zeus and Héra and the gods who form
their company. I have not taken oath by any other gods,
nor named their name.
“And then the young—how could I corrupt them by
habituating them to manliness and frugality P since not even
my accusers themselves allege against me that I have com-
mitted any of those deeds 4 of which death is the penalty, such
as robbery of temples,” breaking into houses, selling freemen
into slavery, or betrayal of the state ; so that I must still ask
myself in wonderment how it has been proved to you that I
have done a deed worthy of death. Nor yet again because I
die innocently is that a reason why I should lower my crest, for
that is a blot not upon me but upon those who condemned me.
“For me, I find a certain consolation in the case of
Palamedes," whose end was not unlike my own ; who
durituáo 6ai. Cf. Plat. Apol. 36 D ; Diog. Laert. ii. 4I. These authorities
tell a different story. Why should these stories, if true, as no doubt they
were, be omitted P * Cf. Plat. Crić. 44 B.
* eltrely airów [airós (?)], i.e. “according to Hermogenes.”
* Or, “must have a heavy load on their minds in the consciousness of
their impiety and injustice.” * Cf. Mem. I. ii. 62 (above, p. 20).
* See Plat. Rep. iii. 413 A.
° Cf. Mem. IV. viii. 9, Io (above, p. 181); ib. IV. ii. 3. See Plat. Rep. v.
476 D, $opév Tu Trapapºv6eto 6at airóu ; and Hunting, i. II. The story of
Palamedes is told by Ovid, Met. xiii. 5.
§ 26-28 DEATH NOT A MISFORTUNE I93
still even to-day furnishes a far nobler theme of song than
Odysseus who unjustly slew him ; and I know that testimony
will be borne to me also by time future and time past that I
never wronged another at any time or ever made a worse
man of him," but ever tried to benefit those who practised
discussion with me, teaching them gratuitously every good
thing in my power.”
Having so said he turned and went in a manner quite in
conformity " with the words which he had spoken—so bright an
air was discernible alike in the glance of his eye, his gesture,
and his step.
And when he perceived those who followed by his side
in tears, “What is this P” he asked. “Why do you weep
now P* Do you not know that for many a long day, ever
since I was born, sentence of death was passed upon me by
nature ? If so be I perish prematurely while the tide of
life's blessings flows free and fast, certainly I and my well-
wishers should feel pained ; but if it be that I am bringing
my life to a close on the eve of troubles, for my part I think
you ought all of you to take heart of grace and rejoice in my
good fortune.”
Now there was present a certain Apollodorus,” who was an
enthusiastic lover of the master, but for the rest a simple-
minded man. He exclaimed very innocently, “But the
hardest thing of all to bear, Socrates, is to see you put to
death unjustly.” "
Whereupon Socrates, it is said, gently stroked the young
* Cf. Plat. Apol. 25 D, Tórepov ćué elodyels öeūpo 6s 6taq,0eipovira Toys
véovs Kai Tovmpotépovs Totojuta čkovta ?) &kovra,
* 6poxo-youpévos. For the use of the word L. Dind, cf. Diog, Laert. vii. 87,
ôtôtrep Tpótos é Závayu Čv Tó Tept åv6pdºrov q}\,geos TéAos élite Tö ÖpoMo'yov-
péva's tº pöget {iju (Cicero's naturae convenienter wivere, L. and S.),
whereas the regular Attic use is different. Cf. below, p. 201 (Oec. i. 11), kat
ôgo)\oyoupévos Yé Ö Nóyos hºw xapeſ = consenſanea ratione. “Our argument
runs on all-fours." Plat. Symp, 186 B, Tô vogoûv Ópoxo'youpévals &Tepöv Te Kal
&vópotów Śott, at £7tter omnes conven it.
3 “Why precisely now P "
* Cf. Mem. III. xi. 17 (above, p. 122); Plut. Cato min. 46 (Clough, iv.
417). See Cobet, Pros. Xen. s. n. ; cf. Plat. Symp. 173; Phaed. 54 A, 117
D; Aelian, V. H. i. 16; Heges. Delph. ap. Athen. xi. 507.
* Diog. Laert. ii. 5, 35, ascribes the remark to Xanthippe, and so Val.
Max. 7. 2, Ext. I. -
VOL. III— I O
I94 THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES § 28-31
man's head : “Would you have been better pleased, my dear
one, to see me put to death for some just reason rather than
unjustly P” and as he spoke he smiled tenderly."
It is also said that, seeing Anytus” pass by, Socrates
remarked: “How proudly the great man steps ; he thinks, no
doubt, he has performed some great and noble deed in
putting me to death, and all because, seeing him deemed
worthy of the highest honours by the state, I told him it ill
became him to bring up his son in a tan-yard.” What a scamp
the fellow is he appears not to know that of us two which-
ever has achieved what is best and noblest for all future time
is the real victor in this suit, Well well !” he added,
“Homer 4 has ascribed to some at the point of death a power
of forecasting things to be, and I too am minded to utter
a prophecy. Once, for a brief space, I associated with the
son of Anytus, and he seemed to me not lacking in strength
of soul; and what I say is, he will not adhere long to the
slavish employment which his father has prepared for him, but,
in the absence of any earnest friend and guardian, he is like
to be led into some base passion and go to great lengths in
depravity.”
The prophecy proved true. The young man fell a victim
to the pleasures of wine; night and day he never ceased drink-
ing, and at last became a mere good-for-nothing, worthless
alike to his city, his friends, and himself. As to Anytus, even
* See Plat. Phaed. 89 B, where a similar action is attributed to Socrates
in the case of Phaedo (his beloved disciple). “He stroked my head and
pressed the hair upon my neck—he had a way of playing with my hair; and
then he said : “To-morrow, Phaedo, I suppose that these fair locks of yours
will be severed.'''
* Son of Anthemion. See Plat. Men. 9o B, aipoovraw yodu atröv ćtri Tàs
peytaras &pxás, Plut. A/c. 4; id. Coriol. I4 ; Aristot. Ath. Pol. 27, 25, re
Tö Öekáčeiv; 34, 23. A moderate oligarch ; cf. Xen. Hell. II. iii. 42, 44;
Schol. Cod. Clarkiani ad Plat. A/o/, I8 B ap. L. Dind. ad loc. ; cf. Diod.
xiii. 64. * Cf. Plat. Apol. 23 E.
4 e.g. Patroclus dying predicts the death of Hector who had slain him, IZ.
xvi. 851 foll, ; and Hector that of Achilles, Il. xxii. 358 foll. Cf. Cic, de Div.
1, 30. Plato, Apol. 39 C, makes Socrates thus address his judges: rö 6é 6%
pietà Touro étruffvuò Juſu Xpmopºpóño'at, & Katay/mºto dºevot pov' kal yáp
elut £3m évraúða, ći (; p.4\tat' div6pwTo Xpmap.9600au, 8tav ué\\worly &Toba-
veto 6at, “And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy
to you, for I am about to die, and that is the hour at which all men are gifted
with prophetic power” (Jowett).
§ 31-34 THE WISEST AND NOBLEST OF MEN I95
though the grave has closed upon him, his evil reputation still
Survives him, due alike to his son's base bringing-up and his
Own want of human feeling.
Socrates did, it is true, by his self-laudation draw down
upon him the jealousy of the court and caused his judges all
the more to record their votes against him. Yet even so
I look upon the lot of destiny which he obtained as provi-
dential," chancing as he did upon the easiest amidst the
many shapes of death,” and escaping as he did the one
grievous portion of existence. And what a glorious chance,
moreover, he had to display the full strength of his soul,
for when once he had decided that death was better for
him than life, just as in the old days he had never harshly
opposed himself to the good things of life morosely,” so even
in face of death he showed no touch of weakness, but with
gaiety welcomed death’s embrace, and discharged life's debt.
For myself indeed, as I lay to mind the wisdom of the man
and his nobility, I can neither forget him nor, remembering
him, forbear to praise him. But if any of those who make
virtue their pursuit have ever met a more helpful friend than
Socrates, I tender such an one my congratulations as a most
enviable man.
1 Lit. “dear to the gods”; “highly favoured.”
* Cf. Hom. Od. xii. 341, Trávres pêu o'rvyspol 6&vatov Šet)\otot Sporoſaw.
* Tpoorávrms, i.e. “he faced death boldly as he had encountered life's
blessings blandly.” “As he had been no stoic to repudiate life's blessings,
so he was no coward to,” etc. -
THE ECONOMIST
A TREATISE ON THE SCIENCE OF THE HOUSE-
HOLD IN THE FORM OF A DIALOGUE
INTERLOCUTORS
SOCRATES and CRITOBULUS
At Chapter VII. a prior discussion held between Socrates and Ischomachus is
introduced ; On the life of a ‘beautiful and good’ man.
In these chapters (vii. -xxi.) Socrates is represented by the author as
repeating for the benefit of Critobulus and the rest certain conversations
which he had once held with the beautiful and good Ischomachus on the
essentials of economy. It was a tête-d-téfe discussion, and in the original
Greek the remarks of the two speakers are denoted by such phrases as éqºm
à 'Ioxópaxos—épmv éyò—“said (he) Ischomachus,” “said I.” (Socrates).
To save the repetition of expressions tedious in English, I have, when-
ever it seemed helpful to do so, ventured to throw parts of the reported con-
versations into dramatic form, inserting “Isch.” “Soc.” in the customary way
to designate the speakers; but these, it must be borne in mind, are merely
‘‘asides” to the reader, who will not forget that Socrates is the narrator
throughout—speaking of himself as “A,” and of Ischomachus as “he,” or by
his name.—Translator's AVote, addressed to the English reader.
T H E E CON O M IST 1
I. I-4
I.—I ONCE heard him * discuss the topic of economy 3 after
the following manner. Addressing Critobulus,” he said: Tell
me, Critobulus, is “economy,” like the words “medicine,”
“carpentry,” “building,” “smithying,” “metal-working,” and
SO forth, the name of a particular kind of knowledge or
science P
Crit. Yes, I think so.
Soc. And as, in the case of the arts just named, we can
state the proper work or function of each, can we (similarly)
state the proper work and function of economy P
Crit. It must, I should think, be the business of the
good economist” at any rate to manage his own house or
estate well.
Soc. And supposing another man's house to be entrusted
to him, he would be able, if he chose, to manage it as skilfully
as his own, would he not P since a man who is skilled in
carpentry can work as well for another as for himself: and
this ought to be equally true of the good economist P
Crit. Yes, I think so, Socrates.
Soc. Then there is no reason why a proficient in this art,
even if he does not happen to possess wealth of his own,
* By “economist” we now generally understand “political economist,”
but the use of the word as referring to domestic economy, the subject matter of
the treatise, would seem to be legitimate.
* “The master.” For the relation of this work to the Memorabilia, see
Trans. Vol. i. p. liv. note I ; above, Introd. p. xli.
* Lit. “ i.e. .ranagement of a household and estate.” See Plat. Rep.
407 B ; Aristot. Eth. A. v. 6; Pol. i. 3.
* See above, Mem, I. iii. 8 ; below, Symp. p. 292 ; and Index s. n.
* Or, “manager of a house or estate.”
2OO THE ECONOMIST CH. I. § 4-8
should not be paid a salary for managing a house, just as he
might be paid for building one P
Crit. None at all : and a large salary he would be entitled
to earn if, after paying the necessary expenses of the estate
entrusted to him, he can Create a surplus and improve the
property.
Soc. Well ! and this word “house,” what are we to under-
stand by it P the domicile merely P or are we to include all
a man's possessions outside the actual dwelling-place Pl -
Crit. Certainly, in my opinion at any rate, everything
which a man has got, even though some portion of it
may lie in another part of the world from that in which he
lives,” forms part of his estate.
Soc. “Has got ”? but he may have got enemies P
Crit. Yes, I am afraid some people have got a great many.
Soc. Then shall we say that a man's enemies form part of
his possessions P
Criſ. A comic notion indeed that some one should be
good enough to add to my stock of enemies, and that in
addition he should be paid for his kind services.
Soc. Because, you know, we agreed that a man’s estate
was identical with his possessions? -
Cºif. Yes, Certainly the good part of his possessions; but
the evil portion no, I thank you, that I do not call part of a
man's possessions.
Soc. As I understand, you would limit the term to what we
may call a man's useful or advantageous possessions P
Crit. Precisely; if he has things that injure him, Z should
regard these rather as a loss than as wealth.
Soc. It follows apparently that if a man purchases a horse
and does not know how to handle him, but each time he
mounts he is thrown and sustains injuries, the horse is not
part of his wealth P
Crit. Not, if wealth implies weal, certainly.
Soc. And by the same token land itself is no wealth to
a man who so works it that his tillage only brings him loss P
* Lit. “is it synonymous with dwelling-place, or is all that a man
possesses outside his dwelling-place part of his house or estate?”
* Lit. “not even in the same state or city.”
cH, I, § 8-12 SOCRATIC DEFINITION OF WEALTH 2O I
Crit. True ; mother earth herself is not a source of wealth
to us if, instead of helping us to live, she helps us to starve.
Soc. And by a parity of reasoning, sheep and cattle may
fail of being wealth if, through want of knowledge how to
treat them, their owner loses by them ; to him at any rate the
sheep and the cattle are not wealth P
Crit. That is the conclusion I draw.
Soc. It appears, you hold to the position that wealth
consists of things which benefit, while things which injure
are not wealth P
Crit. Just so.
Soc. The same things, in fact, are wealth or not wealth,
according as a man knows or does not know the use to make
of them P To take an instance, a flute may be wealth to him
who is sufficiently skilled to play upon it, but the same
instrument is no better than the stones we tread under our
feet to him who is not so skilled . . . unless indeed he
chose to sell it?
Crit. That is precisely the conclusion we should come to."
To persons ignorant of their use * flutes are wealth as sale-
able, but as possessions not for sale they are no wealth at
all ; and see, Socrates, how smoothly and consistently the
argument proceeds,” since it is admitted that things which
benefit are wealth. The flutes in question unsold are not
wealth, being good for nothing : to become wealth they must
be sold.
Yes! (rejoined Socrates), presuming the owner knows
how to sell them ; since, supposing again he were to sell
them for something which he does not know how to use,4
the mere selling will not transform them into wealth, according
to your argument.
Crit. You seem to say, Socrates, that money itself in the
pockets of a man who does not know how to use it is not
wealth P
* Reading Tojt’ attá, or if Tojt’ at with Sauppe, transl. “Yes, that is
another position we may fairly subscribe to.”
* i.e. “without knowledge how to use them.” t
* Or, “our discussion marches on all-fours, as it were." See p. 193, note 2.
* Reading Tpès Tooro 6, or if Tpós Toºrov, Šs, transl. “to a man who did
not know how to use them.”
2O2 THE ECONOMIST CH. I. § 13-16
Soc. And I understand you to concur in the truth of our
proposition so far : wealth is that, and that only, whereby a
man may be benefited. Obviously, if a man used his money to
buy himself a mistress, to the grave detriment of his body and
soul and whole estate, how is that particular money going to
benefit him now P What good will he extract from it?
Crit. None whatever, unless we are prepared to admit
that hyoscyamus," as they call it, is wealth, a poison the
property of which is to drive those who take it mad.
Soc. Let money then, Critobulus, if a man does not know
how to use it aright—let money, I say, be banished to the
remote corners of the earth rather than be reckoned as
wealth.” But now, what shall we say of friends? If a man
knows how to use his friends so as to be benefited by them,
what of these ?
Crit. They are wealth indisputably and in a deeper sense
than Cattle are, if, as may be supposed, they are likely to prove
of more benefit to a man than wealth of cattle.
Soc. It would seem, according to your argument, that the
foes of a man's own household after all may be wealth to him,
if he knows how to turn them to good account P* -
Crit. That is my opinion, at any rate.
Soc. It would seem, it is the part of a good economist 4
to know how to deal with his own or his employer's foes so as
to get profit out of them P
Criz. Most emphatically so.
Soc. In fact, you need but use your eyes to see how
many private persons, not to say crowned heads, do owe the
increase of their estates to war.
Crit. Well, Socrates, I do not think, so far, the argument
could be improved on ; * but now comes a puzzle. What of
people who have got the knowledge and the capital" required
* “A dose of henbane, ‘hogs'-bean,’ so called.” Diosc. 4, 69 ; 6, 15 ;
Plut. Demetr. xx. (Clough, v. II.4).
* Or, “then let it be relegated . . . and there let it lie in the category
of non-wealth.” * Vide supra,
* “A good administrator of an estate.”
* Or, “Thanks, Socrates. Thus far the statement of the case would
seem to be conclusive—but what are we to make of this? Some people . . .”
° Lit. “the right kinds of knowledge and the right starting-points.”
CH. I. § 16-21 THE FOES OF A MAN'S OWN HOUSEHOLD 203
to enhance their fortunes, if only they will put their shoulders
to the wheel; and yet, if we are to believe our senses, that is
just the one thing they will not do, and so their knowledge
and accomplishments are of no profit to them P Surely in
their case also there is but one conclusion to be drawn, which
is, that neither their knowledge nor their possessions are
wealth. w - -
Soc. Ah I see, Critobulus, you wish to direct the dis-
cussion to the topic of slaves?
Cri. No indeed, I have no such intention—quite the
reverse. I want to talk about persons of high degree, of right
noble family some of them, to do them justice. These are
the people I have in my mind's eye, gifted with, it may be,
martial Or, it may be, civil accomplishments, which, however,
they refuse to exercise, for the very reason, as I take it, that
they have no masters over them.
Soc. No masters over them but how can that be if, in
spite of their prayers for prosperity and their desire to do
what will bring them good, they are still so sorely hindered
in the exercise of their wills by those that lord it over
them P
Crit. And who, pray, are these lords that rule them and
yet remain unseen P
Soc. Nay, not unseen; on the contrary, they are very visible.
And what is more, they are the basest of the base, as you can
hardly fail to note, if at least you believe idleness and
effeminacy and reckless negligence to be baseness. Then,
too, there are other treacherous beldames giving themselves
out to be innocent pleasures, to wit, dicings and profitless
associations among men.” These in the fulness of time
appear in all their nakedness even to them that are deceived,
showing themselves that they are after all but pains tricked
out and decked with pleasures. These are they who have
the dominion over those you speak of and quite hinder them
from every good and useful work.
Crit. But there are others, Socrates, who are not hindered
by these indolences—on the contrary, they have the most
ardent disposition to exert themselves, and by every means
* “Eupatrids.” ? Or, “frivolous society.”
2O4 THE ECONOMIST {:}...
CH. I. § 2 I-23
to increase their revenues; but in spite of all, they wear out
their substance and are involved in endless difficulties."
Soc. Yes, for they too are slaves, and harsh enough are
their taskmasters; slaves are they to luxury and lechery, intem-
perance and the wine-cup along with many a fond and ruinous
ambition. These passions so cruelly belord it over the poor
soul whom they have got under their thrall, that so long as he is
in the heyday of health and strong to labour, they compel him
to fetch and carry and lay at their feet the fruit of his toils,
and to spend it on their own heart’s lusts; but as soon as he
is seen to be incapable of further labour through old age, they
leave him to his gray hairs and misery, and turn to seize on
other victims.” Ah Critobulus, against these must we wage
Ceaseless war, for very freedom's sake, no less than if they
were armed warriors endeavouring to make us their slaves.
Nay, foemen in war, it must be granted, especially when of
fair and noble type, have many times ere now proved bene-
factors to those they have enslaved. By dint of chastening,
they have forced the vanquished to become better men and
to lead more tranquil lives in future.” But these despotic
queens never cease to plague and torment their victims in
body and soul and substance till their sway is ended.
II.-The Conversation was resumed by Critobulus, and on
this wise. He said: I think I take your meaning fully, Socrates,
about these matters; and for myself, examining my heart, I am
further Satisfied, I have sufficient continence and self-command
in those respects. So that if you will only advise me what I
am to do to improve my estate, I flatter myself I shall not be
hindered by those despotic dames, as you call them. Come,
do not hesitate; only tender me what good advice you can,
and trust me I will follow it. But perhaps, Socrates, you have
already passed sentence on us—we are rich enough already,
and not in need of any further wealth P
* Or, “become involved for want of means,”
* “To use others as their slaves.”
* Lit. “Enemies for the matter of that, when, being beautiful and good,
they chance to have enslaved some other, have ere now in many an instance
chastened and compelled the vanquished to be better and to live more easily
for the rest of time.”
CH. II. § 2-6 OF RICHES AND POVERTY 2O5
Soc. It is to myself rather, if I may be included in your
plural “we,” that I should apply the remark. Z am not in
need of any further wealth, if you like. I am rich enough
already, to be sure. But you, Critobulus, I look upon as
singularly poor, and at times, upon my soul, I feel a down-
right Compassion for you.
At this view of his case, Critobulus fell to laughing out-
right, retorting : And pray, Socrates, what in the name of
fortune do you suppose our respective properties would fetch
in the market, yours and mine P
If I could find a good purchaser (he answered), I suppose
the whole of my effects, including the house in which I live,
might very fairly realise five minae" (say twenty guineas).
Yours, I am positively certain, would fetch at the lowest more
than a hundred times that sum.
Crit. And with this estimate of our respective fortunes,
can you still maintain that you have no need of further wealth,
but it is I who am to be pitied for my poverty P
Soc. Yes, for my property is amply sufficient to meet my
wants, whereas you, Considering the parade you are fenced
about with, and the reputation you must needs live up to,
would be barely well off, I take it, if what you have already
were multiplied by three.
Pray, how may that be P Critobulus asked.
Why, first and foremost (Socrates explained), I see you
are called upon to offer many costly sacrifices, failing
which, I take it, neither gods nor men would tolerate you ;
and, in the next place, you are bound to welcome numerous
foreigners as guests, and to entertain them handsomely ;
thirdly, you must feast your fellow-citizens and ply them with
all sorts of kindness, or else be cut adrift from your
supporters.” Furthermore, I perceive that even at present
the state enjoins upon you various large Contributions,
such as the rearing of studs,” the training of choruses, the
superintendence of gymnastic schools, or consular duties,” as
patron of resident aliens, and so forth ; while in the event of
1 5 x £4: I : 3. See Boeckh, P. E. A. [BR. i. ch. xx, j, p. Io9 f. (Eng. ed.).
2 See Dr. Holden ad loc., Boeckh [Bk. iii, ch. xxiii.J., p. 465 f.
* Cf. Lycurg. c. Leocr. I39. * Al, “presidential duties,”
2O6 THE ECONOMIST CH. II, § 6-Io
war you will, I am aware, have further obligations laid upon
you in the shape of pay' to carry on the trierarchy, ship
money, and war taxes” so onerous, you will find difficulty in
supporting them. Remissness in respect of any of these
charges will be visited upon you by the good citizens of Athens
no less strictly than if they caught you stealing their own pro-
perty. But worse than all, I see you fondling the notion that
you are rich. Without a thought or care how to increase your
revenue, your fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” as
if you had some special license to amuse yourself. . . . That
is why I pity and compassionate you, fearing lest some irre-
mediable mischief overtake you, and you find yourself in
desperate straits. As for me, if I ever stood in need of
anything, I am sure you know I have friends who would assist
me. They would make some trifling contribution—trifling to
themselves, I mean—and deluge my humble living with a
flood of plenty. But your friends, albeit far better off than
yourself, considering your respective styles of living, persist in
looking to you for assistance.
Then Critobulus : I cannot gainsay what you have spoken,
Socrates; it is indeed high time that you were constituted
my patronus,” or I shall become in very truth a pitiable object.
To which appeal Socrates made answer: Why, you your-
self must surely be astonished at the part you are now play-
ing. Just now, when I said that I was rich, you laughed at
me as if I had no idea what riches were, and you were not
happy till you had cross-examined me and forced me to con-
fess that I do not possess the hundredth part of what
you have ; and now you are imploring me to be your patron,
and to stint no pains to Save you from becoming absolutely
and in very truth a pauper.”
Crit. Yes, Socrates, for I see that you are skilled in one
lucrative operation at all events—the art of creating a surplus.
1 Tpumpapytas [ulato'ſs]. The commentators in general “suspect"
pua 900s. See Boeckh, P. B. A. [BK. iv, ch. xv.], p. 579.
* See Boeckh [iv, ch. i.], p. 470 f ; Revenues, iii. 9, iv. 40 (Trans, vol. ii.
p. lxxxiii.).
* Or, “to childish matters,” “frivolous affairs”; but for the full import
of the phrase trauðuko's trpdyplagu see Ages, viii. 2 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 263,
note I). * See above, $ 6. * Or, “literally beggared.”
CH. II. § 10-15 SOCRATES NO PROFESSOR OF THE ART 2O7
I hope, therefore, that a man who can make so much out of
so little will not have the slightest difficulty in creating an
ample surplus out of an abundance.
Soc. But do not you recollect how just now in the dis-
cussion you would hardly let me utter a syllable 4 while
you laid down the law : if a man did not know how to
handle horses, horses were not wealth to him at any rate; nor
land, nor sheep, nor money, nor anything else, if he did not
know how to use them P And yet these are the very sources
of revenue from which incomes are derived ; and how do
you expect me to know the use of any of them who never
possessed a single one of them since I was born ?
Crit. Yes, but we agreed that, however little a man may
be blest with wealth himself, a science of economy exists; and
that being so, what hinders you from being its professor P
Soc. Nothing, to be sure,” except what would hinder a
man from knowing how to play the flute, supposing he had
never had a flute of his own and no one had supplied
the defect by lending him one to practise on ; which is
just my case with regard to economy; seeing I never myself
possessed the instrument of the science which is wealth, so as
to go through the pupil stage, nor hitherto has any one
proposed to hand me over his to manage. You, in fact, are
the first person to make so generous an offer. You will bear
in mind, I hope, that a learner of the harp is apt to break and
spoil the instrument; it is therefore probable, if I take in
hand to learn the art of economy on your estate, I shall ruin
it outright.
Critobulus retorted: I see, Socrates, you are doing your
very best to escape an irksome task : you would rather not, if
you can help it, stretch out so much as your little finger to
help me to bear my necessary burthens more easily.
Soc. No, upon my word, I am not trying to escape :
on the contrary, I shall be ready, as far as I Can, to
expound the matter to you.” . . . Still it strikes me, if you
1 Cf. Aristoph. Clouds, 945; Plut. I'7; Dem, 353 ; and Holden ad loc,
2 Lit. “The very thing, God help me ! which would hinder . . .”
& Lit. “the art of administering an estate.”
4 Or, “to play the part of émºyntiffs, ‘legal adviser,' or 'spiritual director,'
to be in fact your “guide, philosopher, and friend.'" .
.4
* .
2O8 THE ECONOMIST (º-
had come to me seeking for fire, and I had none in my
house, you would not blame me for sending you where you
might get it ; or if you had asked me for water, and I, having
none to give, had led you elsewhere to the object of your
search, you would not, I am sure, have disapproved ; or did
you desire to be taught music by me, and I were to point out
to you a far more skilful teacher than myself, who would
perhaps be grateful to you moreover for becoming his pupil,
what kind of exception could you take to my behaviour P
Crit. None, with any show of justice, Socrates.
Soc. Well, then, my business now is, Critobulus, to point
out 4 to you some others cleverer than myself about those
matters which you are so anxious to be taught by me. I do
confess to you, I have made it long my study to discover who
among our fellow-citizens in this city are the greatest adepts
in the various branches of knowledge.” I had been struck
with amazement, I remember, to observe on some occasion
that where a set of people are engaged in identical operations,
half of them are in absolute indigence and the other half
roll in wealth. I bethought me, the history of the matter was
worth investigation. Accordingly I set to work investigating,
and I found that it all happened very naturally. Those who
carried on their affairs in a haphazard manner I saw were
punished by their losses; whilst those who kept their wits
upon the stretch and paid attention I soon perceived to be
rewarded by the greater ease and profit of their undertakings.”
It is to these I would recommend you to betake yourself.
What say you ? Learn of them : and unless the will of God
Oppose,” I venture to say you will become as clever a man of
business as one might hope to see.
III.-Critobulus, on hearing that, exclaimed : Be sure,
Socrates, I will not let you go now until you give the proofs
which, in the presence of our friends, you undertook just
now to give me.
* Al, “to show you that there are others."
* Or, “who are gifted with the highest knowledge in their respective
concerns.” Cf. Mem. IV. vii. I.
* Lit. “got on quicker, easier, and more profitably.”
* Or, “short of some divine interposition,”
CH, III. § 1-4 SIX ECONOMIC CONTRASTS 209
Well then," Critobulus (Socrates replied), what if I begin
by showing” you two sorts of people, the one expending large
sums of money in building useless houses, the other at far
less cost erecting dwellings replete with all they need : will
you admit that I have laid my finger here on one of the
essentials of economy?
Crit. An essential point most certainly.
Soc. And suppose in connection with the same, I next
point out to you 8 two other sets of persons:—The first
possessors of furniture of various kinds, which they cannot,
however, lay their hands on when the need arises; indeed
they hardly know if they have got all safe and sound or not :
whereby they put themselves and their domestics to much
mental torture. The others are perhaps less amply, or at
any rate not more amply supplied, but they have everything
ready at the instant for immediate use.
Crit. Yes, Socrates, and is not the reason simply that in
the first case everything is thrown down where it chanced,
whereas those others have everything arranged, each in its
appointed place P
Quite right (he answered), and the phrase implies that
everything is orderly arranged, not in the first chance place,
but in that to which it naturally belongs.
Crit. Yes, the case TSTOThe point, I think, and does in-
volve another economic principle.
Soc. What, then, if I exhibit to you a third contrast, which
bears on the condition of domestic slaves P. On the one side
you shall see them fettered hard and fast, as I may say, and
yet for ever breaking their chains and running away. On the
other side the slaves are loosed and free to move, but for all
that, they choose to work, it seems ; they are constant to their
masters. I think you will admit that I here point out another
function of economy + worth noting,
Crit. I do indeed—a feature most noteworthy.
1 Lincke [brackets as an editorial interpolation iii. I, tº obv, *@m—
vi. 11, Trotópev]. See his edition Xenophons Dialog. Tept olkovopºtas in seiner
wrs/ri/nglichen Gestalt ; and for a criticism of his views, an article by
Charles D. Morris, “Xenophon's Oeconomicus,” in the American Journal of
Philology, vol. i. p. 169 foll, * As a demonstrator.
8 “As in a mirror, or a picture.” * Or, “economical result.”
WOL. III — I IP
|
es;*
tºvº vº \ }J 2%
2 IO THE ECONOMIST CH. III. § 5-8
Soc. Or take, again, the instance of two farmers engaged in
cultivating farms" as like as possible. The One has never done
asserting that agriculture has been his ruin, and is in the depth
of despair; the other has all he needs in abundance and of the
best, and how acquired P−by this same agriculture.
Yes (Critobulus answered), to be sure; perhaps” the former
spends both toil and money not simply on what he needs, but
on things which cause an injury to house alike and owner.
Soc. That is a possible case, no doubt, but it is not the
one that I refer to: I mean people pretending they are
farmers, and yet they have not a penny to expend on the real
needs of their business.
Crit. And pray, what may be the reason of that, Socrates ?
Soc. You shall come with me and see these people also ;
and as you contemplate the scene, I presume you will lay to
heart the lesson.
Crit. I will, if possibly I can, I promise you.
Soc. Yes, and while you contemplate, you must make
trial of yourself and see if you have wit to understand. At
present, I will bear you witness that if it is to go and see a
party of players performing in a comedy, you will get up at
cock-crow, and come trudging a long way, and ply me volubly
with reasons why I should accompany you to see the play.
But you have never once invited me to come and witness
such an incident as those we were speaking of just now.
Crit. And so I seem to you ridiculous P3
Soc. Far more ridiculous to yourself, I warrant. But now
let me point out to you another contrast : between certain
people whose dealing with horses has brought them to the
brink of poverty, and Certain others who have found in the
same pursuit the road to affluence,” and have a right besides
to plume themselves upon their gains.”
* yeapylas. See Hartman, An. Xen. p. 193. Hold. cf. Plat. Laws,
806 E. Isocr. Areop, 32.
* Or, “like enough in the one case the money and pains are spent,” etc.
* Or, “a comic character in the performance.” Soc. “Not so comic as
you must appear to yourself (i.e. with your keen sense of the ludicrous).”
* Or, “who have not only attained to affluence by the same pursuit, but
can hold their heads high, and may well pride themselves on their thrift.”
* Cf. Hom. ZZ, xii. 114, Virtotovu Kai čxed pu äya)\\ópevos, et passim,
Hiero, viii. 5 (below, p. 380); Anab. II. vi. 26 (Trans, vol. i. p. 143).
CH. III. § 8-II HUSBANDS AND WIVES 2 II
Crit. Well, then, I may tell you, I see and know both
characters as well as you do ; but I do not find myself a
whit the more included among those who gain.
Soc. Because you look at them just as you might at the
actors in a tragedy or comedy, and with the same intent
—your object being to delight the ear and charm the eye, but
not, I take it, to become yourself a poet. And there you are
right enough, no doubt, since you have no desire to become
a playwright. But, when circumstances compel you to concern
yourself with horsemanship, does it not seem to you a little
foolish not to consider how you are to escape being a mere
amateur in the matter, especially as the same creatures which
are good for use are profitable for sale P
Crit. So you wish me to set up as a breeder of young
horses," do you, Socrates ?
Soc. Not so, no more than I would recommend you to
purchase lads and train them up from boyhood as farm-
labourers. But in my opinion there is a certain happy
moment of growth which must be seized, alike in man and
horse, rich in present service and in future promise. In
further illustration, I can show you how some men treat
their wedded wives in such a way that they find in them true
helpmates to the joint increase of their estate, while others treat
them in a way to bring upon themselves wholesale disasterº
Crit. Ought the husband or the wife to bear the blame of
that P
Soc. If it goes ill with a sheep we blame the shepherd,
as a rule, or if a horse $hows vice we throw the blame in
general upon the rider. L. But in the case of women, sup-
posing the wife to have received instruction from her
husband and yet she delights in wrong-doing,” it may be
that the wife is justly held to blame ; but supposing he has
never tried to teach her the first principles of “fair and
noble” conduct,” and finds her quite an ignoramus" in these
1 See Horsemanship, ii. I.
* Reading 7 &s TXeſara, al. i. of TXétarot = “to bring about disaster in
most cases.”
3 Cf. Horsemanship, vi. 5, of a horse “to show vice.”
4 Or, “things beautiful and of good report.”
5 A/. “has treated her as a dunce, devoid of this high knowledge.”
2 I 2 THE ECONOMIST (ººº-
matters, surely the husband will be justly held to blame.] But
come now (he added), we are all friends here; make a clean
breast of it, and tell us, Critobulus, the plain unvarnished
truth : Is there any one to whom you are more in the habit
of entrusting matters of importance than to your wife P
Criſ. There is no one.
Soc. And is there any one with whom you are less in the
habit of conversing than with your wife P
Crit. Not many, I am forced to admit.
Soc. And when you married her she was quite young, a
mere girl—at an age when, as far as seeing and hearing go,
she had the smallest acquaintance with the Outer world P
Crit. Certainly.
Soc. Then would it not be more astonishing that she
should have real knowledge how to speak and act than that
she should go altogether astray P
Crit. But let me ask you a question, Socrates: have those
happy husbands, you tell us of, who are blessed with good wives
educated them themselves? -
Soc. There is nothing like investigation. I will introduce
you to Aspasia,” who will explain these matters to you in a
far more scientific way than I Can. y belief is that a good
wife, being as she is the partner i Common estate, must
needs be her husband's counterpoise and Counterpart for good ;
since, if it is through the transactions of the husband, as a rule,
that goods of all sorts find their way into the house, yet it is by
means of the wife's economy and thrift that the greater part of
the expenditure is checked, and on the successful issue or the
mishandling of the same depends the increase or impoverish-
ment of a whole estate. And SO with regard to the remaining
arts and sciences, I think I can point out to you the ablest
performers in each case, if you feel you have any further need
of help.”
Iv.—But why need you illustrate all the sciences, Socrates?
(Critobulus asked): it would not be very easy to discover
efficient craftsmen of all the arts, and quite impossible to
1 Aspasia. See above, Mem. II. vi. 36, p. 69.
* AZ. “there are successful performers in each who will be happy to
llustrate any point in which you think you need,” etc.
CH. Iv. § 1-5 THE ARTS OF HUSBANDRY AND WAR 2 I 3
become skilled in all one's self. So, please, confine your-
self to the nobler branches of knowledge as men regard them,
such as it will best befit me to pursue with devotion ; be so
good as to point me out these and their performers, and,
above all, contribute as far as in you lies the aid of your
Own personal instruction.
Soc. A good suggestion, Critobulus, for the base mechanic
arts, so called, have got a bad name ; and what is more,
are held in ill repute by civilised communities, and not un-
reasonably ; seeing they are the ruin of the bodies of all
concerned in them, workers and overseers alike, who are
forced to remain in sitting postures and to hug the gloom, or
else to crouch whole days confronting a furnace.V. Hand in
hand with physical enervation follows apace enfeeblement of
soul : while the demand which these base mechanic arts make
on the time of those employed in them leaves them no
leisure to devote to the claims of friendship and the state.)
How can such folk be other than sorry friends and ill
defenders of the fatherland P So much so that in some
states, especially those reputed to be warlike, no citizen is
allowed to exercise any mechanical craft at all.
Crit. Then which are the arts you would counsel us to
engage in P -
Soc. Well, we shall not be ashamed, I hope, to imitate the
king of Persia P* That monarch, it is said, regards amongst
the noblest and most necessary pursuits two in particular,
which are the arts of husbandry and war, and in these two
he takes the strongest interest.
What I (Critobulus exclaimed); do you, Socrates, really
believe that the king of Persia pays a personal regard to
husbandry, along with all his other cares P
Soc. We have only to investigate the matter, Critobulus,
and I daresay we shall discover whether that is so or not. We
are agreed that he takes strong interest in military matters;
1 “In the strict sense,” e.g. the Spartiates in Sparta. See Pol.
Lac. vii.; Newman, op. cit. i. 99, Io9 foll.
2 “It won't make us blush actually to take a leaf out of the great king's
book.” As to the Greek text at this point see the commentators, and also a
note by Mr. H. Richards in the Classical Review, X. IO2,
2I4 THE ECONOMIST CH. IV. § 5-8
since, however numerous the tributary nations, there is a
governor to each, and every governor has orders from the
king what number of cavalry, archers, slingers, and targeteers *
it is his business to support, as adequate to control the Sub-
ject population, or in case of hostile attack to defend the
country. Apart from these the king keeps garrisons in all
the citadels. The actual support of these devolves upon the
governor, to whom the duty is assigned. The king himself
meanwhile conducts the annual inspection and review of
troops, both mercenary and other, that have Orders to be
under arms. These all are simultaneously assembled (with
the exception of the garrisons of citadels) at the mustering
ground,” so named. That portion of the army within access
of the royal residence the king reviews in person ; the
remainder, living in remoter districts of the empire, he
inspects by proxy, sending certain trusty representatives.”
Wherever the commandants of garrisons, the captains of
thousands, and the satraps * are seen to have their appointed
numbers complete, and at the same time shall present their
troops equipped with horse and arms in thorough efficiency,
these officers the king delights to honour, and showers gifts
upon them largely. But as to those officers whom he finds
either to have neglected their garrisons, or to have made
private gain of their position, these he heavily chastises,
deposing them from office, and appointing other superintend-
ents * in their stead. Such conduct, I think we may say,
indisputably proves the interest which he takes in matters
military.
Further than this, by means of a royal progress through
the country, he has an opportunity of inspecting personally
some portion of his territory, and again of visiting the
remainder in proxy as above by trusty representatives; and
wheresoever he perceives that any of his governors can pre-
1 Or, Gerrophorož, “wicker-shield bearers.”
* Or, “rendezvous”; “the ‘Champ de Mars' for the nonce.” Cf. Cyrop.
VI. ii. II.
* Lit. “he sends some of the faithful to inspect.” Cf. our “trusty and
well-beloved.”
* See, for the system, Herod. iii. 89 foll, ; Cyrop. VIII. vi. II.
* Or, as we say, “inspecting officers.” Cf. Cyrop. VIII. i. 9.
CH. Iv. § 8-13 LEARN A LESSON OF THE GREAT KING 2 I 5
sent to him a district thickly populated, and the soil in a state
of active cultivation, full of trees and fruits, its natural pro-
ducts, to such officers he adds other territory, adorning them
with gifts and distinguishing them by seats of honour. But
those officers whose land he sees lying idle and with but few
inhabitants, owing either to the harshness of their government,
their insolence, or their neglect, he punishes, and making
them to cease from their office he appoints other rulers in
their place. . . . Does not this conduct indicate at least as
great an anxiety to promote the active cultivation of the land
by its inhabitants as to provide for its defence by military
occupation ?”
Moreover, the governors appointed to preside over these
two departments of state are not one and the same. But
one class governs the inhabitants proper including the workers
of the soil, and collects the tribute from them, another is
in command of the armed garrisons. If the commandant *
protects the country insufficiently, the civil governor of the
population, who is in charge also of the productive works,
lodges accusation against the Commandant to the effect
that the inhabitants are prevented working through deficiency
of protection. Or if again, in spite of peace being secured
to the works of the land by the military governor, the
civil authority still presents a territory sparse in population
and untilled, it is the commandant’s turn to accuse the civil
ruler. For you may take it as a rule, a population tilling
their territory badly will fail to support their garrisons and
be quite unequal to paying their tribute. Where a satrap is
appointed he has charge of both departments.”
Thereupon Critobulus: Well, Socrates (said he), if such is
his conduct, I admit that the great king does pay attention
to agriculture no less than to military affairs.
And besides all this (proceeded Socrates), nowhere among
the various countries which he inhabits or visits does he fail
to make it his first care that there shall be Orchards and
1 Lit. ‘‘ by those who guard and garrison it.”
? Or, “garrison commandant.” Lit. “Phrourarch.”
3 The passage reads like a gloss. See about the Satrap, Hell. III. i. Io;
Cyrop. VIII. vi. I ; Anab. I. ix. 29 foll.
2I6 THE ECONOMIST CH. Iv. § 13-19
gardens, parks and “paradises,” as they are called, full of all
fair and noble products which the earth brings forth ; and
within these chiefly he spends his days, when the season of
the year permits.
Crit. To be sure, Socrates, it is a natural and necessary
conclusion that when the king himself spends so large a por-
tion of his time there, his paradises should be furnished to per-
fection with trees and all else beautiful that earth brings forth.
Soc. And some say, Critobulus, that when the king gives
gifts, he summons in the first place those who have shown
themselves brave warriors, since all the ploughing in the
world were but small gain in the absence of those who
should protect the fields ; and next to these he summons
those who have stocked their countries best and ren-
dered them productive, on the principle that but for the
tillers of the soil the warriors themselves could scarcely live.
And there is a tale told of Cyrus, the most famous prince,
I need not tell you, who ever wore a crown," how on one
occasion he said to those who had been called to receive their
gifts, “it were no injustice, if he himself received the gifts
due to warriors and tillers of the soil alike,” for “did he not
carry off the palm in stocking the country and also in pro-
tecting the goods with which it had been stocked P”
Crit. Which clearly shows, Socrates, if the tale be true,
that this same Cyrus took as great a pride in fostering the
productive energies of his country and stocking it with good
things, as in his reputation as a warrior.
Soc. Why, yes indeed, had Cyrus lived, I have no doubt
he would have proved the best of rulers, and in support of
this belief, apart from other testimony amply furnished by his
life, witness what happened when he marched to do battle for
the sovereignty of Persia with his brother. Not one man, it
is said,” deserted from Cyrus to the king, but from the king
to Cyrus tens of thousands. And this also I deem a great
testimony to a ruler's worth, that his followers follow him of
1 Lit. “the most glorious king that ever lived.” The remark would seem
to apply better to Cyrus the Great. Nitsche and others regard these $$ 18, 19
as interpolated. See Schenkl ad loc.
* Cf. Anab. I. ix. 29 foll. (Trans, vol. i. p. 113).
CH. IV. § 19-24 OF CYRUS AND LY SANDER—A TALE 217
their own free will, and when the moment of danger comes
refuse to part from him." Now this was the case with Cyrus.
His friends not only fought their battles side by side with him
while he lived, but when he died they too died battling
around his dead body, one and all, excepting only Ariaeus,
who was absent at his post on the left wing of the army.”
But there is another tale of this same Cyrus in connection
with Lysander,” who himself narrated it on one occasion to a
friend of his in Megara.4
Lysander, it seems, had gone with presents sent by the
Allies to Cyrus, who entertained him, and amongst other
marks of courtesy showed him his “paradise” at Sardis.”
Lysander was astonished at the beauty of the trees within,
all planted" at equal intervals, the long straight rows of
waving branches, the perfect regularity, the rectangular " Sym-
metry of the whole, and the many sweet scents which hung
about them as they paced the park. In admiration he
exclaimed to Cyrus: “All this beauty is marvellous enough,
but what astonishes me still more is the talent of the
artificer who mapped out and arranged for you the several
parts of this fair scene.”* Cyrus was pleased by the remark,
and said : “ Know then, Lysander, it is I who measured
and arranged it all. Some of the trees,” he added, “I
planted with my own hands.” Then Lysander, regarding
earnestly the speaker, when he saw the beauty of his apparel
and perceived its fragrance, the splendour" also of the neck-
laces and armlets, and other ornaments which he wore, ex-
claimed: “What say you, Cyrus P did you with your own
hands plant some of these trees P’ whereat the other :
“Does that surprise you, Lysander P I swear to you by
Mithres," when in ordinary health I never dream of sitting
* Cf. Hiero, xi. I2, and our author passim. * See Azzać. ib. 31.
* See Trans, vol. i. Index, p. 334, s. n.
* Possibly to Xenophon himself. See Trans. Vol. i. pp. lxxxvi. xcvi.
* See Hell. I. v. I (Trans, vol. i. p. 19).
* Reading 6' to ou requreupévo, or if rā trequTeugéva, transl. “the various
plants ranged.”
7 Cf. Dion. Hal. de Comp. p. 17o ; Cic. de Senecſ. § 59.
° Lit. ‘‘ of these " Setkrukós, i.e. pointing to the various beauties of the
scenery. * Reading Tô Ká\\os.
19 The Persian “Sun-God.” See Cyrop, VII. v. 53 ; Strab. xv. 3. I3.
218 THE ECONOMIST (ºr
down to supper without first practising some exercise of war
or husbandry in the Sweat of my brow, or venturing some
strife of honour, as suits my mood.” “On hearing this,”
said Lysander to his friend, “I could not help seizing him
by the hand and exclaiming, “Cyrus, you have indeed good
right to be a happy man," since you are happy in being a
good man.’” ”
V.—All this I relate to you (continued Socrates) to show
you that quite high and mighty 9 people find it hard to hold
aloof from agriculture, devotion to which art would seem to
be thrice blest, combining as it does a certain sense of luxury
with the satisfaction of an improved estate, and such a
training of physical energies as shall fit a man to play a free
man's part.* Earth, in the first place, freely offers to those
that labour all things necessary to the life of man ; and, as if
that were not enough, makes further contribution of a thousand
luxuries.” It is she supplies with sweetest scent and fairest
show all things wherewith to adorn the altars and statues of
the gods, or deck man's person. It is to her we owe our
many delicacies of flesh or fowl or vegetable growth ; * since
with the tillage of the soil is closely linked the art of breeding
sheep and cattle, whereby we mortals may offer sacrifices well
pleasing to the gods, and satisfy our personal needs withal.
And albeit she, good Cateress, pours out her blessings
upon us in abundance, yet she suffers not her gifts to be
received effeminately, but inures her pensioners to suffer
gladly summer's heat and winter's cold. Those that labour
with their hands, the actual delvers of the soil, she trains
in a wrestling school of her own, adding strength to strength ;
whilst those others whose devotion is confined to the over-
1. Or, “fortunate.”
* Or, “you are a good man, and thereby fortunate.”
* Lit. “not even the most blessed of mankind can abstain from.” See
Plat. Rep. 344 B, “The superlatively blest and well-to-do.”
* Lit. “Devotion to it would seem to be at once a kind of luxury, an
increase of estate, a training of the bodily parts, so that a man is able to
perform all that a free man should.”
* Al. “ and further, to the maintenance of life she adds the sources of
pleasure in life.”
° Lit. “she bears these and rears those.”
|
CH. V. § 4-8 IN PRAISE OF AGRICULTURE 2 I9
seeing eye and to studious thought, she makes more manly,
rousing them with cock-crow, and compelling them to be up
and doing in many a long day's march." Since, whether in
city or afield, with the shifting seasons each necessary labour
has its hour of performance.”
Or to turn to another side. Suppose it to be a man's
ambition to aid his city as a trooper mounted on a charger
of his own : why not combine the rearing of horses with other
stock P it is the farmer's chance.” Or would your citizen serve
on foot P It is husbandry that shall give him robustness of
body. Or if we turn to the toil-loving fascination of the
chase," here once more earth adds incitement, as well by
furnishing facility of sustenance for the dogs as by nurturing
a foster brood of wild animals. And if horses and dogs derive
benefit from this art of husbandry, they in turn requite the boon
through service rendered to the farm. The horse carries his
best of friends, the careful master, betimes to the scene of
labour and devotion, and enables him to leave it late. The
dog keeps off the depredations of wild animals from fruits
and flocks, and creates security in the solitary place.
Earth, too, adds stimulus in war-time to earth's tillers;
she pricks them on to aid the country under arms, and this
she does by fostering her fruits in open field, the prize of
valour for the mightiest.” For this also is the art athletic, this
of husbandry; as thereby men are fitted to run, and hurl the
spear, and leap with the best."
This, too, is that kindliest of arts which makes requital
tenfold in kind for every work of the labourer." She is the
sweet mistress who, with smile of welcome and outstretched
hand, greets the approach of her devoted one, seeming to
say, Take from me all thy heart's desire. She is the generous
* See Hellenica Essays, p. 341.
* Lit. ‘‘ each most necessary operation must ever be in Season.”
* Lit. “farming is best adapted to rearing horses along with other
produce.”
* Lit. “to labour willingly and earnestly at hunting earth helps to incite
us somewhat.”
* Cf. Hiſparch, viii. 8. 6 Cf. Hunting, xii. I foll.
7 Lit. “What art makes an ampler return for their labour to those who
work for her? What art more sweetly welcomes him that is devoted to
her P''
22O THE ECONOMIST CH. V. § 8-14
hostess ; she keeps open house for the stranger." For
where else, save in some happy rural seat of her devising,
shall a man more cheerily cherish content in winter, with
bubbling bath and blazing fire P or where, save afield, in
Summer rest more Sweetly, lulled by babbling streams, soft
airs, and tender shades P”
Her high prerogative it is to offer fitting first-fruits to high
heaven, hers to furnish forth the overflowing festal board.”
Hers is a kindly presence in the household. She is the
goodwife's favourite, the children long for her, she waves
her hand winningly to the master's friends.
For myself, I marvel greatly if it has ever fallen to the lot of
freeborn man to own a choicer possession, or to discover an occu-
pation more seductive, or of wider usefulness in life than this.
But, furthermore, earth of her own will 4 gives lessons in
justice and uprightness to all who can understand her mean-
ing, since the nobler the service of devotion rendered, the
ampler the riches of her recompense.” One day, per-
chance, these pupils of hers, whose conversation in past
times was in husbandry,” shall, by reason of the multitude
of invading armies, be ousted from their labours. The work
of their hands may indeed be snatched from them, but they
were brought up in stout and manly fashion. They stand,
each one of them, in body and soul equipped ; and, save God
himself shall hinder them, they will march into the territory of
those their human hinderers, and take from them the where-
withal to support their lives. Since often enough in war it is
Surer and safer to quest for food with sword and buckler than
with all the instruments of husbandry.
But there is yet another lesson to be learnt in the
public school of husbandry"—the lesson of mutual assistance.
* Lit. “What art welcomes the stranger with greater prodigality ?”
* See Hellezzica Essays, p. 38o ; and as still more to the point, Cowley's
Essays: Of Agriculture, passim.
* Or, “to appoint the festal board most bounteously.”
* Reading 66Aova'a, vulg., or if after Cobet, 9eós offa'a, transl. “by
Sanction of her divinity.” With 9é\ova'a Holden aptly compares Virgil's
“volentia rura,” Georg. ii. 5oo. * “That is, her ſex ta/ionis.”
* “Engaged long time in husbandry.”
* Lit. “But again, husbandry trains up her scholars side by side in
lessons of . . .”
cH. v. § 14-19 EARTH, MOTHER AND NURSE OF ARTS 22 I
“Shoulder to shoulder ’’ must we march to meet the in-
vader; * “shoulder to shoulder” stand to compass the tillage
of the soil. Therefore it is that the husbandman, who means
to win in his avocation, must see that he creates enthusiasm
in his workpeople and a spirit of ready obedience; which is
just what a general attacking an enemy will scheme to bring
about, when he deals out gifts to the brave and castigation *
to those who are disorderly.
Nor will there be lacking seasons of exhortation, the
general haranguing his troops and the husbandman his
labourers; nor because they are slaves do they less than free
men need the lure of hope and happy expectation,” that they
may willingly stand to their posts.
It was an excellent saying of his who named husbandry
“the mother and nurse of all the arts,” for while agriculture
prospers all other arts alike are vigorous and strong, but
where the land is forced to remain desert,” the spring that
feeds the other arts is dried up ; they dwindle, I had almost
said, one and all, by land and Sea.
These utterances drew from Critobulus a comment :
Socrates (he said), for my part I agree with all you
say ; only, one must face the fact that in agriculture nine
matters out of ten are beyond man's calculation. Since at
one time hailstones and frost, at another drought or a deluge
of rain, or mildew, or other pest, will obliterate all the fair
creations and designs of men ; or behold, his fleecy flocks most
fairly nurtured, then comes a murrain, and the end most foul
destruction.”
To which Socrates: Nay, I thought, Critobulus, you full
surely were aware that the operations of husbandry, no less
than those of war, lie in the hands of the gods. I am sure
you will have noted the behaviour of men engaged in war;
y
1 a y áv6púTots, “man with his fellow-man,” is the moé d'ordre (cf. the
author's favourite gºv 0eois); “united human effort.”
* “Lashes,” “punishment.” Cf. Anab. II. vi. Io, of Clearchus (Trans.
vol. i. p. 140).
& “The lure of happy prospects.” See Horsemanship, iii. I.
4 Or, “lie waste and barren as the blown Sea-Sand."
* See Virg. Georg. iii. 441 foll. : “Turpis oves tentat scabies, ubi frigidus
imber.”
222 THE ECONOMIST (ºr
how on the verge of military operations they strive to win the
acceptance of the divine powers;" how eagerly they assail the
ears of heaven, and by dint of Sacrifices and Omens seek to
discover what they should and what they should not do. So
likewise as regards the processes of husbandry, think you the
propitiation of heaven is less needed here P Be well assured
(he added) the wise and prudent will pay service to the gods on
behalf of moist fruits and dry,” on behalf of cattle and horses,
sheep and goats; nay, on behalf of all their possessions, great
and small, without exception.
VI.-Your words (Critobulus answered) command my entire
sympathy, when you bid us endeavour to begin each work with
heaven's help,” seeing that the gods hold in their hands the
issues alike of peace and war. So at any rate will we en-
deavour to act at all times; but will you now endeavour on
your side to continue the discussion of economy from the
point at which you broke off, and bring it point by point to its
conclusion ? What you have said so far has not been thrown
away on me. I seem to discern already more clearly, what
sort of behaviour is necessary to anything like real living.4
Socrates replied : What say you then P Shall we first
survey the ground already traversed, and retrace the steps on
which we were agreed, so that, if possible, we may conduct
the remaining portion of the argument to its issue with like
unanimity ?”
Crit. Why, yes! If it is agreeable for two partners in a
business to run through their accounts without dispute, so
now as partners in an argument it will be no less agreeable
to sum up the points under discussion, as you say, with
unanimity.
Soc. Well, then, we agreed that economy was the proper
1 See He/Z. III. i. 16 foll., of Dercylidas.
2 “Every kind of produce, succulent (like the grape and olive) or dry (like
wheat and barley, etc.)."
3 Lit. “with the gods,” and for the sentiment see below, x. To ; Cyrop.
III. i. I 5 ; //?//arch, ix. 3.
4 For Bioregely cf. Pind. Nem. iv. II, and see Holden ad loc.
* Lit. “try whether we can go through the remaining steps with
like . . .”
CH. VI. § 4-ro THE POINTS AGREED UPON 223
title of a branch of knowledge," and this branch of knowledge
appeared to be that whereby men are enabled to enhance the
value of their houses or estates; and by this word “house or
estate’’ we understood the whole of a man's possessions ; and
“possessions” again we defined to include those things which
the possessor should find advantageous for the purposes of
his life; and things advantageous finally were discovered to
mean all that a man knows how to use and turn to good
account. Further, for a man to learn all branches of know-
ledge not only seemed to us an impossibility, but we thought
we might well follow the example of civil communities in
rejecting the base mechanic arts so called, on the ground that
they destroy the bodies of the artisans, as far as we can see,
and crush their spirits.”
The clearest proof of this, we said,” could be discovered
if, on the occasion of a hostile inroad, one were to seat the
husbandmen and the artisans apart in two divisions, and then
proceed to put this question to each group in turn : “Do
you think it better to defend our country districts or to retire
from the fields 4 and guard the walls P” And we anticipated
that those concerned with the soil would vote to defend the
soil; while the artisans would vote not to fight, but, in docile
obedience to their training, to sit with folded hands, neither
expending toil nor venturing their lives.
Next we held it as proved that there was no better employ-
ment for a gentleman—we described him as a man beautiful
and good—than this of husbandry, by which human beings
procure to themselves the necessaries of life.” This same
employment, moreover, was, as we agreed, at Once the easiest
to learn 9 and the pleasantest to follow, since it gives to the
limbs beauty and hardihood, whilst permitting" to the Soul
leisure to satisfy the claims of friendship and of civic duty.
Again it seemed to us that husbandry acts as a spur to
* See above, i. §§ 1, 5, 7, 9. * See above, iv. I foll. p. 213.
* This S 6 has no parallel supra. See Breit, and Schenkl ad ſoc. for
attempts to cure the text.
* See Cobet, N. L. 580, reading jq,épévous, or if &ftegévous transl., “to
abandon.” See below, vi, I6. * See above, iv. 2, p. 213.
° pºorm gaffeſu. Wide infra, not supra; cf. § 6, *
7 Lit. “least allowing the soul no leisure to care for friends and state withal."
224 THE ECONOMIST CH. VI. § ſo-15
bravery in the hearts of those that till the fields,' inasmuch
as the necessaries of life, vegetable and animal, under her
auspices spring up and are reared Outside the fortified
defences of the city. For which reason also this way of life
stood in the highest repute in the eyes of statesmen and
Commonwealths, as furnishing the best citizens and those
best disposed to the common weal.”
Crit. I think I am fully persuaded as to the propriety of
making agriculture the basis of life. I see it is altogether
noblest, best, and pleasantest so to do. But I should like
to revert to your remark that you understood the reason
why the tillage of one man brings him in an abundance of
all he needs, while the operations of another fail to make
husbandry a profitable employment. I would gladly hear
from you an explanation of both these points, so that I may
adopt the right and avoid the harmful course.”
Soc. Well, Critobulus, suppose I narrate to you from the
beginning how I came in contact with a man who of all men
I ever met seemed to me to deserve the appellation of a
gentleman. He was indeed a “beautiful and good” man.*
Crit. There is nothing I should better like to hear, since
of all titles this is the one I covet most the right to bear.
Soc. Well, then, I will tell you how I came to subject him
to my inquiry. It did not take me long to go the round of
various good carpenters, good bronze-workers, painters, sculp-
tors, and so forth. A brief period was sufficient for the con-
templation of themselves and of their most admired works
of art. But when it came to examining those who bore the
high-sounding title “beautiful and good,” in order to find out
what conduct on their part justified their adoption of this title,
I found my soul eager with desire for intercourse with one of
them ; and first of all, seeing that the epithet “beautiful” was
conjoined with that of “good,” every beautiful person I saw,
I must needs approach in my endeavour to discover,” if haply
* Cf. Aristot. Oec. I. ii. 1343 B, Tpós 6é Toºtous K. T.N.
* See above, iv. 3. Cf. Aristoph. A charmians.
° Lincke conceives the editor's interpolation as ending here. See note
to iii. I, above, p. 209 ; Introd. p. xliii.
* Or, “a man ‘beautiful and good,' as the phrase goes.”
* Or, “and try to understand.”
:: *, *). How SOCRATES MET ISCHOMACHUs 225
I might somewhere see the quality of good adhering to the
quality of beauty. But, after all, it was otherwise ordained.
I soon enough seemed to discover 4 that some of those who
in their outward form were beautiful were in their inmost
selves the veriest knaves. Accordingly I made up my mind
to let go beauty, which appeals to the eye, and address myself
to one of those “beautiful and good” people so entitled.
And since I heard of Ischomachus * as one who was so called
by all the world, both men and women, strangers and citizens
alike, I set myself to make acquaintance with him.
VII.-It chanced, one day I saw him seated in the por-
tico of Zeus Eleutherios,” and as he appeared to be at leisure,
I went up to him and, sitting down by his side, accosted
him : How is this, Ischomachus P you seated here, you who
are so little wont to be at leisure ? As a rule, when I
See you, you are doing something, or at any rate not sitting
idle in the market-place.
Nor would you see me now so sitting, Socrates (he
answered), but that I promised to meet some strangers, friends
of mine,” at this place.
And when you have no such business on hand (I said)
where in heaven's name do you spend your time and how do
you employ yourself? I will not conceal from you how
anxious I am to learn from your own lips by what conduct
you have earned for yourself the title “beautiful and good.”"
It is not by spending your days indoors at home, I am sure ;
the whole habit of your body bears witness to a different
sort of life.
Then Ischomachus, smiling at my question, but also, as
it seemed to me, a little pleased to be asked what he had
done to earn the title “beautiful and good,” made answer :
Whether that is the title by which folk call me when they
1 Or, “understand.”
* See Cobet, Pros. Xen. s. n. ; Trans. vol. i. p. lv.
* “The god of freedom, or of freed men.” See Plat. Theag, 259 A.
The scholiast on Aristoph. Plutzas II.76 identifies the god with Zeus Sotér.
See Plut. Dem. 859 (Clough, v. 30).
* “Foreign friends.”
r:
* “The sobriquet of ‘honest gentleman.'"
VOL. III— I Q
226 THE ECONOMIST CH. VII. § 3-6
talk to you about me, I cannot say ; all I know is, when they
challenge me to exchange properties," or else to perform some
service to the state instead of them, the fitting out of a trireme,
or the training of a chorus, nobody thinks of asking for the
beautiful and good gentleman, but it is plain Ischomachus, the
son of So-and-so,” upon whom the summons is served. But to
answer your question, Socrates (he proceeded), I certainly do
not spend my days indoors, if for no other reason, because
my wife is quite Capable of managing our domestic affairs
without my aid.
Ah! (Said I), Ischomachus, that is just what I should
like particularly to learn from you. Did you yourself educate
your wife to be all that a wife should be, or when you received
her from her father and mother was she already a proficient
well skilled to discharge the duties appropriate to a wife P
Well skilled ! (he replied). What proficiency was she likely
to bring with her, when she was not quite fifteen * at the time
she wedded me, and during the whole prior period of her life
had been most carefully brought up 4 to see and hear as little
as possible, and to ask * the fewest questions P or do you not
think one should be satisfied, if at marriage her whole ex-
perience consisted in knowing how to take the wool and make
a dress, and seeing how her mother's handmaidens had
their daily spinning-tasks assigned them P For (he added),
* On the antidosis or compulsory exchange of property, see Boeckh, blº.
iv. ch. xvi. p. 580, Engl. ed. : “In case any man, upon whom a Xetrovpyta
was imposed, considered that another was richer than himself, and therefore
more justly chargeable with the burden, he might challenge the other to
assume the burden, or to make with him an āuttöðats or exchange of property.
Such a challenge, if declined, was converted into a lawsuit, or came before a
heliastic court for trial.” Gow, Companion, xviii. “Athenian Finance.” See
Dem. Against Midias," 565, Kennedy, p. 117, and Appendix II. For the
various liturgies, Trierarchy, Chorégy, etc., see Pol. Aſh. i. 13 foll. (Trans.
vol. ii. p. 279). - -
* Or, “the son of his father,” it being customary at Athens to add the
patronymic, e.g. Xenophon Son of Gryllus, Thucydides son of Olorus, etc.
See Herod. vi. 14, viii. 90. In official acts the name of the déme was added,
e.g. Demosthenes son of Demosthenes of Paiané ; or of the tribe, at times.
Cf. Thuc. viii. 69 ; Plat. Lazws, vi. p. 753 B.
* See Aristot. Pol. vii. 16. 1335°. See Newman, op. cit, i. 170 foll.
* Or, “surveillance.” See Pol. Lac. i. 3 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 296).
* Reading épotto ; or if with Sauppe after Cobet, épotm, transl. “talk at
little as possible,”

cH. vii. § 6-12 OF ISCHOMACHUS AND HIS WIFE 227
as regards control of appetite and self-indulgence," she had
received the soundest education, and that I take to be the
most important matter in the bringing-up of man or woman.
Then all else (said I) you taught your wife yourself,
Ischomachus, until you had made her capable of attending
carefully to her appointed duties?
That did I not (replied he) until I had offered sacrifice,
and prayed that I might teach and she might learn all that
could conduce to the happiness of us twain.
Soc. And did your wife join in sacrifiee and prayer to that
effect?
Asch. Most certainly, with many a vow registered to heaven
to become all she ought to be ; and her whole manner
showed that she would not be neglectful of what was taught
her.” -
Soc. Pray narrate to me, Ischomachus, I beg of you,
what you first essayed to teach her. To hear that story
would please me more than any description of the most
splendid gymnastic contest or horse-race you could give me.
Why, Socrates (he answered), when after a time she had
become accustomed to my hand, that is, was tamed * suffi-
ciently to play her part in a discussion, I put to her this ques-
tion : “Did it ever strike you to consider, dear wife,” what led
me to choose you as my wife among all women, and your
parents to entrust you to me of all men P. It was certainly not
from any difficulty that might beset either of us to find another
bedfellow. That I am sure is evident to you. No! it was with
deliberate intent to discover, I for myself and your parents
in behalf of you, the best partner of house and children we
could find, that I sought you out, and your parents, acting to
the best of their ability, made choice of me. If at some
future time God grant us to have children born to us, we will
1 A/. “in reference to culinary matters.” See Mahaffy, Socia/ Life in
Greece, p. 276.
? Or, “giving plain proof that, if the teaching failed, it should not be
from want of due attention on her part.” See Ae//emica A'ssays, “Xenophon,”
p. 356 foll.
8 (The timid, fawn-like creature.) See Lecky, Hisſ. of Eur. Morals,
ii. 305. For the metaphor cf. Dem. Olynth. iii. 37, 9.
4 Lit, “woman.” Cf. N. T. yūval, St. John ii. 4; xix. 26.
228 THE ECONOMIST CH. VII. § 12-18
take counsel together how best to bring them up, for that
too will be a common interest," and a common blessing if
haply they shall live to fight our battles and we find in them
hereafter support and succour when ourselves are old.” But at
present there is our house here, which belongs alike to both.
It is common property, for all that I possess goes by my
will into the (common fund, and in the same way all that
you deposited * was placed by you to the common fund.*
We need not stop to calculate in figures which of us con-
tributed most, but rather let us lay to heart this fact that
whichever of us proves the better partner, he or she at once
contributes what is most worth having.”
Thus I addressed her, Socrates, and thus my wife made
answer : “But how can I assist you? what is my ability ?
Nay, everything depends on you. My business, my mother
told me, was to be sober-minded !” ”
“Most true, my wife,” I replied, “and that is what my
father said to me. But what is the proof of sober-mindedness
in man or woman P Is it not so to behave that what they
have of good may ever be at its best, and that new treasures
from the same source of beauty and righteousness may be
most amply added ?”
“But what is there that I can do,” my wife inquired,
“which will help to increase our joint estate P”
“Assuredly,” I answered, “you may strive to do as well
as possible what Heaven has given you a natural gift for
and which the law approves.”
“And what may these things be?” she asked.
“To my mind they are not the things of least import-
ance,” I replied, “unless the things which the queen bee
in her hive presides over are of slight importance to the bee
community; for the gods” (so Ischomachus assured me, he
continued), “the gods, my wife, would seem to have exercised
* Or, “our interests will centre in them ; it will be a blessing we share
in common to train them that they shall fight our battles, and . . .”
* Cf. Mem. II. ii. 13. Holden cf. Soph. Ajax, 567; Eur. Sup//, 918.
* Or reading étmvéyko, with Cobet, “brought with you in the way of
dowry.”
* Or, “to the joint estate.”
* “Modest and temperate,” and (below) “temperance.”
CH. VII. § 18-23 THE SPHERE OF THE WIFE 229
much care and judgment in Compacting that twin-system
which goes by the name of male and female, so, as to
Secure the greatest possible" advantage to the pair. [sº
no doubt the underlying principle of the bond is first and
foremost to perpetuate through procreation the races of living
creatures; * and next, as the outcome of this bønd, for human
beings at any rate, a provision is made by which they may
have Sons and daughters to support them in old age.)
“And again, the way of life of human beings, not being
maintained like that of cattle * in the open air, obviously
demands roofed homesteads. But if these same human
beings are to have anything to bring in under cover, some
one to carry out these labours of the field under high heaven 4
must be found them, since such operations as the breaking up
of fallow with the plough, the sowing of seed, the planting of
trees, the pasturing and herding of flocks, are one and all
open-air employments on which the Supply of products neces-
sary to life depends.
“As soon as these products of the field are safely housed
and under cover, new needs arise. There must be some one
to guard the store and some one to perform such operations
as imply the need of shelter.” Shelter, for instance, is needed
for the rearing of infant children; shelter is needed for the
various processes of converting the fruits of earth into food,
and in like manner for the fabrication of clothing out of wool.
“But whereas both of these, the indoor and the outdoor
occupations alike, demand new toil and new attention, to
meet the case,” I added,S God made provision" from the
first by shaping, as it seems to me, the woman's nature for
indoor and the man's for outdoor occupations. Man's body
and soul He furnished with a greater capacity for enduring
heat and cold, wayfaring and military marches ; Or, to repeat,
He laid upon his shoulders the Outdoor º
1 Reading 8tt, or if with Br. &rt . . . at Tó, “with the further intent it
should prove of maximum advantage to itself."
* Cf. (Aristot.) Oecon. i. 3. 3 “And the beast of the field."
4 “Suð dis,” “in the open air.”
5 Or, “works which call for shelter." - *
6 “Straightway from the moment of birth provided." Cf.(Aristot.) Oecon.
i. 3, a work based upon or at any rate following the lines of Xenophon's treatise.
23O THE ECONOMIST CH. VII. § 24-3o
“While in creating the body of woman with less capacity
for these things,” I continued, “God would seem to have
imposed on her the indoor works ; and knowing that He
had implanted in the woman and imposed upon her the
nurture of new-born babes, He endowed her with a larger
share of affection for the new-born child than He bestowed
upon man." TAnd since He had imposed on woman the
guardianship of the things imported from without, God, in
His wisdom, perceiving that a fearful spirit was no detriment
to guardianship,” endowed the woman with a larger measure
of timidity than He bestowed on man. Knowing further that
he to whom the outdoor works belonged would need to defend
them against malign attack, He endowed the man in turn
with a larger share of Courage.
“And seeing that both alike feel the need of giving and
receiving, He set down memory and carefulness between them
for their common use,” so that you would find it hard to
determine whether of the two, the male or the female, has
the larger share of these. So, too, God set down between
them for their common use the gift of self-control, where
needed, adding only to that one of the twain, whether man
or woman, which should prove the better, the power to be
rewarded with a larger share of this perfection. And for
the very reason that their natures are not alike adapted to
like ends, they stand in greater need of one another ; and
the married couple is made more useful to itself, the one
fulfilling what the other lacks. *
“Now, being well aware of this, my wife,” I added, “and
knowing well what things are laid upon us twain by God
Himself, must we not strive to perform, each in the best
way possible, Our respective duties P Law, too, gives her
consent—law and the usage of mankind, by sanctioning the
wedlock of man and wife ; and just as God ordained them
to be partners in their children, so the law establishes their
* éöda aro, Cyrop, IV, ii. 43.
* Cf. Hipparch, vii. 7 ; Aristot. Pol. iii. 2; Oecon. iii.
* Or, “He bestowed memory and carefulness as the common heritage of
both.”
* Or, “the pair discovers the advantage of duality; the one being strong
wherein the other is defective.”
CH. VII. § 30-35 LIKE THAT OF THE QUEEN-BEE 23 I
Common Ownership of house and estate. Custom, moreover,
proclaims as beautiful those excellences of man and woman
with which God gifted them at birth.” Thus for a woman to
bide tranquilly at home rather than roam abroad is no dis-
honour; but for a man to remain indoors, instead of devoting
himself to outdoor pursuits, is a thing discreditable. But if a
man does things contrary to the nature given him by God,
the chances are,” such insubordination escapes not the eye of
Heaven : he pays the penalty, whether of neglecting his own
works, or of performing those appropriate to woman.” ”
I added : “Just such works, if I mistake not, that same
queen-bee we spoke of labours hard to perform, like yours, my
wife, enjoined upon her by God Himself.”
“And what sort of works are these ?” she asked ; “what
has the queen-bee to do that she seems so like myself, or I
like her in what I have to do P”
“Why,” I answered, “she too stays in the hive and suffers not
the other bees to idle. Those whose duty it is to work outside
she sends forth to their labours; and all that each of them brings
in, she notes and receives and stores against the day of need ;
but when the season for use has come, she distributes a just
share to each. Again, it is she who presides over the fabric
of choicely-woven cells within. She looks to it that warp and
woof are wrought with speed and beauty. Under her guardian
eye the brood of young * is nursed and reared ; but when the
days of rearing are past and the young bees are ripe for work,
she sends them out as colonists with one of the seed royal *
to be their leader.”
“Shall I then have to do these things P” asked my wife.
* Or, “with approving finger Stanlps as noble those diverse faculties, those
superiorities in either sex which God created in them. Thus for the woman to
remain indoors is nobler than to gad about abroad.” Tô Ka)\d. . . . ; káX\tov
. ataxwov . . . —These words, with their significant Hellenic connotation,
suffer cruelly in translation.
* Or, “maybe in some respect this violation of the order of things, this
lack of discipline on his part.” Cf. Cyrop. VII. ii. 6.
8 Or, “the works of his wife,” For the sentiment cf. Soph. Oed. Col.
337 foll, ; Herod. ii. 35.
* Or, “the growing progeny is reared to maturity.”
* Or, “royal lineage,” reading tôv étruyóvajv (emend. H. Estienne); or if
the vulg. Tóv étropévov, “with some leader of the host’’ (lit. of his followers).
So Breitenbach,
232 THE ECONOMIST CH. VII. § 35-40
“Yes,” I answered, “you will need in the same way
to stay indoors, despatching to their toils without those
of your domestics whose work lies there. Over those
whose appointed tasks are wrought indoors, it will be your
duty to preside ; yours to receive the stuffs brought in ;
yours to apportion part for daily use, and yours to make pro-
vision for the rest, to guard and garner it so that the outgoings
destined for a year may not be expended in a month. It will
be your duty, when the wools are introduced, to see that
clothing is made for those who need ; your duty also to see
that the dried corn is rendered fit and serviceable for food.
“There is just one of all these occupations which devolve
upon you,” I added, “you may not find so altogether pleasing.
Should any of our household fall sick, it will be your care to
See and tend them to the recovery of their health.” -
“Nay,” she answered, “that will be my pleasantest of tasks,
if careful nursing may touch the springs of gratitude and leave
them friendlier than heretofore.”
And I (continued Ischomachus) was struck with admira-
tion at her answer, and replied : “Think you, my wife, it is
through some such traits of forethought seen in their mistress-
leader that the hearts of bees are won, and they are so loyally
affectioned towards her that, if ever she abandon her hive, not
one of them will dream of being left behind ; ; but one and
all must follow her.”
And my wife made answer to me: “It would much astonish
me (said she) did not these leader's works, you speak of, point
to you rather than to myself. Methinks mine would be a
pretty” guardianship and distribution of things indoors without
your provident care to see that the importations from without
were duly made.” -
“Just so,” I answered, “and mine would be a pretty &
importation if there were no one to guard what I imported.
Do you not see,” I added, “how pitiful is the case of those
unfortunates who pour water into their sieves for ever, as the
story goes,” and labour but in vain P”
* Al. “will suffer her to be forsaken.”
* Or, ‘‘ ridiculous.” * “As laughable an importation.”
* Or, “how pitiful their case, condemned, as the saying goes, to pour water
>
}
...º.º. ) As MISTRESS, wiFE, MOTHER 233
“Pitiful enough, poor souls,” she answered, “if that is
what they do.”
“But there are other cares, you know, and occupations,” I
answered, “which are yours by right, and these you will find
3.9 Fe . This, for instance: to take some maiden who knows
naught of Carding wool and to make her a proficient in the art,
doubling her usefulness; or to receive another quite ignorant
of housekeeping or of service, and to render her skilful, loyal,
Serviceable, till she is worth her weight in gold; or again,
when occasion serves, you have it in your power to requite by
kindness the well-behaved whose presence is a blessing to your
house; or maybe to chasten the bad character, should such an
one appear. But the greatest joy of all will be to prove your-
self my better; to make me your faithful follower; knowing no
dread lest as the years advance you should decline in honour
in your household, but rather trusting that, though your hair
turn gray, yet, in proportion as you come to be a better help-
mate to myself and to the children, a better guardian of our
home, so will your honour increase throughout the household
as mistress, wife, and mother, daily more dearly prized.
Since,” I added, “it is not through excellence of outward
form," but by reason of the lustre of virtues shed forth upon
fhe life of man, that increase is given to things beautiful and
good.””
That, Socrates, or something like that, as far as I may
trust my memory, records the earliest conversation which I
held with her.
VIII.-And did you happen to observe, Ischomachus (I
asked), whether, as the result of what was said, your wife was
stirred at all to greater carefulness P
into a sieve." Lit. “filling a bucket bored with holes.” Cf. Aristot. Oec.
i. 6; and for the Danaids, see Ovid, Met. iv. 462 ; Hor. Carm, iii. II. 25 ;
Lucr. iii. 937; Plaut. Pseud. 369. Cp. Coleridge :
Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And hope without an object cannot live.
* “By reason of the flower on the damask cheek.
* Al. “For growth is added to things ‘beautiful and good,' not through
the bloom of youth but virtuous perfections, an increase coextensive with the
life of man." See Breit, ad loc.
y J
}
jº
234 THE ECONOMIST CH. VIII. § 1-4
Yes, certainly (Ischomachus answered), and I remember
how piqued she was one time and how deeply she blushed,
when I chanced to ask her for something which had been
brought into the house, and she could not give it me. So I,
when I saw her annoyance, fell to consoling her. “Do not be
at all disheartened, my wife, that you cannot give me what I
ask for. It is plain poverty,’ no doubt, to need a thing and
not to have the use of it. But as wants go, to look for
Something which I cannot lay my hands upon is a less painful
form of indigence than never to dream of looking because I
know full well the thing exists not. [Anyhow, you are not to
blame for this,” I added ; “mine the fault was who handed
over to your care the things without assigning them their
places. Had I done so, you would have known not only
where to put but where to find them.” After all, my wife,
there is nothing in, human life so serviceable, nought so
beautiful as order:*
“For instance, what is a chorus P-a band composed
of human beings, who dance and sing ; but suppose the
Company proceed to act as each may chance,—confusion
follows ; the spectacle has lost its charm. How different
when each and all together act and recite 4 with orderly
precision, the limbs and voices keeping time and tune
Then, indeed, these same performers are worth seeing and
worth hearing.
“So, too, an army,” I said, “my wife, an army destitute
of order is confusion worse confounded : to enemies an
easy prey, courting attack ; to friends a bitter spectacle of
wasted power ; * a mingled mob of asses, heavy infantry,
and baggage-bearers, light infantry, Cavalry, and waggons.
t
Now, suppose they are on the march ; how are they to get
along P In this condition everybody will be a hindrance to
* “Vetus proverbium,” Cic, ap. Columellam, xii. 2, 3 ; Nobbe, 236, fr. 6.
* Lit. “so that you might know not only where to put,” etc.
* Or, “order and arrangement.” So Cic, ap. Col. xii. 2, 4, ‘‘dispositione
atgue ordine.” -
* Or, “declaim,” (p6éyyovrat, properly of the “recitative'
Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 238 D.
* Reading &y\evkéo Tatov, or, if with Breit., d.KXeéotarov, “a most in-
glorious spectacle of extreme unprofitableness.”
of the chorus.
CH, VIII. § 4-9 THE BEAUTY OF ORDERLINESS 235
everybody : “slow march side by side with ‘double quick,”
“quick march at cross purposes with ‘stand at ease”;
Waggons blocking Cavalry and asses fouling waggons; baggage-
bearers and hoplites jostling together: the whole a hopeless
jumble. And when it comes to fighting, such an army is not
precisely in condition to deliver battle. The troops who are
Compelled to retreat before the enemy's advance are fully
capable of trampling down the heavy infantry detachments in
reserve.”
“How different is an army well organised in battle order:
a splendid sight for friendly eyes to gaze at, albeit an
eyesore to the enemy. For who, being of their party,
but will feel a thrill of satisfaction as he watches the serried
masses of heavy infantry moving onwards in unbroken order P
who but will gaze with wonderment as the squadrons of
the Cavalry dash past him at the gallop P And what of the
foeman P will not his heart sink within him to see the orderly
arrangements of the different arms : * here heavy infantry and
Cavalry, and there again light infantry, there archers and there
slingers, following each their leaders with orderly precision.
As they tramp onwards thus in order, though they number
many myriads, yet even so they move on and on in quiet
progress, stepping like One man, and the place just vacated
in front is filled up on the instant from the rear.
“Or picture a trireme, crammed choke-full of mariners;
for what reason is she so terror-striking an object to her
enemies, and a sight so gladsome to the eyes of friends P is
it not that the gallant ship sails so swiftly P And why is it
that, for all their crowding, the ship's company" Cause each
other no distress P Simply that there, as you may see them,
they sit in order ; in order bend to the oar; in order recover
the stroke ; in order step on board ; in order disembark.
But disorder is, it seems to me, precisely as though a man
* Or, “whose duty (or necessity) it is to retire before an attack,” i.e. the
skirmishers. A 2. ‘‘ those who have to retreat,” i.e. the nozz-come&afayefs.
* Al, “are quite capable of trampling down the troops behind in their
retreat.” Tovs 8t)\a éxovtas= “the troops proper,” “heavy infantry.”
* “Different styles of troops drawn up in separate divisions: hoplites,
cavalry, and peltasts, archers and slingers.”
* See Thuc. iii. 77. 2.
25
fºr
sº\-
236 THE ECONOMIST CH. VIII. § 9-12
who is a husbandman should stow away" together in one
place wheat and barley and pulse, and by and by when he
has need of barley meal, or wheaten flour, or some condiment
of pulse,” then he must pick and choose instead of laying his
hand on each thing separately sorted for use.
“And so with you too, my wife, if you would avoid this
confusion, if you would fain know how to administer our
goods, so as to lay your finger readily on this or that as you
may need, or if I ask you for anything, graciously to give it
me : let us, I say, select and assign “ the appropriate place for
each set of things. This shall be the place where we will put
the things; and we will instruct the housekeeper that she is to
take them out thence, and mind to put them back again
there; and in this way we shall know whether they are safe
or not. If anything is gone, the gaping space will Cry out as
if it asked for something back.” The mere look and aspect
of things will argue what wants mending; * and the fact of
knowing where each thing is will be like having it put into
one's hand at once to use without further trouble or debate.”
I must tell you, Socrates, what strikes me as the finest
and most accurate arrangement of goods and furniture it was
ever my fortune to set eyes on ; when I went as a sightseer
on board the great Phoenician merchantman,” and beheld
an endless quantity of goods and gear of all sorts, all separ-
ately packed and stowed away within the smallest compass."
I need scarce remind you (he said, continuing his narrative)
what a vast amount of wooden spars and cables * a ship
depends on in order to get to moorings; or again, in putting
out to sea;" you know the host of sails and cordage, rigging"
as they call it, she requires for sailing; the quantity of engines
and machinery of all sorts she is armed with in case she should
* “Should shoot into one place.”
* “Vegetable stock,” “kitchen.” See Holden ad loc., and Prof. Mahaffy,
Old Greek Life, p. 31.
* 60kupuaa tºpºeffa, “we will write over each in turn, as it were, ‘examined
and approved.’” * Lit. “will miss the thing that is not.”
‘‘ Detect what needs attention."
See Lucian, lxvi. “The Ship,” ad in. (translated by S. T. Irwin).
Lit. “in the tiniest receptacle." See below, ix. 2.
See Holden ad loc, re {{ſ}\lva, TAéktó, Kpepad tâ.
“In weighing anchor.”
* “Suspended tackle” (as opposed to wooden spars and masts, etc.).
.
9
cH. VIII. § 12-16 ON BOARD | THE GREAT PHOENICIAN ? 237
encounter any hostile craft; the infinitude of arms she carries,
with her crew of fighting men aboard. Then all the vessels
and utensils, such as people use at home on land, required
for the different messes, form a portion of the freight; and
besides all this, the hold is heavy laden with a mass of
merchandise, the cargo proper, which the master carries with
him for the sake of traffic.
Well, all these different things that I have named lay
packed there in a space but little larger than a fair-sized
dining-room." The several sorts, moreover, as I noticed, lay
so well arranged, there could be no entanglement of one with
other, nor were searchers needed ; * and if all were snugly
stowed, all were alike get-at-able,” much to the avoidance of
delay if anything were wanted on the instant.
Then the pilot's mate *—“the look-out man at the prow,”
to give him his proper title—was, I found, so well acquainted
with the place for everything that, even off the ship,” he could
tell you where each set of things was laid and how many there
were of each, just as well as any one who knows his alphabet."
could tell you how many letters there are in Socrates and the
order in which they stand.
I saw this same man (continued Ischomachus) examining at
leisure 7 everything which could possibly * be needful for the
service of the ship. His inspection caused me such surprise,
I asked him what he was doing, whereupon he answered, “I
am inspecting, stranger,” “just considering,” says he, “the
way the things are lying aboard the ship ; in case of accidents,
you know, to see if anything is missing, or not lying Snug and
shipshape.” There is no time left, you know,” he added, “when
* Lit. ‘‘ a symmetrically-shaped dining-room, made to hold ten couches.”
* Lit. ‘‘ a searcher"; “an inquisitor.” Cf. Shakesp. Rom. and Ju/.
V. ii. 8.
° Lit. “not the reverse of easy to unpack, so as to cause a waste of time
and waiting.”
Cf. Pol. Aſh. i. 1 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 275); Aristoph. A nights, 543 foll.
Or, “with his eyes shut, at a distance he could say exactly.”
Or, “how to spell.” See above, Mem. IV. iv. 7 ; Plat. Alc. i. 113 A.
7 “Apparently when he had nothing better to do ’’; ‘‘ by way of amuse-
ment.”
8 &pa, “as if he were asking himself, ‘Would this or this possibly be
wanted for the ship's service P’” 9 Sir.”
1" Or, “things not lying handy in their places.”
:
238 THE ECONOMIST CH. VIII. § 16-19
God makes a tempest in the great deep, to set about searching
for what you want, or to be giving out anything which is not
snug and shipshape in its place. God threatens and chas-
tises sluggards." If only He destroy not innocent with guilty,
a man may be content; * or if He turn and save all hands
aboard that render right good service,” thanks be to Heaven.”*
So spoke the pilot's mate; and I, with this carefulness of
stowage still before my eyes, proceeded to enforce my thesis:
“Stupid in all conscience would it be on our parts, my wife,
if those who sail the sea in ships, that are but small things,
can discover space and place for everything; Can, moreover, in
spite of violent tossings up and down, keep order, and, even
while their hearts are failing them for fear, find everything
they need to hand; whilst we, with all our ample storerooms"
diversely disposed for divers objects in our mansion, an
edifice firmly based 9 on solid ground, fail to discover fair
and fitting places, easy of access for our several goods ! Would
not that argue great lack of understanding in our two selves?
Well then how good a thing it is to have a fixed and orderly
arrangement of all furniture and gear ; how easy also in a
dwelling-house to find a place for every sort of goods, in
which to stow them as shall suit each best,-needs no further
comment. Rather let me harp upon the string of beauty—
image a fair scene: the boots and shoes and sandals, and so
forth, all laid in order row upon row ; the cloaks, the mantles,
and the rest of the apparel stowed in their own places; the
coverlets and bedding ; the copper caldrons; and all the
articles for table use ! Nay, though it well may raise a
smile of ridicule (not on the lips of a grave man perhaps,
but of some facetious witling) to hear me say it, a beauty like
the cadence of sweet music" dwells even in pots and pans set
1 Or, “them that are slack.” Cf. Anab. V. viii. I 5 ; Mem. IV. ii. 40 ;
Plat. Gorg. 488 A : “The dolt and good-for-nothing.”
* “One must not grumble.” See above, vii. 6.
* “The whole ship's crew right nobly Serving.”
the oar " (metaphorically = to do service to heaven).
* Lit. ‘‘great thanks be to the gods.”
* Or, ‘‘coffers,” “cupboards,” “safes.” -
6 Cf. Amaë. III. ii. 19, “firmly planted on terra /ºrma.”
7 Or, “like the rhythm of a song,” et'puffuov. See Mr. Ruskin's most
appropriate note (Bib. Pasſ. i. 59), “A remarkable word, as significant of the
ūTmpeteſv = “to serve at
gº) OF ORDER IN A HOUSE 239
Out in neat array : and so, in general, fair things ever show
more fair when orderly bestowed. The separate atoms shape
themselves to form a choir, and all the space between gains
beauty by their banishment. Even so some sacred chorus,"
dancing a roundelay in honour of Dionysus, not only is a
thing of beauty in itself, but the whole interspace swept clean
of dancers owns a separate charm.”
“The truth of what I say, we easily can test, my wife,” I
added, “by direct experiment, and that too without cost at all
or even serious trouble.” Nor need you now distress yourself,
my wife, to think how hard it will be to discover some one
who has wit enough to learn the places for the several things
and memory to take and place them there. We know, I fancy,
that the goods of various sorts contained in this whole city far
outnumber ours many thousand times; and yet you have only
to bid any one of your domestics go buy this, or that, and bring
it you from market, and not one of them will hesitate. The
whole world knows both where to go and where to find each thing.
“And why is this?” I asked. “Merely because they lie in
an appointed place. But now, if you are seeking for a human
being, and that too at times when he is seeking you on his
side also, often and often shall you give up the search in
sheer despair : and of this again the reason P Nothing else
save that no appointed place was fixed where one was to
await the other.” Such, so far as I can now recall it, was the
conversation which we held together touching the arrangement
of our various chattels and their uses.
IX.—Well (I replied), and did your wife appear, Ischo-
machus, to lend a willing ear to what you tried thus earnestly
to teach her P
Zsch. Most certainly she did, with promise to pay all
attention. Her delight was evident, like some one's who at
complete rhythm (fiv0.96s) whether of Sound or motion, that was so great a
characteristic of the Greek ideal (cf. xi. 16, pºet appwópitão),” and much more
equally to the point.
* “Just as a chorus, the while its dancers weave a circling dance.”
* Or, “contrasting with the movement and the mazes of the dance, a
void appears serene and beautiful.”
° Lit. “Now whether these things I say are true (i.e. are facts), we can
make experiment of the things themselves (i.e. of actual facts to prove to us).”
24O THE ECONOMIST CH. IX. § 1-5
length has found a pathway out of difficulties; in proof of
which she begged me to lose no time in making the orderly
arrangement I had spoken of.
And how did you introduce the order she demanded,
Ischomachus P (I asked).
Asch. Well, first of all I thought I ought to show her the
capacities of our house. Since you must know, it is not
decked with ornaments and fretted ceilings,’ Socrates; but
the rooms were built expressly with a view to forming the
most apt receptacles for whatever was intended to be put in
them, so that the very look of them proclaimed what suited
each particular chamber best. Thus our own bedroom,” secure
in its position like a stronghold, claimed possession of our
choicest carpets, coverlets, and other furniture. Thus, too, the
warm dry rooms would seem to ask for our stock of bread-stuffs;
the chill cellar for our wine; the bright and well-lit chambers
for whatever works or furniture required light, and so forth.
Next I proceeded to point out to her the several dwelling-
rooms, all beautifully fitted up for cool in summer and for
warmth in winter.” I showed her how the house enjoyed
a southern aspect, whence it was plain, in winter it would
catch the sunlight and in summer lie in shade.* Then I
showed her the women’s apartments, separated from the men's
apartments by a bolted door,” whereby nothing from within
could be conveyed without clandestinely, nor children born
and b by our domestics without our knowledge and con-
sent ºs-no unimportant matter, since, if the act of rearing
children tends to make good servants still more loyally
* Or, “curious workmanship and paintings.” See Mem. III. viii. Io
(above, p. 108). Cf. Plat. Rep. vii. 529 B ; Hiſp. maj. 298 A. See Becker,
Charicles, Exc. i. III.
* Or, “the bridal chamber.” See Becker, op. cit, p. 266. Al. “our
store-chamber.” See Hom. Od. xxi. 9 : -
87, 6’ pºeva, 6a)\apávöe a bu dupttróNovoſt yuvauštv
éayatov, K.T.A.
“And she (Penelope) betook her, with her handmaidens, to the treasure-cham-
ber in the uttermost part of the house, where lay the treasures of her lord,
bronze and gold and iron well wrought.”—Butcher and Lang. Cf. Od. ii. 337;
AZ. vi. 288. * See Mem., III. viii. 8 (above, p. 108).
* See Mem. ib. 9 (above, p. Io9).
* “By bolts and bars.” Lit. “a door fitted with a bolt-pin.” See
Thuc. ii. 4 ; Aristoph. Wasps, 200.
"Cf. (Aristot.) Oecon. i. 5, 6eſ 6é kai ééopampeõevu Taºs Tékuotrottats.
CH. IX. § 5-9 ARRANGEMENT OF FURNITURE 24l
disposed," Cohabiting but sharpens ingenuity for mischief in
the bad.)
When we had gone over all the rooms (he continued),
we at Once set about distributing our furniture * in classes;
and we began (he said) by collecting everything we use in
Offering sacrifice.” After this we proceeded to set apart the
ornaments and holiday attire of the wife, and the husband's
clothing both for festivals and war; then the bedding used in
the women's apartments, and the bedding used in the men's
apartments ; then the women's shoes and sandals, and the
shoes and sandals of the men.” There was one division de-
voted to arms and armour ; another to instruments used for
Carding wool; another to implements for making bread ;
another to utensils for cooking condiments; another to utensils
for the bath ; another connected with the kneading trough ;
another with the service of the table. All these we assigned
to separate places, distinguishing one portion for daily and
recurrent use and the rest for high days and holidays. Next
we selected and set aside the supplies required for the month’s
expenditure ; and, under a separate head,” we stored away
what we computed would be needed for the year." For in
this way there is less chance of failing to note how the supplies
are likely to last to the end. - -
And so having arranged the different articles of furniture
in classes, we proceeded to convey them to their appropriate
places. That done, we directed our attention to the various
articles needed by our domestics for daily use, such as im-
plements or utensils for making bread, Cooking relishes,
spinning wool, and anything else of the same sort. These
we consigned to the care of those who would have to use
them, first pointing out where they must stow them, and
* Lit, “since (you know) if the good sort of servant is rendered, as a
rule, better disposed when he becomes a father, the base, through inter-
marrying, become only more ripe for mischief.”
* “Movable property,’’ ‘‘meadºles.” See above, iii. I 3.
* Holden cf. Plut. De Curios. 515 E, Ös yöp Fevoqêv \é yet toſs
Olkovopºuko's, K.T. A.
* Cf. Cyrop. VIII. ii. 5. See Becker, op. cit, p. 447.
* See Cic. ap. Col., who curiously mistranslates 6txa.
° Schneider, etc., cf. Aristot. Oecon, i. 6.
VOL. III— I R
242 THE ECONOMIST - CH. IX. § 9-14
enjoining on them to return them safe and sound when done
with.
As to the other things which we should only use on
feast-days, or for the entertainment of guests, or on other like
Occasions at long intervals, we delivered them one and all to
Our housekeeper. Having pointed out to her their proper
places, and having numbered and registered 4 the several
sets of articles, we explained that it was her business to
give out each thing as required ; to recollect to whom
She gave them ; and when she got them back, to restore
them severally to the places from which she took them.V.In
appointing our housekeeper, we had taken every pains to
discover some one on whose self-restraint we might depend,
not only in the matters of food and wine and sleep, but also
in her intercourse with men.] She must besides, to please us,
be gifted with no ordinary memory. She must have sufficient
forethought not to incur displeasure through neglect of our
interests. It must be her object to gratify us in this or
that, and in return to win esteem and honour at our hands.
We set ourselves to teach and train her to feel a kindly
disposition towards us, by allowing her to share our joys in
the day of gladness, or, if aught unkind befell us, by inviting
her to sympathise in our sorrow. We sought to rouse in her
a zeal for our interests, an eagerness to promote the increase
of our estate, by making her intelligent of its affairs, and by
giving her a share in our successes. We instilled in her a
sense of justice and uprightness, by holding the just in higher
honour than the unjust, and by pointing out that the lives of
the righteous are richer and less servile than those of the un-
righteous; and this was the position in which she found herself
installed in our household.”
And now, on the strength of all that we had done,
Socrates (he added), I addressed my wife, explaining that
all these things would fail of use unless she took in
charge herself to see that the order of each several part
* Or, “having taken an inventory of the several sets of things.” Cf.
Ages. i. 18 (Trans. Vol. ii. p. 241); Cyrop. VII. iv. 12. See Newman, op. cit.
i. I7I.
* Or, “and this was the position in which we presently established her
herself.”
cH. ix. $ 14-18 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HER MISTRESS 243
was kept. Thereupon I taught her that in every well-
constituted city the citizens are not content merely to pass
good laws, but they further choose them guardians of the
lazys," whose function as inspectors is to praise the man whose
acts are law-abiding, or to mulct some other who offends against
the law. \Accordingly, I bade her believe that she, the mistress,
was herself to play the part of guardian of the laws to her
whole household, examining whenever it seemed good to her,
and passing in review the Several chattels, just as the officer
in command of a garrison * musters and reviews his men.
She must apply her Scrutiny and see that everything was
well, even as the Senate” tests the condition of the Knights
and of their horses.* . Like a queen, she must bestow, accord-
ing to the power vested in her, praise and honour on the
well-deserving, but blame and chastisement on him who stood
in need thereof. )
Nor did my lessons end here (added he); I taught her
that she must not be annoyed should I seem to be enjoining
upon her more trouble than upon any of our domestics with
regard to our possessions ; pointing out to her that these
domestics have only so far a share in their master's chattels
that they must fetch and carry, tend and guard them ; nor have
they the right to use a single one of them except the master
grant it. But to the master himself all things pertain to use
as he thinks best. And so I pointed the conclusion : he
to whom the greater gain attaches in the preservation of the
property or loss in its destruction, is Surely he to whom by
right belongs the larger measure of attention.” -
What, then (I asked), Ischomachus, how fared it? was
your wife disposed at all to lend a willing ear to what you
told her P 6
Bless you," Socrates (he answered), what did she do
* See Plat. Laws, vi. 755 A, 770 C ; Aristot. Fol. iii. I6, I287 A ; iv. I4,
1298 B ; vi. 8, 1323 A ; Ath. Pol. viii. 4; and Cic, ap. Col. xii. 3. Io f.
Holden cf. Cic. de Legg. iii. 20, § 46 ; C. A. G. 3794.
° Lit. Phronerarch, “the commandant."
3 Or, ‘‘Council" at Athens. * Cf. Hiſparch, i. 8, 13.
5 Or, “he it is on whom devolves as his concern the duty of surveillance.”
° Lit. “when she heard did she give ear at all P."
7 Lit. “By Hera !” Cf. the old formula “Marry | " or “By’r lakin "
See note 4, next page.
244 THE ECONOMIST (ºr
\
but forthwith answer me, I formed a wrong opinion if
I fancied that, in teaching her the need of minding our
property, I was imposing a painful task upon her. A
painful task it might have been 4 (she added), had I bade her
neglect her personal concerns ! But to be obliged to fulfil
the duty of attending to her own domestic happiness,” that
was easy. After all it would seem to be but natural (added
he); just as any honest” woman finds it easier to care for
her own offspring than to neglect them, so, too, he could well
believe, an honest woman might find it pleasanter to care for
than to neglect possessions, the very charm of which is that

they are one's very own.
x.—So (continued Socrates), when I heard his wife had
made this answer, I exclaimed : By Hera,” Ischomachus, a
brave and masculine intelligence the lady has, as you describe
her. -
(To which Ischomachus) Yes, Socrates, and I would fain
narrate some other instances of like large-mindedness on her
part : shown in the readiness with which she listened to
my words and carried out my wishes.
What sort of thing P (I answered). Do, pray, tell me,
since I would far more gladly learn about a living woman's
virtues than that Zeuxis" should show me the portrait of the
loveliest woman he has painted.
Whereupon Ischomachus proceeded to narrate as follows:
I must tell you, Socrates, I One day noticed she was much
enamelled with white lead,” no doubt to enhance the
natural whiteness of her skin; she had rouged herself with
1 Lit. “more painful had it been, had I enjoined on her to neglect her
own interests than to be obliged . . ." .
* Tóv olketov dya.0ów, cp. “charity begins at home." See Joel, op. cit.
. 448.
p * Or, “true and honest"; “any woman worthy of the name.” adºppov,
= with the gagpoo ſum of womanhood ; possibly transl. “discreet and sober-
minded.”
* Cf. below, xi. 19 ; Mem. I. v. 5; Symp. iv. 45, 54 ; Plat. Lach, 25
et pass.
* See above, Mem. I. iv. 3.
* Cf. Aristoph. Eccl. 878; iſ. 929, #yxovaſa pā)\\ov Kal Tô orov pupºſóvov,
75. Io'72 ; P/ut. Ioé4.
CH. x. § 2-6 OF MERETRICIOUS ADORNMENT 245
alkanet" profusely, doubtless to give more colour to her cheeks
than truth would warrant; she was wearing high-heeled shoes,
in order to seem taller than she was by nature.”
Accordingly I put to her this question : * “Tell me, my
wife, would you esteem me a less lovable co-partner in our
wealth, were I to show you how our fortune stands exactly,
without boasting of unreal possessions or concealing what we
really have P Or would you prefer that I should try to cheat
you with exaggeration, exhibiting false money to you, or
sham 4 necklaces, or flaunting purples & which will lose their
colour, stating they are genuine the while P”
She caught me up at once : “Hush, hush ' " she said,
“talk not such talk. May heaven forfend that you should
ever be like that. I could not love you with my whole heart
were you really of that sort.”
“And are we two not come together,” I continued,
“for a closer partnership, being each a sharer in the other's
body ?”
“That, at any rate, is what folk say,” she answered.
“Then as regards this bodily relation,” I proceeded,
“should you regard me as more lovable or less did I
present myself, my one endeavour and my sole care being
that my body should be hale and strong and thereby well
complexioned, or would you have me first anoint myself with
pigments," smear my eyes with patches" of ‘true flesh colour,”
and so seek your embrace, like a cheating Consort presenting
to his mistress's sight and touch vermilion paste instead of
his own flesh P”
1 Lit. “enamelled or painted with anchusa or alkaneſ,” a plant, the
wild bugloss, whose root yields a red dye. Cf. Aristoph. /ys. 48; Theophr.
H. P. vii. 8, 3.
* See Becker, op. cit, p. 452 ; Breit. cf. Anab. III. ii. 25; Mem. II. i. 22 ;
Aristot. Eth. AWic. iv. 3, 5, “True beauty requires a great body."
3 Lit. “So I said to her, ‘Tell me, my wife, after which fashion would
you find me the more delectable partner in our joint estate—were I to . . . P
or were I to . . . P’’’
* Lit. ‘‘ only wood coated with gold.”
* See Becker, op. cit, p. 434 f.; Holden cf. Athen, ix. 374, xii. 525 ; Ael,
W. H. xii. 32 ; Aristoph. Plut. 533.
6 ‘‘ Red lead.” 7 Cf. Aristoph. Ach. Io29.
8 divöpetke)\ov. Cf. Plat. Rep, 501 B, “the human complexion"; Craf.
424 E.
246 THE ECONOMIST CH. X. § 6-To
“Frankly,” she answered, “it would not please me better
to touch paste than your true self. Rather would I see your
own “true flesh colour ' than any pigment of that name;
would liefer look into your eyes and see them radiant with
health than washed with any wash, or dyed with any ointment
there may be.”
“Believe the same, my wife, of me then,” Ischomachus
continued (so he told me); “believe that I too am not
better pleased with white enamel or with alkanet than with
your own natural hue ; but as the gods have fashioned
horses to delight in horses, cattle in cattle, sheep in their
fellow sheep, so to human beings the human body pure and
undefiled is sweetest;" and as to these deceits, though they
may serve to cheat the outside world without detection, yet
if intimates try to deceive each other, they must one day be
caught : in rising from their beds, before they make their
toilet; by a drop of sweat they stand convicted ; tears are
an ordeal they cannot pass; the bath reveals them as they
truly are.”
What answer (said I) did she make, in Heaven's name, to
what you said P
What, indeed (replied the husband), save only, that thence-
forward she never once indulged in any practice of the sort,
but has striven to display the natural beauty of her person
in its purity. She did, however, put to me a question :
[...Could I advise her how she might become not in false show
but really fair to look upon 27
This, then, was the counsel which I gave her, Socrates:
Not to be for ever seated like a slave;” but, with Heaven's help,
to assume the attitude of a true mistress standing before
the loom, and where her knowledge gave her the superiority,
bravely to give the aid of her instruction ; where her knowledge
failed, as bravely try to learn. I counselled her to oversee the
baking woman as she made the bread ; to stand beside the
housekeeper as she measured out her stores; to go tours of
inspection to see if all things were in order as they should be.
For, as it seemed to me, this would at once be walking exercise
* See Mem. II. i. 22 (above, p. 45).
* See Becker, p. 491. Breit., etc., cf. Nicostr, ap. Stob. Tif, lxxiv. 61.
:::::::::: *} THE SECRET OF TRUE BEAUTY 247
and Supervision. And, as an excellent gymnastic, I recom-
mended her to knead the dough and roll the paste; to shake
the coverlets and make the beds; adding, if she trained herself
in exercise of this sort she would enjoy her food, grow
vigorous in health, and her complexion would in very truth
be lovelier. The very look and aspect of the wife, the mistress,
seen in rivalry with that of her attendants, being as she is
at Once more fair" and more becomingly adorned, has an
attractive charm,” and not the less because her acts are acts of
grace, not services enforced. Whereas your ordinary fine lady,
seated in Solemn state, would seem to court comparison with
painted Counterfeits of womanhood.
And, Socrates, I would have you know that still to-day
my wife is living in a style as simple as that I taught her then,
and now recount to you.
XI.-The Conversation was resumed as follows: Thanking
Ischomachus for what he had told me about the occupations
of his wife; on that side I have heard enough (I said) perhaps
for a beginning; the facts you mention reflect the greatest
credit on both wife and husband; but would you now in turn
describe to me your work and business? In doing so you will
have the pleasure of narrating the reason of your fame. And
I, for my part, when I have heard from end to end the story
of a beautiful and good man’s works, if only my wits suffice
and I have understood it, shall be much indebted.
Indeed (replied Ischomachus), it will give me the greatest
pleasure to recount to you my daily occupations, and in return
I beg you to reform me, where you find some flaw or other in
my conduct.”
The idea of my reforming you ! (I said). How could I with
any show of justice hope to reform you, the perfect model 4 of
* Lit. “more spotless”; “like a diamond of purest water.” Cf. Shakesp.
Zuccº. 394, “whose perfect white Showed like an April daisy on the grass.”
* Or, “is wondrous wooing, and all the more with this addition, hers are
acts of grace, theirs services enforced.”
* Lit. “in order that you on your side may correct and set me right where
I seem to you to act amiss.” Metappugutoms—remodel. Cf. Aristot. AVic.
Fáh. x. 9. 5.
* Cf. Plat. Rep. 566 A., “a tyrant full grown " (Jowett).
248 - THE ECONOMIST CH. xi. § 3-8
a beautiful, good man–I, who am but an empty babbler,"
and measurer of the air,” who have to bear besides that most
senseless imputation of being poor—an imputation which, I
assure you, Ischomachus, would have reduced me to the
veriest despair, except that the other day I chanced to come
across the horse of Nicias,” the foreigner P I saw a crowd of
people in attendance staring, and I listened to a story which
some one had to tell about the animal. So then I stepped
up boldly to the groom, and asked him, “Has the horse much
wealth P” The fellow looked at me as if I were hardly in my
right mind to put the question, and retorted, “How can a
horse have wealth P” Thereat I dared to lift my eyes from
earth, on learning that after all it is permitted a poor penniless
horse to be a noble animal, if nature only have endowed him
with good spirit. If, therefore, it is permitted even to me to
be a good man, please recount to me your works from first
to last. I promise, I will listen, all I can, and try to under-
stand, and so far as in me lies to imitate you from to-morrow.
To-morrow is a good day to commence a course of virtue,
is it not P
You are pleased to jest, Socrates (Ischomachus replied),
in spite of which I will recount to you those habits and
pursuits by aid of which I seek to traverse life's course.
If I have read aright life's lesson, it has taught me that,
unless a man will first discover what he needs to do, and
seriously study to bring the same to good effect, the gods
have placed prosperity “beyond his reach ; and even to the
wise and careful they give or they withhold good fortune as
seemeth to them best. Such being my creed, I begin with
service rendered to the gods; and strive to regulate my
conduct so that grace may be given me, in answer to my
prayers, to attain to health, and strength of body, honour
in my own city, goodwill among my friends, safety with
1. Cf. Plat. Phaed. 7o C ; Aristoph. Clouds, I48o.
* Or rather, “a measurer of air"—i.e. devoted not to good sound solid
‘‘geometry,” but the unsubstantial Science of “aerometry.” See Aristoph.
Clouds, i. 225; Plat. Apol. 18 B, 19 B ; Symp. vi. 7 (below, p. 333).
* Nothing is known of this person. See Index, s. n.
* “The gods have made well-doing and well-being a thing impossible.”
Cf. Mem., III. ix. 7, 14, above,
CH. XI. § 8-12 THE HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD 249
renown in war, and of riches increase, won without re-
proach.
I, when I heard these words, replied : And are you then
indeed so careful to grow rich, Ischomachus?—amassing wealth
but to gain endless trouble in its management?
Most certainly (replied Ischomachus), and most careful
must I needs be of the things you speak of. So sweet I find
it, Socrates, to honour God magnificently, to lend assistance
to my friends in answer to their wants, and, so far as lies
within my power, not to leave my city unadorned with any-
thing which riches can bestow.
Nay (I answered), beautiful indeed the works you speak
of, and powerful the man must be who would essay them.
How can it be otherwise, seeing so many human beings
need the help of others merely to carry on existence, and
so many are content if they can win enough to satisfy their
wants. What of those therefore who are able, not only to
administer their own estates, but even to create a surplus
sufficient to adorn their city and relieve the burthen of their
friends P. Well may we regard such people as men of sub-
stance and capacity. But stay (I added), most of us are
competent to sing the praises of such heroes. What I desire
is to hear from you, Ischomachus, in your own order," first
how you study to preserve your health and strength of body;
and next, how it is granted to you” to escape from the perils
of war with honour untarnished. And after that (I added), it
will much content me to learn from your own lips about your
money-making.
Yes (he answered), and the fact is, Socrates, if I mistake
not, all these matters are in close connection, each depend-
ing on the other. Given that a man have a good meal
to eat, he has only to work off the effect by toil" directed
rightly ; and in the process, if I mistake not, his health
will be confirmed, his strength added to. Let him but
practise the arts of war and in the day of battle he will
* “And from your own starting-point.” .
* As to the construction 9éuts eiwat see Jebb ad Oed. Col. II91, Appendix.
* See Mem. I. ii. 4 (above, p. 7); Cyrop, I, ii. 16. A/. “bring out the
effect of it by toil.”
250 THE ECONOMIST CH. XI. § 12-17
preserve his life with honour. He needs only to expend his
Care aright, sealing his ears to weak and soft seductions, and
his house shall surely be increased." -
I answered: So far I follow you, Ischomachus. You tell
me that by labouring to his full strength,” by expending care,
by practice and training, a man may hope more fully to Secure
life's blessings. So I take your meaning. But now I fain
would learn of you some details. What particular toil do
you impose on yourself in order to secure good health and
strength P. After what particular manner do you practise
the arts of war P. How do you take pains to create a surplus
which will enable you to benefit your friends and to gratify
the State P
Why then (Ischomachus replied), my habit is to rise from
bed-betimes, when I may still expect to find at Home this, that,
or the other friend, whom I may wish to see. Then, if anything
has to be done in town, I set off to transact the business and
make that my walk; * or, if there is no business to do in town,
my serving-boy leads on my horse to the farm ; I follow, and
so make the country road my walk, which suits my purpose
quite as well, or better, Socrates, perhaps, than pacing up
and down the colonnade.” Then when I have reached the
farm, where mayhap Some of my men are planting trees, or
breaking fallow, sowing or getting in the crops, I inspect
their various labours with an eye to every detail, and, when-
ever I can improve upon the present system, I introduce reform.
After this, as a rule, I mount my horse and take a canter. I
put him through his paces, Suiting these, as far as possible, to
those inevitable in war *— in other words, I avoid neither
Lit. “it is likely his estate will increase more largely.”
Or, “by working off ill-humours,” as we should say.
See Mem. III. xiii. 5 (above, p. 126).
£varg—the 3-ystus, “a covered corridor in the gymnasium where the
athletes exercised in winter." Vitruv. v. II. 4 ; vi. 7. 5. See Rich, Companion,
S. n. ; Becker, op. cit. p. 309. Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 227—Phaedrus log. :
‘‘I have come from Lysias the son of Cephalus, and I am going to
take a walk outside the wall, for I have been sitting with him the whole
morning ; and our common friend Acumenus advises me to walk in the
country, which he says is more invigorating than to walk in the courts.”—
Jowett.
* See Aſorsemanship, iii. 7 foll. ; ib. viii. ; Hipparch, i. 18.
4
CH. XI. § 17-22 A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S PURSUITS 25 I
steep slope nor sheer incline, neither trench nor runnel, only
giving my utmost heed the while so as not to lame my horse
while exercising him. When that is over, the boy gives the
horse a roll,” and leads him homewards, taking at the same
time from the country to town whatever we may chance to need.
Meanwhile I am off for home, partly walking, partly running,
and having reached home I take a bath and give myself a
rub ; * and then I breakfast—a repast which leaves me neither
empty nor replete,” and will suffice to last me through the
day,
By Hera (I replied), Ischomachus, I cannot say how
much your doings take my fancy. How you have contrived
to pack up portably for use—together at the same time—
appliances for health and recipes for strength, exercises for
war, and pains to promote your wealth ! My admiration is
raised at every point. That you do study each of these
pursuits in the right way, you are yourself a standing proof.
Your look of heaven-sent health and general robustness we
note with our eyes, while our ears have heard your reputation
as a first-rate horseman and the wealthiest of men.
Asch. Yes, Socrates, such is my conduct, in return for
which I am rewarded with—the calumnies of half the world.
You thought, I daresay, I was going to end my sentence
differently, and say that a host of people have given me the
enviable title “beautiful and good.”
I was indeed myself about to ask, Ischomachus (I
answered), whether you take pains also to acquire skill in
argumentative debate, the cut and thrust and parry of dis-
cussion,” should occasion call P
Zsch. Does it not strike you rather, Socrates, that I am
* “Slanting hillside.”
* See Horsemanship, v. 3 ; Aristoph. Clouds, 32.
° Lit. “scrape myself clean" (with the at Neyyls or strigil). Cf. Aristoph.
Knights, 580. See Becker, op. cit. p. 150.
* See Lac. Pol. ii. 5 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 299). Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 6, 127 :
pransus mon avide, quantum interpellet inani
ventre diem durare.
Then eat a temperate luncheon, just to stay.
A sinking stomach till the close of day (Conington).
* Lit. ‘‘to give a reason and to get a reason from others." Cf. Cyroſ.
I. iv. 3.
252 THE ECONOMIST CH. XI. § 22-24
engaged in one long practice of this very skill," now pleading
as defendant that, as far as I am able, I do good to many
and hurt nobody ? And then, again, you must admit, I play
the part of prosecutor when accusing people whom I recognise
to be offenders, as a rule in private life, or possibly against
the state, the good-for-nothing fellows.
But please explain one other thing, Ischomachus (I
answered). Do you put defence and accusation into formal
language?”
Zsch. “Formal language,” say you, Socrates ? The fact is,
I never cease to practise speaking; and on this wise : Some
member of my household has some charge to bring, or some
defence to make,” against some other. I have to listen
and examine. I must try to sift the truth. Or there is some
one whom I have to blame or praise before my friends, or I
must arbitrate between some close connections and endeavour
to enforce the lesson that it is to their own interests to be
friends not foes.*. . . We are present to assist a general in
court;" we are called upon to censure some one; or defend
some other charged unjustly ; or to prosecute a third who
has received an honour which he ill deserves. It frequently
occurs in our debates 9 that there is some course which
we strongly favour : naturally we sound its praises; or some
other, which we disapprove of: no less naturally we point out
its defects. -
He paused, then added : Things have indeed now got so
* “The arts of the defendant, the apologist; and of the plaintiff, the
prosecutor.” -
* “Does your practice include the art of translating into words your
sentiments 2 " Cf. Mem. I. ii. 52, above.
* Or, “One member of my household appears as plaintiff, another as
defendant. I must listen and cross-question.”
* The “asyndeton " would seem to mark a pause, unless some words
have dropped out. See the commentators ad loc.
* The scene is perhaps that of a court-martial (cf. Anab. V. viii., Trans.
vol. i. p. 240 ; Dem. c. Timocr. 749, 16). (Al. cf. Sturz, Lex. S. v. “we
are present (as advocates) and censure some general"), or more probably,
I think, that of a civil judicial inquiry of some sort, conducted at a later
date by the Minister of Finance (TẠa Tpatmya rāg étri Tàs a vppeoplas
àpmuévg),
° Or, “Or again, a frequent case, we sit in council" (as members of
the Boulé). See Aristot. Pol. iv. 15.
jº, HIS TRAINING AS A CITIZEN 253
_-
far, Socrates, that several times I have had to stand my
trial and have judgment passed upon me in set terms, what
I must pay or what requital I must make."
And at whose bar (I asked) is the sentence given P. That
point I failed to catch.”
Whose but my own wife's P (he answered).
And, pray, how do you conduct your own case ? (I
asked).”
Not so ill (he answered), when truth and interest corre-
spond; but when they are opposed, Socrates, I have no skill
to make the worse appear the better argument.*
Perhaps you have no skill, Ischomachus, to make black
white or falsehood truth (said I).”
XII.-But (I continued presently), perhaps I am prevent-
ing you from going, as you long have wished to do, Ischo-
machus P
To which he . By no means, Socrates. I should not
think of going away until the gathering in the market is
dispersed."
Of course, of course (I answered), you are naturally most
careful not to forfeit the title they have given you of “honest
gentleman’;" and yet, I daresay, fifty things at home are
asking your attention at this moment ; only you undertook to
meet your foreign friends, and rather than play them false
you go on waiting.
Asch. Let me so far correct you, Socrates ; in no case will
the things you speak of be neglected, since I have stewards
and bailiffs 3 on the farms.
Soc. And, pray, what is your system when you need a
* See Symp. v. 8 (below, p. 331). Al, Ötetxmpºpºvos = “to be taken apart
and have . . . " * Or, ‘‘so dull was I, I failed to catch the point.”
* See Mem. III. vii. 4 (above, p. Ioq); Plat. Euth. 3 E.
* See Plat. Apol. 19-23 D ; Aristoph. Clouds, II4 foll.
* Or, “It may well be, Ischomachus, you cannot manufacture falsehood
into truth.” Lit. “Like enough you cannot make an untruth true.”
° Lit. “until the market is quite broken up,” i.e. after mid-day. See
Anab. I. viii. I ; II. i. 7; Mem. I, i, Io. Cf. Herod. ii. 173; iii. Io.4 ;
vii. 223.
7 Lit. “beautiful and good.”
8 Cf. Becker, op. cit. p. 363.
254 - THE ECONOMIST CH. XII. § 3-8
bailiff P Do you search about, until you light on some
one with a natural turn for stewardship ; and then try to
purchase him P-as, I feel certain, happens when you want a
carpenter : first, you discover some one with a turn for car-
pentry, and then do all you can to get possession of him."
Or do you educate your bailiffs yourself?
\L /sch. Most certainly the latter, Socrates; I try to educate
them, as you say, myself; and with good reason. He who is
properly to fill my place and manage my affairs when I am
absent, my “alter ego,” ” needs but to have my knowledge;
and if I am fit myself to stand at the head of my own business,
I presume I should be able to put another in possession of
my knowledge.”
Soc. Well then, the first thing he who is properly to take
your place when absent must possess is goodwill towards
you and yours; for without goodwill, what advantage will
there be in any knowledge whatsoever which your bailiff may
possess P
Asch. None, Socrates; and I may tell you that a kindly
disposition towards me and mine is precisely what I first en-
deavour to instil.
Soc. And how, in the name of all that is holy, do you
pick out whom you will and teach him to have kindly feeling
towards yourself and yours ?
Zsch. By kindly treatment of him, to be sure, whenever the
gods bestow abundance of good things upon us.
Soc. If I take your meaning rightly, you would say that
those who enjoy your good things grow well disposed to you
and seek to render you some good P
Asch. Yes, for of all instruments to promote good feeling
this I see to be the best.
Soc. Well, granted the man is well disposed to you does
it therefore follow, Ischomachus, that he is fit to be your
bailiff P. It cannot have escaped your observation that albeit
human beings, as a rule, are kindly disposed towards them-
* The steward, like the carpenter, and the labourers in general, would,
as a rule, be a slave. See below, xxi. 9, p. 289.
* Or, “my other self.”
* Lit, “to teach another what I know myself.”
ch. xii. § 3-3 OUALITIES AND TRAINING OF A BAILIFF 255
selves, yet alarge number of them will not apply the attention
requisite to secure for themselves those good things which
they fain would have.
Zsch. Yes, but believe me, Socrates, when I seek to
appoint such men as bailiffs, I teach them also carefulness and
application."
Soc. Nay, now in Heaven's name, once more, how can
that be P I always thought it was beyond the power of any
teacher to teach these virtues.”
Zsch. Nor is it possible, you are right so far, to teach such
excellences to every single soul in order as simply as a man
might number off his fingers.
Soc. Pray, then, what sort of people have the privilege?”
Should you mind pointing them out to me with some distinct-
ness P
Zsch. Well, in the first place, you would have some
difficulty in making intemperate people diligent — I speak
of intemperance with regard to wine, for drunkenness
Creates forgetfulness of everything which needs to be
done.
Soc. And are persons devoid of self-control in this respect
the only people incapable of diligence and carefulness P or
are there others in like case ?
Zsch. Certainly, people who are intemperate with regard to
sleep, seeing that the sluggard with his eyes shut cannot do
himself or see that others do what is right.
Soc. What then P* Are we to regard these as the only
people incapable of being taught this virtue of carefulness P
or are there others in a like condition ?
Zsch. Surely we must include the slave to amorous affection,”
Your woful lover" is incapable of being taught attention to

* étrup.é\eta is a cardinal virtue with the Greeks, or at any rate with
Xenophon, but it has no single name in English.
* For the Socratic problem et àpeth Ötöd. KTú see Grote, H. G. viii. 599.
* Lit. “what kind of people can be taught them P By all means signify
the sort to me distinctly.”
* Or, “What then—is the list exhausted P Are we to suppose that these
are the sole people . . ." -
* See Mem. I. iii. 8 foll, ; II. vi. 22.
* 6vorépores. Cf. Thuc. vi. 13, “a desperate craving " (Jowett).
256 - THE ECONOMIST ch. xii. § 13-18
anything beyond one single object." No light task, I take
it, to discover any hope or occupation sweeterſ to him than
that which now employs him, his care for his beloved, nor,
when the call for action comes,” will it be easy to invent
worse punishment than that he now endures in separation
from the object of his passion.” Accordingly, I am in no great
hurry to appoint a person of this sort to manage *my affairs;
the very attempt to do so I regard as futile.
Soc. Well, and what of those addicted to another passion,
that of gain P Are they, too, incapable of being trained to
give attention to field and farming operations?
Asch. On the contrary, there are no people easier to train,
none so susceptible of carefulness in these same matters.
One needs only to point out to them that the pursuit is
gainful, and their interest is aroused.
Soc. But for ordinary people P Given they are self-
controlled to suit your bidding,” given they possess a whole-
some appetite for gain, how will you lesson them in carefulness P
how teach them growth in diligence to meet your wishes P
Asch. By a simple method, Socrates. When I see a man
intent on carefulness, I praise and do my best to honour him.
When, on the other hand, I see a man neglectful of his duties,
I do not spare him : I try in every way, by word and deed, to
wound him.
Soc. Come now, Ischomachus, kindly permit a turn in
the discussion, which has hitherto Concerned the persons being
trained to carefulness themselves, and explain a point in refer-
ence to the training process. Is it possible for a man devoid
of carefulness himself to render others careful ?
No more possible (he answered) than for a man who
knows no music to make others musical." If the teacher
1. Cf. Symp. iv. 21 foll. ; Cyrop. V. i. 7-18.
* Or, “where demands of business present themselves, and something
must be done.”
3 Cf. Shakesp. Sonneſs, passim.
* Or, ‘‘I never dream of appointing as Superintendent.” See above, iv.
7, p. 214.
° Or, “in matters such as you insist on.”
° Or, “to give others skill in ‘music.’” See Plat. Rep. 455 E ; Laws,
802 B. A.J. “a man devoid of letters to make others scholarly.” See Plat.
Ahaedr. 248 D.
CH. XII. § 18-20-
::::::::: *} CAREFULNESS—THE MASTER’s EYE 257
sets but an ill example, the pupil can hardly learn to do
the thing aright." And if the master’s conduct is suggestive
of laxity, how hardly shall his followers attain to carefulness
Or to put the matter concisely, “like master like man.” I do
not think I ever knew Or heard” telTof a bad master blessed
with good servants. The converse I certainly have seen ere
now, a good master and bad servants; but they were the
sufferers, not he.” No, he who would create a spirit of care-
fulness in º must have the skill himself to supervise
the field of labour ; to test, examine, scrutinise.” He must be
ready to requite where due the favour of a service well per-
formed, nor hesitate to visit the penalty of their deserts
upon those neglectful of their duty.” Indeed (he added), the
answer of the barbarian to the king seems apposite. You
know the story," how the king had met with a good horse,
but wished to give the creature flesh and that without
delay, and so asked some one reputed to be clever about
horses : “What will give him flesh most quickly P” To
which the other: “The master's eye.” So, too, it strikes me,
Socrates, there is nothing like “the master's eye” to call
forth latent qualities, and turn the same to beautiful and good
effect."
XIII.-But now (I ventured), suppose you have presented
strongly to the mind of some one & the need of carefulness
1 Lit. “when the teacher traces the outline of the thing to copy badly.”
For Ötroöeukvěovtos see Mem. IV. iii. I 3 ; Horseme. ii. 2. Cf. Aristot. Oecozz.
i. 6; Aſh. Pol. 4I. I7 ; and Dr. Sandys' note ad loc.
? Or, “but they did not go scot-free”; “punishments then were rife.”
3 Cf. Plat. Polit. 275 E. : “If we say either tending the herds, or manag-
ing the herds, or having the care of them, that will include all, and then we
may wrap up the statesman with the rest, as the argument seems to require.”
—Jowett.
4 Or, “he must have skill to over-eye the field of labour, and be scrutinous.”
* “For every boom of service well performed he must be eager to make
requital to the author of it, nor hesitate to visit on the heads of those neglectful
of their duty a just recompense.” (The language is poetical.)
6 See Aristot. Oecon. i. 6; Aesch. Pers. I65; Cato ap. Plin. H. W. xviii. 5.
Cic, ap. Colum. iv. 18; ib. vi. 21 ; La Fontaine, L'CEil du Mačáre.
7 Or, ‘‘so, too, in general it seems to me ‘the master's eye' is aptest to
elicit energy to issue beautiful and good.”
8 Breit. cf. Pol. Lac. xv. 8 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 324). Holden cf. Plat. Rep.
6oo C.
VOL. III— I * S
258 THE ECONOMIST CH. XIII. § 1-6
to execute your wishes, is a person so qualified to be regarded
as fit at once to be your bailiff P or is there aught else which
he must learn in order to play the part of an efficient bailiff?
Most certainly there is (he answered): it still remains for
him to learn particulars—to know, that is, what things he has
to do, and when and how to do them ; or else, if ignorant
of these details, the profit of this bailiff in the abstract may
prove no greater than the doctor's who pays a most precise
attention to a sick man, visiting him late and early, but what
will serve to ease his patient's pains 4 he knows not.
Soc. But suppose him to have learnt the whole routine of
business, will he need aught else, or have we found at last
your bailiff absolute P”
Zsch. He must learn at any rate, I think, to rule his fellow-
workmen.
What (I exclaimed): you mean to say you educate
your bailiffs to that extent P Actually you make them
capable of rule P
At any rate I try to do so (he replied).
And how, in Heaven's name (I asked), do you contrive
to educate another in the skill to govern human beings P
Asch. I have a very simple system, Socrates ; so simple, I
daresay, you will simply laugh at me.
Soc. The matter, I protest, is hardly one for laughter.
The man who can make another capable of rule, clearly can
teach him how to play the master; and if he can make him
play the master, he can make him what is grander still, a
kingly being.” Once more, therefore, I protest : A man
possessed of such creative power is worthy, not of ridicule,
far from it, but of the highest praise.
Thus, then, I reason,” Socrates (he answered): The lower
* Lit. “what it is to the advantage of his patient to do, is beyond his
ken, Cf. Plat. Rep. 566 D. Or, “the perfect and consummate type of
º e. dpxukós includes (I) 6eatroTukós, i.e. an arbitrary head of any sort, from
the master of one's own family to the Túpavvos kal 6eatrórms (Plat. Laws,
859 A), despotic lord or owner; (2) 3aot)\ukós, the king or monarch gifted
with regal qualities.
* obkočv. “This, then, is my major premiss: the dumb animal . . .
(lit. “the rest of animals”).
1 p.
CH. XIII. § 6-ro THE ART OF RULING OTHERS 259
animals are taught obedience by two methods chiefly, partly
through being punished when they make attempts to disobey,
partly by experiencing some kindness when they cheerfully
submit. This is the principle at any rate adopted in the
breaking of young horses. The animal obeys its trainer,
and something sweet is sure to follow ; or it disobeys, and in
place of something sweet it finds a peck of trouble; and
So on, until it comes at last to yield obedience to the trainer's
every wish. Or to take another instance: Young dogs,”
however far inferior to man in thought and language,” can
still be taught to run on errands and turn somersaults,”
and do a host of other clever things, precisely on this same
principle of training. Every time the animal obeys it gets
Something or other which it wanted, and every time it mis-
behaves it gets a whipping. But when it comes to human
beings Ain man you have a Creature still more open to per-
Suasion through appeals to reason ; * only make it plain to him
“it is his interest to obey.” Or if they happen to be slaves,”
the more ignoble training of wild animals tamed to the lure
will serve to teach obedience. Only gratify their bellies in
the matter of appetite, and you will succeed in winning much
from them." But ambitious, emulous natures feel the spur
of praise," since some natures hunger after praise no less
than others crave for meats and drinks. My practice then is
to instruct those whom I desire to appoint as my bailiffs in
the various methods which I have found myself to be suc-
cessful in gaining the obedience of my fellows. To take an
instance: There are clothes and shoes and so forth, with
which I must provide my workfolk.” Well, then, I see to
l rô Kvvíða possibly implies “performing poodles.”
* Tº Yudºm . . . Tº y\&TTm, i.e. mental impression and expression, “mind
and tongue.”
3 Or, “to run round and round and turn heels over head.” A / ‘‘dive for
objects.”
4 “Logic, argument.” Or, “a creature more compliant ; merely by a
word demonstrate to him . . .”
5 Cf. Plat. Rep. 591 C.
6 See Pater, Plato and Platonism, “Lacedaemon," p. 196 foll.
7 See Cyrop. passim.
8 épyagrīpat, Xenophontic for the common Attic ČpyáTats. See Hold.
ad loc. for similar forms, and cf. Rutherford, AWew Phryn ich?ts, 59.
26o THE ECONOMIST (:::::::::::: *
it that these are not all alike in make ; * but some will
be of better, some of less good quality : my object
being that these articles for use shall vary with the ser-
vice of the wearer ; the worse man will receive the worse
things as a gift, the better man the better as a mark of
honour. For I ask you, Socrates, how can the good avoid
despondency seeing that the work is wrought by their own
hands alone, in spite of which these villains who will neither
labour nor face danger when occasion calls are to receive an
equal guerdon with themselves P And just as I cannot bring
myself in any sort of way to look upon the better sort as
worthy to receive no greater honour than the baser, so, too,
I praise my bailiffs when I know they have apportioned the
best things among the most deserving. And if I see that
some one is receiving preference by dint of flatteries or like
unworthy means, I do not let the matter pass; I reprimand
my bailiff roundly, and so teach him that such conduct is
not even to his interest.
xIV.—Soc. Well, then, Ischomachus, supposing the man is
now so fit to rule that he can compel obedience,” is he, I ask
once more, your bailiff absolute P or even though possessed
of all the qualifications you have named, does he still lack
something P*
Most certainly (replied Ischomachus). One thing is still
required of him, and that is to hold aloof from property and
goods which are his master's ; he must not steal. Consider,
this is the very person through whose hands the fruits and pro-
duce pass, and he has the audacity to make away with them
perhaps he does not leave enough to cover the expenses of
the farming operations ! Where would be the use of farming
the land by help of such an overseer P -
What (I exclaimed), can I believe my ears P You
actually undertake to teach them virtue ! What really,
justice
1. Cf. Aristot. Oecom. i. 5 (where the thesis is developed further).
? Or, “that discipline flows from him "; al. “he presents you with
obedient servants.”
3 Lit. “will he still need something further to complete him P”
CH. XIV. § 3-7 HOW JUSTICE MAY BE TAUGHT 26I
Zsch. To be sure, I do. But it does not follow therefore
that I find all equally apt to lend an ear to my instruction.
However, what I do is this. I take a leaf now out of the laws
of Draco and again another out of the laws of Solon," and so
essay to start my household on the path of uprightness. And
indeed, if I mistake not (he proceeded), both those legislators
enacted many of their laws expressly with a view to teaching this
branch of justice.” It is written, “Zet a man be punished for
a deed of Žeſ: *; “Alef zwhosoever is defected in the act be bound
and thrown in prison "; “If he offer violence,” let him be put
to death.” It is clear that the intention of the lawgivers
in framing these enactments was to render the sordid love of
gain * devoid of profit to the unjust person. What I do,
therefore, is to cull a sample of their precepts, which I sup-
plement with others from the royal code 8 where applicable ;
and So I do my best to shape the members of my house-
hold into the likeness of just men concerning that which
passes through their hands. And now observe—the laws
first mentioned act as penalties, deterrent to transgressors
only; whereas the royal code aims higher : by it not only
is the malefactor punished, but the righteous and just person
is rewarded." The result is, that many a man, beholding
how the just grow ever wealthier than the unjust, albeit har-
bouring in his heart some covetous desires, is constant still
* Cobet, Pros. Xeze. cf. Plut. Solom, xvii. Tpérov gév oëv Toys Apákovros
vópovs diveſ Ne K.T.A. “First, then, he repealed all Draco's laws, except
those concerning homicide, because they were too severe and the punishments
too great ; for death was appointed for almost all offences, insomuch that
those that were convicted of idleness were to die, and those that stole a
cabbage or an apple to suffer even as villains that committed Sacrilege or
murder" (Clough, i. 184). See Aul. Gell. AV. A. xi. 13.
* “The branch of justice which concerns us, viz. righteous dealing between
man and man.”
* For this sense of roºs éyxelpoſuras cf. Thuc. iv. 121 ; Hell. IV. v. 16.
A/. Öeóéa 6at Toys éyxelpoſſivtas Kai 6avaroja flat #v Tus &\@ Totów (Weiske),
“let the attempt be punished with imprisonment”; “let him who is caught
in the act be put to death.” -
* Cf. Plat. Laws, 754 E.
* Or, “the royal laws,” i.e. of Persia. Cf. Anab, I. ix. 16; Cyrop.
I. ii. 2, 3. Or possibly = “regal"; cf. Plat. Minos, 317 C, Tô pièv Öpfföv vópos
éatl 6aot)\akós.
6 Lit, ‘‘benefited.”
262 THE ECONOMIST (ººº-
to virtue. To abstain from unjust dealing is engrained in
him.1
Those of my household (he proceeded) whom, in spite
of kindly treatment, I perceive to be persistently bent on
evil-doing, in the end I treat as desperate cases. Incurable
self-seekers, I exclude them from all intercourse. There
are others,” plain enough to see, whose aspiration lifts them
from earth, so eager are they to be reckoned just men,
not by reason only of the gain derivable from justice, but
through passionate desire to deserve my praise—these in
the end I treat as free-born men. I make them wealthy,
and not with riches only, but in honour, as befits their
gentle manliness.” For if, Socrates, there be one point in
which the man who thirsts for honour differs from him who
thirsts for gain, it is, I think, in willingness to toil, face
danger, and abstain from shameful gains—for the sake of
honour only and fair fame.*
XV. —Soc. But now, suppose, Ischomachus, you have
created in the soul of some one a desire for your welfare ;
have inspired in him not a mere passive interest, but a deep
concern to help you to achieve prosperity; further, you have
obtained for him a knowledge of the methods needed to give
the operations of the field some measure of success; you have,
moreover, made him capable of ruling; and, as the Crowning
point of all your efforts, this same trusty person shows no less
delight, than you might take yourself, in laying at your feet”
earth's products, each in due season richly harvested,—I need
hardly ask concerning such an one, whether aught else is
lacking to him. It is clear to me" an overseer of this sort
* Lit. “Whereby, beholding the just becoming wealthier than the unjust,
many albeit covetous at heart themselves most constantly abide by abstinence
from evil-doing.”
* Lit. “Those, on the other hand, whom I discover to be roused '' (to
honesty—not solely because honesty is the best policy).
* Or, “men of fair and noble type"; “true gentlemen.” This passage
Suggests the “silver lining to the cloud" of slavery.
* Cf. Hom. Il. ix. 413, ÖNeto pièv plot vöatos, dràp k\éos àq,0ttou èo Tat,
“but my fame shall be imperishable.” See Trans. vol. i. Sketch, p. lxxxvi.
° diročeukviðav, i.e. in presenting the inventory of products for the year. Cf.
Hell. V. iii. 17 ; Revenues, ii. 7.
* #öm, at this stage of the discussion.
CH. XV. § I-6 THE COURTESY OF AGRICULTURE 263
would be worth his weight in gold. But now, Ischomachus,
I would have you not omit a topic somewhat lightly handled
by us in the previous argument.”
What topic, pray, was that P (he asked).
Soc. You said, if I mistake not, that it was most important
to learn the methods of conducting the several processes of
husbandry; for, you added, unless a man knows what things
he has to do and how to do them, all the care and diligence
in the world will stand him in no stead.
At this point” he took me up, observing : So what you
now Command me is to teach the art itself of tillage, Socrates ?
Yes (I replied), for now it looks as if this art were one
which made the wise and skilled possessor of it wealthy, whilst
the unskilled, in spite of all the pains he takes, must live in
indigence.
Asch. Now shall you hear, then,” Socrates, the generous
nature of this humane art. For is it not a proof of something
noble in it, that being of Supreme utility, so sweet a craft to
exercise, so rich in beauty, so acceptable alike to gods and
men, the art of husbandry may further fairly claim to be the
easiest of all the arts to learn ? Noble I name it ! this, at any
rate, the epithet we give to animals which, being beautiful and
large and useful, are also gentle towards the race of man.*
Allow me to explain, Ischomachus (I interposed)." Up
to a certain point I fully followed what you said. I under-
stand, according to your theory, how a bailiff must be taught.
In other words, I follow your descriptions both as to how you
make him kindly disposed towards yourself; and how, again,
you make him careful, capable of rule, and upright. But at
that point you made the statement that, in order to apply this
diligence to tillage rightly, the careful husbandman must further
1 Or, “that part of the discussion which we ran over in a light and airy
fashion,” in reference to xiii. 2 (above, p. 258).
* Keeping the vulg. Order of §§ 3–9, which many commentators would
rearrange, in various ways. See Breit. ad loc.; Lincke, op. cit, p. III foll.
3 Or, “Listen, then, and whilst I recount to you at once the loving-
kindness of this art, to man the friendliest.” See below, ch. xviii., xix.
4 Schenkl regards this sentence as an interpolation. For the epithet
'yevyatos applied to the dog see Cyrop, I. iv. 15, 21 ; Hunting, iv. 7.
5 'AAA& . . . See below, § Io, d\\& piv.
264 THE ECONOMIST CH. XV. § 6-II
learn what are the different things he has to do, and not alone
what things he has to do, but how and when to do them.
*—je are the topics which, in my opinion, have hitherto been
somewhat lightly handled in the argument.* Let me make
my meaning clearer by an instance: it is as if you were to tell
me that, in order to be able to take down a speech in writing,”
or to read a written statement, a man must know his letters.
Of course, if not stone deaf, I must have gathered that for a
certain object knowledge of letters was important to me, but
the bare recognition of the fact, I fear, would not enable me
in any deeper sense to know my letters. So, too, at present I
am easily persuaded that if I am to direct my care aright in
tilling I must have a knowledge of the art of tillage. But
the bare recognition of the fact does not one whit provide me
with the knowledge how I ought to till. And if I resolved
without ado to set about the work of tilling, I imagine, I
should soon resemble your physician going on his rounds and
visiting his patients without knowing what to prescribe or what
to do to ease their sufferings. To save me from the like pre-
dicament, please teach me the actual work and processes of
tillage.
Asch. But truly,” Socrates, it is not with tillage as with the
other arts, where the learner must be well-nigh crushed 4
beneath a load of study before his prentice-hand can turn
out work of worth sufficient merely to support him.” The
art of husbandry, I say, is not so ill to learn and Cross-
grained ; but by watching labourers in the field, by listening
to what they say, you will have straightway knowledge enough
to teach another, should the humour take you. I imagine,
Socrates (he added), that you yourself, albeit quite unconscious
of the fact, already know a vast amount about the subject. The
fact is, other craftsmen (the race, I mean, in general of artists)
are each and all disposed to keep the most important" features
1 See above, § 1, p. 263. * Or, ‘‘something from dictation.”
8 See above, ’A\\& . . . § 5. “Nay, if you will but listen, Socrates, with
husbandry it is not as with the other arts.”
* karatpuºvat, “worn out." See Mem. III, iv. I ; IV. vii. 5 (above,
pp. 88, 177). Al. “bored to death.” -
* Or, “before the products of his pupilage are worth his keep.”
6 Or, “critical and crucial.”
:::...'...") AN ART MOST EASY TO LEARN 265
of their several arts concealed : with husbandry it is different.
Here the man who has most skill in planting will take most
pleasure in being watched by others; and so too the most
skilful Sower. Ask any question you may choose about
results thus beautifully wrought, and not one feature in the
whole performance will the doer of it seek to keep concealed.
To such height of nobleness (he added), Socrates, does hus-
bandry appear, like some fair mistress, to conform the soul and
disposition of those concerned with it.
The proem 4 to the speech is beautiful at any rate (I
answered), but hardly calculated to divert the hearer from
the previous question. A thing so easy to be learnt, you
say P then, if so, do you be all the readier for that reason to
explain its details to me. No shame on you who teach, to
teach these easy matters; but for me to lack the knowledge of
them, and most of all if highly useful to the learner, worse
than shame, a Scandal.
XVI.-/sch. First then, Socrates, I wish to demonstrate to
you that what is called * “the intricate variety in husbandry’”
presents no difficulty. I use a phrase of those who, whatever
the nicety with which they treat the art in theory,” have but
the faintest practical experience of tillage. What they assert
is, that “he who would rightly till the soil must first be made
acquainted with the nature of the earth.” -
And they are surely right in their assertion (I replied);
for he who does not know what the soil is capable of bearing,
can hardly know, I fancy, what he has to plant or what to
SOW.
But he has only to look at his neighbour's land (he
answered), at his crops and trees, in order to learn what
the soil can bear and what it cannot.” After which discovery,
1 Or, “The prelude to the piece.”
* “They term "; in reference to the author of Some treatise.
3 Or, “the riddling subtlety of tillage." See below, xvii. 7 ; //em.
II. iii. Io (above, p. 55); Plat. Symp. 182 B ; Phèleb. 53 E.
* Theophr. De Cazas. ii. 4, 12, mentions Leophanes amongst other writers
on agriculture preceding himself.
5 Holden cf. Virg. Georg. i. 53; iv. Io9. According to the commentator
Servius, the poet drew largely upon Xenophon's treatise. See Introd. p. xlix.
266 THE ECONOMIST CH. xvi., § 3-8
it is ill work fighting against heaven. Certainly not by dint of
Sowing and planting what he himself desires will he meet the
needs of life more fully than by planting and sowing what
the earth herself rejoices to bear and nourish on her bosom.
Or if, as well may be the case, through the idleness of those
who occupy it, the land itself cannot display its native
faculty," it is often possible to derive a truer notion from some
neighbouring district than ever you will learn about it from
your neighbour's lips.” Nay, even though the earth lie waste
and barren, it may still declare its nature; since a soil pro-
ductive of beautiful wild fruits can by careful tending be made
to yield fruits of the cultivated kind as beautiful. And on
this wise, he who has the barest knowledge” of the art of
tillage can still discern the nature of the soil.
Thank you (I said), Ischomachus, my courage needs no
further fanning upon that score. I am bold enough now to
believe that no one need abstain from agriculture from fear
he will not recognise the nature of the soil. Indeed, I now
recall to mind a fact concerning fishermen, how as they ply
their business on the seas, not crawling lazily along, nor
bringing to, for prospect's sake, but in the act of Scudding
past the flying farmsteads,” these brave mariners have only to
Set eyes upon the crops on land, and they will boldly pronounce
Opinion on the nature of the soil itself, whether good or bad :
this they blame and that they praise. And these opinions for
the most part coincide, I notice, with the verdict of the
skilful farmer as to quality of soil.”
Zsch. At what point shall I begin then, Socrates, to revive
your recollection" of the art of husbandry P since to explain
to you the processes employed in husbandry means the
statement of a hundred details which you know yourself full
well already.
* Or, “cannot prove its natural aptitude.”
* Or, “from a neighbouring mortal.”
* Or, “a mere empiric in the art of husbandry.”
* Or, ‘‘the flying coastland, fields and farmyards.”
* Lit. “And indeed the opinions they pronounce about “a good soil'
mostly tally with the verdict of the expert farmer.”
° Or, “begin recalling to your mind.” See Plat. Meno, for the doctrine
of Azzamzzésis here apparently referred to.
cH. xvi. § 9-14 OF THE SOIL AND WHEN TO PLOUGH 267
Soc. The first thing I should like to learn, Ischomachus,
I think, if only as a point befitting a philosopher, is this ; how
to proceed and how to work the soil, did I desire to extract
the largest crops of wheat and barley.
Asch. Good, then | you are aware that fallow must be
broken up in readiness" for sowing P
Soc. Yes, I am aware of that.
Asch. Well then, supposing we begin to plough our land
in winter P
Soc. It would not do. There would be too much
mud.
Zsch. Well then, what would you say to summer ?
Soc. The soil will be too hard in Summer for a plough and
a pair of oxen to break up.
Asch. It looks as if spring-time were the season to begin
this work, then P What do you say P
Soc. I say, one may expect the soil broken up at that
season of the year to crumble” best.
Asch. Yes, and grasses * turned over at that season, Socrates,
serve to supply the soil already with manure; while as they have
not shed their seed as yet, they cannot vegetate.* I am Sup-
posing that you recognise a further fact : to form good land,
a fallow must be clean and clear of undergrowth and weeds,”
and baked as much as possible by exposure to the sun."
Soc. Yes, that is quite a proper state of things, I should
imagine.
Asch. And to bring about this proper state of things, do
you maintain there can be any other better system than
that of turning the soil over as many times as possible in
summer ? -
Soc. On the contrary, I know precisely that for either object,
1 Or, ‘‘ploughed up.” Cf. Theophr. Hist. Pl. iii. I. 6; Dion. Hal. Anſ.
X. I7.
* Xeforóat = laxari, dissolvi, to be most friable, to scatter readily.
* “Herbage,” whether grass or other plants, “grass,’’ ‘‘clover,” etc.;
Theophr. Hist, Pl. i. 3, 1 ; Holden, “green crops.”
* Lit. ‘‘ and not as yet have shed their seed so as to Spring into blade.”
* Or, “quitch.”
* Holden cf. Virg, Georg, i. 65, coquat, ii. 260, excoquere. So Lucr.
vi. 962.
268 THE ECONOMIST {: : * º
whether to bring the weeds and quitch grass to the surface and
to wither them by scorching heat, or to expose the earth itself
to the sun's baking rays, there can be nothing better than to
plough the soil up with a pair of oxen during mid-day in
midsummer.
Asch. And if a gang of men set to, to break and make this
fallow with the mattock, it is transparent that their business is
to separate the quitch grass from the soil and keep them
parted P
Soc. Just so l—to throw the quitch grass down to wither on
the surface, and to turn the soil up, so that the crude earth
may have its turn of baking.
XVII.-You see, Socrates (he said, continuing the con-
versation), we hold the same opinion, both of us, concerning
fallow.
Why, so it seems (I said)—the same opinion.
Asch. But when it comes to sowing, what is your opinion P
Can you suggest a better time for sowing than that which the
long experience of former generations, combined with that
of men now living, recognises as the best ? See, so soon as
autumn time has come, the faces of all men everywhere turn
with a wistful gaze towards high heaven. “When will God
moisten the earth,” they ask, “and suffer men to sow their
Seed P” 1
Yes, Ischomachus (I answered), for all mankind must
recognise the precept: * “Sow not on dry soil” (if it can be
avoided), being taught wisdom doubtless by the heavy losses
they must struggle with who sow before God's bidding.
Asch. It seems, then, you and I and all mankind hold one
opinion on these matters P
Soc. Why, yes; where God himself is teacher, such accord
is apt to follow ; for instance, all men are agreed, it is better
to wear thick clothes * in winter, if so be they can. We light
fires by general Consent, provided we have logs to burn.
* See Dr. Holden's interesting note at this point : “According to Virgil
(Georg. i. 215), spring is the time,” etc.
* Or, “it is a maxim held of all men.”
* Or, “a thick cloak.” See Rich, s. v. Pallium (= tudºrtov).
CH. XVII. § 4-8 OF SOWING 269
Yet as regards this very period of seed-time (he made
answer), Socrates, we find at once the widest difference of
Opinion upon one point : as to which is better, the early, or
the later,” or the middle sowing P
Soc. Just So, for neither does God guide the year in one
set fashion, but irregularly, now suiting it to early sowing best,
and now to middle, and again to later.
Zsch. But what, Socrates, is your opinion ? Were it better
for a man to choose and turn to sole account a single sowing
Season, be it much he has to sow or be it little P or would you
have him begin his sowing with the earliest season, and sow
right on Continuously until the latest ?
And I, in my turn, answered : I should think it best,
Ischomachus, to use indifferently the whole sowing season.”
Far better” to have enough of corn and meal at any moment
and from year to year, than first a superfluity and then
perhaps a Scant supply.
Zsch. Then, on this point also, Socrates, you hold a like
Opinion with myself—the pupil with the teacher ; and what is
more, the pupil was the first to give it utterance.
So far, so good (I answered). Is there a subtle art in
scattering the seed P
Zsch. Let us by all means investigate that point. That
the seed must be cast by hand, I presume you know yourself?
Soc. Yes, by the testimony of my eyes.*
Zsch. But as to actual scattering, some can scatter evenly,
others cannot.”
Soc. Does it not come to this, the hand needs practice
(like the fingers of a harp-player) to obey the will?
Asch. Precisely so, but now suppose the soil is light in one
part and heavy in another P
* See Holden ad loc. Sauppe, Lex. Xen., notes §pupos as Ionic and poet.
See also Rutherford, AWew Phryn. p. 124 : “First met with in a line of the
Iliad (ii. 325), 6 pupos does not appear till late Greek except in the Oeconomicus,
a disputed work of Xenophon.”
* Or, “share in the entire period of seed time.” Zeune cf. Geop. ii. 14.8 ;
Mr. Ruskin's translators, Bib/. Past, vol. i. ; cf. Eccles. xi. 6.
* Lit. “according to my tenet,” vopºlša.
* Lit. “Yes, for I have seen it done.’
* Holden cf. W. Harte, Essays on Husbandry, p. 210, 2nd ed., “The
main perfection of sowing is to disperse the seeds equally.”
27o THE ECONOMIST CH. XVII. § 8-II
Soc. I do not follow ; by “light” do you mean weak P
and by “heavy "strong?
Zsch. Yes, that is what I mean. And the question which
I put to you is this : Would you allow both sorts of soil an
equal share of seed P or which the larger ?"
Soc. The stronger the wine the larger the dose of water
to be added, I believe. The stronger, too, the man the
heavier the weight we lay upon his back to carry : or if
it is not porterage, but people to support, there still my
tenet holds : the broader and more powerful the great man's
shoulders, the more mouths I should assign to him to feed.
But perhaps a weak soil, like a lean pack-horse,” grows
stronger the more corn you pour into it. This I look to you
to teach me.” -
With a laugh, he answered : Once more you are pleased
to jest. Yet rest assured of one thing, Socrates: if after you
have put seed into the ground, you will await the instant when,
while earth is being richly fed from heaven, the fresh green
from the hidden seed first springs, and take and turn it back
again,” this sprouting germ will serve as food for earth ; as
from manure an inborn strength will presently be added to
the soil. But if you suffer earth to feed the seed of corn
within it and to bring forth fruit in an endless round, at last"
it will be hard for the weakened soil to yield large corn crops,
even as a weak sow can hardly rear a large litter of fat pigs.
Soc. I understand you to say, Ischomachus, that the
weaker soil must receive a scantier dose of seed?
/sch. Most decidedly I do, and you on your side, Socrates,
I understand, give your Consent to this opinion in stating your
belief that the weaker the shoulders the lighter the burdens
to be laid on them.
1 See Theophr. Hist. Pl. viii. 6. 2.; Virg. Georg. ii. 275. Holden cf. Adam
Dickson, Husbandry of the Ancients, vol. ii. 35. 33 f. (Edin. 1788), “Were
the poor light land in Britain managed after the manner of the Roman hus-
bandry, it would certainly require much less seed than under its present
management.”
2 Or, “lean cattle.”
& Or, “Will you please answer me that question, teacher P’’
* “If you will plough the seedlings in again.” t
* 6t& TéNovs . . . is réAos, “continually . . . in the end.” See refer-
ences in Holden's fifth edition.
CH. XVII. § 12-15 OF HOEING AND WEEDING 27 I
Soc. But those hoers with their hoes, Ischomachus, tell
me for what reason you let them loose 4 upon the corn.
Zsch. You know, I daresay, that in winter there are heavy
rains P2
Soc. To be sure, I do.
Zsch. We may suppose, then, that a portion of the corn is
buried by these floods beneath a coat of mud and slime, or
else that the roots are laid quite bare in places by the torrent.
By reason of this same drench, I take it, oftentimes an under-
growth of weeds springs up with the corn and chokes it.
Soc. Yes, all these ills are likely enough to happen.
Asch. Are you not agreed the corn-fields sorely need relief
at such a season P
Soc. Assuredly.
Asch. Then what is to be done, in your opinion ? How
shall we aid the stricken portion lying mud-bedabbled P
Soc. How better than by lifting up and lightening the
Soil P -
Zsch. Yes! and that other portion lying naked to the roots
and defenceless, how aid it P
Soc. Possibly by mounding up fresh earth about it.”
Zsch. And what when the weeds spring up together with
the corn and choke it P or when they rob and ruthlessly devour
the corn's proper sustenance, like unserviceable drones 4 that
rob the working bees of honey, pilfering the good food which
they have made and stored away with labour: what must
we do P
Soc. In good sooth, there can be nothing for it save to cut
out the noisome weed, even as drones are cleared out from
the hive.
Zsch. You agree there is some show of reason for letting
in these gangs of hoers ?
Soc. Most true. And now I am turning over in my
mind,” Ischomachus, how grand a thing it is to introduce a
1. Cf. Revenues, iv. 5 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 335).
2 “And melting snows, much water every way,”
8 “Scraping up a barrier of fresh earth about it." See below, xix. § 11.
4 Cf. Shakesp. “Lazy yawning drones,” Henry V. I. ii. 204.
5
Or, “I was just this moment pondering the virtue of a happy illustra-
tion.” Lit. “what a thing it is to introduce an ‘image ' (Tós elkóvas) well.”
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272 THE ECONOMIST {:::::::::.
simile or such like figure well and aptly. No sooner had you
mentioned the word “drones” than I was filled with rage
against those miserable weeds, far more than when you merely
spoke of weeds and undergrowth.
xvi.II.-But, not to interrupt you further (I continued),
after sowing, naturally we hope to come to reaping. If, there-
fore, you have anything to say on that head also, pray pro-
ceed to teach me.
Asch. Yes, by all means, unless indeed you prove on
this head also to know as much yourself already as your
teacher. To begin then : You know that corn needs
cutting P
Soc. To be sure, I know that much at any rate.
Asch. Well, then, the next point : in the act of cutting
corn how will you choose to stand P facing the way the wind
blows," or against the wind P
Soc. Not against the wind, for my part. Eyes and hands
must suffer, I imagine, if one stood reaping face to face with
husks and particles of straw.”
Zsch. And should you merely sever the ears at top, or
reap close to the ground P* -
If the stalk of corn were short (I answered), I should cut
down close, to secure a sufficient length of straw to be of
use. But if the stalk be tall, you would do right, I hold, to
cut it half-way down, whereby the thresher and the winnower
will be saved some extra labour (which both may well be
spared).4 The stalk left standing in the field, when burnt
down (as burnt it will be, I presume), will help to benefit
the soil; * and laid on as manure, will serve to swell the
volume of manure."
See Plat. Rep. 487 E, 6t' elkövos, “in a parable” (Jowett); Phaed. 87 B, “a
figure”; Aristoph. Clouds, 559 ; Plat. Phaedr. 267 C ; Aristot. Rhet. III, iv.
As to the drones, J. J. Hartman, An. X. I85, aptly cf. Aristoph. Wasps, III.4 f.
1 Lit. “(on the side) where the wind blows or right opposite.”
* i.e. “with particles of Straw and beards of corn blowing in one's face.”
* See Holden ad loc.; Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, Husbandry, 27 (ed. 1767),
“In Somersetshire . . . they do share theyr wheate very lowe. . . .
* Lit. “will be spared superfluous labour on what they do not want.”
* Al. “if burnt down . . . ; if laid on as manure . . .”
* “Help to swell the bulk” (Holden). For the custom see Virg. Georg.
CH. xviii. § 3-7 OF REAPING, THRESHING, WINNOWING 273
Zsch. There, Socrates, you are detected “in the very act”;
you know as much about reaping as I do myself.
It looks a little like it (I replied). But I would fain
discover whether I have sound knowledge also about threshing.
/sch. Well, I suppose you are aware of this much : corn
is threshed by beasts of burthen P1
Soc. Yes, I am aware of that much, and beast of burthen
is a general name including oxen, horses, mules, and so forth.”
Asch. Is it your opinion that these animals know more
than merely how to tread the corn while driven with the goad P
Soc. What more can they know, being beasts of burthen P
Asch. Some one must see, then, that the beasts tread out
only what requires threshing and no more, and that the thresh-
ing is done evenly itself: to whom do you assign that duty,
Socrates ? -
Soc. Clearly it is the duty of the threshers who are in
charge.” It is theirs to turn the sheaves, and ever and again
to push the untrodden corn under the creatures’ feet; and
thus, of course, to keep the threshing-floor as smooth, and finish
off the work as fast, as possible.
Asch. Your comprehension of the facts thus far, it seems,
keeps pace with mine.
Soc. Well, after that, Ischomachus, we will proceed to
cleanse the corn by winnowing.” .
Asch. Yes, but tell me, Socrates ; do you know that
if you begin the process from the windward portion (of
the threshing-floor), you will find your chaff is carried over
the whole area.
Soc. It must be so.
Asch. Then it is more than likely the chaff will fall upon
the corn.
i. 84; J. Tull, op. cit. ix. I41 : “The custom of burning the stubble on the
rich plains about Rome continues to this time.”
1 Holden cf. Dr. Davy, Notes and Observations on the Zonian /slands.
“The grain is beaten out, commonly in the harvest field, by men, horses, or
mules, on a threshing-floor prepared extempore for the purpose, where the
ground is firm and dry, and the chaff is separated by winnowing,"—
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, ii. 4I foll.
* See Varro, i. 52, as to trițura and ventilatio.
3 Or, “to the over-threshers,” “the drivers" (Holden).
* Breit. cf. Colum, de r. 2., ii. Io, I4, 21 ; vide Rich, S.V. ventilabru/t.
WOL. III— I T
274 THE ECONOMIST CH. XVIII. § 7-9
Soc. Yes, considering the distance," the chaff will hardly
be carried across the corn into the empty portion of the
threshing-floor.
Zsch. But now, suppose you begin winnowing on the “lee’’
side of the threshing-floor?”
Soc. It is clear the chaff will at once fall into the chaff.
receiver.3
Asch. And when you have cleansed the corn over half the
floor, will you proceed at once, with the corn thus strewn in
front of you, to winnow the remainder,” or will you first pack
the clean grain into the narrowest space against the central
pillar? "
Soc. Yes, upon my word | first pack together the clean
grain, and proceed. My chaff will now be carried into the
empty portion of the floor, and I shall escape the need of
winnowing twice over.”
Zsch. Really, Socrates, you are fully competent yourself,
it seems, to teach an ignorant world" the speediest mode of
winnowing.
Soc. It seems, then, as you say,” I must have known about
these matters, though unconsciously ; and here I stand and
beat my brains,” reflecting whether after all I may not know
some other things—how to refine gold and play the flute and
paint pictures—without being conscious of the fact. Certainly,
as far as teaching goes, no one ever taught me these, no more
than husbandry; while, as to using my own eyes, I have
! Lit. “it is a long space for the chaff to be carried.” Al. (1) “It is of
great consequence the chaff should be carried beyond the corn.” (2) “It
often happens that the corn is blown not only on to the corn, but over and
beyond it into the empty portion of the threshing-floor.” So Breit.
? Or, ‘‘ on the side of the threshing-floor opposite the wind.” Al.
“protected from the wind.”
* A hollowed-out portion of the threshing-floor, according to Breitenbach.
* Lit. “ of the chaff,” where we should say “corn,” the winnowing
process separating chaff from grain and grain from chaff.
* If that is the meaning of Töv TóNov. Al, “the outer edge or rim of
the threshing-floor.” wº
° Or, “the same chaff (i.e. unwinnowed corn, Angl, corn) twice.”
7 Lit. “After all, Socrates, it seems you could even teach another how to
purge his corn most expeditiously.” -
* See above, xv. Io, p. 264.
9 Lit. ‘‘ all this while, I am thinking whether . . .”
::::::::::, ; OF PLANTING FRUIT-TREES 275
watched men working at the other arts no less than I have
watched them till the soil.
Asch. Did I not tell you long ago that of all arts husbandry
was the noblest," the most generous, just because it is the
easiest to learn ?
Soc. That it is without a doubt, Ischomachus. It seems
I must have known the processes of sowing, without being
conscious of my knowledge.”
XIX. —Soc. (continuing). But may I ask, is the planting of
trees” a department in the art of husbandry P
Asch. Certainly it is.
Soc. How is it, then, that I can know about the processes of
sowing and at the same time have no knowledge about planting P
Isch. Is it so certain that you have no knowledge P
Soc. How can you ask me P when I neither know the
sort of soil in which to plant, nor yet the depth of hole + the
plant requires, nor the breadth, or length of ground in which
it needs to be embedded; * nor lastly, how to lay the plant
in earth, with any hope of fostering its growth."
Asch. Come, then, to lessons, pupil, and be taught whatever
you do not know already You have seen, I know, the sort
of trenches which are dug for plants P
Soc. Hundreds of times. -
Asch. Did you ever see one more than three feet deep P
Soc. No, I do not think I ever saw one more than two
and a half feet deep.
Zsch. Well, as to the breadth now. Did you ever see a
trench more than three feet broad P7
* See above, xv. 4.
? Or, “but for all my science, I was ignorant (of knowing my own know-
ledge).”
3 i.e. of fruit-trees, the vine, olive, fig, etc.
4 Reading rig purg, “nor yet how deep or broad to sink (the hole) for
the plant.” Holden (ed. 1886) supplies 660Vuov. Al. 666pov.
* See Loudon, Encycl. of Agric. § 407, ap. Holden : “In France planta-
tions of the vine are made by dibbling in cuttings of two feet in length ;
pressing the earth firmly to their lower end, an essential part of the operation,
noticed even by Xenophon.”
6 Lit. “how, laid in the soil, the plant will best shoot forth or grow.”
7 Or, “width,” “wide.” The commentators cf. Plin. H. AV. xvii. II, I6,
22 ; Columell. v. 5, 2 ; 20, iii. I5. 2; Virg, Georg, ii. 288.
276 THE ECONOMIST CH. XIx, $ 3-8
Soc. No, upon my word, not even more than two feet
broad.
Zsch. Good now answer me this question : Did you ever
see a trench less than one foot deep P
Soc. No, indeed nor even less than one foot and a half.
Why, the plants would be no sooner buried than dug out
again, if planted so extremely near the surface. -
Asch. Here, then, is one matter, Socrates, which you know
as well as any one." The trench is not to be sunk deeper
than two feet and a half, or shallower than one foot and a
half.
Soc. Obviously, a thing so plain appeals to the eye at
O11Ce. -
Zsch. Can you by eyesight recognise the difference between
a dry soil and a moist?
Soc. I should certainly select as dry the soil round Lyca-
bettus,” and any that resembles it ; and as moist, the soil in
the marsh meadows of Phalèrum,” or the like.
Zsch. In planting, would you dig (what I may call) deep
trenches in a dry soil or a moist P
Soc. In a dry soil certainly ; at any rate, if you set
about to dig deep trenches in the moist you will come to
water, and there and then an end to further planting.
Zsch. You could not put it better. We will suppose,
then, the trenches have been dug. Does your eyesight take
you further P4 Have you noticed at what season in either
case ? the plants must be embedded ?
Soc. Certainly."
1 Lit. “quite adequately.”
* See Leake, Topog. of Athens, i. 209.
3 Or, “the Phaleric marsh-land.” See Leake, 26. 231, 427 ; ii. 9.
* Lit. “As soon as the trenches have been dug then, have you further
noticed . . .”
* (1) The vulg. reading ÖTmvika . . . Škárepa - “at what precise time
. either (i.e. ‘the two different' kinds of) plant,” i.e. “vine and
olive” or “vine and fig,” I suppose; (2) Breit, emend. ÓTotépa . . . ev
ékatépg. = “which kind of plant . . . in either soil . . . .” ; (3) Schenkl,
etc., ÖTºmułka . . . e.v čkarépg= “at what season . . . in each of the two
sorts of soil . . .”
° There is an obvious lacuna either before or after this remark, or at both
places.
CH. XIX. § 8-II THE VINE, AND FIG-TREE 277
Zsch. Supposing, then, you wish the plants to grow as fast
as possible : how will the cutting strike and sprout, do you
suppose, most readily P-after you have laid a layer of soil
already worked beneath it, and it merely has to penetrate soft
mould P or when it has to force its way through unbroken
soil into the solid ground P
Soc. Clearly it will shoot through soil which has been
worked more quickly than through unworked soil.
Asch. Well then, a bed of earth must be laid beneath the
plant P
Soc. I quite agree ; so let it be.
Zsch. And how do you expect your cutting to root best ?
—if set straight up from end to end, pointing to the sky P*
or if you set it slantwise under its earthy covering, so as to lie
like an inverted gamma 2%
Soc. Like an inverted gamma, to be sure, for so the plant
must needs have more eyes under ground. Now it is from
these same eyes of theirs, if I may trust my own,” that plants
put forth their shoots above ground. I imagine, therefore, the
eyes still underground will do the same precisely, and with so
many buds all springing under earth, the plant itself, I argue,
as a whole will sprout and shoot and push its way with speed
and vigour.
Zsch. I may tell you that on these points, too, your
judgment tallies with my own. But now, should you content
yourself with merely heaping up the earth, or will you press
it firmly round your plant P
Soc. I should certainly press down the earth; for if the
earth is not pressed down, I know full well that at one time
under the influence of rain the unpressed soil will turn to clay
or mud ; at another, under the influence of the sun, it will
1 Lit. “if you set the whole cutting straight up, facing heavenwards.”
* i.e. Anglice, “like the letter T (or L) upon its back.” See Lord Bacon,
AWat. Hist. Cent. v. 426 : “When you would have many new roots of
fruit-trees, take a low tree and bow it and lay all his branches aflat upon
the ground and cast earth upon them ; and every twig will take root.
And this is a very profitable experiment for costly trees (for the boughs will
make stock without charge), such as are apricots, peaches, almonds, cornelians,
mulberries, figs, etc. The like is continually practised with vines, roses,
musk roses, etc.”
° Lit. “it is from their eyes, I see, that plants . . .
278 THE ECONOMIST CH. XIX. § 11-13
turn to sand or dust to the very bottom : so that the poor
plant runs a risk of being first rotted with moisture by the
rain, and next of being shrivelled up with drought through
overheating of the roots." *
Asch. So far as the planting of vines is concerned, it
appears, Socrates, that you and I again hold views precisely
similar.
And does this method of planting apply also to the fig-tree?
(I inquired).
Zsch. Surely, and not to the fig-tree alone, but to all the
rest of fruit-trees.” What reason indeed would there be for
rejecting in the case of other plant-growths & what is found to
answer so well with the vine P
Soc. How shall we plant the olive, pray, Ischomachus P
Zsch. I see your purpose. You ask that question with a
view to put me to the test,” when you know the answer
yourself as well as possible. You can see with your own eyes *
that the olive has a deeper trench dug, planted as it is so
commonly by the side of roads. You can see that all the
young plants in the nursery adhere to stumps." And lastly,
you can see that a lump of clay is placed on the head of
* Through “there being too much bottom heat.” Holden (ed. 1886).
* &Kpóðpva = ‘‘ edible fruits” in Xenophon's time. See Plat. Criti. II 5 B ;
Dem. c. AWicostr. 1251 ; Aristot. Hist. An. viii. 28. 8, oùT' dºpdépua ott'
ôTúpa Xpóvtos ; Theophr. H. Pl. iv. 4. II. (At a later period, see Geopon.
x. 74, − “fruits having a hard rind or shell,” e.g. nuts, acorns, as opposed to
pears, apples, grapes, etc., ÖTúpa). See further the interesting regulations in
Plat. Laws, 844 D, 845 C. * Lit. “planting in general.”
* Plat. Prof. 3II B, 349 C ; Theaet. I 57 C : “I cannot make out
whether you are giving your own opinion, or only wanting to draw me out ’’
(Jowett).
* See above, §§ 5-Io. For the advantage, see Geopon. iii. II. 2.
* Holden cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 30—
quin et caudicibus sectis, mirabile dictu,
truditure sicco radix oleagina ligno.
The stock in slices cut, and forth shall shoot,
O passing strange from each dry slice a root (Holden).
See John Martyn ad loc. : “La Cerda says, that what the Poet here speaks of
was practised in Spain in his time. They take the trunk of an olive, says he,
deprive it of its root and branches, and cut it into several pieces, which they
put into the ground, whence a root and, soon afterwards, a tree is formed.”
This mode of propagating by dry pieces of the trunk (with bark on) is not to
be confounded with that of “truncheons” mentioned in Georg. ii. 63.
CH. XIX. § 13-16 THE OLIVE 279
every plant," and the portion of the plant above the soil is
protected by a wrapping.”
Soc. Yes, all these things I see.
Asch. Granted, you see: what is there in the matter that
you do not understand P Perhaps you are ignorant how you
are to lay the potsherd on the clay at top P
Soc. No, in very sooth, not ignorant of that, Ischomachus,
or anything you mentioned. That is just the puzzle, and
again I beat my brains” to discover why, when you put to
me that question a while back : “Had I, in brief, the know-
ledge how to plant?” I answered, “No.” Till then it
never would have struck me that I could say at all how
planting must be done. But no sooner do you begin to
question me on each particular point than I can answer
you ; and what is more, my answers are, you tell me, accord-
ant with the views of an authority 4 at once so skilful and so
celebrated as yourself. Really, Ischomachus, I am disposed to
ask : “Does teaching consist in putting questions P” ” Indeed,
the secret of your system has just this instant dawned upon
me. I seem to see the principle on which you put your
questions. You lead me through the field of my own know-
ledge,” and then by pointing out analogies" to what I know,
persuade me that I really know some things which hitherto, as
I believed, I had no knowledge of.
Asch. Do you suppose if I began to question you Con-
cerning money and its quality,” I could possibly persuade
you that you know the method to distinguish good from false
coin P Or could I, by a string of questions about flute-players,
painters, and the like, induce you to believe that you yourself
know how to play the flute, or paint, and so forth P
! See Theophr. H. Pl. ii. 2, 4 ; de Caus. iii 5, I ; Geopon, ix. II, 4, ap.
Hold. ; Col. v. 9. I ; xi. 2, 42.
2 Or, “covered up for protection.” * See above, xviii. 9.
4 Or, “whose skill in farming is proverbial.”
5 Lit. “Is questioning after all a kind of teaching 2" See Plat. Meno;
Mem. IV. vi. I 5.
6 It appears, then, that the Xenophontean Socrates has €Two Tſum of a sort.
7 Or, “a series of resemblances,’’ ‘‘close parallels," reading étruðeukvěs :
or if with Breit. ditroëeukvěs, transl., “by proving such or such a thing is like
some other thing known to me already.”
8 Lit, “whether it is good or not.”
28O THE ECONOMIST
{: XIX. § 16-19-
CH, XX. § 1, 2
Soc. Perhaps you might; for have you not persuaded me
I am possessed of perfect knowledge of this art of husbandry,”
albeit I know that no one ever taught this art to me?
Asch. Ah that is not the explanation, Socrates. The
truth is what I told you long ago and kept on telling you.
(Husbandry is an art so gentle, so humane) that mistress-
like she makes all those who look on her or listen to
her voice intelligent” of herself at once. Many a lesson
does she herself impart how best to try conclusions with
her.” See, for instance, how the vine, making a ladder of
the nearest tree whereon to climb, informs us that it needs
support.* Anon it spreads abroad its leaves when, as it
seems to say, “My grapes are young, my clusters tender,”
and so teaches us, during that season, to Screen and shade
the parts exposed to the sun's rays; but when the appointed
moment comes, when now it is time for the swelling clusters
to be sweetened by the sun, behold, it drops a leaf and
then a leaf, so teaching us to strip it bare itself and let the
vintage ripen. With plenty teeming, see the fertile mother
shows her mellow clusters, and the while is nursing a new
brood in primal crudeness.” So the vine plant teaches us
how best to gather in the vintage, even as men gather figs,
the juiciest first."
xx.—At this point in the conversation I remarked : Tell
me, Ischomachus, if the details of the art of husbandry are
thus easy to learn, and all alike know what needs to be done,
how does it happen that all farmers do not fare alike, but some
live in affluence owning more than they can possibly enjoy,
while others of them fail to obtain the barest necessaries
and actually run into debt P
I will tell you, Socrates (Ischomachus replied). It is neither
1 Or, “since you actually succeeded in persuading me I was scientifically
versed in,” etc. See Plat. Statesm. 301 B ; Theaet. 208 E ; Aristot. An. Post.
i. 6. 4 ; Cafég. 8. 4I. -
2 Or, “gives them at once a perfect knowledge of herself.”
3 Lit. ‘‘ best to deal with her,’’ ‘‘make use of her.”
* Lit. '' teaches us to prop it.” * Lit. “yet immature.”
6 Or, “first one and then another as it swells.” Cf. Shakespeare:
The mellow plum doth fall, the green sticks fast,
Or being early pluck'd is sour to taste (V. and A. 527).
CH. xx. § 2-8 CARE MORE THAN KNOWLEDGE NEEDED 28I
knowledge nor lack of knowledge in these husbandmen which
Causes some to be well off, while others are in difficulties;
nor will you ever hear such tales afloat as that this or that
estate has gone to ruin because the sower failed to Sow
evenly, or that the planter failed to plant straight rows of
plants, or that such an one," being ignorant what soil was
best suited to bear vines, had set his plants in sterile ground,
or that another ” was in ignorance that fallow must be
broken up for purposes of sowing, or that a third * was not
aware that it is good to mix manure in with the soil. No,
you are much more likely to hear said of So-and-so : No
wonder the man gets in no wheat from his farm, when
he takes no pains to have it sown or properly manured.
Or of some other that he grows no wine : Of course not,
when he takes no pains either to plant new vines or to make
those he has bear fruit. A third has neither figs nor olives;
and again the self-same reason : He too is careless, and takes
no steps whatever to succeed in growing either one or
other. These are the distinctions which make all the
difference to prosperity in farming, far more than the reputed
discovery of any clever agricultural method or machine.*
You will find the principle applies elsewhere. There
are points of strategic conduct in which generals differ
from each other for the better or the worse, not because
they differ in respect of wit or judgment, but of careful-
ness undoubtedly. I speak of things within the cognisance
of every general, and indeed of almost every private soldier,
which some commanders are careful to perform and others
not. Who does not know, for instance, that in marching
through a hostile territory an army ought to march in the
order best adapted to deliver battle with effect should need
arise P*—a golden rule which, punctually obeyed by some, is
disobeyed by others. Again, as all the world knows, it is
better to place day and night pickets" in front of an encamp-
1 “Squire This.” * “Squire That.” * “Squire T'other.”
* There is something amiss with the text at this point. For emendations
see Breit., Schenkl, Holden, Hartman.
* See Thuc. ii. 81 : “The Hellenic troops maintained order on the march
and kept a look-out until . . .”—Jowett.
* See Cyrop, I. vi. 43.
282 THE ECONOMIST CH. xx. § 8-13
ment. Yet even that is a procedure which, carefully observed
at times, is at times as carelessly neglected. Once more :
not one man in ten thousand," I suppose, but knows that when
a force is marching through a narrow defile, the safer method
is to occupy beforehand certain points of vantage.” Yet
this precaution also has been known to be neglected.
Similarly, every one will tell you that manure is the best
thing in the world for agriculture, and every one can see how
naturally it is produced. Still, though the method of pro-
duction is accurately known, though there is every facility to
get it in abundance, the fact remains that, while one man
takes pains to have manure collected, another is entirely
neglectful. And yet God sends us rain from heaven, and
every hollow place becomes a standing pool, while earth
Supplies material of every kind; the Sower, too, about to
Sow must cleanse the soil, and what he takes as refuse
from it needs only to be thrown into water and time itself
will do the rest, shaping all to gladden earth.” For matter in
every shape, nay earth itself, * in stagnant water turns to fine
II]2. Ill] I’é.
So, again, as touching the various ways in which the
earth itself needs treatment, either as being too moist for
sowing, or too salt" for planting, these and the processes of
cure are known to all men ; how in one case the superfluous
water is drawn off by trenches, and in the other the salt
corrected by being mixed with various non-salt bodies, moist
or dry. Yet here again, in spite of knowledge, some are
careful of these matters, others negligent.
But even if a man were altogether ignorant what earth
can yield, were he debarred from seeing any fruit or plant,
prevented hearing from the lips of any one the truth
1 Lit. “it would be hard to find the man who did not know.”
* Or, “to seize advantageous positions in advance.” Cf. Hiero, x. 5.
* Lit. “Time itself will make that wherein Earth rejoices.”
* i.e. “each fallen leaf, each sprig or spray of undergrowth, the very
weeds, each clod.” Lit. ‘‘what kind of material, what kind of soil does not
become manure when thrown into stagnant water?”
* See Anatol. Geop. ii. Io. 9 ; Theophr. de Caus, ii. 5, 4, 16, 8, ap.
Holden. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 238 :
salsa autem, tellus, et quae perhibetur amara
frugibus infelix.
CH. XX. § 13-16 EARTH THE REVEALER OF HONESTY 283
about this earth : even so, I put it to you, it would be easier
far for any living soul to make experiments on a piece of land,"
than on a horse, for instance, or on his fellow-man. For there
is nought which earth displays with intent to deceive, but in
Clear and simple language stamped with the seal of truth
she informs us what she can and cannot do.” Thus it has
ever seemed to me that earth is the best discoverer of true
honesty,” in that she offers all her stores of knowledge in a
shape accessible to the learner, so that he who runs may read.
Here it is not open to the sluggard, as in other arts, to put
forward the plea of ignorance or lack of knowledge, for all
men know that earth, if kindly treated, will repay in kind.
No there is no witness * against a coward soul so clear as
that of husbandry;” since no man ever yet persuaded himself
that he could live without the staff of life. He therefore that
is unskilled in other money-making arts and will not dig,
shows plainly he is minded to make his living by picking and
stealing, or by begging alms, or else he writes himself down a
very fool.”
Presently Ischomachus proceeded : Now it is of prime
importance," in reference to the profitableness or unprofitable-
ness of agriculture, even on a large estate where there are
numerous 8 workfolk,” whether a man takes any pains at all
to see that his labourers are devoted to the work on hand
during the appointed time,” or whether he neglects that duty.
Since one man will fairly distance ten "simply by working at
the time, and another may as easily fall short by leaving off
1 Or, “this fair earth herself.”
? Or, ‘‘earth our mother reveals her powers and her impotence.”
3 Lit. “ of the good and of the bad.” Cf. Dem. adv. Phorm. 918. I&.
4 Lit. “no accuser of.” Cf. Aesch. Theb. 439.
* Reading, with Sauppe, d\\' yeapyla, or if, with Jacobs, h év Yewpyiq
dpyta, transl. “as that of idleness in husbandry."
6 Or, “if not, he must be entirely irrational.” Cf. Plat. Apol. 37 C.
7 Lit. “it made a great difference, he said, with regard to profit and loss
in agriculture.”
8 Or if, after Hertlein, adding kai pºetóvaju, transl. “Workmen now more,
now less, in number.”
9 epyaatipov, “poet." L. & S. cf. Orph. H. 65. 4. See above, V. I5;
xiii. Io. 10 Cf. Herod. II. ii. 2.
Ti Or, “Why one man in ten makes all the difference by . . .
‘‘ by comparison with.”
Tapd =
284 THE ECONOMIST CH. xx. § 16-21
before the hour." In fact, to let the fellows take things easily
the whole day through will make a difference easily of half
in the whole work.”
As, on a walking - expedition, it may happen, of two
wayfarers, the one will gain in pace upon the other half the
distance say in every five-and-twenty miles,” though both
alike are young and hale of body. The one, in fact, is bent
on compassing the work on which he started, he steps Out
gaily and unflinchingly ; the other, more slack in spirit, stops
to recruit himself and contemplate the view by fountain side
and shady nook, as though his object were to court each
gentle zephyr. So in farm work; there is a vast difference as
regards performance between those who do the work appointed
them, and those who do it not, but seek excuse for idleness
and are suffered to be listless. Thus, between good honest
work and base neglect there is as great a difference as there
is between—what shall I say P-why, work and idleness.” The
gardeners, look, are hoeing vines to keep them clean and free
of weeds; but they hoe so sorrily that the loose stuff grows
ranker and more plentiful. Can you call that * anything but
idleness P
Such, Socrates, are the ills which cause a house to crumble
far more than lack of scientific knowledge, however rude it be."
For if you will consider; on the one hand, there is a steady
outflow 7 of expenses from the house, and, on the other, a lack
of profitable works outside to meet expenses; need you longer
wonder if the field-works create a deficit and not a surplus P
1 Reading as vulg., or if Tó pil Tpó K.T.A. transl. “by not leaving off,
y y
etC.
i.e. “is a difference of fifty per cent on the whole work.”
Lit. ‘‘per 200 stades.”
Or, “wholly to work and wholly to be idle.” Reading as Sauppe,
etc., or if with Holden, etc., to 6é Öh ka?&s kal Tô Kakós épydišea 60.1 %)
étriplexeſoróat, transl. “between toil and carefulness well or ill expended there
lies all the difference; the two things are Sundered as wide apart as are the
poles of work and play,” etc. A. Jacobs' emend, ap. Hartm. An. Xen. p. 211,
Tô 6é 6% Kakós épyáčeaffat 3) Kakós étripſe}\eto 6at Kai Tô Ka}\ós, seems happy.
* Or, “such a hoer aught but an idle loon.”
6 Cf. Thuc. v. 7 ; Plat. Rep. 350 A; Theaet, 200 B.
7 Or, “the expenses from the house are going on at the full rate,” &v-
TeXéïs. Holden cf. Aristoph. Knights, 1367 : Töv puto 60y dTroödºora, ’vTeXà,
“I’ll have the arrears of seamen's wages paid to a penny” (Frere).
:
ch. xx. § 22-25 JOY AND PROFIT OF AGRICULTURE 285
In proof, however, that the man who can give the requisite
heed, while straining every nerve in the pursuit of agriculture,
has speedy * and effective means of making money, I may
cite the instance of my father, who had practised what he
preached.”
Now, my father would never suffer me to purchase an
estate already under cultivation, but if he chanced upon
a plot of land which, owing to the neglect or incapacity of
the owner, was neither tilled nor planted,” nothing would
satisfy him but I must purchase it. He had a saying that
estates already under cultivation Cost a deal of money and
allowed of no improvement ; and where there is no prospect
of improvement, more than half the pleasure to be got
from the possession vanishes. The height of happiness was,
he maintained, to see your purchase, be it dead chattel
or live animal,” go on improving daily under your own
eyes.” Now, nothing shows a larger increase" than a
piece of land reclaimed from barren waste and bearing fruit
a hundredfold. I can assure you, Socrates, many is the
farm which my father and I have made worth I do not
know how many times more than its original value. And
then, Socrates, this valuable invention " is so easy to
learn that you who have but now heard it know and under-
stand it as well as I myself do, and can go away and teach it
to another if you choose. Yet my father did not learn it of
another, nor did he discover it by a painful mental process; 8
but, as he has often told me, through pure love of husbandry
and fondness of toil, he would become enamoured of such a
1 &vvTukajrátmv. Cf. Hipparch, ii. 6.
? Or, “who merely taught me what he had himself carried out in
practice.”
3 i.e. out of cultivation, whether as corn land or for fruit trees, viz. olive,
fig, vine, etc.
4 Or, “be it a dead thing or a live pet.” Cf. Plat. Theaet. I'74 B ;
Laws, 789 B, 790 D, 819 B ; C. Z. IZO9.
5 Cf. below, Horsem. iii. I ; and see Cowley's Essay above referred to.
6 Or, “is susceptible of greater improvement.”
7 Or, “discovery.” See Anab. III. v. I2 (Trans. Vol. i. p. 172); Hell.
IV. v. 4 (ib. vol. ii. p. 65); Hunting, xiii. I3.
8 Or, “nor did he rack his brains to discover it.” See Meyz. III.
v. 23 (above, p. 97). Cf. Aristoph. Clouds, Ioz, peptpuoqipovtuatat, minute
philosophers. &
286 THE ECONOMIST CH. XX. § 25-28
spot as I describe," and then nothing would content him but
he must own it, in order to have something to do, and at
the same time, to derive pleasure along with profit from the
purchase. For you must know, Socrates, of all Athenians I
ever heard of, my father, as it seems to me, had the greatest
love for agricultural pursuits.
When I heard this, I could not resist asking a question :
Ischomachus (I said), did your father retain possession of
all the farms he put under cultivation, or did he part with
them whenever he was offered a good price P
He parted with them, without a doubt (replied Ischo-
machus), but then at once he bought another in the place
of what he sold, and in every case an untilled farm, in order
to gratify his love for work.
As you describe him (I proceeded), your father must
truly have been formed by nature with a passion for hus-
bandry, not unlike that corn-hunger which merchants suffer
from. You know their habits: by reason of this craving after
corn,” wherever they hear that corn is to be got, they go
sailing off to find it, even if they must cross the Aegean, or
the Euxine, or the Sicilian seas. And when they have got
as much as ever they can get, they will not let it out of
their sight, but store it in the vessel on which they sail
themselves, and off they go across the seas again.” Whenever
they stand in need of money, they will not discharge their
precious cargo,” at least not in haphazard fashion, wherever
they may chance to be ; but first they find out where corn is
at the highest value, and where the inhabitants will set the
greatest store by it, and there they take and deliver the
dear article. Your father's fondness for agriculture seems
to bear a certain family resemblance to this passion.
To these remarks Ischomachus replied : You jest, Socrates;
but still I hold to my belief: that man is fond of bricks and
1 ‘‘ He could not see an estate of the sort described but he must fall over
head and ears in love with it at first sight ; have it he must.”
2 Lit. ‘‘ of their excessive love for corn.”
* Lit. “they carry it across the Seas again, and that, too, after having
stored it in the hold of the very vessel in which they sail themselves.”
* Or, ‘‘their treasure.” at Töv throughout, which indeed is the humour
of the passage. The love of John Barleycorn is their master passion.
CH. xx. § 28–
CH. XXI. § 1-3 FACULTY OF COMMAND 287
mortar who no sooner has built one house than he must
needs sell it and proceed to build another,
To be sure, Ischomachus (I answered), and for my part
I assure you, upon oath, I, Socrates, do verily and indeed
believe you that all men by nature love (or hold they ought
to love) those things wherebysoever they believe they will be
benefited.
XXI.—After a pause, I added : I am turning over in my
mind how cleverly you have presented the whole argument
to support your thesis : which was, that of all arts the art
of husbandry is the easiest to learn. And now, as the
result of all that has been stated, I am entirely persuaded
that this is so.
Zsch. Yes, Socrates, indeed it is. But I, on my side,
must in turn admit that as regards that faculty which is common
alike to every kind of conduct (tillage, or politics, the art of
managing a house, or of Conducting war), the power, namely,
of command *— I do subscribe to your opinion, that on
this score one set of people differ largely from another both in
point of wit and judgment. On a ship of war, for instance,”
the ship is on the high seas, and the crew must row whole
days together to reach moorings.” Now note the difference.
Here you may find a captain * able by dint of speech and
conduct to whet the souls of those he leads, and sharpen
them to voluntary toils; and there another so dull of wit and
destitute of feeling that it will take his crew just twice the time
to finish the same voyage. See them step on shore. The
first ship's company are drenched in Sweat; but listen, they
are loud in praise of one another, the captain and his merry
men alike. And the others P. They are come at last; they
* Reading # phy Tua Teiſelv orot pºoret (vopuffety) ºpt)\etu TaüTa Távtas . . . ;
and for the “belief" propounded with so much humorous emphasis, see
Adam Smith, Moral Sezzzzyments. Hartman, Azz. A enz. I80, cf. Plat. Zysis.
* See Mem. I. i. 7 (above, p. 3).
8 Or, “the crew must row the livelong day . . .
4 For an instance see Hell. VI. ii. 27 foll. (Trans, vol. ii. p. 148 foll.),
Iphicrates' periplús.
5 Or, “one set of boatswains.” See Thuc. ii. 84. For the duties of the
Reſeustás see Dict, GA. Rom. Amt. s. v. Zorčiscº//us, and for the type of
captain see Hell. V. i. 3 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 91), Teleutias.
288 THE ECONOMIST CH. XXI. § 3-6
have not turned a hair, the lazy fellows, but for all that they
hate their officer and by him are hated.
Generals, too, will differ (he proceeded), the one sort from
the other, in this very quality. Here you have a leader who,
incapable of kindling a zest for toil and love of hairbreadth
'scapes, is apt to engender in his followers that base spirit
which neither deigns nor chooses to obey, except under com-
pulsion. They even pride and plume themselves," the cowards,
on their opposition to their leader ; this same leader who,
in the end, will make his men insensible to shame even in
presence of most foul mishap. On the other hand, put at
their head another stamp of general : one who is by right
divine” a leader, good and brave, a man of scientific know-
ledge. Let him take over to his charge those malcontents,
or others even of worse character, and he will have them
presently ashamed of doing a disgraceful deed. “It is
nobler to obey” will be their maxim. They will exult in per-
sonal obedience and in common toil, where toil is needed,
cheerily performed. For just as an unurged zeal for volun-
tary service & may at times invade, we know, the breasts
* Lit. ‘‘magnify themselves.” See Ages. X. 2 ; Pol. Lac. viii. 2 (Trans.
vol. ii. pp. 267, 3Io).
* Or, “god-like,” “with something more than human in him.” See
Hom. IZ, xxiv. 259 :
oùöé éket
divöpós ye 0umtoſ, Táts éppevau d'A\& 6eoſo.
Od. iv. 691 ; 6eſot (3aot\fies. Cf. Carlyle, Heroes, Plat. Meno, 99 D : Soc.
“And may we not, Meno, truly call those men divine who, having no
understanding, yet succeed in many a grand deed and word P” And below :
Soc. “And the women too, Meno, call good men divine; and the Spartans,
when they praise a good man, say, ‘that he is a divine man’” (Jowett).
Arist. Æth. AW. vii. 1 : “That virtue which transcends the human, and which
is of an heroic or godlike type, such as Priam, in the poems of Homer,
ascribes to Hector, when wishing to speak of his great goodness:
Not woman-born seemed he, but sprung from gods.”
And below : “And exactly as it is a rare thing to find a man of godlike
nature—to use the expression of the Spartans, a godlike man,’ which they
apply to those whom they expressively admire—so, too, brutality is a type of
character rarely found among men" (Robert Williams).
* Reading é0e)\otrovía. Tws, or if p(\otovía, transl. “just as some strange
delight in labour may quicken in the heart of many an individual soldier.” See
Anab. IV. vii. II (Trans. vol. i. p. 20I).
CH. xxi. § 6-Io A QUALITY IN PART DIVINE 289
of private soldiers, so may like love of toil with emulous
longing to achieve great deeds of valour under the eyes of
their commander, be implanted in whole armies by good
officers.
Happy must that leader be whose followers are thus
attached to him : beyond all others he will prove a stout
and strong Commander. And by strong, I mean, not one so
hale of body as to tower above the stoutest of the soldiery
themselves; no, nor him whose skill to hurl a javelin or
shoot an arrow will outshine the skilfullest ; nor yet that
mounted on the fleetest charger it shall be his to bear the
brunt of danger foremost amid the knightliest horsemen, the
nimblest of light infantry. No, not these, but who is able to
implant a firm persuasion in the minds of all his soldiers :
follow him they must and will through fire, if need be, or into
the jaws of death."
Lofty of soul and large of judgment” may he be designated
justly, at whose back there 'steps a multitude stirred by his
sole sentiment; not unreasonably may he be said to march
“with a mighty arm,” “to whose will a thousand willing hands
are prompt to minister; a great man in very deed he is who
can achieve great ends by resolution rather than brute force.
So, too, within the field of private industry, the person in
authority, be it the bailiff, be it the overseer,4 provided he is
able to produce unflinching energy, intense and eager, for the
work, belongs to those who haste to overtake good things"
and reap great plenty. Should the master (he proceeded),
being a man possessed of so much power, Socrates, to injure
the bad workman and reward the zealous—should he suddenly
appear, and should his appearance in the labour field produce
no visible effect upon his workpeople, I cannot say I envy
or admire him. But if the sight of him is followed by a
* Or, “through flood and fire or other desperate strait.” Cf. Anab. II.
vi. 8 (Trans. vol. i. p. 140).
* See Ages. ix. 6 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 266), “ of how lofty a sentiment.”
* See Herod. vii. 20, 157; Thuc. iii. 96.
* According to Sturz, Lex. s. v., the étritpotos is (as a rule, see Mem. ‘II. viii.)
a slave or freedman, the étrugrótºms a free man. See /l/em. III. v. 18.
* Apparently a homely formula, like “make hay whilst the sun shines,"
“a stitch in time Saves nine.”
VOL. III— I U
29O THE ECONOMIST CH. XXI. § Io-12
!
stir of movement, if there come upon each labourer fresh
spirit, with mutual rivalry and keen ambition, drawing out
the finest qualities of each,” of him I should say, Behold a
man of kingly disposition. And this, if I mistake not, is the
quality of greatest import in every Operation which needs the
instrumentality of man ; but most of all, perhaps, in agri-
culture. Not that I would maintain that it is a thing to be
lightly learnt by a glance of the eye, or hearsay fashion, as a
tale that is told. Far from it, I assert that he who is to have
this power has need of education ; he must have at bottom a
good natural disposition; and, what is greatest of all, he must
be himself a god-like being.” For if I rightly understand this
blessed gift, this faculty of command over willing followers,
by no means is it, in its entirety, a merely human quality,
but it is in part divine. It is a gift plainly given to those
truly initiated 4 in the mystery of self-command. Whereas
despotism over unwilling slaves, the heavenly ones give, as
it seems to me, to those whom they deem worthy to live the
life of Tantalus in Hades, of whom it is written º’ “he con-
Sumes unending days in apprehension of a second death.”
1. Cf. Hom. IZ. ix. 436, xvii. 625 ; Hell. VII. i. 31.
* Reading kpattorm offga, or if with Heindorf, Kparta Teja'at, transl., “to
prove himself the best.”
* See above, iv. 19, xiii. 3 foll., Cyrop, I. i. 3; Grote, Plato, vol. iii. 571.
* See Plat. Phaed, 69 C ; below, Symp, i. Io.
° Or, “it is said.” See Eur, Orest, 5, and Porson ad loc.
SYM POSIU M
OR
T H E B A N QUET
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE
CALLIAS, the son of Hipponicus, lover of the boy Autolycus.
AUTOLYCUS, son of Lycon, beloved by Callias, victor in the Pankration.
LYCON, father of Autolycus.
NIcñRATUS, the son of Nicias, a friend of the preceding, lately married, an
authority on Homer.
SOCRATES. ---
CRITOBULUS, the handsome lover of Cleinias, a follower of Socrates, and
newly married.
HERMOGENES, son of Hipponicus (and brother of Callias), a. follower of
Socrates.
ANTISTHENES, a follower of Socrates, and founder afterwards of the Cynic
school.
CHARMIDES, a follower of Socrates, afterwards one of the Ten at Piraeus.
PHILIPPUs, a jester.
A SYRACUSAN, travelling showman and dancing-master, with his company,
consisting of a flute-girl, a dancing-girl, and a boy who plays the harp,
dances, and sings.
Attendants, Cup-bearers, etc.
DIONysus, played by the boy . . ) in the mimic scene which brings the
ARIADNE, 3 x ,, dancing-girl banquet to an end, chap. ix.
SCENE : partly at the great Panathenaic festival in Athens, partly on the road
back to Piraeus, finally and chiefly at the house of Callias in Piraeus.
Ideal date of the entertainment, 420 B.C. (al, 421 B.C.).
SYMPOSIUM, or THE BANQUET
I. I– 2
I.—FOR myself," I hold to the opinion that not alone are
the serious transactions of “good and noble men’” most
memorable, but that words and deeds distinctive of their lighter
moods may claim some record.” In proof of which con-
tention, I will here describe a set of incidents within the scope
of my experience.*
The occasion was the horse-race" at the great Panathenaic
festival.” Callias," the son of Hipponicus, being a friend and
lover of the boy Autolycus,” had brought the lad, himself the
winner of the pankration,” to see the spectacle.
As soon as the horse-race was over,” Callias proceeded to
escort Autolycus and his father, Lycon, to his house in the
Piraeus, being attended also by Nicératus.” But catching
1 See Aristid. ii. foll. * Or, “nature's noblemen.”
* Cf. Plut. Ages. 29 (Clough, iv. 35): “And indeed if, as Xenophon Says,
in conversation good men, even in their sports and at their wine, let fall many
sayings that are worth preserving.” See Grote, Plato, ii. 228 foll, as to the
sportive character of the work.
* Or, “let me describe a scene which I was witness of.” See Hug, Plat.
Symp. p. xv. foll. * See Hipparch, ii. 1.
6 “Held towards the end of July (Hecatombaeon) every year, and with
greater pomp every four years (the third of each Olympiad).”—Gow, 84, 129, n.
7 Callias. Cobet, Pros, Xen. p. 67 foll. ; Boeckh, P. E. A. p. 481 ;
Trans. vol. ii. Index, s. n.
8 See Cobet, op. cit. p. 54 ; Plut. Lysand. I5 (Clough, iii. I2O); Grote,
H. G. ix. 26I.
9 420 B.C., al. 421. The date is fixed by the Autolycus of Eupolis. See
Athen. v. 216. For the pankration, which comprised wrestling and boxing,
see Aristot. Rhet. i. § I4. 19 See A. Martin, op. cit. p. 265.
11 Nicératus. See Cobet, op. cit. 71 ; Boeckh, P. E. A. 48o ; Plat. Lach.
200 C ; Hell. II. iii. 39 (Trans. Vol. i. p. 58); Lys. xviii. ; Diod. xiv. 5.
294 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. I. § 3-7
sight of Socrates along with certain others (Critobulus,"
Hermogenes, Antisthenes, and Charmides), he bade an
attendant conduct the party with Autolycus, whilst he him-
Self approached the group, exclaiming :
A happy chance brings me across your path, just when I
am about to entertain Autolycus and his father at a feast.
The splendour of the entertainment will be much enhanced,
I need not tell you, if my hall ” should happily be graced
by worthies like yourselves, who have attained to purity of
Soul,” rather than by generals and cavalry commanders * and
a crowd of place-hunters.”
Whereat Socrates: When will you have done with your
gibes, Callias P Why, because you have yourself spent sums
of money on Protagoras,” and Gorgias, and Prodicus, and a
host of others, to learn wisdom, must you pour contempt on
us poor fellows, who are but self-taught tinkers 7 in philo-
sophy compared with you ?
Hitherto, no doubt (retorted Callias), although I had plenty
of wise things to say, I have kept my wisdom to myself;
but if only you will honour me with your company to-day, I
promise to present myself in quite another light; you will
See I am a person of no mean consideration after all.”
Socrates and the others, whilst thanking Callias politely for
the invitation, were not disposed at first to join the dinner party;
but the annoyance of the other so to be put off was so obvious
that in the end the party were persuaded to accompany their host.
After an interval devoted to gymnastic exercise (and
Subsequent anointing of the limbs) by some, whilst others of
* Critobulus, Hermogenes, Antisthenes, Charmides. See Mem, and Index.
* Or, “ dining-room.” See Becker, Charicles, 265. -
* See Grote, H. G. viii. 619 foll. Cf. Plat. Rep. 527 D ; Soph. 230 E.
* Lit. Stratégoi, Hiſparchs.
* Or, “petitioners for offices of state.” Reading a Trovãapytats.
" As to Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of Leontini, Prodicus of Ceos,
see Plat. Prot, 314 C, Åep. x. 6oo C, Apol. 19 E ; Anab. II. vi. 17 (Trans.
vol. i. p. 141); Mem. II. i. 21 ; Encyc, Brić, “Sophists,” H. Jackson.
7 Or, “hand-to-mouth cultivators of philosophy,” “roturiers.” Cf. Plat.
A’ep. 565 A : “A third class who work for themselves”; Thuc. i. 141 :
“The Peloponnesians cultivate their own soil, and they have no wealth
either public or private.” Cf. Econ. v. 4.
* Or, “I will prove to you that I am worthy of infinite respect.”
CH. I. § 7-II - VOI CHI SAPETE 295
them took a bath, the guests were severally presented to the
master of the house.
Autolycus was seated next his father, as was natural,"
while the rest reclined on couches. Noting the scene pre-
sented, the first idea to strike the mind of any one must
Certainly have been that beauty has by nature something
regal in it; and the more so, if it chance to be combined (as
now in the person of Autolycus) with modesty and self-respect.
Even as when a splendid object blazes forth at night, the
eyes of men are riveted,” so now the beauty of Autolycus
drew on him the gaze of all ; nor was there one of those
onlookers but was stirred to his soul's depth by him who sat
there.” Some fell into unwonted silence, while the gestures of
the rest were equally significant.
It seems the look betokening divine possession, no matter
who the god, must ever be remarkable. Only, whilst the
subject of each commoner emotion passion-whirled may be
distinguished by flashings of the eye, by terror-striking tones
of voice, and by the vehement fervour of the man's whole
being, so he who is inspired by temperate and harmonious
love * will wear a look of kindlier welcome in his eyes;
the words he utters fall from his lips with softer intonation ;
and every gesture of his bodily frame conforms to what is
truly frank and liberal. Such, at any rate, the strange effects
now wrought on Callias by love. He was like one trans-
formed, the cynosure of all initiated in the mysteries of this
divinity.” w \ .
So they supped in silence, the whole company, as if an in-
junction had been laid on them by some Superior power. But
presently there came a knocking at the door Philippus the
fester bade the doorkeeper" announce him, with apologies for
* A A. “Autolycus found a seat beside his father, while the rest reclined on
couches in the usual fashion.” See Schneider's note,
* Passage imitated by Max. Tyr. Or. xxiv. 4.
3 Cf. Plat. Charm. I 54.
4 Cf. Plat. Rep. iii. 403 A : “Whereas true love is a love of beauty and
order, temperate and harmonious.” * Cf. Bcom. xxi. I2 (above, p. 290).
6 Lit. ‘‘him who answers the knock,” “the concierge” or hall-porter.
Cf. Theophr. Char. xiv. 7 ; Aristot. Oec. i. 6.
296 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. I. § 11-15
seeking a night's lodging : " he had come, he said, provided ZUith
all necessaries for dining, at a friend’s expense: his attendant
was much galled with carrying, nothing but an empty bread.
basket.” To this announcement Callias, appealing to his
guests, replied : “It would never do to begrudge the shelter
of one’s roof: 8 let him come in.” And as he spoke, he
glanced across to where Autolycus was seated, as if to say:
“I wonder how you take the jest.”
[Enter Philippus.]
Meanwhile the jester, standing at the door of the apart-
ment where the feast was spread, addressed the company :
I believe you know, sirs, that being a jester by profession,
it is my business to make jokes. I am all the readier, there-
fore, to present myself, feeling convinced it is a better joke
to come to dinner thus unbidden than by solemn invitation.
Be seated,” then (replied the host). The company are
fully fed on serious thoughts, you see, if somewhat starved
of food for laughter.
The feast proceeded ; and, if only to discharge the duty
laid upon him at a dinner-party, Philippus must try at Once
to perpetrate a jest. Failing to stir a smile, poor fellow, he
made no secret of his perturbation, Presently he tried again ;
and for the second time the joke fell flat. Whereat he paused
abruptly in the middle of the course, and muffling up his face,
fell prostrate on the couch. *
Then Callias: What ails you, sirrah P. Have you the
cramp P the toothache? what P
To which the other, heaving a deep groan : Yes, Callias,
an atrocious ache; since laughter has died out among man-
kind, my whole estate is bankrupt.” In old days I would
be asked to dinner to amuse the company with jests."
* Lit. ‘‘ and why he wished to put up.”
* Lit, “and being breakfastless"; cf. Theocr. i. 51. The jester's humour
resembles Pistol's (Merry Wives, i. 3. 23) “O base Hungarian wight !”
* Or, “How say you, my friends, it would hardly do, methinks, to shut the
door upon him." See Becker, Charicles, p. 92.
4 Lit. “Pray, find a couch then.”
* Cf. Cyrop. VI. i. 3; Plat. Laws, 677 c.
° Lit, “by the laughter which I stirred in them.”
; : **) THE COMIC MUSE A-DyING 297
Now all is changed, and who will be at pains to ask me out
to dinner any more ? I might as well pretend to be immortal
as to be serious. Nor will any one invite me in hopes of
reclining at my board in his turn. Everybody knows so serious
a thing as dinner in my house was never heard of; it's against
the rules—the more's the pity.
And as he spoke he blew his nose and snuffled, uttering
the while so truly dolorous a moan that everybody fell to
Soothing him. “They would all laugh again another day,”
they said, and so implored him to have done and eat his
dinner; till Critobulus could not stand his lamentation longer,
but broke into a peal of laughter. The welcome sound
sufficed. The sufferer unveiled his face, and thus addressed
his inner self: * “Be of good cheer, my soul, there are many
battles* yet in store for us,” and so he fell to discussing the
viands once again.
[The WINE. Enter a Syracusan ballet-master with his
Company.]
II.-Now the tables were removed, and in due order
they had poured out the libation, and had sung the
hymn.” To promote the revelry, there entered now a
Syracusan, with a trio of assistants : the first, a flute-girl,
perfect in her art; and next, a dancing-girl, skilled to per-
form all kinds of wonders; lastly, in the bloom of beauty, a
boy, who played the harp and danced with infinite grace.
* Philippus would seem to have anticipated Mr. Woodward ; see Pro-
logue to She Stoops to Conquer.
Pray, would you know the reason why I'm crying?
The Comic Muse long sick is now a-dying !
And if she goes . . .
* Cf. Cyrop. I. iv. I3 ; Eur. Med. Io 56, 1242 ; Aristoph. Ach. 357, 480.
* Or add “ere we have expended our last shot.” Philippus puns on the
double sense of ovg|30}\at. Cf. Aristoph, Ach. I2Io, where Lamachus groans
Tá\as éyò $vg|30}\fis (3apetas, and Dicaeopolis replies toſs Xoval yáp Tus $vp-
80Xàs éirpáttero,
Alame. 'Twas at the final charge ; I'd paid before
A number of the rogues; at least a score.
Dic. It was a most expensive charge you bore :
Poor Lamachus ! he was forced to pay the score.
H. FRERE.
* See Plat. Symp. I 76 A ; Athen. ix. 408.
298 syMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. II. § I-4
This Syracusan went about exhibiting his troupe, whose
wonderful performance was a source of income to him.
[Music: the flute-girl and the boy upon the harp.]
After the girl had played to them upon the flute, and then
the boy in turn upon the harp, and both performers, as it
would appear, had set the hearts of every one rejoicing,
Socrates turned to Callias:
A feast, upon my word, O princeliest entertainer | | Was
it not enough to set before your guests a faultless dinner, but
you must feast our eyes and ears on sights and sounds the
most delicious P -
- - - To which the host : And that reminds me, a supply of
unguents might not be amiss ;” what say you ? Shall we
feast on perfumes also P &
No, I protest (the other answered). Scents resemble
clothes. One dress is beautiful on man and one on woman ;
and so with fragrance: what becomes the woman, ill becomes
the man. Did ever man anoint himself with oil of myrrh to
please his fellow P Women, and especially young women (like
our two friends' brides, Nicératus' and Critobulus'), need no
perfume, being but compounds themselves of fragrance.* No,
Sweeter than any perfume else to women is good olive-oil,
suggestive of the training-school: * sweet if present, and when
absent longed for. And why? Distinctions vanish with the
use of perfumes. The freeman and the slave have forthwith
both alike one odour. But the scents derived from toils—
those toils which every free man loves *—need customary
habit first, and time's distillery, if they are to be sweet with
freedom's breath, at last."
* Lit. “in consummate style.”
* Lit. “Suppose I tell the servant to bring in some perfumes, so that we
may further feast on fragrance . . .” Cf. Theophr. Char. vii. 6 (Jebb ad loc.).
* See Athen. xv. 686. •
* Cf. Solomon's Song, iv. Io : “How fair is thy love, my sister, my
spouse ! how much better is thy love than wine ! and the smell of thine oint-
ments than all spices !”
* Lit. “the gymnasium,”
* Cf. Aristoph. Clouds, Ioo2 foll. See J. A. Symonds, The Greek Poets,
ISt S., p. 281.
7 See Mem. III. x. 5 (above, p. II.4); Cyrop. VIII, i, 43.
CH. II. § 5-8 A STRANGE INVISIBLE PERFUME 299
Here Lycon interposed : That may be well enough for
youths, but what shall we do whose gymnastic days are over ?
What fragrance is left for us? -
Soc. Why, that of true nobility, of course.
Zyc. And whence shall a man obtain this chrism P
Soc. Not from those that sell perfumes and unguents, in
good sooth.
Myc. But whence, then P
Soc. Theognis has told us:
From the good thou shalt learn good things, but if with the evil
Thou holdest converse, thou shalt lose the wit that is in thee.1
Zyc. (turning to his son). Do you hear that, my son P
That he does (Socrates answered for the boy), and he
puts the precept into practice also ; to judge, at any rate, from
his behaviour. When he had set his heart on carrying off
the palm of victory in the pankration, he took you into his
Counsel;” and will again take counsel to discover the fittest
friend to aid him in his high endeavour,” and with this
friend associate. -
Thereupon several of the company exclaimed at once.
“Where will he find a teacher to instruct him in that wisdom P”
one inquired. “Why, it is not to be taught !” exclaimed
another; to which a third rejoined : “Why should it not be
learnt as well as other things P” +
Then Socrates : The question would seem at any rate to be
debatable. Suppose we defer it till another time, and for the
present not interrupt the programme of proceedings. I see, the
dancing-girl is standing ready; they are handing her some hoops.
[The dancing-girl’s performance.] - - - -
And at the instant her fellow with the flute commenced a
tune to keep her company, whilst some one posted at her side
kept handing her the hoops till she had twelve in all. With
* Theog. 35 foll. See Mem. I. ii. 20 (above, p. Io); Plat. Alſen. 95 D.
* It looks as if something had been lost intimating that Autolycus would
have need of some one to instruct him in spiritual things. For attempts to
fill up the lacuna see Schenkl. * Or, “these high pursuits.”
* Cf. for the question el dpeth Övöakróv, Mem. I. ii. 19 ; IV. i. , Cyrop.
III. i. 17; III. iii. 53.
3OO SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. II. § 8-Io
these in her hands she fell to dancing, and the while she
danced she flung the hoops into the air—overhead she sent
them twirling—judging the height they must be thrown to
catch them, as they fell, in perfect time."
Then Socrates : The girl’s performance is one proof
among a host of others, sirs, that woman's nature is nowise
inferior to man's. All she wants is strength and judgment; *
and that should be an encouragement to those of you who
have wives, to teach them whatever you would have them
know as your associates.”
Antisthenes rejoined : If that is your conclusion, Socrates,
why do you not tutor your own wife Xanthippe,” instead of
letting her * remain, of all the wives that are, indeed that ever
will be, I imagine, the most shrewish P -
Well now, I will tell you (he answered). I follow the
example of the rider who wishes to become an expert horse-
man : “None of your soft-mouthed, docile animals for me,”
he says ; “the horse for me to own must show some
spirit”: *—in the belief, no doubt, if he can manage such
an animal, it will be easy enough to deal with every other
horse besides. And that is just my case. I wish to deal
with human beings, to associate with man in general ; hence
my choice of wife.” I know full well, if I can tolerate her
spirit, I can with ease attach myself to every human being else.
A well-aimed argument, not wide of the mark by any
means !“ the company were thinking.
* “In time with the music and the measure of the dance.”
* Reading, as vulg., Yvdºpºms 6é kai loxºos 6etrat ; al. continuing otöèv
from the first half of the sentence, transl. “She has no lack of either judgment
or physical strength.” Lange conj. Édºpams for yvöpms, “all she needs is
force and strength of body.” See Newman, op. cit. i. 419.
° Lit. “so that, if any of you has a wife, he may well take heart and
teach her whatever he would wish her to know in dealing with her.” Cf.
Acozz. vii. 42.
* See Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 56; Mem. II. ii. I (above, p. 49); Aul. Gell.
AW. A. i. 17.
* Lit. ‘‘dealing with her,” “finding in her "; Xpſ, corresponding to
Xpija'0at in Socrates' remark. -
° Lit. “Because I see the man who aims at skill in horsemanship does
not care to own a soft-mouthed, docile animal, but some restive, fiery creature.”
7 Lit. “being anxious to have intercourse with all mankind, to deal with
every sort of human being, I possess my wife.”
8 Cf. Plat. Theaet. 179 C.
CH. II. § 11-14 CAN COURAGE BE TAUGHT P 3OI
Hereupon a large hoop studded with a bristling row of
upright swords 1 was introduced ; and into the centre of this
ring of knives and out of it again the girl threw somersaults
backwards, forwards, several times, till the spectators were in
terror of some accident; but with the utmost coolness and
without mishap the girl completed her performance.
Here Socrates, appealing to Antisthenes : None of the
present company, I take it, who have watched this spectacle
will ever again deny that courage can be taught,” when the
girl there, woman though she be, rushes so boldly into the
midst of swords.
He, thus challenged, answered : No ; and what our friend,
the Syracusan here, should do is to exhibit his dancing-girl to
the state.* Let him tell the authorities he is prepared, for a
consideration, to give the whole Athenian people courage to
face the hostile lances at close quarters.
Whereat the jester : An excellent idea, upon my word ;
and when it happens, may I be there to see that mighty orator *
Peisander learning to throw somersaults 9 into swords; since
incapacity to look a row of lances in the face at present
makes him shy of military service."
1 See Becker, Char. p. IoI. Cf. Plat. Symp. I90 ; Euthyd. 294.
* Cf. Mem. III. ix. I (above, p. 108). t
3 Or, “to the city,” i.e. of Athens.
4 Or, “tribune of the people.” Cf. Plat. Gorg. 520 B ; Laws, 908 D.
* Or, “learning to go head over heels into swords.”
* For Peisander see Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 46 foll. A thoroughgoing
oligarch (Thuc. viii. 90), he was the occasion of much mirth to the comic
writers (so Grote, H. G. viii. 12). See re his “want of spirit" Aristoph.
Birds, I 556 :
&v6a kai IIeta avópos \6e
ôeópevos WvXīv löeiv, )
{{ºvt £ketvoy Tpotſ\tTe, K. T.N.
where the poet has a fling at Socrates also :
Socrates beside the brink,
Summons from the murky sink
Many a disembodied ghost;
Azid Peisander reached the coast
To raise the spirit that he lost;
With conviction strange and new,
A gawky camel which he slew,
Like Ulysses.—Whereupon, etc.
H. FRERE,
Cf. Peace, 395 ; /ysisłr. 490.
3O2 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. II. § 14-18
At this stage of the proceedings the boy danced.
The dance being over, Socrates exclaimed: Pray, did you
notice how the beauty of the child, so lovely in repose,
became enhanced with every movement of his supple
body ?
To which Charmides replied: How like a flatterer you
are one would think you had set yourself to puff the dancing-
master."
To be sure (he answered solemnly); and there's another
point I could not help observing : how while he danced
no portion of his body remained idle; neck and legs and
hands together, one and all were exercised.” That is how
a man should dance, who wants to keep his body light and
healthy.” (Then turning to the Syracusan, he added): I
cannot say how much obliged I should be to you, O man of
Syracuse, for lessons in deportment. Pray teach me my
steps.” -
And what use will you make of them P (the other
asked).
God bless me ! I shall dance, of course (he answered).
The remark was greeted with a peal of merriment. -
Then Socrates, with a most serious expression of coun-
tenance : * You are pleased to laugh at me. Pray, do you find
it so ridiculous my wishing to improve my health by exercise P
or to enjoy my victuals better P to sleep better? or is it the sort
of exercise I set my heart on 2 Not like those runners of the
long race,” to have my legs grow muscular and my shoulders
leaner in proportion ; nor like a boxer, thickening chest and
shoulders at expense of legs; but by distribution of the toil
throughout my limbs." I seek to give an even balance to my
body. Or are you laughing to think that I shall not in future
1 See 7%e Crâzâc, I. ii.
* Cf. Pol. Lac. v. 9 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 307).
* Cf. Aristot. H. A. vi. 21. 4.
* “Gestures,” “postures,” “figures.” See Eur. Cycl. 221 ; Aristoph.
Peace, 323; Isocr. Antid. 183.
* “Bearing a weighty and a serious brow.” - ---
" " Like your runner of the mile race.” Cf. Plat. Prof. 335 E.
7 Or, “resolute exercise of the whole body.” See Aristot. Pol, viii.
4. 9 ; Rhet. i. 5. I4.
CH. II. § 18-20 SOCRATES SALTATOR 3O3
have to seek a partner in the training school," whereby it
will not be necessary for an old man like myself to strip in
public P’ All I shall need will be a seven-sofa’d chamber,”
where I can warm to work,” just like the lad here who has
found this room quite ample for the purpose. And in winter
I shall do gymnastics & under cover, or when the weather is
broiling under shade. . . . But what is it you keep on laughing
at—the wish on my part to reduce to moderate size a paunch
a trifle too rotund P Is that the source of merriment P º Per-
haps you are not aware, my friends, that Charmides—yes |
he there—caught me only the other morning in the act of
dancing P
Yes, that I will swear to (the other answered), and at first
I stood aghast, I feared me you had parted with your senses;
but when I heard your explanation, pretty much what you
have just now told us, I went home and—I will not say,
began to dance myself (it is an accomplishment I have not
been taught as yet), but I fell to sparring," an art of which
I have a very pretty knowledge.
That's true, upon my life (exclaimed the jester). One
needs but look at you to see there's not a dram of difference
between legs and shoulders.” I’ll be bound, if both were
weighed in the scales apart, like “tops and bottoms,” the
clerks of the market” would let you off scot-free. - -
Then Callias: O Socrates, do please invite me when yo
1 Or, “be dependent on a fellow-gymnast.” Pol. Lac. ix. 4; Plat.
Soph. 218 B ; Lazos, 830 B ; Symp. 217 B, C. -
* Or, “to strip in public when my hair turns gray.” Socrates was
(42 I B. C.) about 50, but is pictured, I think, as an Oldish man.
* See Aristot. H. A. ix. 45. I ; Econ. viii. I3 (above, p. 237).
* Passage referred to by Diog, Laert. ii. 5. I5 ; Lucian, de Sa/#, 25;
Plut. Praec. Sam. 496.
* “Take my exercise.”
* Zeune cf. Max. Tyr. Diss. vii. 9; xxxix. 5. -
7 “Sparring,” etc., an art which Quintil. Inst. Or, i. II, I7, attributes
to Socrates. Cf. Herod. vi. 129 concerning Hippocleides; and Rich, Dict,
of Antiq. s. v. Chironomia.
8 Lit. “your legs are equal in weight with your shoulders.” Cf. Od.
xviii. 373, #Nukes . . . to opópot 36es, ‘‘ of equal age and force to bear the
yoke.”—Butcher and Lang.
9 See Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens, p. 48; Aristoph. A charm, 723;
LyS, I65. 34.
3O4 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. II. § 20-24
begin your dancing lessons. I will be your vis-à-vis," and
take lessons with you.
Come on (the jester shouted), give us a tune upon the
pipe, and let me show you how to dance.
[Philippus dances a Zas settſ.]
So saying up he got, and mimicked the dances of the boy
and girl in burlesque fashion, and inasmuch as the spectators
had been pleased to think the natural beauty of the boy en-
hanced by every gesture of his body in the dance, so the
jester must give a counter-representation,” in which each twist
and movement of his body was a Comical exaggeration of
nature. _* -
And since the girl had bent herself backwards and back-
wards, till she was nearly doubled into the form of a hoop,
so he must try to imitate a hoop by stooping forwards and
ducking down his head.
And as finally, the boy had won a round of plaudits for the
manner in which he kept each muscle of the body in full
exercise whilst dancing, so now the jester, bidding the flute-girl
quicken the time (presſo/ presto / presſissimo/), fell to capering
madly, tossing legs and arms and head together, until he was
fairly tired out, and threw himself dead beat upon the sofa,
gasping :
There, that’s a proof that my jigs too are splendid exercise;
at any rate, I am dying of thirst ; let the attendant kindly fill
me the mighty goblet.”
Quite right (said Callias), and we will pledge you. Our
throats are parched with laughing at you. -- - --
At this point Socrates: Nay, gentlemen, if drinking is th
order of the day, I heartily approve. Wine it is in very truth
that moistens the Soul of man,” that lulls at once all cares to
1. Cf. Anab. V. iv. 12 (Trans. vol. i. p. 221).
* Reading dureTéðelšev. Cf. Plat. Theaet. 162 B; Ages. i. 12 (Trans.
vol. ii. p. 239); if vulg. duratréðeußev, transl. “would prove per contra each
bend,” etc. Cf. Aristot. Rhet. ii. 26. 3. -
* Cf. Plat. Symp. 223 c.
4 Cf. Plat. Laws, 649; Aristoph. A nights, 96 :
Come, quick now, bring me a lusty stoup of wine,
To moisten my understanding and inspire me (H. Frere).
CH. II. § 24-27 POCUZA MINUTA A 7'QUE ROAAAWT/A 305
sleep, even as mandragora ' drugs our human senses, and at
the same time kindles light-hearted thoughts,” as oil a flame.
Yet it fares with the banquets of men,” if I mistake not,
precisely as with plants that spring and shoot on earth.
When God gives these vegetable growths too full a draught
of rain, they cannot lift their heads nor feel the light air
breathe through them ; but if they drink in only the glad
Supply they need, they stand erect, they shoot apace, and
reach maturity of fruitage. So we, too, if we drench our
throats with over-copious draughts,” ere long may find our legs
begin to reel and our thoughts to falter; * we shall scarce be
able to draw breath, much less to speak a word in season.
But if (to borrow language from the mint of Gorgias"), if
Only the attendants will bedev us with a frequent mizzle 7 of
Small glasses, we shall not be violently driven on by wine
to drunkenness, but with sweet seduction reach the goal of
sportive levity, -
The proposition was unanimously carried, with a rider
appended by Philippus: The cup-bearers should imitate good
charioteers, and push the cups round, quickening the pace
each circuit.8
III.-During this interval, whilst the cup-bearers carried
* Cf. Plat. Rep. vi. 488 C ; Dem. Phil. iv. 133. I ; Lucian v., Tim, 2 ;
lxxiii., Dem. Enc. 36. See Othello, iii. 3. 330 :
Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world ;
Antony and Cl. i. 5, 4. .
* Cf. 1 Esdras iii. 20 : “It turneth also every thought into jollity and
mirth,” eis eva))(tav Kai etiq poortjunju. The whole passage is quoted by Athen.
504. Stob. F. lvi. 17.
* Reading ovgºrógva, cf. Theog. 298, 496; or if after Athen, a &gara,
transl. ‘‘persons.”
* Or, “if we swallow at a gulp the liquor.” Cf. Plat. Symp. 176 D.
* See Cyrop. I. iii. Io, VIII. viii. Io ; Aristoph. Wasps, 1324; Pol. Lac.
v. 7 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 306).
* For phrases filed by Gorgias, see Aristot. Rhet. iii. 3.; “faults of taste
in the use of metaphors,” Longin. de Suð/. 3. See also Plat. Symp. I98 C.
7 Cf. Aristoph. Peace, II4I ; Theophr. Lap. I3 ; Lucian, xvii., De merc.
cond, 27 ; Cic. Cat. m. I4, transl. “pocula . . . minuta atque rorantia.”
& Or, “at something faster than a hand-gallop each round.” See the
drinking-Song in Antony and Cl. i. 7. I2O.
WOL. III— I X
306 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH, III. § 1-4
out their duties, the boy played on the lyre tuned to accom-
pany the flute, and Sang." ---.
The performance won the plaudits of the company, an
drew from Charmides a speech as follows: Sirs, what Socrates
was claiming in behalf of wine applies in my opinion no
less aptly to the present composition. So rare a blending of
boyish and of girlish beauty, and of voice with instrument,
is potent to lull sorrow to sleep and to kindle Aphrodite's
flame. •- . "
Then Socrates, reverting in a manner to the charge : The
young people have fully proved their power to give us pleasure.
Yet, charming as they are, we still regard ourselves, no doubt,
as much their betters. What a shame to think that we should
here be met together, and yet make no effort ourselves to
heighten the festivity | *
Several of the company exclaimed at once : Be our director
then yourself. Explain what style of talk we should engage in
to achieve that object.” -
Nothing (he replied) would please me better than to
demand of Callias a prompt performance of his promise.
He told us, you recollect, if we would dine with him, he
would give us an exhibition of his wisdom.
To which challenge Callias: That I will readily, but you
on your side, one and all, must each propound some virtue of
which you claim to have the knowledge.
Socrates replied: At any rate, not one of us will have
the least objection to declaring what particular thing he
claims to know as best worth having.
Agreed (proceeded Callias); and for my part I proclaim
at once what I am proudest of My firm belief is, I have got
the gift to make my fellow-mortals better.
Make men better (cried Antisthenes); and pray how P
1. Cf. Plat. Laws, 812 C ; Aristot. Poet. i. 4.
* See Plat. Arof. 347 D : “A company like this of ours, and men
such as we profess to be, do not require the help of another's voice,”
etc. — Jowett. Cf. id. Symp. I76 : “To - day let us have conversation
instead ; and if you will allow me, I will tell you what sort of con-
versation.”
* émyo0. “Prescribe the form of words we must lay hold of to achieve
the object, and we will set to work, arch-casuist.”
CH. III. § 4-6 A SOCRATIC PASTIME - 307
by teaching them some base mechanic art P or teaching them
nobility of soul? I
The latter (he replied), if justice” be synonymous with
that high type of virtue.
Of course it is (rejoined Antisthenes) the most indis-
putable specimen. Since, look you, courage and wisdom
may at times be found calamitous to friends or country,”
but justice has no single point in common with injustice,
right and wrong cannot commingle.*
Well then (proceeded Callias), as soon * as every one has
stated his peculiar merit,” I will make no bones of letting
you into my secret. You shall learn the art by which
I Consummate my noble end." So now, Nicératus, Sup-
pose you tell us on what knowledge you most pride your-
self.
He answered : My father,” in his pains to make me a
good man, compelled me to learn the whole of Homer's
poems, and so it happens that even now I can repeat the
ZZiad and the Odyssey by heart.”.
You have not forgotten (interposed Antisthenes), perhaps,
that besides yourself there is not a rhapsodist who does not
know these epics?
Forgotten is it likely (he replied), considering I had to
listen to them almost daily P
Amt. And did you ever come across a sillier tribe of
people than these same rhapsodists P”
AWic. Not I, indeed. Don't ask me to defend their
wits.
It is plain (suggested Socrates), they do not know the
* Or, “beauty and nobility of soul” (ka)\okāya.0ia). See above, Mem.
I. vi. I4, p. 35.
* i.e. “social uprightness."
* See Mem. IV. ii. 33 (above, p. 144).
4 i.e. ‘‘the one excludes the other.”
* Reading huôv. Al, Šipºv, “when you others.”
6 Lit. ‘‘what he has for which to claim utility.”
7 Or, “give the work completeness.” Cf. Plat. Charm. 173 A ; Gorg.
454 A.
8 Nicias,
9 Or, “off-hand." See Mem. III. vi. 9; Plat. Theaet. I42 D.
10 Cf. Mem. IV. ii. Io (above, p. 136).
308 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. III. § 6-9
underlying meaning." But you, Nicératus, have paid large
sums of money to Anaximander, and Stesimbrotus, and many
others,” so that no single point in all that costly lore is lost
upon you.” But what (he added, turning to Critobulus) do
you most pride yourself upon P
On beauty (answered Critobulus).
What (Socrates rejoined), shall you be able to maintain
that by your beauty you can make us better P
Crit. That will I, or prove myself a shabby sort of person.
Soc. Well, and what is it you pride yourself upon, Anti-
Sthenes P
On wealth (he answered).
Whereupon Hermogenes inquired : Had he then a large
amount of money P* -
Not one sixpence: * that I swear to you (he answered).
A ſerm. Then you possess large property in land P
Anâ. Enough, I daresay, for the youngster there, Auto-
lycus, to dust himself withal."
Well, we will lend you our ears, when your turn comes
(exclaimed the others).
Soc. And do you now tell us, Charmides, on what you
pride yourself.
1 i.e. “they haven't the key (of knowledge) to the allegorical or spiritual
meaning of the Sacred text.” Cf. Plat. Craſſ. 407; ſon, 534 ; Rep. 378,
387; Theaet. 180 ; Prof. 316. See Grote, H. G. i. 564.
* See Aristot. Achef, iii. II, 13. “Or we may describe Niceratus [not im-
probably our friend] as a ‘Philoctetes stung by Pratys,” using the simile of
Thrasymachus when he saw Niceratus after his defeat by Pratys in the rhap-
sody with his hair still dishevelled and his face unwashed.”—Welldon. As
to Stesimbrotus, see Plat, ſon, 530 : “Jon. Very true, Socrates; interpretation
has certainly been the most laborious part of my art; and I believe myself
able to speak about Homer better than any man ; and that neither Metrodorus
of Lampsacus, nor Stesimbrotus of Thasos, nor Glaucon, nor any one else
who ever was, had as good ideas about Homer, or as many of them, as
I have.”—Jowett. Anaximander, probably of Lampsacus, the author of a
‘Hpooxoyla ; see Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 8.
* Or, “you will not have forgotten one point of all that precious teach-
ing.” Like Sir John Falstaff's page (2 Henry IV. ii. 2. Ioo), Nicératus, no
doubt, has got many “a crown's worth of good interpretations.”.
4 i.e. “out at interest,” or, “in the funds,” as we should say.
* Lit. “not an obol” = “a threepenny bit,” circa.
° i.e. “to sprinkle himself with Sand, after anointing.” Cf. Lucian,
xxxviii., Amor. 45.
CH. III. § 9-13 WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE VIRTUE 2 309
Oh, I, for my part, pride myself on poverty (he answered).
Upon my word, a charming business (exclaimed So-
Crates). Poverty of all things the least liable to envy ;
Seldom, if ever, an object of contention ; 1 never guarded,
yet always safe; the more you starve it, the stronger it grows.
. . And you, Socrates, yourself (their host demanded), what
is it you pride yourself upon P - -
Then he, with knitted brows, quite solemnly: On pandering.”
And when they laughed to hear him say this,” he continued :
Laugh to your hearts' content, my friends; but I am certain
I could make a fortune, if I chose to practise this same art.
At this point Lycon, turning to Philippus : We need not
ask you what you take the chiefest pride in. What can it be,
you laughter-making man, except to set folk laughing?
Yes (he answered), and with better right, I fancy, than
Callippides,” the actor, who struts and gives himself such
pompous airs, to think that he alone can set the crowds
a-weeping in the theatre.”
And now you, Lycon, tell us, won't you (asked Antisthenes),
what it is you take the greatest pride in P
You all of you, I fancy, know already what that is (the
father answered); it is in my son here.
And the lad himself (some one suggested) doubtless prides
himself, beyond all else, on having won the prize of victory.
At that Autolycus (and as he spoke he blushed) answered
for himself: " No indeed, not I.
The company were charmed to hear him speak, and
turned and looked ; and some one asked : On what is it then,
Autolycus P
To which he answered : On my father (and leaned closer
towards him).
* Cf. Plat. Rep. 521. A ; Laws, 678 C.
* Or, more politely, “on playing the go-between.” See Grote, H. G.
viii. 457, on the “extremely Aristophanic " character of the Symposium of
Xenophon.
* “ Him, the master, thus declare himself.”
* For illustrative tales about him see Plut. Ages. Xxi.; Alcib. xxxii. ;
Polyaen. vi. Io. Cf. Hell. IV. viii. 16.
* Or, “set for their sins a-weeping.”
6 Cf. Plat. Charm, I 58 C.
3IO syMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET (; º;"
At which sight Callias, turning to the father : Do you
know you are the richest man in the whole world, Lycon 2
To which Lycon : Really, I was not aware of that
before. - -
Then Callias: Why then, it has escaped you that you would
refuse the whole of Persia's wealth,” in exchange for your
OWI) SOI).
Most true (he answered), I plead guilty; here and now
I am convicted * of being the wealthiest man in all the
world ! .
And you, Hermogenes, on what do you plume yourself
most highly 2 (asked Nicératus). .
On the virtue and the power of my friends (he answered),
and that being what they are, they care for me.
At this remark they turned their eyes upon the speaker,
and several spoke together, asking : Will you make them
known to us?
I shall be very happy (he replied).
A philosophical debate.
p
Iv.–At this point, Socrates took up the conversation : It
now devolves on us to prove in turn that what we each have
undertaken to defend is really valuable.
[The first Thesis.]
Then Callias: Be pleased to listen to me first : My
case is this, that while the rest of you go on debating what
justice and uprightness are,” I spend my time in making men
more just and upright.
Soc. And how do you do that, good sir?
Call. By giving money, to be sure.
Antisthenes sprang to his feet at once, and with the
manner of a cross-examiner demanded : Do human beings
seem to you to harbour justice in their souls, or in their
purses,” Callias P
! Lit. ‘‘ of the Great King.” Cf. Cyrop. VIII. iii. 26.
* “Caught ſlagrante delicto. I do admit I do out-Croesus Croesus.”
* Tt rô 6tkatov, Cf. Mem. IV. iv. (above, p. 154).
* Or, “pockets.”
CH. Iv. § 2-6 CALLIAS–HIS SKILL TO BETTER OTHERS 3 II
Ca/Z. In their souls. - -
Ant. And do you pretend to make their souls more
righteous by putting money in their purses?
Call. Undoubtedly.
Amt. Pray how P
Call. In this way. When they know that they are fur-
nished with the means, that is to say, my money, to buy
necessaries, they would rather not incur the risk of evil-
doing, and why should they P
Ant. And pray, do they repay you these same moneys P
Call. I cannot say they do.
Amſ. Well then, do they requite your gifts of gold with
gratitude P
Ca/. No, not so much as a bare “Thank you.” In fact,
some of them are even worse disposed towards me when they
have got my money than before.
Now, here's a marvel ! (exclaimed Antisthenes, and as he
spoke he eyed the witness with an air of triumph). You can
render people just to all the world, but towards yourself you
cannot P -
Pray, where's the wonder P (asked the other). Do you
not see what scores of carpenters and house-builders there are
who spend their time in building houses for half the world;
but for themselves they simply cannot do it, and are forced
to live in lodgings. And so admit that home-thrust, Master
Sophist;" and confess yourself confuted.
Upon my soul, he had best accept his fate * (said
Socrates). Why, after all, you are only like those prophets
who proverbially foretell the future for mankind, but cannot
foresee what is coming upon themselves.
And so the first discussion ended.”
[The second Thesis.]
Thereupon Nicératus : Lend me your ears, and I will
tell you in what respects you shall be better for consorting
with myself. I presume, without my telling you, you know
l " Professor of wisdom.”
? Or, “the coup de grâce.”
& Or, “so ended fytte the first of the word-controversy.”
3 I2 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. Iv. § 6-8
that Homer, being the wisest of mankind, has touched upon
nearly every human topic in his poems." Whosoever among
you, therefore, would fain be skilled in economy, or oratory,
or strategy; whose ambition it is to be like Achilles, or Ajax,
Nestor, or Odysseus—one and all pay court to me, for I
have all this knowledge at my fingers' ends.
Pray (interposed Antisthenes),” do you also know the way
to be a king?” since Homer praises Agamemnon, you are
well aware, as being
A goodly king and eke a spearman bold.*
AWic. Full well I know it, and full well I know the duty of
a skilful charioteer ; how he who holds the ribbons must
turn his chariot nigh the pillar's edge"
Himself inclined upon the polished chariot-board
A little to the left of the twin pair : the right hand horse
Touch with the prick, and shout a cheery shout, and give him
rein.6
I know another thing besides, and you may put it to the test
this instant, if you like. Homer somewhere has said: " .
And at his side an onion, which to drink gives relish.
So if some one will but bring an onion, you shall reap the
benefit of my sage lore * in less than no time, and your wine
will taste the Sweeter.
Here Charmides exclaimed : Good sirs, let me explain.
Nicératus is anxious to go home redolent of onions, so that
his fair lady may persuade herself, it never entered into any-
body’s head to kiss her lord.”
* Or, “his creations are all but coextensive with every mortal thing.”
* Some modern critics (e.g. F. Dümmler, Antisthenica, p. 29 foll.) maintain
plausibly that the author is here glancing (as also Plato in the Ion) at Anti-
Sthenes' own treatises against the Rhapsodists and on a more correct interpre-
tation of Homer, trept éénymrów and trept "Ogºpov.
* Or, “Have you the knowledge also how to play the king P”
* /l. iii. 179. See Mem. III. ii. 2 (above, p. 83).
* //, xxiii. 335 ; Plat. Ion, 537.
° Lit, “ yield him the reins with his hands.”
7 //, xi. 630 : “And set out a leek savourer of drink” (Purves). Plat.
Mozz, 538 C. * “My culinary skill.”
* See Shakesp. Much Ado, v. 2, 51 foll, ; Mids. N. D. iv. 2. '
ch, iv. $8-1. NICáRATUS—HIS KNOWLEDGE OF HOMER 313
Bless me, that isn't all (continued Socrates); if we do
not take care, we shall win ourselves a comic reputation."
A relish must it be, in very truth, that can sweeten cup as well
as platter, this same onion; and if we are to take to munching
Onions for dessert, see if somebody does not say of us, “They
went to dine with Callias, and got more than their deserts, the
epicures.””
No fear of that, Socrates (rejoined Nicératus). Always
take a bite of onion before speeding forth to battle, just as
your patrons of the cock-pit give their birds a feed of garlic *
before they pit them for the fight. But for ourselves our thoughts
are less intent perhaps on dealing blows than blowing kisses.*
After such sort the theme of their discourse reached its
conclusion.
[The third Thesis.]
Then Critobulus spoke: It is now my turn, I think, to
state to you the grounds on which I pride myself on beauty.”
A chorus of voices rejoined : Say on.
Crit. To begin with, if I am not beautiful, as methinks I
be, you will bring on your own heads the penalty of perjury ,
for, without waiting to have the oath administered, you
are always taking the gods to witness that you find me
beautiful. And I must needs believe you, for are you not
all honourable men P " If I then be so beautiful and affect
you, even as I also am affected by him whose fair face
here attracts me," I swear by all the company of heaven I
1 Lit. “I warrant you ! (quoth Socrates) and there's another funny notion
we have every chance of getting fathered on us.”
* Or, ‘‘ and had a most hilarious and herbaceous time.”
* Cf. Aristoph. Ånights, 494 :
Chorus. And here's the garlic. Swallow it down |
Sausage Seller. * * g What for 2
Chorus. It will prime you up and make you fight the better.
H, FRERE.
4 ‘‘We are concerned less with the lists of battle than of love”; “we
meditate no furious close of battle but of lips." Lit, “how we shall kiss
Some one rather than do battle with.”
* See Hellenica Essays, p. 353. 6 Or, “beautiful and good."
7 Or, “whose fair face draws me.” Was Cleimias there as a muzz/a
Žersona 2 Hardly, in spite of vöv. It is the image of him which is present
to the mind's eye.
3I4 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. IV. § 1 I-16
would not choose the great king's empire in exchange for what
I am—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.” And
at this instant I feast my eyes on Cleinias” gladlier than on
all other sights which men deem fair. Joyfully will I welcome
blindness to all else, if but these eyes may still behold him
and him only. With sleep and night I am sore vexed, which
rob me of his sight; but to daylight and the sun I owe eternal
thanks, for they restore him to me, my heart's joy, Cleinias.”
Yes, and herein also have we, the beautiful," just claim to
boast. The strong man may by dint of toil obtain good
things; the brave, by danger boldly faced, and the wise
by eloquence of speech; but to the beautiful alone it is given
to achieve all ends in absolute quiescence. To take myself
as an example. I know that riches are a sweet possession,
yet sweeter far to me to give all that I have to Cleinias than
to receive a fortune from another. Gladly would I become a
slave—ay, forfeit freedom—if Cleinias would deign to be
my lord. Toil in his service were easier for me than rest
from labour : danger incurred in his behalf far sweeter than
security of days. So that if you, Callias, may boast of making
men more just and upright, to me belongs by juster right
than yours to train mankind to every excellence. We are
the true inspirers” who infuse some subtle fire into amorous
souls, we beauties, and thereby raise them to new heights of
being ; we render them more liberal in the pursuit of wealth ;
we give them a zest for toil that mocks at danger, and
enables them where honour the fair vision leads, to follow."
We fill their souls with deeper modesty, a self-constraint more
staunch ; about the things they care for most, there floats a
halo of protecting awe.” Fools and unwise are they who
* Lit. “being beautiful"; but there is a touch of bombast infused into
the speech by the artist. Cf. the speech of Callias (Hell. VI. iii. 3, Trans.
vol. ii. p. 153) and, for the humour, Cyrop, passim.
* See Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 59. Cf. Mem. I. iii. 8 (above, p. 23).
* Or, “for that they reveal his splendour to me.”
4 ‘‘We beauties.”
* The elatryºxas in relation to the dütas, the Inspirer to the Hearer. Cf.
Theocr. xii. 13; Ael. V. H. iii. 12. See Müller, Dorians, ii. 3oo foll.
" (pi)\oka)\@répovs. Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 248 D ; Criti. III E ; Aristot.
Eth. AW. iv. 4. 4; x. 9. 3.
7 Lit. “they feel most awe of what they most desire.”
CH. Iv. § 16-20 CRITOBULUS—HIS BEAUTY 3I 5
choose not beauteous men to be their generals. How merrily
would I, at any rate, march through fire by the side of Cleinias;"
and SO would all of you, I know full well, in company of him
who now addresses you.
Cease, therefore, your perplexity, O Socrates, abandon
fears and doubts, believe and know that this thing of which
I make great boast, my beauty, has power to confer some
benefit on humankind.
Once more, let no man dare dishonour beauty, merely
because the flower of it soon fades, since even as a child has
growth in beauty, so is it with the stripling, the grown man,
the reverend senior.” And this the proof of my contention.
Whom do we choose to bear the sacred olive-shoot * in honour
of Athena P—whom else save beautiful old men P witnes
ing thereby * that beauty walks hand in hand as a companion
with every age of life, from infancy to eld.
Or again, if it be sweet to win from willing hearts the
things we seek for, I am persuaded that, by the eloquence of
silence, I could win a kiss from yonder girl or boy more
speedily than ever you could, O sage by help of half a
hundred subtle arguments.
Eh, bless my ears, what's that P (Socrates broke in upon
this final flourish of the speaker). So beautiful, you claim to
rival me, you boaster P
Crit. Why, yes indeed, I hope so, or else I should be
uglier than all the Silenuses in the Satyric drama.”
Good (Socrates rejoined); the moment the programme
of discussion is concluded,” please remember, we must obtain
a verdict on the point of beauty. Judgment shall be given—
not at the bar of Alexander, son of Priam—but of these"
* Cf. Mem. I. iii. 9 (above, p. 23).
* Cf. ib. III. iii. 12 (above, p. 87).
* Cf. Aristoph. Wasps, 544.
* Or, “beauty steps in attendance lovingly hand in hand at every Season
of the life of man.” So Walt Whitman, passim.
° The MSS. add [“to whom, be it noted, Socrates indeed bore a marked
resemblance"]. Obviously a gloss. Cf. Aristoph. Clouds, 224 : Plat. Symp.
2 I tº B,
5. Lit. “the arguments proposed have gone the round."
7 i.e. “the boy and girl.” A W. “the present company, who are so eager
to bestow on you their kisses.”
316 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. Iv. § 20-24
who, as you flatter yourself, have such a hankering to kiss
you. .
Oh, Socrates (he answered, deprecatingly), will you not
leave it to the arbitrament of Cleinias P
Then Socrates: Will you never tire of repeating that one
name P It is Cleinias here, there, and everywhere with you.
Crit. And if his name died on my lips, think you my
mind would less recall his memory P. Know you not, I bear so
clear an image of him in my soul, that had I the sculptor's or
the limner's skill, I might portray his features as exactly from
this image of the mind as from contemplation of his actual self.
But Socrates broke in : Pray, why then, if you bear about
this lively image, why do you give me so much trouble, drag-
ging me to this and that place, where you hope to see him P
Crit. For this good reason, Socrates, the sight of him
inspires gladness, whilst his phantom brings not joy so much
as it engenders longing.
At this point Hermogenes protested : I find it most un-
like you, Socrates, to treat thus negligently one so passion-
crazed as Critobulus.
Socrates replied: Do you suppose the sad condition of
the patient dates from the moment only of our intimacy P
A/erm. Since when, then P
Soc. Since when P Why, look at him : the down begins
to mantle on his cheeks," and on the nape” of Cleinias’ neck
already mounts. The fact is, when they fared to the same
school together, he caught the fever. This his father
was aware of, and consigned him to me, hoping I might
be able to do something for him. Ay, and his plight is not
* Lit. “creeping down beside his ears.” Cf. Od. xi. 319 :
Tpiv orghajiv ÚTô kpotáqotoru loº)\ovs
&v670 at Trukáo at Te yévvs eſſav0ét Xàxum.
“(Zeus destroyed the twain) ere the curls had bloomed beneath their temples,
and darkened their chins with the blossom of youth.”—Butcher and Lang.
Cf. Theocr. xv. 85 : Tpárov tow\ov diró kpotégaju Karaśā)\\@v, “with the
first down upon his cheeks” (Lang); Aesch. Theb. 534.
* Tpès rê štrio 6ev, perhaps = “ad posteriorem capitis partem,” which
would be more applicable to Critobulus, whose whiskers were just beginning
to grow, than to Callias. Possibly we should read (after Pollux, ii. To) trept
Thu ÜTàumv, ‘‘ on the upper lip.” See Plat. Profag. 309 B ; // xxiv. 348;
Od. x. 279.
CH. IV. § 24-28 THE DANGER OF A KISS 317
So Sorry now. Once he would stand agape at him like one
whose gaze is fixed upon the Gorgons," his eyes one stomy
stare, and like a stone himself turn heavily away. But
nowadays I have seen the statue actually blink.” And yet,
may Heaven help me ! my good sirs, I think, between our-
Selves, the culprit must have bestowed a kiss on Cleinias,
than which love's flame asks no fiercer fuel.” So insatiable
a thing is it and so suggestive of mad fantasy. [And for
this reason held perhaps in higher honour, because of
all external acts the close of lip with lip bears the same
name as that of soul with soul in love.]* Wherefore, say I,
let every one who wishes to be master of himself and sound
of Soul abstain from kisses imprinted on fair lips.”
Then Charmides: Oh Socrates, why will you scare your
friends with these hobgoblin terrors,” bidding us all beware
of handsome faces, whilst you yourself—yes, by Apollo, I will
swear I saw you at the schoolmaster's 7 that time when both
of you were poring over one book, in which you searched
for something, you and Critobulus, head to head, shoulder to
shoulder bare, as if incorporate P & -
Ah yes, alack the day ! (he answered); and that is why,
no doubt, my shoulder ached for more than five days after-
wards, as if I had been bitten by some fell beast, and
methought I felt a sort of scraping at the heart.” Now
therefore, in the presence of these witnesses, I warn you,
Critobulus, never again to touch me till you wear as thick
a crop of hair" upon your chin as on your head.
1. Cf. Pind. Pyth. x. 75.
* See Cyrop, I. iv. 28 ; Shakesp. Ven. and Ad. 89 : “But when her lips
were ready for his pay, he winks, and turns his lips another way." .
* Or, “a kiss which is to passion as dry combustious matter is to fire,”
Shakesp. 20. II62.
4 Or, “is namesake of the love within the soul of lovers.” The whole
passage, involving a play on the words (pt)\eiv (pi)\eta:0at, “Where kisses rain
without, love reigns within,” is probably to be regarded as a gloSS. Cf. Mem.
I. iii. 13 (above, p. 24, n. 2).
Cf. Mem. I. iii. 8-14 (above, p. 23 foll.). See Trans. Vol. i. p. lxxvii.
Cf. Plat. Crit. 46 D ; Hell. IV. iv. 17 ; Aristoph. Birds, 1245.
‘‘ Grammarian's.” Plat. Protag, 312 B, 326 D ; Dem, 31.5, 8.
Like Hermia and Helena, Mids. M. D. iii. 2, 208.
Reading Kvtopa, “scratching.” Plat. Hiſp. maj. 3O4 A. Al. Kwijapua.
10 See Jebb, Theophr. Ch. xxiv. 16.
5
:
3.18 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. Iv. § 28-32
So pell-mell they went at it, half jest half earnest, and so
the medley ended. Callias here called on Charmides.
[The fourth Thesis.]
Call. Now, Charmides, it lies with you to tell us why you
pride yourself on poverty." #
Charmides responded : On all hands it is admitted, I
believe, that confidence is better than alarm ; better to be a
freeman than a slave ; better to be worshipped than pay court
to others; better to be trusted than to be suspected by one's
Country.
Well now, I will tell you how it fared with me in this
same city when I was wealthy. First, I lived in daily terror
lest some burglar should break into my house and steal my
goods and do myself some injury. I cringed before informers.”
I was obliged to pay these people court, because I knew that
I could injure them far less than they could injure me. Never-
ending the claims upon my pocket which the state enforced
upon me; and as to setting foot abroad, that was beyond the
range of possibility. But now that I have lost my property
across the frontier,” and derive no income from my lands in
Attica itself; now that my very household goods have been
sold up, I stretch my legs at ease, I get a good night's rest.
The distrust of my fellow-citizens has vanished ; instead of
trembling at threats, it is now my turn to threaten ; at last
I feel myself a freeman, with liberty to go abroad or stay at
home as suits my fancy. The tables now are turned. It
is the rich who rise to give me their seats, who stand
aside and make way for me as I meet them in the streets.
To-day I am like a despot, yesterday I was literally a slave ;
formerly it was I who had to pay my tribute 4 to the
Sovereign people, now it is I who am supported by the state
by means of general taxation.”
And there is another thing. So long as I was rich, they
* Zeune cf. Cyrop. VIII, iii. 35-50.
* “And police agents.”
* Cf. Mem. II. viii. 1 (above, p. 75),
* @6pos, tributum. AZ, “property-tax." Cf. Econ. ii. 6 (above, p. 206).
* TéAos, vectigal. See Sturz, Lex, Xen, S. v. Cf. Pol. Aſh, i. 3 (Trans.
vol. ii. p. 276).
CH. IV. § 32-36 CHARMIDES-HIS POVERTY 3 IQ
threw in my teeth as a reproach that I was friends with
Socrates, but now that I am become a beggar no one troubles
his head two straws about the matter. Once more, the while
I rolled in plenty I had everything to lose, and, as a rule, I
lost it ; what the state did not exact, some mischance stole from
me. But now that is over. I lose nothing, having nought to
lose ; but, on the contrary, I have everything to gain, and live
in hope of some day getting something."
Ca/Z. And SO, of course, your one prayer is that you may
never more be rich, and if you are visited by a dream of luck
your One thought is to offer sacrifice to Heaven to avert mis-
fortune.” -
Char. No, that I do not. On the contrary, I run my
head into each danger most adventurously. I endure, if
haply I may see a chance of getting something from some
quarter of the sky some day.
[The fifth Thesis.]
Come now (Socrates exclaimed), it lies with you, sir, you,
Antisthenes, to explain to us, how it is that you, with means
so scanty, make so loud a boast of wealth.
Because (he answered) I hold to the belief, sirs, that
wealth and poverty lie not in a man's estate, but in men's
souls. Even in private life how many scores of people have
I seen, who, although they roll in wealth, yet deem them-
selves so poor, there is nothing they will shrink from, neither
toil nor danger, in order to add a little to their store.” I
have known two brothers,” heirs to equal fortunes, one of
whom has enough, more than enough, to cover his expendi-
ture ; the other is in absolute indigence. And as to monarchs,
there are not a few, as I perceive, so ravenous of wealth
that they will outdo the veriest vagrants in atrocity. Want?
* “I feed on the pleasures of hope, and fortune in the future.”
* Or, “you wake up in a fright, and offer sacrifice to the ‘Averters.'''
For toſs & Totpotatous see Aristoph, Plutus, 359 ; Plat. Laws, 854 B ; Hell.
III. iii. 4 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 20).
* Cf. Cyrop. VIII. ii. 21 ; Hor. Epist. i. 2. 26, “semper avarus eget.”
* Is Antisthenes thinking of Callias and Hermogenes? (presuming these are
both sons of Hipponicus and brothers). Cf. Mem. II. x, 3 (above, p. 78).
° Or, “'Tis want that does it.” See Pol. Ath, i. 5; Revenues, i. I
(Trans, vol. ii. pp. 276, 327),
32O SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. Iv. § 36-41
prompts a thousand crimes, you must admit. Why do men
steal? why break burglariously into houses P why hale men
and women captive and make slaves of them P Is it not
from want P Nay, there are monarchs who at one fell swoop
destroy whole houses, make wholesale massacre, and often-
times reduce entire states to slavery, and all for the sake of
wealth. These I must needs pity for the cruel malady which
plagues them. Their condition, to my mind, resembles that
poor creature's who, in spite of all he has 4 and all he eats,
can never stay the wolf that gnaws his vitals. . -
But as to me, my riches are so plentiful I cannot lay my
hands on them myself: * yet for all that I have enough to
eat till my hunger is stayed, to drink till my thirst is sated ; *
to clothe myself withal; and out of doors not Callias there,
with all his riches, is more safe than I from shivering; and
when I find myself indoors, what warmer shirting * do I
need than my bare walls P what ampler greatcoat than the
tiles above my head P these seem to suit me well enough ;
and as to bedclothes, I am not so ill supplied but it is a
business to arouse me in the morning.
And as to sexual desire, my body’s need is satisfied
by what comes first to hand. Indeed, there is no lack of
warmth in the caress which greets me, just because it is
unsought by others.”
Well then, these several pleasures I enjoy so fully that I
am much more apt to pray for less than more of them, so
strongly do I feel that some of them are sweeter than what
is good for one or profitable,
But of all the precious things in my possession, I reckon
this the choicest, that were I robbed of my whole present
stock, there is no work so mean, but it would amply serve to
furnish me with sustenance. Why, look you, whenever I
desire to fare delicately, I have not to purchase precious
* Reading éxay, or if Trivaju, transl. ‘‘ who eats and drinks, but never
sates himself.”
* “That I can scarce discover any portion of it.” Zeune cf. Bcom. viii. 2.
* So “the master” himself. See Mem. I. ii. I, vi. 5 (above, pp. 6, 33).
4 Cf. Aristot. Pol. ii. 8. I, of Hippodamus.
* Cf. Mem. I. iii. 14, the germ of cynicism and stoicism, the Socratic
(EX) form of “better to marry than to burn.”
CH. IV. § 41-45 ANTISTHENES-HIS WEALTH 32I
viands in the market, which becomes expensive, but I open
the storehouse of my soul, and dole them out." Indeed, as
far as pleasure goes, I find it better to await desire before I
Suffer meat or drink to pass my lips, than to have recourse to
any of your costly viands, as, for instance, now, when I have
chanced on this fine Thasian wine,” and sip it without thirst.
But indeed, the man who makes frugality, not wealth of
Worldly goods, his aim, is on the face of it a much more
upright person. And why P-the man who is content with
what he has will least of all be prone to clutch at what is
his neighbour's. -
And here's a point worth noting. Wealth of my sort will
make you liberal of soul. Look at Socrates ; from him it
was I got these riches. He did not supply me with it by
weight or measure, but just as much as I could carry, he with
bounteous hand consigned to me. And I, too, grudge it to
no man now. To all my friends without distinction I am
ready to display my Opulence: Come One, come all; and who-
soever likes to take a share is welcome to the wealth that lies
within my soul. Yes, and moreover, that most luxurious of
possessions,” unbroken leisure, you can see, is mine, which
leaves me free to contemplate things worthy of contemplation,”
and to drink in with my ears all charming sounds. And what
I value most, freedom to spend whole days in pure scholastic
intercourse 8 with Socrates, to whom I am devoted." And
he, on his side, is not the person to admire those whose tale
of gold and silver happens to be largest, but those who are
well-pleasing to him he chooses for companions, and will con-
sort with to the end.
With these words the speaker ended, and Callias exclaimed:
By Héra, I envy you your wealth, Antisthenes, firstly, be-
cause the state does not lay burthens on you and treat you
1 Or, “turn to the storehouse of a healthy appetite.” See above, Apol. 18,
the same sentiment ex ore Socratis. * See Athen. Deipnos. i. 28.
* See Eur, ſon, 6or ; Trans, vol. i. Sketch, p. lxxxii. Lit. “at every
moment I command it.”
* “To gaze upon all fairest shows (like a spectator in the theatre), and
to drink in sounds the most delectable.” So Walt Whitman.
* Aristot. Rhet. ii. 4. I2 ; Eth. AW. ix. 4. 9.
6 See Mem. III. xi. 17 (above, p. 122).
322 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. IV. § 45-48
like a slave ; and secondly, people do not fall into a rage
with you when you refuse to be their creditor.
You may stay your envy (interposed Nicératus), I shall
presently present myself to borrow of him this same key of his
to independence." Trained as I am to cast up figures by my
master Homer—
Seven tripods, which ne’er felt the fire, and of gold ten talents
And burnished braziers twenty, and horses twelve–?
by weight and measure duly reckoned,” I cannot stay my
craving for enormous wealth. And that's the reason certain
people, I daresay, imagine I am inordinately fond of riches.
The remark drew forth a peal of laughter from the com-
pany, who thought the speaker hit the truth exactly.
[The sixth Thesis.]
Then some one : It lies with you, Hermogenes, to tell us
who your friends are ; and next, to demonstrate the greatness
of their power and their care for you, if you would prove to
us your right to pride yourself on them.
Aerm. That the gods know all things, that the present
and the future lie before their eyes, are tenets held by Hellenes
and barbarians alike. This is obvious ; or else, why do states
and nations, one and all, inquire of the gods by divination
what they ought to do and what they ought not P This also is
apparent, that we believe them able to do us good and to
do us harm ; or why do all men pray to Heaven to avert the
evil and bestow the good P. Well then, my boast is that these
gods, who know and can do all things,” deign to be my friends;
so that, by reason of their care for me, I can never escape
from their sight,”neither by night nor by day, whithersoever
1 Or, “his wanz-for-nothing,” or, “supply-all.”
* Nicératus quotes /Z. ix. I22, 123, 263, 264.
* Or, “by number and by measure,” “so much apiece, so much a
pound,” in reference to Antisthenes' remark that Socrates does not stint his
“good things.”
* Cf. Mem. I. i. 19 ; I. iv. 18 (above, pp. 6, 30).
" Schneid. cf. Hom. ZZ, x. 279, où6é ore Xà9a, Kuvvuevos, “nor doth any
motion of mine escape thee” (A. Lang); and see Arrian, Epictet. i. 12. 3.
CH. Iv. § 48-50 HERMOGENES-HIS FRIENDS 323
I essay to go, whatsoever I take in hand to do." But because
they know beforehand the end and issue of each event, they
give me signals, sending messengers, be it some voice,” or
vision of the night, with Omens of the solitary bird, which tell
me what I should and what I should not do. When I listen
to their warnings all goes well with me, I have no reason to
repent ; but if, as ere now has been the case, I have been
disobedient, chastisement has overtaken me.
Then Socrates: All this I well believe,” but there is one
thing I would gladly learn of you : What service do you pay
the gods, so to secure their friendship P
Truly it is not a ruinous service, Socrates (he answered)
—far from it. I give them thanks, which is not costly. I
make return to them of all they give to me from time to
time. I speak well of them, with all the strength I have.
And whenever I take their sacred names to witness, I do not
wittingly falsify my word.
Then God be praised (said Socrates), if being what you
are, you have such friends ; the gods themselves, it would
appear, delight in nobleness of soul.” -
Thus, in solemn sort, the theme was handled, thus gravely
ended.
[The seventh Thesis.]
But now it was the jester's turn, and so they fell to asking
him : * What could he see to pride himself upon so vastly in
the art of making people laugh P
Surely I have good reason (he replied). The whole world
knows my business is to set them laughing, so when they are
in luck's way, they eagerly invite me to a share of it; but if ill
betide them, helter-skelter off they go, and never once turn
back," so fearful are they I may set them laughing will he
nill he.
l. Cf. Ps. cxxxix. Domine probasti.
* See Mem. I. i. 3 ; Apol. xii. 13 ; Cyrop. VIII. vii. 3.
3 Lit. “Nay, nought of the things you tell us is incredible, but . .
4 ka)\okáya.6ta, “beautiful and gentle manhood.” See below, viii. 3.
* Lit. “now that they had come to Philippus (in the ‘period' of dis-
cussion), they . . .” Or read, after Hartman, An. Xen, p. 242, fixey (sc.
ô Xóyos).
6 Plat. Rep. 62o E ; Laws, 854 C.
324. SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. Iv. § 51-55
AWic. Heavens ! you have good reason to be proud ; with
me it is just the opposite. When any of my friends are doing
well, they take good care to turn their backs on me," but if
ever it goes ill with them, they claim relationship by birth,”
and will not let their long-lost cousin out of sight.
[The eighth Thesis.]
Charm. Well, well and you, sir (turning to the Syracusan),
what do you pride yourself upon P No doubt, upon
the boy P
The Syr. Not I, indeed ; I am terribly afraid concerning
him. It is plain enough to me that certain people are con-
triving for his ruin.”
Good gracious !“ (Socrates exclaimed, when he heard that),
what crime can they conceive your boy is guilty of that they
should wish to make an end of him P
The Syr. I do not say they want to murder him, but
wheedle him away with bribes to pass his nights with them.
Soc. And if that happened, you on your side, it appears,
believe the boy will be corrupted P -
The Syr. Beyond all shadow of a doubt, most villainously.
Soc. And you, of course, you never dream of such a
thing. You don't spend nights with him P
The Syr. Of course I do, all night and every night.
Soc. By Héra, what a mighty piece of luck” for you—to
be so happily compounded, of such flesh and blood. You
alone can’t injure those who sleep beside you. You have
every right, it seems, to boast of your own flesh, if nothing
else.
The Syr. Nay, in sooth, it is not on that I pride myself.
Soc. Well, on what then P
1 Or, “they take good care to get out of my way,” “they hold aloof from
me entirely.”
2 Or, “produce the family-pedigree and claim me for a cousin.” Cf.
Lucian V., Tim. 49 ; Ter. Phorm, ii. 33, 45.
* 6taq,0eſpat = (I) to destroy, make away with ; (2) to ruin and corrupt,
seduce by bribes or otherwise.
4 Lit. ‘‘ Heracles 1 '' ‘‘Zounds ! ”
* Cf. Plat. Symp. 217 A.
CH. Iv. § 55-58 SOCRATES-HIS SKILL AS “GO-BETWEEN’’ 325
Zhe Syr. Why, on the silly fools who come and see my
puppet show.” I live on them.
A’hil. Ah yes! and that explains how the other day I heard
you praying to the gods to grant you, wheresoe'er you chance
to be, great store of corn and wine, but dearth of wits.”
[The ninth Thesis.]
Pass on (said Callias); now it is your turn, Socrates. What
have you to say to justify your choice P How can you boast
of so discredited an art P 3
He answered : Let us first decide 4 what are the duties of
the good go-between ; * and please to answer every question
without hesitating; let us know the points to which we mutu-
ally assent." Are you agreed to that P
The Company, in chorus. Without a doubt (they answered,
and the formula, once started, was every time repeated by
the company, full chorus).
Soc. Are you agreed it is the business of a good go-between
to make him (or her) on whom he plies his art agreeable to
those with them P 7
Omnes. Without a doubt.
Soc. And, further, that towards agreeableness, one step at
any rate consists in wearing a becoming fashion of the hair
and dress P8 Are you agreed to that?
Ommes. Without a doubt.
Soc. And we know for certain, that with the same eyes a
* “My marionettes.” Cf. Herod. ii. 48 ; Lucian lxxii., De Syr, d. 16 :
Aristot, de Muzzd. 6.
* Or, “of fruits abundance, but of wits a famine.” Cf. Plat. Rep. 546 A.
His prayer resembles that of the thievish trader in Ovid, Fasº. v. 675 foll.,
“Grant me to - day my daily . . . fraud " but in spite of himself (like
Dogberry), he seems to pray the gods to “write him down an ass" !
* Sc. ‘‘the hold-door trade.”
* Or, “define in common.” Cf. Mem. IV. vi. 15 (above, p. 175).
* Or, “man-praiser.” Cf. The Manx Witch, p. 47 (T. E. Brown),
“And Harry, more like a dooiney-molla For Jack, lak helpin him to woo.”
See, too, Mr. Hall Caine's Manxman, p. 73.
* See Plat. Rep. 342 D, for a specimen of Socratic procedure, “from one
point of agreement to another.”
7 Al, “their followers.” See Mem. II. vi. 36.
8 See Becker, Char. Exc. iii. to Sc. xi.
326 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. Iv. § 58-61
man may dart a look of love or else of hate 1 on those he sees.
Are you agreed P -
Ommes. Without a doubt.
Soc. Wellſ and with the same tongue and lips and voice
may speak with modesty or boastfulness?
Omzles. Without a doubt. -
Soc. And there are words that bear the stamp of hate, and
words that tend to friendliness P2
Omnes. Without a doubt.
Soc. The good go-between will therefore make his choice
between them, and teach only what conduces to agree-
ableness P
Ommes. Without a doubt.
Soc. And is he the better go-between who can make his
clients pleasing to one person only, or can make them
pleasing to a number P3
The company was here divided ; the one half answered,
“Yes, of course, the largest number,” whilst the others still
maintained, “Without a doubt.”
And Socrates, remarking, “That proposition is agreed to
also,” thus proceeded : And if further he were able to make
them pleasing to the whole community, should we not have
found in this accomplished person an arch-go-between P
Clearly so (they answered with one voice). -
Soc. If then a man had power to make his clients
altogether pleasing ; that man, I say, might justly pride
himself upon his art, and should by rights receive a large
reward P4
And when these propositions were agreed to also, he turned
about and said: Just such a man, I take it, is before you in
the person of Antisthenes | * p
Whereupon Antisthenes exclaimed: What are you going
* See Mem. III. x. 5 (above, p. II.4).
* Cf. Ep. St. James iii. Io, “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing
and cursing.” º
* Or, “to the many.” The question is ambiguous, ) = “an " or
“quam.” --
* Or, “he deserves to do a rattling business,” “to take handsome fees.”
Cf. Sheridan's Mrs. Coupler, in A Trip to Scarborough.
* See Diog. Laert. Antisth. VI. i. 8 ; Plut. Symp. ii. I. 503.
ch. iv. § 61-63 DEVOLVES THE ART ON ANTISTHENES 327
to pass on the business? will you devolve this art of yours on
me as your successor, Socrates ?"
I will, upon my word, I will (he answered): since I see
that you have practised to some purpose, nay elaborated, an
art which is the handmaid to this other.
And what may that be P asked Antisthenes.
Soc. The art of the procurer.”
The other (in a tone of deep vexation): Pray, what thing
of the sort are you aware I ever perpetrated P
Soc. I am aware that it was you who introduced our host
here, Callias, to that wise man Prodicus;* they were a match,
you saw, the One enamoured of philosophy, and the other in
need of money. It was you again, I am well enough aware,
who introduced him once again to Hippias 4 of Elis, from
whom he learnt his “art of memory”; * since which time he
has become a very ardent lover," from inability to forget each
lovely thing he sets his eyes on. And quite lately, if I am
not mistaken, it was you who sounded in my ears such praise
of Our visitor from Heraclea," that first you made me thirst
for his society, and then united us.” For which indeed I am
your debtor, since I find him a fine handsome fellow and true
gentleman.” And did you not, moreover, sing the praises of
Aeschylus of Phlius” in my ears and mine in his 2–in fact,
affected us so much by what you said, we fell in love and
* Or, “going to give up business, and hand on the trade to me as your
successor P’’
* Cf. Plat. Theaet. I 50 A; Aristot. Eff. N. v. 2, 13; Aeschin. 3, 7 ;
Plut. Solozz, 23.
* Or, “the sage,” “the sophist.” See above, Meyz. I. vi. Ig ; II. i. 21.
* See above, Mem. IV. iv. 5; and for his art of memory cf. Plat. Hipp.
mezzº. 368 D ; Hipſ, mea. 285 E.
* The memoria technica (see Aristot. de An. iii. 3, 6), Said to be invented
by Simonides of Ceos. Cic. de Or. ii. 86; de Ain. ii. 32 ; Quinct. xi.
2. 559.
° Or, “has grown amorous to a degree " [al, “an adept in love's lore
himself.” Cf. Plat. Rep. 474 D, “an authority in love.”—Jowett] “for the
simple reason he can't forget each lovely thing he once has seen.” Through
the ars memoriae of Hippias, it becomes an idée ſixe of the mind.
7 Perhaps Zeuxippus. See Plat. Prof. 318 B. Al, Zeuxis, also a native
of Heraclea. See Mem. I. iv. 3; Alcon. x. I.
* Or, “introduced him to me.” Cf. Econ, iii. 14; Plat. Lach. 200 D.
” “An out-and-out ka)\ds Te kdºya.06s.”
* Who this Phliasian is, no one knows.
328 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET (; º;*
took to coursing wildly in pursuit of one another like two
dogs upon a trail." -
With such samples of your wonder-working skill before my
eyes, I must suppose you are a first-rate match-maker. For
consider, a man with insight to discern two natures made to
be of service to each other, and with power to make these
same two people mutually enamoured That is the sort of
man, I take it, who should weld together states in friendship ;
cement alliances with gain to the contracting parties; * and,
in general, be found an acquisition to those several states;
to friends and intimates, and partisans in war, a treasure
worth possessing.” But you, my friend, you got quite angry.
One would suppose I had given you an evil name in calling
you a first-rate matchmaker.
Yes (he answered meekly), but now I am calm. It is
clear enough, if I possess these powers I shall find myself
surcharged with spiritual riches.
In this fashion the cycle of the speeches was completed.*
[The Case: SOCRATES v. CRITOBULUS.]
v.–Then Callias : Our eyes are on you, Critobulus.
Yours to enter the lists * against the champion Socrates, who
claims the prize of beauty. Do you hesitate P
Soc. Likely enough he does, for possibly he sees Sir
Pandarus stands high in their esteem who are the judges of
the contest.
In spite of which (retorted Critobulus), I am not for
drawing back." I am ready; so come on, and if you have any
subtle argument to prove that you are handsomer than I am,
* A/. “like two hounds chevying after one another.”
* Al. “ and cement desirable matrimonial connections.” Cf. Aristot.
Pol. iii. 9, 13. I28o B ; v. 4. 5-8. I3O3 B.
* See the conversation with Critobulus, so often referred to, Trept pºtas,
in Mem. II. vi.
* See Hug, Æinleitung, xxxi. “Quellen des Platonischen Symposion.”
* Soph. Zºr. 234; Thuc. i. 93.
° Or, “I do ; but all the same, I am not for shirking.” Cf. Aristoph.
Frogs, 860, €Totpads elu' éyajye, Koºk divaðūoual, Ödkvely : “I’m up to it; I
am resolved " (Frere); Dem. de F. Leg. 406. 20 : “His resolution never
reached that point, but shrank back, for his conscience checked it" (Kennedy).
CH. V. § 2-5 SOCRATES V. CRITOBULUS 329
now's your time, instruct us. But just stop one minute; have
the goodness, please, to bring the lamp 1 a little closer.
[Attendant brings lamp.]
Soc. Well then, I call upon you first of all, as party to
this suit, to undergo the preliminary examination.” Attend
to what I say, and please be good enough to answer.
Cºif. Do you be good enough yourself to put your
Questions.
Soc. Do you consider that the quality of beauty is con-
fined to man, or is it to be found in other objects also P
What is your belief on this point P
Crit. For my part, I consider it belongs alike to animals
—the horse, the ox—and to many things inanimate: that is
to Say, a shield, a sword, a spear are often beautiful.
Soc. How is it possible that things, in no respect re-
Sembling one another, should each and all be beautiful ?”
Crit. Of course it is, God bless me ! if well constructed
by the hand of man to suit the sort of work for which we got
them, or if naturally adapted to satisfy some want, the things
in either case are beautiful. f
Soc. Can you tell me, then, what need is satisfied by our
eyes P - *
Crit. Clearly, the need of vision.
Soc. If so, my eyes are proved at once to be more beau-
tiful than yours. -
Crić. How SO P
Soc. Because yours can only see just straight in front of
them, whereas mine are prominent and so projecting, they can
see aslant.* >
Crit. And amongst all animals, you will tell us that the
crab has loveliest eyes Pº Is that your statement P
Soc. Decidedly, the creature has. And all the more so,
* See below, § 9.
* The divákptoſis, or “previous inquiry” (before one of the archons) of
parties concerned in a suit, to see whether the action lay. Cf. Plat. Charm.
176 C. See Gow, Companion, xiv. 74.
* See Mem. III. viii. 5 (above, p. 107), quoted by Galen, de Usz Parſ.
i. 370. * Or, “squint sideways and command the flanks.”
* Or, “is best provided in respect of eyeballs.”
33O SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. V. § 5-8
since for strength and toughness its eyes by nature are the
best constructed.
Crit. Well, let that pass. To come to our two noses,
which is the more handsome, yours or mine P
Soc. Mine, I imagine, if, that is, the gods presented us
with noses for the sake of smelling. Your nostrils point to
earth ; but mine are spread out wide and flat, as if to
welcome scents from every quarter.
Crit. But consider, a snubness of the nose, how is that
more beautiful than straightness P4 -
Soc. For this good reason, that a Snub nose does not
discharge the office of a barrier; * it allows the Orbs of sight
free range of vision : whilst your towering nose looks like an
insulting wall of partition to shut off the two eyes.”
As to the mouth (proceeded Critobulus), I give in at once ;
for, given mouths are made for purposes of biting, you
could doubtless bite off a much larger mouthful with your
mouth than I with mine.
Soc. Yes, and you will admit, perhaps, that I can give a
softer kiss than you can, thanks to my thick lips.
Crit. It seems I have an uglier mouth than any ass.
Soc. And here is a fact which you will have to reckon
with, if further evidence be needed to prove that I am hand-
somer than you. The naiads, nymphs divine, have as their
progeny Sileni,” who are much more like myself, I take it,
than like you. Is that conclusive P
Nay, I give it up (cried Critobulus), I have not a word to
say in answer. I am silenced. Let them record the votes.
* Or, “your straight nose.” Cf. Plat. Theaet. 209 C : Soc. “Or, if I had
further known you not only as having nose and eyes, but as having a snub
nose and prominent eyes, should I have any more notion of you than
myself and others who resemble me?” Cf. also Aristot. Pol. v. 9, 7 :
“A nose which varies from the ideal of Straightness to a hook or snub may
still be a good shape and agreeable to the eye ; but if the excess be very great,
all symmetry is lost, and the nose at last ceases to be a nose at all on account
of some excess in one direction or defect in the other ; and this is true of every
other part of the human body. The same law of proportion holds in states.”
—Jowett. * Or, “the humble snub is not a screen or barricade.”
* Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2, 568 : Boyet. “Your nose says no, you are
not, for it stands too right”; also The Song of Solomon, vii. 4: “Thy nose is
the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus.”
* See above, iv. 19.
CH. V. § 8-ro-
CH. VI, § 1, 2
VERDICT OF THE JURY 33 I
I fain would know at once what I must suffer or must pay."
Only (he added) let them vote in secret.” I am afraid your
wealth and his (Antisthenes') combined may overpower me.
Accordingly the boy and girl began to register the votes
in secret, while Socrates directed the proceedings. He would
have the lamp-stand * this time brought close up to Critobulus;
the judges must on no account be taken in ; the victor in
the Suit would get from the two judges, not a wreath of
ribands “for a chaplet, but some kisses.
When the urns were emptied, it was found that every
vote, without exception, had been cast for Critobulus.”
Whereat Socrates: Bless me ! you don’t say so P. The
coin you deal in, Critobulus, is not at all like that of Callias.
His makes people just ; whilst yours, like other filthy lucre,
can corrupt both judge and jury."
VI.-Thereupon some members of the party called on
Critobulus to accept the meed of victory in kisses (due from
boy and girl); others urged him first to bribe their master;
whilst others bandied other jests. Amidst the general hilarity
Hermogenes alone kept silence.
Whereat Socrates turned to the silent man, and thus
accosted him : Hermogenes, what is a drunken brawl? Can
you explain to us?
He answered : If you ask me what it is, I do not know,
but I can tell you what it seems to me to be.
Soc. That seems as good. What does it seem P
* For this formula see Dict. Anz. Tipmua. Cf. Econ. xi. 25 (above,
p. 253); Plat. Apol. 36 B ; Statesm. 299 A; Laws, freq. ; Dem, 529, 23 ;
533. 2. -
* And not as in the case described (Thuc. iv. 74), where the people (at
Megara) were compelled to give sentence on the political opponents of the
oligarchs by an open vote. Cf. Lysias, 133, 12, Thu 6é p?ºpov oſſić els
Kačiakovs, &XX& pavepāv ćirl Täs Tpatré as Taütas Šet Tuffévat.
* Töv \xvov here; above, $ 2, Töv \apattàpa. Both, I take it, are oil-
lamps, and differ merely as “light” and “lamp.”
* Cf. Plat. Symp. 213 ; Hell. V. i. 3 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 91).
5 Lit. “When the pebbles were turned out and proved to be with Crito-
bulus, Socrates remarked, ‘Papael’” which is as much as to say, “Od's pity!”
° kal 6tkaarās Kal Kpards, “both jury and presiding judges," i.e. the
company and the boy and girl.
332 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. vi. § 2-6
Aer. A drunken brawl, in my poor judgment, is annoyance
caused to people over wine.
Soc. Are you aware that you at present are annoying us by
silence P
Aer. What, whilst you are talking P
Soc. No, when we pause a while.
A ſer. Then you have not observed that, as to any interval
between your talk, a man would find it hard to insert a
hair, much more one grain of sense.
Then Socrates: O Callias, to the rescue ! help a man
severely handled by his cross-examiner.
Ca/Z. With all my heart (and as he spoke he faced Her-
mogenes). Why, when the flute is talking, we are as silent as
the grave. .
Aſer. What, would you have me imitate Nicostratus 4 the
actor, reciting his tetrameters * to the music of the fife P Must
I discourse to you in answer to the flute P
Then Socrates: By all that's holy, I wish you would,
Hermogenes. How delightful it would be. Just as a song
sounds sweeter in concert with the flute, so would your talk
be more mellifluous attuned to its Soft pipings; and par-
ticularly if you would use gesticulation like the flute-girl, to
suit the tenor of your speech. - -
Here Callias demanded : And when our friend (Anti-
sthenes) essays to cross-examine people” at a banquet, what
kind of piping * should he have P
Amí. The person in the witness-box would best be suited
with a serpent-hissing theme.”
Thus the stream of talk flowed on ; until the Syracusan,
* See above, iii. II, re Callippides; Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 53; and cf. Diog.
Laert. iv. 3, 4 ; Polyaen. vi. Io; Hell. IV. viii. 18.
* See Aristoph. Clouds, where Socrates is giving Strepsiades a lesson in
“measures,” 639-646 : Tótepov to Tptuerpov 3) Tô TetpāueTpov,
* Or, “a poor body,” in reference to the elemctic onslaught made on
himself by Antisthenes above, iv. 2 foll.
* Tô alô)\mpa, a composition for reed instruments, “music for the flute.”
Cf. Aristoph. Frogs, 1302. -
* Or “motif on a scrannel pipe.” See L. & S. s. v. Trv0aºms. Cf. Poll.
iv. 81, truffuków at')\mpa, an air (vágos) played on the Trøðuos at Xós, expressing
the battle between Apollo and the Python, the hiss of which was imitated.
CH. VI. § 6-8 - SCHERZO 333
who was painfully aware that while the company amused
themselves, his “exhibition * was neglected, turned, in a fit of
jealous spleen, at last on Socrates." - .
The Syr. They call you Socrates. Are you that person
commonly nicknamed the thinker?”
Soc. Which surely is a better fate than to be called a
thoughtless person P
The Syr. Perhaps, if you were not thought to split your
brains on things above us—transcendental stuff.”
Soc. And is there anything more transcendental than the
gods P
The Syr. By heaven no, it is not the gods above us
whom you care for, but for matters void of use and value-
less.4
Soc. It seems, then, by your showing I do care for them.
How value less the gods, not more, if being above us they
make the void of use to send us rain, and cause their light to
shine on us? And now, sir, if you do not like this frigid "
argument, why do you cause me trouble P The fault is yours."
Well, let that be (the other answered); answer me one
question : How many fleas' feet distance is it, pray, from you
to me?" They say you measure them by geometric scale.
But here Antisthenes, appealing to Philippus, interposed :
1 “The Syracusan is ‘civil as an orange, and of that jealous com-
plexion.’” See above, iv. 52.
2 Apparently he has been to see the “Clouds” (exhibited first in 423 B.C.),
and has conceived certain ideas concerning Socrates, ‘‘a wise man, who specte-
Žated about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made
the worse appear the better cause.” Plat. Apol. 18 B, 19 C. Clouds, IoI,
360, xaſp' & Tpeogúra. . . . Töv vöv Merewpooroºptotów . . . Tá Te MeTéopa
qpoutta Tijs. . &
3 Or, “if only you were held to be less meteoric,’ less head-in-airy in
your speculations.” , '
4 ft is impossible to give the play on words. The Syr. divodexed Tárov,
Soc. &va, . . . ÖqeXojaw. Schenkl after Madvig emend. : Töv čva èv
vege)a's Övrov = “but for things in the clouds above.”
5 Cf. Cyrop. VIII. iv. 22, 23.
6 pås tapéxovatv . . . Tpáygard plot Tapéxwu, Lit. “cause light . . .
causing me trouble.”
7 See Aristoph. Clouds, I44 foll, :
diviper' àprl Xalpeqóvta 29Kpárms
pºxxav 6trógovs &\\otto Tovs airfis Tóðas
ôakoúa'a, Y&p . . . -
334 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. VI, § 8-Io
You are a man full of comparisons." Does not this worthy person
strike you as somewhat like a bully seeking to pick a quarrel P*
Yes (replied the jester), he has a striking likeness to that
person and a heap of others. He bristles with metaphors.
Soc. For all that, do not you be too eager to draw com-
parisons at his expense, or you will find yourself the image
of a scold and brawler.”
A hiſ. But what if I compare him to all the primest crea-
tures of the world, to beauty's nonpareils,” to nature's best,--
I might be justly likened to a flatterer but not a brawler.”
Soc. Why now, you are like a person apt to pick a quarrel,
since you imply they are all his betters." -
Ahi/. What, would you have me then compare him to worse
villains P -
Soc. No, not even to worse villains.
Ahi/. What, then, to nothing, and to nobody ?
Soc. To naught in aught. Let him remain his simple self—
Phil. Incomparable. But if my tongue is not to wag,
whatever shall I do to earn my dinner P
Cf. Lucian, ii. Prom, in Verð. 6, and Hudibras, the Second Part of, canto iii. :
How many scores a Flea will jump
Of his own length from Head to Rump,
Which Socrates and Chaerephon
In vain essayed so long agon.
* Like Biron, L. L. L. v. 2. 854. Or, “you are a clever caricaturist.”
See Plat. Symp. 215 A ; Hug, Æinleitung, xiv. ; Aristoph. Birds, 804
(Frere, p. 173); Wasps, 1309.
* Aristoph. Frogs, 857, “For it ill beseems illustrious bards to scold like
market-women’’ (Frere, p. 269); Knights, 14Io, “to bully ”; Eccles. I42 :
kal Xotöopoſſivtat y' (bo-Trep &gtretøkótes,
kal rôv Tapovoúvt’ ékºpépovo' oi Tośćtat.
3 Or, “a striking person.”
4 Lit. “compare him to those in all things beauteous and the best.”
With roſs Tāori ka Noſs kal Toſs 6eXTio rous cf. Thuc. v. 28, ol 'Apyelot àptota
gayov roſs träort, “The Argives were in excellent condition in all respects.”
As to Philippus's back-handed compliment to the showman, it reminds one of
Peter Quince's commendation of Bottom : “Yea and the best person too ;
and he is a very paramour for a sweet voice.”
* It is not easy to keep pace with the merryman's jests; but if I follow his
humour, he says to Socrates: “If the cap is to fit, you must liken me to one who
quits ‘assault and battery' for ‘compliments [sotto voce, “lies"] and flattery.’”
* When Socrates says el travt’ attoſ, 3e)\tta, pºſs elvau, K.T.A., the sense
seems to be : “No, if you say that all these prime creatures are better than
he is, you are an abusive person still.”
:::::::::. SOCRATES TROLLS A CATCH 335
Soc. Why, that you shall quite easily, if with your wagging
tongue you do not try to utter things unutterable.
Here was a pretty quarrel over wine soon kindled and
Soon burnt.
VII.-But on the instant those who had not assisted in the
fray gave tongue, the One part urging the jester to proceed
with his comparisons, and the other part dissuading.
The voice of Socrates was heard above the tumult: Since
we are all so eager to be heard at once, what fitter time than
now to sing a song, in chorus.
And suiting the action to the words, he commenced a
Stave.
[Socrates sings."]
The song was barely finished, when a potter's wheel was
brought in, on which the dancing-girl was to perform more
wonders.
At this point Socrates addressed the man of Syracuse: It
seems I am likely to deserve the title which you gave me of
a thinker in good earnest. Just now I am speculating by
what means your boy and girl may pass a happy time, and
we spectators still derive the greatest pleasure from behold-
ing them ; and this, I take it, is precisely what you would
yourself most wish. Now I maintain, that throwing somer-
saults in and out of Swords is a display of danger uncongenial
to a banquet. And as for writing and reading on a wheel
that all the while keeps whirling, I do not deny the wonder
of it, but what pleasure such a marvel can present, I cannot
for the life of me discover. Nor do I see how it is a whit
more charming to watch these fair young people twisting
about their bodies and imitating wheels than to behold them
peacefully reposing. -
We need not fare far afield to light on marvels, if that is
our object. All about us here is full of marvel; we can
begin at once by wondering, why it is the candle gives a
1 A scolioz like Praxilla's would have Suited the occasion :
Xàv plot trive, ovvića, ovvépa, orvo Teqjaumq,6pet
a ſv uot pauvouévg |Malveo, oºv ordiºpout a wºpóvel.
See J. A. Symonds, The Greek Poets, i. 132,
336 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET { : wº-
light by dint of its bright flame, while side by side with it the
bright bronze vessel gives no light, but shows within itself
those other objects mirrored.” Or, how it is that oil, being
moist and liquid, keeps that flame ablaze, but water, just
because it is liquid, quenches fire. But no more do these
same marvels tend to promote the object of the wine-cup.”
But now, Supposing your young people yonder were to tread
a measure to the flute, some pantomime in dance, like those
which the Graces and the Hours with the Nymphs are made to
tread in pictures,” I think they would spend a far more happy
time themselves, and Our banquet would at once assume a
grace and charm unlooked for.
The Syracusan caught the notion readily.
By all that's holy, Socrates (he cried), a capital suggestion,
and for my part, I warrant you, I will put a piece upon the
stage, which will delight you, one and all.
VIII.-With these words the Syracusan made his exit,
bent on Organising his performance.* As soon as he was
gone, Socrates once more essayed a novel argument.” He
thus addressed them :
It were but reasonable, sirs, on Our part not to ignore
the mighty power here present,” a divinity in point of age
coequal with the everlasting gods, yet in outward form the
youngest," who in magnitude embraces all things, and yet
his shrine is planted in the soul of man. Love 8 is his name !
* Cf. Mem. IV. vii. 7 (above, p. 177). Socrates' criticism of Anaxagoras'
theory with regard to the sun, * Lit. “work to the same end as wine.”
* Cf. Plat. Laws, vii. 815 C ; Hor. Carm. i. 4. 6 :
iunctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes
alterno terram quatiunt pede.
The Graces and the Nymphs, together knit,
With rhythmic feet the meadow beat (Conington).
Jö. iv. 7. 5.
* ovvekpotetro, “on the composition of his piece.” Al. amidst a
round of plaudits.”
* “Struck the keynote of a novel theme.” Cf. Plat. Symp. 177 E.
* Cf. Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty :
The awful shadow of some unseen Power
Floats, though unseen, among us. . . .
* Reading with L. D. after Blomfield (Aesch. Ag. p. 304), iöpupévov, or if
as vulg, loſovſkévov, transl., “but in Soul is fashioned like to mortal man.”
8 Erós.”
CH, VIII. § 1-4 A. NOVEL ARGUMENT—ZA US AMORYS 337
and least of all should we forget him who are one and all
votaries of this god.” For myself I cannot name the time at
which I have not been in love with some one.” And Char-
mides here has, to my knowledge, captivated many a lover,
while his own soul has gone out in longing for the love of not
a few himself.” So it is with Critobulus also ; the beloved of
yesterday is become the lover of to-day. Ay, and Nicératus,
as I am told, adores his wife, and is by her adored.* As to
Hermogenes, which of us needs to be told * that the soul of
this fond lover is consumed with passion for a fair ideal—call
it by what name you will—the spirit blent of nobleness and
beauty." See you not what chaste severity dwells on his
brow;" how tranquil his gaze; * how moderate his words;
how gentle his intonation ; how radiant his whole character.
And if he enjoys the friendship of the most holy gods, he
keeps a place in his regard for us poor mortals. But how is it
that you alone, Antisthenes, you misanthrope, love nobody ?
Nay, so help me Heaven l (he replied), but I do love
most desperately yourself, O Socrates |
Whereat Socrates, still carrying on the jest, with a coy,
* Or, “who are each and all of us members of his band.” For 9tagóTau
cf. Aristot, Æth. AW. viii. 9. 5; Aristoph. Frogs, 327.
* Cf. Plat. Symp. 177 D : “No one will vote against you, Erysimachus,
said Socrates; on the only subject [Tâ épotukù) of which I profess to have
any knowledge, I certainly cannot refuse to speak, nor, I presume, Agathon
and Pausanias; and there can be no doubt of Aristophanes, who is the con-
stant servant of Dionysus and Aphrodite ; nor will any one disagree of those
I see around me" (Jowett).
* Or, “has had many a passionate admirer, and been enamoured of
more than one true love himself.” See Plat, Charm., ad in.
* For Love and Love-for-Love, paſs and divrépaſs, see Plat. Phaedr. 255 D.
Cf. Aristot. Eth. N. ix. I. -
* Lit, “which of us but knows his soul is melting away with passion."
Cf. Theocr. xiv. 26.
6 Lit. “beautiful and gentle manhood.” See above, iv. 49.
7 Lit, ‘‘how serious are his brows."
* The phrases somehow remind one of Sappho's famous ode :
qalveral got kāvos toos 6éotaruu
éppev Čvºp, Šotus évavttos Tot
t{divet, kal TXaa-tov & 6) ºf a vetº-
aſ as Üt a kočev
Kal yeMôo as ipepôev,
But there we must stop. Hermogenes is a sort of Sir Percivale, ‘‘such a
courtesy spake thro' the limbs and in the voice."
VOL. III— I Z
338 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. VIII. § 4-9
coquettish air," replied : Yes; only please do not bother me
at present. I have other things to do, you see.
Antisthenes replied: How absolutely true to your own
character, arch go - between | * It is always either your
familiar oracle won’t suffer you, that’s your pretext, and so
you can’t converse with me ; or you are bent upon something,
or somebody else.
Then Socrates: For Heaven's sake, don’t carbonado º me,
Antisthenes, that's all. Any other savagery on your part I
can stand, and will stand, as a lover should. However (he
added), the less we say about your love the better, since it is
clearly an attachment not to my soul, but to my lovely
person.
And then, turning to Callias: And that you, Callias, do
love Autolycus, this whole city knows and half the world
besides,” if I am not mistaken ; and the reason is that you
are both sons of famous fathers, and yourselves illustrious. For
my part I have ever admired your nature, but now much more
So, when I see that you are in love with one who does not
wanton in luxury or languish in effeminacy,” but who displays
to all his strength, his hardihood, his courage, and sobriety of
soul. To be enamoured of such qualities as these is a proof
itself of a true lover's nature.
Whether indeed Aphroditë be one or twain * in person-
ality, the heavenly and the earthly, I cannot tell, for Zeus, who
is one and indivisible, bears many titles." But this thing I
know, that these twain have separate altars, shrines, and sacri-
fices,” as befits their nature—she that is earthly, of a lighter
and a laxer sort; she that is heavenly, purer and holier in
Al. “like a true coquet.” Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 228 C.
See Mem. III. xi. 14.
Or, “tear and scratch me.”
Lit. “many a foreign visitor likewise.”
See the Attic type of character, as drawn by Pericles, Thuc. ii. 40.
For Aphrodité Ourania and Pandémos see Plat. Symp. 180.
7 Lit, ‘‘that is believed to be the same.” See Cic. De N. D. iii. I6.
Cf. Aesch. Arom. 2 Io (of Themis and Gaia), Tox\óv Övoudrøy pop ph pºta.
* e.g. to Aphrodité Pandémos a white goat, punkás Xewkſ, but to Aphro-
dité Ourania a heifer, and 0wortat unqidi)\tau, offerings without wine, i.e. of
water, milk, and honey. Schol. to Soph. Oed. Col. Ioo; Lucian, lxvii. Dial.
Me?". 7. I.
:
ch, viii. 5 to is APHRODITÉ OURANIA AND PANDf MOs 339
type. And you may well conjecture, it is the earthly goddess,
the common Aphrodite, who sends forth the bodily loves;
while from her that is named of heaven, Ourania, proceed
those loves which feed upon the soul, on friendship and on
noble deeds. It is by this latter, Callias, that you are held in
bonds, if I mistake not, Love divine.” This I infer as well
from the fair and noble character of your friend, as from the
fact that you invite his father to share your life and inter-
course.” Since no part of these is hidden from the father by
the fair and noble lover.
Hermogenes broke in : By Héra, Socrates, I much admire
you for many things, and now to see how in the act of
gratifying Callias you are training him in duty and true
excellence.”
Why, yes (he said), if only that his cup of happiness may
overflow, I wish to testify to him how far the love of soul is
better than the love of body. -
Without friendship,” as we full well know, there is n
society of any worth. And this friendship, what is it? On
the part of those whose admiration * is bestowed upon the
inner disposition, it is well named a Sweet and voluntary
compulsion. But among those whose desire * is for the body,
there are not a few who blame, may hate, the ways of their
beloved ones. And even where attachment * clings to both,"
even so the bloom of beauty after all does quickly reach its
prime; the flower withers, and when that fails, the affec-
tion which was based upon it must also wither up and
perish. But the soul, with every step she makes in her
onward course towards deeper wisdom, grows ever worthier
of love.
Ay, and in the enjoyment of external beauty a sort of
1 Lit. ‘‘ by Erós.”
* Cf. Plat. Aroſ. 318 A; Aristoph. Thesmoph. 21, “learned conversazioni."
* Lit. “teaching him what sort of man he ought to be.” This, as we
know, is the very heart and essence of the Socratic (=52) method. See
Mem. I. ii. 3 (above, p. 6).
* Lit. “That without love no intercourse is worth regarding, we all
know.” -
° N. B. —dyapávov, Tuffvuojutov, a répéajaſt. Here, as often, the author
seems to have studied the épôoéreta of Prodicus. See Mem. II. i. 24 (above,
p. 46, m, 3). ° i.e. “body and character.”
34O SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. viii. § 15, 16
surfeit is engendered. Just as the eater's appetite palls
through repletion with regard to meats," so will the feelings of
a lover towards his idol. But the soul's attachment, Owing to
its purity, knows no satiety.” Yet not therefore, as a man
might fondly deem, has it less of the character of loveliness.”
But very clearly herein is our prayer fulfilled, in which we beg
the goddess to grant us words and deeds that bear the impress
of her own true loveliness.”
That a soul whose bloom is visible alike in beauty of
external form, free and unfettered, and an inner disposition,
bashful, generous; a spirit" at once imperial, and affable,”
born to rule among its fellows—that such a being will, of
course, admire and fondly cling to his beloved, is a thesis
which needs no further argument on my part. Rather I will
essay to teach you, how it is natural that this same type of
lover should in turn be loved by his soul's idol."
How, in the first place, is it possible for him to hate a
lover who, he knows, regards him as both beautiful and
good?” and, in the next place, one who, it is clear, is far
more anxious to promote the fair estate of him he loves"
than to indulge his selfish joys P and above all, when he
has faith and trust that neither dereliction,” nor loss of
* Cf. Mem. JII. xi. 13 (above, p. 121).
* Lit. “is more insatiate.” Cf. Charles Wesley's hymn :
O Love Divine, how sweet Thou art
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by Thee?
° Lit. “is she, the soul, more separate from Aphrodite.”
* Or, “stamped with the image of Aphrodité.” Zeune cf. Lucr. i. 24,
addressing Venus, ‘‘te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse,’’ ‘‘I would
have thee for a helpmate in writing the verses . . .” ; and below, 28, “quo
magis aeternum da dictis, diva, leporem,” “Wherefore all the more, O lady,
lend my lays an ever-living charm" (H. A. J. Munro).
* Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 252 E.
° The epithet ºptAdºppov occurs Mem. III. i. 6, of a general ; ió. III. v. 3
(according to the vulg. reading), of the Athenians (above, pp. 81, 91).
7 Or, “the boy whom he cherishes.”
8 Or, ‘‘perfection.”
9 Lit. “the boy.”
* Reading #v trapd tº trotham. Al. “come what come may,” lit. “no
alteration"; or if reading trapm3%rm transl. “although his May of youth
should pass, and sickness should mar his features, the tie of friendship will
not be weakened.”
CH. VIII. § 17-21 LOVE OF SOUL AND LOVE OF BODY 34I
beauty through sickness, nor aught else, will diminish their
affection. -
If, then, they own a mutual devotion," how can it but be,
they will take delight in gazing each into the other's eyes,
hold kindly converse, trust and be trusted, have forethought
for each other, in success rejoice together, in misfortune share
their troubles; and so long as health endures make merry
cheer, day in day out ; or if either of them should fall on
sickness, then will their intercourse be yet more constant ;
and if they cared for one another face to face, much more will
they care when parted.” Are not all these the outward tokens
of true loveliness P* In the exercise of such sweet offices, at
any rate, they show their passion for holy friendship's state,
and prove its bliss, continuously pacing life's path from youth
to eld.
But the lover who depends upon the body,” what of him P
First, why should love-for-love be given to such a lover ?
because, forsooth, he bestows upon himself what he desires,
and upon his minion things of dire reproach P or that what
he hastens to exact, infallibly must separate that other from
his nearest friends P
If it be pleaded that persuasion is his instrument, not
violence ; is that not reason rather for a deeper loathing P
since he who uses violence” at any rate declares himself in
his true colours as a villain, while the tempter corrupts the
soul of him who yields to his persuasions.
Ay, and how should he who traffics with his beauty love
the purchaser, any more than he who keeps a stall in the
market-place and vends to the highest bidder? Love springs
not up, I trow, because the one is in his prime, and the
other's bloom is withered, because fair is mated with what is
not fair, and hot lips are pressed to cold. Between man and
1 For beauty of style (in the original) Zeune cf. Mem. II. vi. 28 foll. ;
III. xi. Io (pp. 67, I2O, above). -
” “Albeit absent from one another in the body, they are more present in
the soul.” Cf. Virg. Aen. iv. 83, “illum absens absentem auditGue
videtoue.”
3 Or, “bear the stamp of Aphrodité.” See above, $ 15.
* Or, “is wholly taken up with.” Cf. Plat. Laws, 831 C.
* Cf. Hiero, iii. 3 (below, p. 366, n. 6); Cyrop. III. i. 39.
342 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET CH. VIII. § 2 I-25
woman it is different. There the wife at any rate shares with
her husband in their nuptial joys ; but here conversely, the
one is sober and with unimpassioned eye regards his fellow,
who is drunken with the wine of passion."
Wherefore it is no marvel if, beholding, there springs up in
his breast the bitterest contempt and scorn for such a lover.
Search and you shall find that nothing harsh was ever yet
engendered by attachment based on moral quakities; whilst
shameless intercourse, time out of mind, has been the source
of countless hateful and unhallowed deeds.”
I have next to show that the society of him whose love is
of the body, not the soul, is in itself illiberal. The true
educator who trains another in the path of virtue, who will
teach us excellence, whether of speech or conduct,” may well
be honoured, even as Cheiron and Phoenix * were honoured
by Achilles. But what can he expect, who stretches forth an
eager hand to clutch the body, save to be treated * as a beggar?
That is his character; for ever cringing and petitioning a kiss,
or some other soft caress,” this sorry suitor dogs his victims.
If my language has a touch of turbulence," do not marvel:
partly the wine exalts me; partly that love which ever dwells
within my heart of hearts now pricks me forward to use great
boldness of speech & against his base antagonist. Why, yes
-*
1 Lit. ‘‘ by Aphrodité.” Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 24o, “But the lover . . .
when he is drunk” (Jowett); Symp. 214 C.
* Zeune cf. Ael. W. H. viii. 9, 2-e Archelaus king of Macedon, concerning
whom Aristotle, Pol. v. Io. I31 I B : “Many conspiracies have originated in
shameful attempts made by sovereigns on the persons of their subjects. Such
was the attack of Crataeus upon Archelaus,” etc. (Jowett).
* Phoenix addresses Achilles, ZZ, ix. 443 :
pºwu Te ĀmTàp' épevat, trpmktāpā te épywu
Therefore sent he (Peleus) me to thee to teach thee all things,
To be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds (W. Leaf).
See Sketch (Trans. vol. i. p. x.c.).
* See /l. xi. 831 ; Hunting, ch. i., as to Cheiron and his scholars, the last
of whom is Achilles.
° àv Treptérotro. “He will be scurvily treated.” Cf. Hell. III. i. 19.
* Cf. Mem. I. ii. 29 (above, p. 12).
7 Or, “wantonness”; and for the apology see Plat. Phaedr. 238 : “I
appear to be in a divine fury, for already I am getting into dithyrambics.”
(Jowett).
* Lit. “to speak openly against that other sort of love which is its rival.”
CH. VIII. § 25-30 AN APPEAL TO MYTHIC ARGUMENT 343
indeed, it seems to me that he who fixes his mind on outward
beauty is like a man who has taken a farm on a short lease.
He shows no anxiety to improve its value; his sole object being
to take off it the largest crops he can himself. But he whose
heart is set on loyal friendship resembles rather a man who has
a farmstead of his own. At any rate, he scours the wide world
to find what may enhance the value of his soul's delight."
Again, let us consider the effect upon the object of attach-
ment. Let him but know his beauty is a bond sufficient to
enthrall his lover,” and what wonder if he be careless of all
else and play the wanton. Let him discover, on the contrary,
that if he would retain this dear affection he must himself
be truly good and beautiful, and it is only natural he should
become more studious of virtue. But the greatest blessing
which descends on one beset with eager longing to convert
the idol of his soul into a good man and true friend is this :
necessity is laid upon himself to practise virtue ; since how
can he hope to make his comrade good, if he himself works
wickedness? Is it conceivable that the example he himself
presents of what is shameless and incontinent,” will serve to
make the beloved one temperate and modest ?
I have a longing, Callias, by mythic argument * to show
you that not men only, but gods and heroes, set greater store
by friendship of the soul than bodily enjoyment. Thus those
fair women º' whom Zeus, enamoured of their outward beauty,
wedded, he permitted mortal to remain ; but those heroes
whose souls he held in admiration, these he raised to immor-
tality. Of whom are Heracles and the Dioscuri, and there are
others also named." As I maintain, it was not for his body’s
sake, but for his soul's, that Ganymede" was translated to
1. Cf. Michelet, I think, as to the French peasant-farmer regarding his
property as “sa femme.”
? Or, “that by largess of beauty he can enthrall his lover.'
* See Plat. Symp. 182 A, 192 A.
* Or, “I have a desire to romance a little,” “for your benefit to explain
by legendary lore.” Cf. Isocr. I2O C ; Plat. Rep. 392 B.
5 e.g. Leda, Danaë, Europa, Alcmena, Electra, Latona, Laodamia (Zeune).
6 See Hunting, i. ; Hell. VI. iii. 6 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 153).
7 See Plat. Phaedr. 255 c.; Cic. Tusc. i. 26, “nec Homerum audio
divina mallem ad nos,” a protest against anthropomorphism in
religion,
y
344 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. VIII. § 30-32
Olympus, as the story goes, by Zeus. And to this his very
name bears witness, for is it not written in Homer ?
And he gladdens (ydvvta) to hear his voice."
This the poet says, meaning “he is pleased to listen to his
words.”
And again, in another passage he says:
Knowing deep devices (ufföea) in his mind,”
which is as much as to say, “knowing wise counsels in his
mind.” Ganymede, therefore, bears a name compounded of
the two words, “joy " and “counsel,” and is honoured among the
gods, not as one “whose body,” but “whose mind.” “gives
pleasure.”
Furthermore (I appeal to you, Nicératus),” Homer makes
Achilles avenge Patroclus in that brilliant fashion, not as
his favourite, but as his comrade.* Yes, and Orestes and
Pylades,” Theseus and Peiritholis," with many another noble
pair of demigods, are celebrated as having wrought in common
great and noble deeds, not because they lay inarmed, but
because of the admiration which they felt for one another.
Nay, take the fair deeds of to-day : and you shall find them
wrought rather for sake of praise by volunteers in toil and peril,
than by men accustomed to choose pleasure in place of honour.
And yet Pausanias," the lover of the poet Agathon,” making
a defence in behalf” of some who wallow in incontinence,
* Not in “our" version of Homer, but cf. ZZ, xx. 405, ydivvrat 66 re
Toſs 'Evoortx0aju ; //, xiii. 493, 'ydvvraw ö, äpa. Te ºpéva Touffv.
* Partly //, xxiv. 674, Tvkuä (ppeal pujöe' éxovres; and /l. xxiv. 424,
q}{\a ppeal pufföea elöðs. . Cf. Od, vi. 192 ; xviii. 67, 87; xxii. 476.
* As an authority on Homer.
4 Cf. Plat. Symp. 179 E : “The notion that Patroclus was the beloved
one is a foolish error into which Aeschylus has fallen,” etc. (in his Myr-
midons). See J. A. Symonds, The Greek Poets, 2nd series, “Achilles,”
p. 66 foll.
* Concerning whom Ovid (Pont. iii. 2. 70) says, “nomina fama tenet.”
* See Plut. Thes. 30 foll, (Clough, i. p. 30 foll.); cf. Lucian, xli.
Zoxazis, Io.
7 See Cobet, Pros. Xen. p. 15 ; Plat. Protag. 31.5 D ; Ael. W. H. ii. 21.
8 Ib. ; Aristot. Poet. ix.
° Or, “in his Apology for.”
CH. VIII. § 32-35 SACRED WIRIT AND CUSTOM 345
has stated that an army composed of lovers and beloved
would be invincible." These, in his opinion, would, from
awe of one another, have the greatest horror of desertion. A
truly marvellous argument, if he means that men accustomed
to turn deaf ears to censure and to behave to one another
shamelessly, are more likely to feel ashamed of doing a
shameful deed. He adduced as evidence the fact that the
Thebans and the Eleians” recognise the very principle, and
added : Though they sleep inarmed, they do not scruple
to range the lover side by side with the beloved one in the
field of battle. An instance which I take to be no instance,
or at any rate one-sided,” Seeing that what they look upon as
lawful with us is scandalous.* Indeed, it strikes me that this
vaunted battle-order would seem to argue some mistrust on
their part who adopt it—a suspicion that their bosom friends,
once separated from them, may forget to behave as brave men
should. But the men of Lacedaemon, holding that “if a
man but lay his hand upon the body and for lustful purpose,
he shall thereby forfeit claim to what is beautiful and noble”
—do, in the spirit of their creed, contrive to mould and
fashion their “beloved ones” to such height of virtue,” that
should these find themselves drawn up with foreigners, albeit no
* Plat. Symp. 179 E, puts the sentiment into the mouth of Phaedrus :
“And if there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army
should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best
governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonour, and emulating one
another in honour ; and when fighting at one another's side, although a mere
handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover would not choose
rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when abandoning
his post or throwing away his arms ? He would be ready to die a thousand
deaths rather than endure this. Or would desert his beloved or fail him in the
hour of danger? The veriest coward would become an inspired hero, equal
to the bravest, at such a time ; Love would inspire him. That courage
which, as Homer says, the god breathes into the Soul of heroes, Love of
his own nature infuses into the lover” (Jowett). Cf. Hunting, xii. 20 ;
Amab. VII. iv. 7: Cyrop. VII. i. 30.
2 Sc. in their institutions. Cf. Plat. Symp. 182, “in Elis and in Boeotia”;
Pol. Lac. ii. 13 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 301); Ael. W. H. iii. 12, xiii. 5; Athen.
xiii. 2. For the Theban Sacred Band see Plut. Pelop. 18, 19 (Clough, ii.
218), and Trans, vol. ii. Introd. xlvi.
* Or, “not in pari materia, so to speak.”
4 Is not Xenophon imputing himself to Socrates ? Henkel cf. Plat. Crito,
52 E. See Newman, op. cit, i. 396.
* Or, “shape to so fine a manhood that . . .
* >
346 SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANOUET ch. viii. s 35-38
longer side by side with their own lovers," conscience will make
desertion of their present friends impossible. Self-respect
constrains them : since the goddess whom the men of Lace-
daemon worship is not “Shamelessness,” but “Reverence.””
I fancy we should all agree with one another on the point
in question, if we thus approached it. Ask yourself to which
type of the two must he * accord, to whom you would entrust
a sum of money, make him the guardian of your children,
look to find in him a safe and sure depositary of any favour P4
For my part, I am certain that the very lover addicted to
external beauty would himself far sooner have his precious
things entrusted to the keeping of one who has the inward
beauty of the soul.” -
Ah, yes! and you, my friend (he turned to Callias), you
have good reason to be thankful to the gods who of their
grace inspired you with love for your Autolycus. Covetous
of honour," beyond all controversy, must he be, who could
endure so many toils and pains to hear his name proclaimed "
victor in the “pankration.” -
But what if the thought arose within him : * his it is not
merely to add lustre to himself and to his father, but that
he has ability, through help of manly virtue, to benefit his
friends and to exalt his fatherland, by trophies which he will
set up against our enemies in war,” whereby he will himself
* Reading év tº ačTú Tâșet. A/. . . . tró)\et, transl. “nor indeed in
the same city.” Cf. Hell. V. iv. 33, re death of Cleonymus at Leuctra.
* Lit. “Aidós not Anaideia.” See Paus. Lac. xx. To ; Attica, xvii. 1 ;
Cic. de Leg. ii. II, a reference which I owe to M. Eugène Talbot, Xén, i. 236.
* He (the master-mistress of my passion).
* xdpuras = “kindly offices,” beneficia. Cf. Ages. iv. 4 (Trans. vol. ii.
p. 256); Mem. IV. iv. I7 (above, p. 159). A/. = delicias, “to deposit
some darling object.”
* Or, ‘‘some one truly lovable in soul and heart.”
* See Mem. II. iii. I6 (above, p. 57); Isocr. 189 C, p. kal ueya)\ópyxot.
7 i.e. “by the public herald.”
* Cf. Theogn. 947 :
tratplba Koopmaſa, Attraphy tróAlv, oùT' étrº 6%uq,
Tpéyas ot/T' &6tkows &vöpdat Telóðuevos.
* Who in 421 B.C. were of course the Lacedaemonians and the allies.
Autolycus was killed eventually by the Thirty to please the Lacedaemonian
harmost. See Plut. Lysand. I5 (Clough, iii. 120); Paus. i. 18. 3.; ix. 32.8.
Cf. Hell. II. iii. I4 (Trans, vol. i. p. 51).
cH. viii. § 38-40 MORAL OF THE DISCOURSE ON TOVE 347
become the admired of all observers, nay, a name to be
remembered among Hellenes and barbarians." Would he
not in that case, think you, make much of * one whom he
regarded as his bravest fellow-worker, laying at his feet the
greatest honours?
If, then, you wish to be well-pleasing in his eyes, you had
best inquire by what knowledge Themistocles” was able to
set Hellas free. You should ask yourself, what keen wit
belonged to Pericles? that he was held to be the best adviser
of his fatherland. You should scan * the field of history to
learn by what sage wisdom Solon * established for our city
her consummate laws. I would have you find the clue to
that peculiar training by which the men of Lacedaemon have
come to be regarded as the best of leaders." Is it not at
your house that their noblest citizens are lodged as repre-
sentatives of a foreign state P7
Be sure that our state of Athens would speedily entrust
herself to your direction were you willing.” Everything is in
your favour. You are of noble family, “eupatrid” by descent,
a priest of the divinities,” and of Erechtheus' famous line,”
which with Iacchus marched to encounter the barbarian.”
1. Cf. Anab. IV. i. 20 (Trans. vol. i. p. 248); Mem. III. vi. 2 (above, p. 99).
* Teptéretv. Cf. Cyrop. IV. iv. 12; Mem. II. ix. 5 (above, p. 77).
* See Mem. II. vi. 13 ; III. vi. 2; IV. ii. 2 (pp. 63, 99, 133, above).
* For the diction, aſkettéov, aſketréov, d6pmtéov, &pevvmtéov, Štruatápºevos,
elöðs, ºpt)\ooroq àgas, see above, p. 339, n. 5. Xenophon's rhetorical style
imitates the épôoétrea of Prodicus. * See FCon. xiv. 4.
6 Or, ‘‘won for themselves at all hands the reputation of noblest general-
ship.” Cf. Ages. i. 3; Pol. Lac. xiv. 3 (Trans, vol. ii. pp. 237, 322).
7 Reading as vulg. Tpdźevot 3’ el . . . or if with Schenkl, Tpóševos 6' et
. . transl. “You are their consul-general ; at your house their noblest
citizens are lodged from time to time.” As to the office, cf. Dem, 475. Io
1237. I'7; Thuc. ii. 29 ; Boeckh, P. E. A. 50. Callias appears as the Lac.
Tpóševos (Hell. V. iv. 22) 378 B.C., and at Sparta, 371 B.C., as the peace
commissioner (Hell. VI. iii. 3 : Trans, vol. ii. pp. 125, I52).
8 Cf. Meyz. III. vii.
9 i.e. Demeter and Coré, Callias (see Hell. VI. l.c.) was dadouchos (or
torch-holder) in the mysteries.
10 Or, “whose rites date back to Erechtheus.” Cf. Plat. Theag, 122.
ll. At Salamis. The tale is told by Herod. viii. 65, and Plut. Themist.
15; cf. Polyaen. Straz. iii. II. 2. Just as Themistocles had won the battle
of Salamis by help of Iacchus on the 16th Boedromion, the first day of the
mysteries, so Chabrias won the sea-fight of Naxos by help of the day itself,
Tô "AXaôe pºatat, 376 B.C.
348 syMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET (::::::::: **
And still, at the sacred festival to-day, it is agreed that no
one among your ancestors has ever been more fitted to dis-
charge the priestly office than yourself; yours a person the
goodliest to behold in all our city, and a frame adapted to
undergo great toils. - -
But if I seem to any of you to indulge a vein more
serious than befits the wine-cup, marvel not. It has long
been my wont to share our city's passion for noble-natured
Souls, alert and emulous in pursuit of virtue.
He ended, and, while the others continued to discuss the
theme of his discourse, Autolycus sat regarding Callias. That
other, glancing the while at the beloved one, turned to Socrates.
Ca/Z. Then, Socrates, be pleased, as go-between,” to intro-
duce me to the state, that I may employ myself in state
affairs and never lapse from her good graces.”
Never fear (he answered), if only people see your loyalty
to virtue is genuine,” not of mere repute. A false renown
indeed is quickly seen for what it is worth, being tested ; but
true courage * (save only some god hinder) perpetually amidst
the storm and stress of circumstance * pours forth a brighter
glory.
Ix-On such a note he ended his discourse.
At that, Autolycus, whose hour for walking exercise had
now come, arose. His father, Lycon, was about to leave the
room along with him, but before so doing, turned to Socrates,
remarking :
By Héra, Socrates, if ever any one deserved the appella-
tion “beautiful and good,” “ you are that man -
[AExetent Lycon and Autolycus.]
* Lit. ‘‘ as pander.” &
9 So Critobulus in the conversation so often referred to. Meme. II. vi.
(above, p. 60 foll.).
* See Mem. I. vii. 1, passim ; II. vi. 39 ; Boon, X. 9 (above, pp. 35, 70).
4 Cf. Thuc. ii. 42, duápayabta, “true courage in the public service covers
a multitude of private shortcomings.”
5 €y Taºs Tpd{eat. Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 271 D, “in actual life."
* For ka)\ós ye kºiyabós see Econ, vii. 2 and passim, -
CH. IX. § 2-5 DIONYSUS AND ARIADNE 349
[A mimic scene.]
So the pair departed. After they were gone, a sort of
throne was first erected in an inner room abutting on the
Supper chamber. Then the Syracusan entered, with a speech :
With your good pleasure, sirs, Ariadne is about to enter
the bridal chamber set apart for her and Dionysus. Anon
Dionysus will appear, fresh from the table of the gods, wine-
flushed, and enter to his bride. In the last scene the two will
play 4 with one another.
He had scarce concluded, when Ariadne entered, attired
like a bride. She crossed the stage and sate herself upon the
throne. Meanwhile, before the god himself appeared a sound
of flutes was heard ; the cadence of the Bacchic air proclaimed
his coming.
At this point the company broke forth in admiration of
the ballet-master. For no sooner did the sound of music
strike upon the ear of Ariadne than something in her action
revealed to all the pleasure which it caused her. She did
not step forward to meet her lover, she did not rise even from
her seat; but the flutter of her unrest was plain to see.”
[Here enters Dionysus.]
When Dionysus presently caught sight of her he loved,
lightly he danced towards her, and with show of tenderest
passion gently reclined upon her knees; his arms entwined
about her lovingly, and upon her lips he sealed a kiss ; *.
—she the while with most sweet bashfulness was fain to wind
responsive arms about her lover ; till the banqueters, the while
they gazed all eyes, clapped hands and cried “Encore l’ But
when Dionysus rose upon his feet, and rising lifted Ariadne
to her full height, the action of those lovers as they kissed
and fondled one another was a thing to contemplate.* As
to the spectators, they could see that Dionysus was indeed
* Traùoövtal. The Syracusan naturally uses the Doric form. See Cobet,
Pros. Xen. p. 16, note 23. Rutherford, N. Phrynichus, p. 91.
° Lit. “the difficulty she had to keep so still was evident.”
* Or, “and encircling his arms about her impressed upon her lips a
kiss.” -
* Or, ‘‘then was it possible to see the more than mimic gestures.”
35O SYMPOSIUM, OR THE BANQUET CH. IX. § 5-7
most beautiful, and Ariadne like some lovely blossom ; nor
were those mocking gestures, but real kisses sealed on loving
lips ; and so," with hearts aflame, they gazed expectantly.
They could hear the question asked by Dionysus, did she
love him P and her answer, as prettily she swore she did.
And withal so earnestly, not Dionysus only, but all present,
had sworn an oath in common : the boy and girl were
verily and indeed a pair of happy lovers. So much less did
they resemble actors, trained to certain gestures, than two
beings bent on doing what for many a long day they had set
their hearts on.
At last when these two lovers, caught in each other's
arms, were seen to be retiring to the nuptial couch, the
members of the supper party turned to withdraw themselves;
and whilst those of them who were unmarried swore that they
would wed, those who were wedded mounted their horses
and galloped off to join their wives, in quest of married joys.
Only Socrates, and of the rest the few who still remained
behind, anon set off with Callias, to seek out Lycon and his
son, and share the walk.
And so this supper party, assembled in honour of Auto-
lycus, broke up.
1 Or, “on the tiptoe of excitement.” Cf. Hell. III. i. 14, iv. 2 (Trans.
vol. ii. pp. 5, 23).
H I E R O, OR “T H E TYRANT"
A DISCOURSE ON DESPOTIC RULE
HIE RO, or “T H E TYRANT"
A DIALOGUE
INTERLOCUTORS
SIMONIDES of Ceos, the poet;
HIERON of Syracuse and Gela, the despot.
Imaginary date of dialogue, circa 474 B.C.
I. I – 2
I.—ONCE upon a time Simonides the poet paid a visit to
Hiero the “tyrant,” + and when both obtained the leisure
requisite, Simonides began this conversation :
Would you be pleased to give me information, Hiero,
upon certain matters, as to which it is likely you have greater
knowledge than myself?”
And pray, what sort of things may those be (answered
Hiero), of which I can have greater knowledge than yourself,
who are so wise a man P
I know (replied the poet) that you were once a private
person,” and are now a monarch. It is but likely, therefore,
that having tested both conditions," you should know better
* Or, “came to the court of the despotic monarch Hiero.” For the
dramatis personae see Dr. Holden's Introduction to the Hieron of Xenophon.
* Or, “would you oblige me by explaining certain matters, as to which
your knowledge naturally transcends my own 2"
* Or, “a common citizen,” “an ordinary mortal,” “a private individual.”
* Or, “having experienced both lots in life, both forms of existence.”
VOL. III—I 2 A
354 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. I. § 2-6
than myself, wherein the life of the despotic ruler differs from
the life of any ordinary person, looking to the sum of joys and
sorrows to which flesh is heir. *
Would it not be simpler (Hiero replied) if you, on your
side," who are still to-day a private person, would refresh my
memory by recalling the various circumstances of an ordinary
mortal’s life P. With these before me,” I should be better
able to describe the points of difference which exist between
the one life and the other.
Thus it was that Simonides spoke first : Well then, as
to private persons, for my part I observe,” or seem to have
observed, that we are liable to various pains and pleasures, in
the shape of sights, Sounds, odours, meats, and drinks, which
are conveyed through certain avenues of sense—to wit, the
eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth. And there are other pleasures,
those named of Aphrodité, of which the channels are well
known. While as to degrees of heat and cold, things hard
and soft, things light and heavy, the Sense appealed to here,
I venture to believe, is that of the whole body;4 whereby we
discern these opposites, and derive from them now pain, now
pleasure. But with regard to things named good and evil,” it
appears to me that sometimes the mind (or soul) itself is the
sole instrument by which we register Our pains and pleasures;
whilst at other times such pains and pleasures are derived
conjointly through both soul and body." There are some
pleasures, further, if I may trust my Own Sensations, which are
conveyed in sleep, though how and by what means and when
precisely, are matters as to which I am still more conscious
* Simonides is still in the chrysalis or grub condition of private citizen-
ship ; he has not broken the shell as yet of ordinary manhood.
° Lit. “in that case, I think I should best be able to point out the diffe-
7-enfia of either.”
* Or, “if I may trust my powers of observation I would say that common
men are capable of pains and pleasures conveyed through certain avenues
of sense, as sights through our eyes, Sounds through our ears, smells through
our noses, and meats and drinks through our mouths.”
4 Cf. Cic. de AW. D. ii. 56, § 14I.
* Reading #6eo-0at Te kal XuTéto 6at . . . or if with Breit, reading &re 5' aff
Xvireſorbat, transl. “then as to good and evil we are affected pleasurably or
painfully, as the case may be : Sometimes, if I am right in my conclusion,
through the mind itself alone ; at other times . . .”
° Or, “they are mental partly, partly physical.”
CH. I. § 6-II LIFE OF A PRIVATE CITIZEN 355
of my ignorance. Nor is it to be wondered at perhaps, if the
perceptions of waking life in some way strike more clearly on
our senses than do those of sleep."
To this statement Hiero made answer: And I, for my
part, O Simonides, would find it hard to state, outside the list
of things which you have named yourself, in what respect the
despot can have other channels of perception.” So that up to
this point I do not see that the despotic life differs in any way
at all from that of common people.
Then Simonides : Only in this respect it surely differs,
in that the pleasures which the “tyrant” enjoys through all
these several avenues of sense are many times more numerous,
and the pains he suffers are far fewer.
To which Hiero: Nay, that is not so, Simonides, take my
word for it; the fact is rather that the pleasures of the despot
are far fewer than those of people in a humbler condition, and
his pains not only far more numerous, but more intense.
That sounds incredible (exclaimed Simonides); if it were
really so, how do you explain the passionate desire commonly
displayed to wield the tyrant's sceptre, and that too on the
part of persons reputed to be the ablest of men P Why should
all men envy the despotic monarch P
For the all-sufficient reason (he replied) that they form
conclusions on the matter without experience of the two
conditions. And I will try to prove to you the truth of what
I say, beginning with the faculty of vision, which, unless my
memory betrays me, was your starting-point.
Well then, when I come to reason 3 on the matter, first of
all I find that, as regards the class of objects of which
these orbs of vision are the channel,” the despot has the
* Lit. “the incidents of waking life present sensations of a more vivid
character.”
* 7.e. “being like constituted, the autocratic person has no other sources
of perception : he has no claim to a wider gamut of Sensation, and conse-
quently thus far there is not a pin to choose between the life of the despot
and that of a private person.”
* \oyuköplewos, “to apply my moral algebra.”
4 &v Tols övd tâs Öyears Óeduaort. See Hartman, An. Xen. Wova, p. 246.
6ed plagu, = “spectacular effects,” is perhaps a gloss on “all objects appre-
hensible through vision." Holden (crit, app.) would rather omit 6t& Tàs
3 peos with Schneid.
356 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. I. § 11-14
disadvantage. Every region of the world, each country on this
fair earth, presents objects worthy of contemplation, in quest
of which the ordinary citizen will visit, as the humour takes
him, now some city [for the sake of spectacles]," or again, the
great national assemblies,” where sights most fitted to entrance
the gaze of multitudes would seem to be collected.” But the
despot has neither part nor lot in these high festivals,” seeing
it is not safe for him to go where he will find himself at the
mercy of the assembled crowds; * nor are his home affairs in
such security that he can leave them to the guardianship of
others, whilst he visits foreign parts. A twofold apprehension
haunts him : " he will be robbed of his throne, and at the same
time be powerless to take vengeance on his wrongdoer."
Perhaps you will retort : “Why should he trouble to go
abroad to seek for such things P. They are sure to come to
him, although he stops at home.” Yes, Simonides, that is so
far true; a small percentage of them no doubt will, and this
scant moiety will be sold at so high a price to the despotic
monarch, that the exhibitor of the merest trifle looks to
receive from the imperial pocket, within the briefest interval,
ten times more than he can hope to win from all the rest of
mankind in a lifetime; and then he will be off.”
To which Simonides: Well, granted you have the worst
of it in sights and sightseeing ; yet, you must admit you are
large gainers through the sense of hearing ; you who are never
1 The words are perhaps a gloss.
° e.g. the games at Olympia, or the great Dionysia at Athens, etc. etc.
* Omitting elvau, or if with Breit, Öokeſ éival . . . ovvaiyetpea flat, transl.
‘! in which it is recognised that sights are to be seen best fitted to enchain the
eyes and congregate vast masses.” For other emendations see Holden,
crit. app.; Hartm. op. cit. p. 258.
4 “Religious embassies”; lit. Theóries. See Thuc. vi. 16; Mem. IV.
viii. 2, above.
* Lit. “not stronger than those present.”
° Or, “The dread oppresses him, he may be deprived of his empire and
yet be powerless.”
7 Cf. Plat. Rep. ix. 579 B : “His soul is dainty and greedy; and yet he
only of all men is never allowed to go on a journey, or to see things which
other free men desire to see , but he lives in his hole like a woman hidden in
the house, and is jealous of any other citizen who goes into foreign parts and
sees things of interest” (Jowett).
& Lit. “to get from the tyrant all in a moment many times more than he
will earn from all the rest of mankind in a whole lifetime, and depart.”
CH. I. § 14-19 COMPARED WITH THAT OF A DESPOT 357
stinted of that sweetest of all sounds," the voice of praise,
since all around you are for ever praising everything you do
and everything you say. Whilst, Conversely, to that most
harsh and grating of all sounds, the language of abuse, your
ears are sealed, since no one Cares to speak evil against a
monarch to his face.
Then Hiero: And what pleasure do you suppose mere
abstinence from evil words implies, when it is an open secret
that those silent persons are cherishing all evil thoughts
against the tyrant P* What mirth, do you imagine, is to be
extracted from their panegyrics who are suspected of bestowing
praise out of mere flattery P
Simonides made answer: Yes, I must indeed admit, I do
concede to you, that praise alone is sweetest which is breathed
from lips of free men absolutely free. But, look you, here
is a point : you will find it hard to persuade another, that you
despots, within the limits of those things whereby we one and
all sustain our bodies, in respect, that is, of meats and drinks,
have not a far wider range of pleasures.
Yes, Simonides (he answered), and what is more, I know
the explanation of the common verdict. The majority have
come to the conclusion that we monarchs eat and drink with
greater pleasure than do ordinary people, because they have
got the notion, they themselves would make a better dinner
off the viands served at our tables than their own. And
doubtless some break in the monotony of custom gives a fillip
to pleasure. And that explains why folk in general look for-
ward with pleasure to high days and holy days—mankind at
large, but not the despot ; his well-stocked table groaning from
day to day under its weight of viands admits of no state
occasions. So that, as far as this particular pleasure, to begin
with, goes, the pleasure of anticipation, the monarch is at
disadvantage as compared with private people.
And in the next place (he continued), I am sure your Own
1. Cf. Cic. pro Arch. 20, “Themistoclem illum dixisse aiunt cum ex eo
quaereretur, ‘quod acroama aut cujus vocem libentissime audiret': ‘ejus, a
quo sua virtus optime praedicaretur.’”
2 “One knows plainly that these dumb attendants stand there like
mutes, but harbour every evil thought against their autocratic lord.”
358 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. I. § 19-23
experience will bear me out so far : the more viands set
before a man at table (beyond what are sufficient)," the more
quickly will satiety of eating overtake him. So that in actual
duration of the pleasure, he with his many dishes has less to
boast of than the moderate liver.
Yes, but good gracious ! Surely (broke in Simonides),
during the actual time,” before the appetite is cloyed, the
gastronomic pleasure derived from the costlier bill of fare far
exceeds that of the cheaper dinner-table.
But, as a matter of plain logic (Hiero retorted), should
you not say, the greater the pleasure a man feels in any
business, the more enthusiastic his devotion to it?
That is quite true (he answered).
Aſiero. Then have you ever noticed that crowned heads
display more pleasure in attacking the bill of fare provided
them, than private persons theirs?
No, rather the reverse (the poet answered); if anything
they show a less degree of gusto,” unless they are vastly
libelled. . *
Well (Hiero continued), and all these wonderfully-made
dishes which are set before the tyrant, or nine-tenths of them,
perhaps you have observed, are combinations of things acid to
the taste, or pungent, or astringent, or akin to these ? “
To be sure they are (he answered), unnatural viands, one
and all, in my opinion, most alien to ordinary palates.”
Aſiero. In fact, these condiments can only be regarded as
the cravings" of a stomach weakened by luxurious living ;
* Tà treputrö. Töv iravöv. These words Hartm. op. cit. p. 254, regards
2S 2. In 62XCTCSC62IlC6.
* Lit. “so long as the soul (i.e. the appetite) accepts with pleasure the
viands"; i.e. there's an interval, at any rate, during which “such as my
Soul delights in " can still apply and for so long.
* “No, not more pleasure, but exceptional fastidiousness, if what people
say is true.” dy)\evkéo Tepov, Said ap. Suid. to be a Sicilian word = “more
sourly.”
* Lit. “ and their congeners,” “their analogues,” e.g. “curries, pickles,
bitters, peppery condiments.”
* Or, “unsuited to man's taste,” “‘ caviare to the general' I name
them.”
* Cf. Plat. Laws, 687. C ; Hipp. ii. 44. Lit. “can you in fact regard
these condiments as other than . . .” See Holden ad loc. (ed. 1888);
Hartm. off. cit, p. 259, Suggests €v0 vpºſiuata, “inventions.”
ch, 1.5 23:28 AS REGARDS PAINS AND PLEASURES 359
since I am quite sure that keen appetites (and you, I fancy,
know it well too) have not the slightest need of all these
delicate made things.
It is true, at any rate (observed Simonides), about those
Costly perfumes, with which your persons are anointed, that
your neighbours rather than yourselves extract enjoyment from
them ; just as the unpleasant odour of some meats is not so
obvious to the eater as to those who come in contact with him.
Aftero. Good, and on this principle we say of meats, that
he who is provided with all sorts on all occasions brings no
appetite to any of them. He rather to whom these things
are rarities, that is the man who, when some unfamiliar thing
is put before him, will take his fill of it with pleasure."
It looks very much (interposed Simonides) as if the sole
pleasure left you to explain the vulgar ambition to wear a
Crown, must be that named after Aphrodité. For in this field
it is your privilege to consort with whatever fairest fair your
eyes may light on.
Aſiero. Nay, now you have named that one thing of all
Others, take my word for it, in which we princes are worse
off than lesser people.”
To name marriage first. I presume a marriage” which is
Contracted with some great family, superior in wealth and
influence, bears away the palm, since it confers upon the
bridegroom not pleasure only but distinction.* Next comes
the marriage made with equals; and last, wedlock with in-
feriors, which is apt to be regarded as degrading and dis-
serviceable.
Now for the application : a despotic monarch, unless he
weds some foreign bride, is forced to choose a wife from
those beneath him, so that the height of satisfaction is
denied him.”
* Perú Xapās. Cf. Aesch. Fr. 237, atópatos év Tptºrm Xapá, of a
hungry man ; Od. xvii. 603.
* Reading adºp' to 64, or if as Cobet conj. Gaſpéotata, transl. “are at a
disadvantage most clearly by comparison with Ordinary folk.”
3 Cf. Hunting, i. 9. Holden cf. Eur. Rhes. 168; Androm. I255.
* Cf. Dem. in Lept. § 69, p. 499. See Plat. Alep. 553 C.
* Al. “Supreme content, the quintessential bliss, is quite unknown to
him."
360 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. I. § 28-32
The tender service of the proudest-souled of women,
wifely rendered, how superlatively charming !' and by con-
trast, how little welcome is such ministration where the wife
is but a slave—when present, barely noticed ; or if lacking,
what fell pains and passions will it not engender
And if we come to masculine attachments, still more
than in those whose end is procreation, the tyrant finds him-
self defrauded of much mirthfulness,” poor monarch Since
all of us are well aware, I fancy, that for highest satisfaction,”
amorous deeds need love's strong passion.*
But least of all is true love's passion wont to lodge in
the hearts of monarchs, for love delights not to Swoop on
ready prey; he needs the lure of expectation.”
Well then, just as a man who has never tasted thirst can
hardly be said to know the joy of drinking," so he who has
never tasted Passion is ignorant of Aphrodité's sweetest
SWeetS.
So Hiero ended.
Simonides answered laughingly : How say you, Hiero P
What is that P Love's strong passion for his soul's beloved
incapable of springing up in any monarch's heart? What
of your own passion for Dailochus, surnamed of men “most
beautiful” P -
Aſiero. That is easily explained, Simonides. What I most
desire of him is no ready spoil, as men might reckon it, but
rather what it is least of all the privilege of a tyrant to obtain."
* Or, ‘‘the gentle ministrations of loftiest-thoughted women and fair wives
possess a charm past telling, but from slaves, if tendered, the reverse of wel-
come, or if not forthcoming . . .”
* “Joys sacred to that goddess fair and free in Heaven yolept Euphrosyne.”
* For troXè 6taqepôvra's cf. Browning (Abá Vogler), not indeed of Aphro-
disia conjoined with Erós, but of the musician's gift :
That out of three sounds he frame not a fourth Sound, but a star.
* i.e. “Erós, the Lord of Passion, must lend his hand.” “But,” he
proceeds, “the god is coy; he has little liking for the breasts of kings. He
is more likely to be found in the cottage of the peasant than the king's
palace.”
* Or, “ever on the heels of hoped-for bliss he follows.”
* Reading with Holden (after H. Steph.) &otep oëv oëk Čiv ris . . . or
with Hartm. (op. cit. p. 259) &otrep oëK Čív Tus . . .
7 Lit. ‘‘ of tyrant to achieve,” a met. from the chase. Cf. Hunting,
xii. 22.
CH. I. § 33-38 IN PARTICULAR THOSE OF LOVE 36 I
I say it truly, I–the love I bear Dailochus is of this high
SOrt. All that the constitution of our souls and bodies
possibly compels a man to ask for at the hands of beauty,
that my fantasy desires of him ; but what my fantasy demands,
I do most earnestly desire to obtain from willing hands and
under Seal of true affection. To clutch it forcibly were as far
from my desire as to do myself some mortal mischief.
Were he my enemy, to wrest some spoil from his unwilling
hands would be an exquisite pleasure, to my thinking. But
of all sweet favours the sweetest to my notion is the free-will
offering of a man’s beloved. For instance, how sweet the
responsive glance of love for love; how sweet the questions
and the answers ; * and, most sweet of all, most love-
enkindling, the battles and the strifes of faithful lovers.” But
to enjoy "one's love perforce (he added) resembles more an
act of robbery, in my judgment, than love's pastime. And,
indeed, the robber derives some satisfaction from the spoils he
wins and from the pain he causes to the man he hates. But
to seek pleasure in the pain of one we love devoutly, to kiss
and to be hated, to touch “ and to be loathed—can one
Conceive a state of things more odious or more pitiful ? For,
it is a certainty, the Ordinary person may accept at once each
service rendered by the object of his love as a sign and token
of kindliness inspired by affection, since he knows such
ministry is free from all compulsion. Whilst to the tyrant,
the confidence that he is loved is quite foreclosed. On
the contrary,” we know for certain that service rendered
through terror will simulate as far as possible the ministra-
tions of affection. And it is a fact, that plots and con-
spiracies against despotic rulers are oftenest hatched by those
who most of all pretend to love them."
* “The immere Underhaltung"; the Öaptop.6s. Cf. Milton, P. L. :
With thee conversing, I forget all time.
* Cf. Ter. Andr. iii. 3. 23, “amantium irae annoris integratiost."
8 “To make booty of.”
* For &TTeo Đat L. & S. cf. Plat. Laws, 840 A; Aristot. H. A. v. 14. 27 ;
Ep. I Cor. vii. I.
* Reading aſſ. “If we do know anything it is this, that," etc.
6 Or, “do oftenest issue from treacherous make-believe of warmest friend-
ship.” Cf. Grote, H. G. xi. 288 ; Hell. VI. iv. 36 (Trans, vol. ii., p. 168).
362 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. II. § 1-5
II.--To these arguments Simonides replied : Yes, but the
topics you have named are to my thinking trifles; drops, as it
were, in the wide ocean. How many men, I wonder, have I
seen myself, men in the deepest sense,” true men, who choose
to fare but ill in respect of meats and drinks and delicacies;
ay, and what is more, they voluntarily abstain from sexual
pleasures. No 1 it is in quite a different sphere, which I will
name at Once, that you so far transcend us private citizens.”
It is in your vast designs, your Swift achievements ; it is in
the Overflowing wealth of your possessions ; your horses,
excellent for breed and mettle; the choice beauty of your
arms ; the exquisite finery of your wives ; the gorgeous
palaces in which you dwell, and these, too, furnished with
the costliest works of art; add to which the throng of your
retainers, Courtiers, followers, not in number only but accom-
plishments a most princely retinue ; and lastly, but not
least of all, in your Supreme ability at once to afflict your
foes and benefit your friends.
To all which Hiero made answer: That the majority of
men, Simonides, should be deluded by the glamour of a des-
potism in no respect astonishes me, since it is the very
essence of the crowd, if I am not mistaken, to rush wildly to
Conjecture touching the happiness or wretchedness of people
at first sight.
Now the nature of a tyranny is such : it presents, nay
flaunts, a show of costliest possessions unfolded to the general
gaze, which rivets the attention ; * but the real troubles in
the souls of monarchs it keeps concealed in those hid chambers
where lie stowed away the happinesses and the unhappinesses
of mankind.
I repeat then, I little marvel that the multitude should
be blinded in this matter. But that you others also, you who
1 Lit. “many among those reputed to be men.” Cf. Cyrop. V. v. 33 ;
Hell. i. 24 (Trans. vol. ii. p. 193), ‘‘their hero”; and below, viii. 3. Aristoph.
Ach. 78, oi 34pgapou yūp divöpas inoëvrat advows | Toys TAeſota Övvagévous
payeſu Te Kai trieſv : “With the Barbarians 'tis the test of manhood : there
the great drinkers are the greatest men " (Frere); id, Knights, 179; Clouds,
823; so Latin vir. See Holden ad loc.
* “Us lesser mortals.”
* There is some redundancy in the phraseology.
CH. II. § 5-II DELUSIVE SPLEND OUR OF MONARCHIV 363
are held to see with the mind's eye more clearly than with the
eye of sense the mass of circumstances," should share its
ignorance, does indeed excite my wonderment. Now, I know
it all too plainly from my own experience, Simonides, and I
assure you, the tyrant is one who has the smallest share of
life's best blessings, whilst of its greater miseries he possesses
mCSt.
For instance, if peace is held to be a mighty blessing to
mankind, then of peace despotic monarchs are scant sharers.
Or is war a curse? If so, of this particular pest your monarch
shares the largest moiety. For, look you, the private citizen,
unless his city-state should chance to be engaged in some
common war,” is free to travel wheresoe'er he chooses
without fear of being done to death, whereas the tyrant
cannot stir without setting his foot on hostile territory. At
any rate, nothing will persuade him but he must go through
life armed, and on all occasions drag about with him armed
Satellites. In the next place, the private citizen, even during
an expedition into hostile territory,” can comfort himself in
the reflection that as soon as he gets back home he will be
safe from further peril. Whereas the tyrant knows precisely
the reverse; as soon as he arrives at his own city, he will find
himself in the centre of hostility at once. Or let us suppose
that an invading army, Superior in force, is marching against
a city: however much the weaker population, whilst they are
still outside their walls, may feel the stress of danger, yet once
within their trenches one and all expect to find themselves in
absolute security. But the tyrant is not out of danger, even
when he has passed the portals of his palace. Nay! there of
all places most, he feels, he must maintain the strictest
watch.* Again, to the private citizen there will come eventu-
ally, either through truce or terms of peace, respite from war;
p :
* Lit. ‘‘the majority of things”; al. “the thousand details of a thing.
* Kouvöv, i.e. making demands upon the energies of all the citizens in
common, as opposed to the personal character of war as conducted by a
despot = “public,” “patriotic,” “national" war. Al, borne by the particular
TóNs as member of a league, whether of states united for the time being in a
avppaxia, or permanently in a confederacy = a “federal'' war.
* “Even if serving on a campaign in the enemy's country.”
* Or, “he has to exercise the utmost vigilance.”
364 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. II. § II-15
but for the tyrant, the day of peace will never dawn. What
peace can he have with those Over whom he exercises his
despotic sway P* Nor have the terms of truce been yet
devised, on which the despotic ruler may rely with con-
fidence.”
Wars doubtless there are,” wars waged by states and wars
waged by autocratic monarchs against those whom they have
forcibly enslaved, and in respect of these wars there is no
hardship which any member of the states at war * can suffer
but the tyrant will feel it also. That is to say, both must
alike be under arms, keep guard, run risks; and whatever the
pains of defeat may be, they are equally sustained by both.
Up to this point there is no distinction. The “bitters” are
equal. But when we come to estimate the “sweets” derivable
from warfare between states,” the parallel ceases. The tyrant, if
he shared the pains before, no longer shares the pleasures now.
What happens when a state has gained the mastery in battle
over her antagonist? It would be hard (I take it) to describe
the joy of that occurrence: joy in the rout, joy in the pursuit,
joy in the slaughter of their enemies; and in what language
shall I describe the exultation of these warriors at their
feats of arms ? With what assumption they bind on their brows
the glittering wreath of glory;" with what mirth and jollity
Congratulate themselves on having raised their city to newer
* “With those who are ‘absolutely governed,’ not to say tyrannically
ruled.”
* Or, “which the tyrant may accept in faith and go his way rejoicing.
* Lit. “ and further, wars there are, waged against forcibly-subjected
populations whether by free states”—e.g. of Olynthus, Hell. V. ii. 23 (Trans.
vol. ii. p. 107), or Athens against her “Subject allies” during the Pel, war—
“ or by despotic rulers”—Jason of Pherae (Hell. VI.). Al. “wars waged by
free states against free States, and wars waged by tyrants against enslaved
peoples.”
* Does à éu Taºs TóXeot - “the citizen "P So Some commentators; or
(sub. TóAegos) = “the war among states” (see Hartman, op. cit. p. 248) 2
in which case transl. ‘‘ all the hardships involved in international war come
home to the tyrant also.” The same obscurity attaches to oi év ra's troXeort
below (the commonly adopted emend. of the MS. of gºvovres tróXeat)= “the
citizens,” or else= ‘‘international wars.” See next note.
* “The pleasures incidental to warfare between states’’; al. ‘‘the sweets
which citizens engaged in warfare as against rival states can count upon.”
* Reading &va\appévovoru, or, if after Cobet, etc., \appävovoruv, transl.
“what brilliant honour, what bright credit they assume.”
?
:::::::::: *} AS SEEN IN PEACE AND WAR 365
heights of fame. Each several citizen claims to have shared
in the plan of the campaign,” and to have slain the largest
number. Indeed it would be hard to find where false em-
bellishment will not creep in,” the number stated to be slain
exceeding that of those that actually perished. So truly
glorious a thing it seems to them to have won a great
victory.”
But the tyrant, when he forebodes, or possibly perceives
in actual fact, some opposition brewing, and puts the suspects *
to the sword, knows he will not thereby promote the welfare
of the state collectively. The cold clear fact is, he will have
fewer subjects to rule over.” How can he show a cheerful
countenance P" how magnify himself on his achievement P
On the contrary, his desire is to lessen the proportions of
what has taken place, as far as may be. He will apologise
for what he does, even in the doing of it, letting it appear
that what he has wrought at least was innocent; 7 so little does
his conduct seem noble even to himself. And when those
he dreaded are safely in their graves, he is not one whit more
confident of spirit, but still more on his guard than heretofore.
That is the kind of war with which the tyrant is beset from
day to day continually, as I do prove.”
III.-Turn now and contemplate the sort of friendship
whereof it is given to tyrants to partake. And first, let us
examine with ourselves and see if friendship is truly a great
boon to mortal man.
How fares it with the man who is beloved of friends P
See with what gladness his friends and lovers hail his advent
delight to do him kindness long for him when he is absent
! “To have played his part in counsel.” See Anab. passim, and M.
Taine, Essais de Critique, “Xénophon," p. 128.
* Lit, “they do not indulge in false additions, pretending to have put
more enemies to death than actually fell.”
* Cf. Hiſ/arch, viii. II : Cyrop. VIII. iii. 25 ; Thuc. i. 49.
* See Hold. (crit. app.); Hartman, oft. cit. p. 260.
* Cf. Mem. I. ii. 38 (above, p. 14).
6 Cf. Anab. II. vi. 11 (Trans, vol. i. p. 141); He//, VI, iv. 16 (Trans.
vol. ii. p. 163).
7 “Not of malice prepense.”
8 Or, “Such then, as I describe it, is the type of war,” etc.
366 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT * CH. III. § 2-4
from them ' ' and welcome him most gladly on his return *
In any good which shall betide him they rejoice together; or
if they see him overtaken by misfortune, they rush to his
assistance as one man.”
Nay it has not escaped the observation of states and
governments that friendship is the greatest boon, the sweetest
happiness which men may taste. At any rate, the custom
holds 4 in many states “to slay the adulterer” alone of all
men “with impunity,” ” for this reason clearly that such
miscreants are held to be destroyers of that friendship" which
binds the woman to the husband. Since where by some un-
toward chance a woman suffers violation of her chastity,"
husbands do not the less honour them, as far as that goes,
provided true affection still appear unsullied.*
* Reading &v &Tú, or if &v dirth, transl. “have yearning hearts when he
must leave them.”
* See Anton Rubinstein, Die Musik und ihre Meister, p. 8, “Some
Remarks on Beethoven's Sonata Op. 81.”
* Cf. Cyrop. I. vi. 24 for a repetition of the sentiment and phraseology.
* Lit. “many of the states have a law and custom to,” etc. Cf. Pol.
Zac, ii. 4. -
* Cf. Plat. Laws, 874 C, “if a man find his wife suffering violence he
may kill the violator and be guiltless in the eye of the law.” Dem. in Azristocr.
53, 6&v Tus &Tokretvm év č6)\ots (ikwu . . . ) étrl 6&paptu, K.T.N. . . .
Toºraju èveka ph ºpečºyeuv Kretvavta.
* See Lys. de caed. Eratosth. § 32 f., oùTws, & divöpes, Toys 8tašopévous
éA&TTovos (mutas āśious inho ato elva, 3) Tovs Tetêouras Tóv pleu yūp 6&varov
Katéºyva, Toſs 6é Öttrååv étrotmae Tiju 8Xà8mu, hyotſuevos Toys pièv Švatpatropé-
wovs 8ta ÖTô Töv 6tao 66vraju patoeſoróat, Toys 6é Teto avtas oiſtws attöv Tós
WvXàs 6taq,9eipelv (bot' olketotépas atto's trotéïv rás d\\07ptas yuvaikas 3) Toſs
&vöpáort kal Tão av čT' ékelvous Thu olktav yeyovéval kal Toys tra?6as &óñXovs
eivat Ötrotépaju Tvyxávovoruv Švres, Tów divöpóv 3) Tów polyáv &v0’ &v Ó Töv
vópov tuffets 0&varov attoºs étrotmaie Thu (mutav. Cf. Cyrop. III. i. 39; Symp.
viii. 20 (above, p. 341); Plut. Sol. xxiii., §Na's 6é TAetatny éxelu &rottav
of Trept Töv yuvauków vópot Tó 26X0Vu Öokoúat, potxou geu yūp &veXeiv Tó
Xagóvrt 6éówkev, 6&v 6’ &ptá0 m Tus é)\ev6épau Yuvaſka kal 6tá0 mtat &mutav
ékarov 6paxuās étaše. Köv Tpoayoyeºm 6paxºs etkogu, TXīv Šalat Teqjaguévos
Taj)\otivtat, Xéyòu 6?, Tós étalpas. aštat yūp, épºq’avós pottòat Tpós Toys
ötöövras, “Solon's laws in general about women are his strangest, for he per-
mitted any one to kill an adulterer that found him in the act ; but if any one
forced a free woman, a hundred drachmas was the fine ; if he enticed her,
twenty ;-except those that Sell themselves openly, that is, harlots, who go
openly to those that hire them " (Clough, i. p. 190).
7 Or, “fall a victim to passion through some calamity,” “commit a
breach of chastity.” Cf. Aristot. H. A. VII. i. 9.
° Or, “if true affection still retain its virgin purity.” As to this extra-
ordinary passage, See Hartman, op. cit, p. 242 foll,
CH. III. § 5-9–
CH. IV. § I } FRIENDSHIP AND DOMESTIC TIES 367
So sovereign a good do I, for my part, esteem it to be
loved, that I do verily believe spontaneous blessings are out-
poured from gods and men on One so favoured.
This is that choice possession which, beyond all others,
the monarch is deprived of. .
But if you require further evidence that what I say is true,
look at the matter thus : No friendship, I presume, is
sounder than that which binds parents to their children and
children to their parents, brothers and sisters to each other,"
wives to husbands, comrade to comrade. -
If, then, you will but thoughtfully consider it, you will
discover it is the ordinary person who is chiefly blest in
these relations.” While of tyrants, many have been mur-
derers of their own children, many by their children murdered.
Many brothers have been murderers of one another in contest
for the crown ; * many a monarch has been done to death by
the wife of his bosom,” or even by his own familiar friend, by
him of whose affection he was proudest.”
How can you suppose, then, that being so hated by those
whom nature predisposes and law compels to love him, the
tyrant should be loved by any living soul beside P
Iv.–Again, without some moiety of faith and trust," how
can a man not feel to be defrauded of a mighty blessing P
One may well ask: What fellowship, what converse, what
society would be agreeable without confidence P What inter-
course between man and wife be sweet apart from trustfulness P
How should the “faithful esquire’ whose faith is mistrusted
still be lief and dear?"
1 Or, “brothers to brothers.”
2 Or, ‘‘that these more obvious affections are the sanctities of private life.”
3 Or, “ have caught at the throats of brothers"; lit. “been slain with
mutually-murderous hand.” Cf. Pind. Fr. 137; Aesch. Sept. c. 7"heb. 931 ;
Ag. 1575, concerning Eteocles and Polynices.
4 See Grote, H. G. xi. 288, xii. 6; Hell. VI. iv. 36 (Trans, vol. ii. p.
168); Isocr. On the Peace, 182 ; Plut. Dem. Pol. iii. (Clough, v. p. 98);
Tac. Aisſ. v. 8, about the family feuds of the kings of Judaea.
5 “It was his own familiar friend who dealt the blow, the nearest and
dearest to his heart."
6 ‘‘How can he, whose faith's discredited, the moral bankrupt . . .
7 Or, “the trusty knight and serving-man.” Cf. Morte d'Arth/r,
xxi. 5, King Arthur and Sir Bedivere.
3 *
368 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. IV. § 2-5
Well, then, of this frank confidence in others the tyrant has
the Scantiest share." Seeing his life is such, he cannot even
trust his meats and drinks, but he must bid his serving-men
before the feast begins, or ever the libation to the gods is
poured,” to taste the viands, out of sheer mistrust there may
be mischief lurking in the cup or platter.”
Once more, the rest of mankind find in their fatherland a
treasure worth all else beside.* The citizens form their own
body-guard * without pay or service-money against slaves and
against evil-doers." It is theirs to see that none of them-
selves, no citizen, shall perish by a violent death. And they
have advanced so far along the path of guardianship 7 that
in many cases they have framed a law to the effect that “not
the associate even of one who is bloodguilty shall be accounted
pure.” So that, by reason of their fatherland,8 each several
citizen can live at quiet and secure.
But for the tyrant it is again exactly the reverse.” Instead
of aiding or avenging their despotic lord, cities bestow large
honours on the slayer of a tyrant; ay, and in lieu of ex-
communicating the tyrannicide from sacred shrines,” as is
the case with murderers of private citizens, they set up statues
of the doers of such deeds” in temples.
* Or, “from this . . . is almost absolutely debarred.”
* “Or ever grace is said.”
* Cf. Cyrop. I. iii. 4.
4 See Séetch (Trans. vol. i. p. cxiv.).
* “Are their own “satellites,’ spear-bearers.” Cf. Thuc. i. 130 ; Herod.
ii. I68; vii. I27.
* See below, x. 4, p. 385, n. 2.
7 “Pushed so far the principle of mutual self-aid.”
8 “Thanks to the blessing of a fatherland each citizen may spend his
days in peace and Safety.”
9 “Matters are once more reversed precisely,” “it is all ‘topsy-turvy.’”
Cf. Cyrop. VIII. viii. 13. *
19 “And sacrifices.” Cf. Dem. c. Lept. 137, Ču Toivvu To's repl roºrov
vöuous 6 Apákov . . . Kaffapov čudºptaev cival. “Now in the laws upon this
subject, Draco, although he strove to make it fearful and dreadful for a man
to slay another, and ordained that the homicide should be excluded from
lustrations, cups, and drink-offerings, from the temples and the market-place,
specifying everything by which he thought most effectually to restrain people
from such a practice, still did not abolish the rule of justice, but laid down
the cases in which it should be lawful to kill, and declared that the killer under
such circumstances should be deemed pure” (C. R. Kennedy).
11 e.g. Harmodius and Aristogeiton. See Dem, ſoc. cit. 138 : “The same
CH. Iv. § 6-8 THE TYRANT AN OUTLAW ON A THRONE 369
But if you imagine that the tyrant, because he has more
possessions than the private person, does for that reason
derive greater pleasure from them, this is not so either,
Simonides, but it is with tyrants as with athletes. Just as the
athlete feels no glow of satisfaction in asserting his superiority
Over amateurs," but annoyance rather when he sustains defeat at
the hands of any real antagonist; so, too, the tyrant finds little
Consolation in the fact” that he is evidently richer than the
private citizen. What he feels is pain, when he reflects that
he has less himself than other monarchs. These he holds to
be his true antagonists; these are his rivals in the race for
wealth.
Nor does the tyrant attain the object of his heart's desire
more quickly than do humbler mortals theirs. For consider,
what are their objects of ambition ? The private citizen has
set his heart, it may be, on a house, a farm, a servant.
The tyrant hankers after cities, or wide territory, or harbours,
or formidable citadels, things far more troublesome and more
perilous to achieve than are the pettier ambitions of lesser men.
And hence it is, moreover, that you will find but
few * private persons paupers by comparison with the large
number of tyrants who deserve the title; * since the criterion of
enough, or too much, is not fixed by mere arithmetic, but rela-
tively to the needs of the individual.” In other words, what-
j
rewards that you gave to Harmodius and Aristogiton,'
Simonides himself wrote a votive couplet :
concerning whom
*H piéy' 'A6mvatotov påws Yévé0' #vik' 'Aptoſto-
'yettwu "ITTapxov Kreºve Kai App.3600s.
1 Or, “It gives no pleasure to the athlete to win victories over amateurs.”
See Mem. III. vii. 7 (above, p. IOA).
? Or, “each time it is brought home to him that,” etc.
8 Reading as vulg. d’AX& pºvrov Kal Trévºſtas Špel oi)x oëTa's ÖNiyovs Tów
töwröv Ös troX\oys Tāv Tupévvav. Lit. “however that may be, you will see
not so few private persons in a state of penury as many despots."
Breitenbach del, oùx, and transl., “Daher weist du auch in dem Masse
wenige Arme unter den Privat-leuten finden, als viele unter den Tyrannen.”
Stob., Trévintas Špel 3Xtyovs Tów ióworów, ToMAoûs 6é Tów Tupdvvov, Stob.
MS. Par., GNX& uévrot kal TNovoſtovs & pet oix o'Tws 6\lyovs tou iówtów (bs
Trévºſtas troX\oys Tów Tupdvvov. See Holden ad loc. and crit, n.
4 Cf. Mem. IV. ii. 37 (above, p. 146).
5 Or, “not by the number of things we have, but in reference to the use
we make of them.” Cf. Anab. VII. vii. 36 (Trans, vol. i. p. 312).
VOL. III— I 2 B
37O HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT * {: ..."
ever exceeds sufficiency is much, and what falls short of that
is little." -
And on this principle the tyrant, with his multiplicity
of goods, is less well provided to meet necessary expenses
than the private person ; since the latter can always cut down
his expenditure to suit his daily needs in any way he chooses ;
but the tyrant cannot do so, seeing that the largest expenses
of a monarch are also the most necessary, being devoted to
various methods of safeguarding his life, and to cut down
any of them would be little less than suicidal.”
Or, to put it differently, why should any one expend Com-
passion on a man, as if he were a beggar, who has it in his
power to satisfy by just and honest means his every need?”
Surely it would be more appropriate to call that man a wretched
starveling beggar rather, who through lack of means is driven
to live by ugly shifts and base contrivances.
Now it is your tyrant who is perpetually driven to iniqui-
tous spoliation of temples and human beings, through chronic
need of money wherewith to meet inevitable expenses, since
he is forced to feed and support an army (even in times
of peace) no less than if there were actual war, or else he
signs his own death-warrant.* -
v.–But there is yet another sore affliction to which the
tyrant is liable, Simonides, which I will name to you. It is
this. Tyrants no less than ordinary mortals can distinguish
merit. The orderly,” the wise, the just and upright, they
freely recognise; but instead of admiring them, they are afraid
* Dr. Holden aptly cf. Addison, The Spectator, No. 574, on the text
“Non possidentem multa vocaveris recte beatum . . .”
* Or, “and to curtail these would seem to be self-slaughter.”
° i.e. “to expend compassion on a man who, etc., were Surely a pathetic
fallacy.” Al. ‘‘Is not the man who has it in his power, etc., far above being
pitied ?”
* “A daily, hourly constraint is laid upon him to support an army as in
war time, or—write his epitaph 1 ''
* The same epithets occur in Aristoph. Plut. 89 :
éyò yöp Öu peupéktov htrei)\ma' &rt
dos Toijs 6tkatovs Kal Oroqois Kai Koopious
pévous 3a5uotpºmu.
Stob. gives for kooptovs &Xkipovs.
CH. V. § 1-4 THE PENALTY OF A FALSE POSITION 37 I
of them,-the courageous, lest they should venture something
for the sake of freedom ; the wise, lest they invent some
subtle mischief; the just and upright, lest the multitude
should take a fancy to be led by them.
And when he has secretly and silently made away with all
Such people through terror, whom has he to fall back upon
to be of use to him, save only the unjust, the incontinent, and
the slavish-natured P” Of these, the unjust can be trusted as
Sharing the tyrant's terror lest the cities should some day
win their freedom and lay strong hands upon them ; the
incontinent, as satisfied with momentary license ; and the
slavish-natured, for the simple reason that they have not
themselves the slightest aspiration after freedom.”
This, then, I say, appears to me a sore affliction, that we
should look upon the one set as good men, and yet be forced
to lean upon the other.
And further, even a tyrant cannot but be something of a
patriot—a lover of that state, without which he can neither
hope for safety nor prosperity. On the other hand, his tyranny,
the exigencies of despotic rule, compel him to incriminate his
fatherland.* To train his citizens to soldiery, to render them
brave warriors, and well armed, confers no pleasure on him ;
rather he will take delight to make his foreigners more for-
midable than those to whom the state belongs, and these
foreigners he will depend on as his body-guard.
Nay more, not even in the years of plenty,” when abund-
ance of all blessings reigns, not even then may the tyrant’s
heart rejoice amid the general joy, for the greater the indi-
1 Or, “for fear of machinations.” But the word is suggestive of mechani-
cal inventions also, like those of Archimedes in connection with a later Hiero
(see Plut. Marcel. xv. foll.); or of Lionardo, or of Michael Angelo (Symonds,
A'enaissance in Italy, “The Fine Arts,” pp. 31.5, 393).
* Or, ‘‘the dishonest, the lascivious, and the servile."
* “They have no aspiration even to be free,” “they are content to
wallow in the slough of despond.” The Ötöukot (unjust) correspond to the
ôtkato (just), ákpatets (incontinent) to the goſpot (wise) (Breit, cf. Mem. III.
ix. 4, goplav Šē Kai orwºporiumv oë Sudºpt; ev), divöpatroë06cts (Servile) to the
kóapitol, divöpeſot (orderly, courageous).
* Or, “depreciate the land which gave him birth.” Holden cf. Cyrop.
VII. ii. 22. See Sturz, s.v.
* “In good seasons,” “seasons of prosperity.” Cf. Aristot. Poſ. v.
6. 17.
372 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT " {: º,
gence of the community the humbler he will find them : that
is his theory. -
VI.-He continued : I desire to make known to you,
Simonides," those divers pleasures which were mine whilst I
was still a private citizen, but of which to-day, nay, from the
moment I became a tyrant, I find myself deprived. In
those days I consorted with my friends and fellows, to our
mutual delectation ; ” Or, if I craved for quietude,” I chose my-
self for my companion. Gaily the hours flitted at our drinking-
parties, ofttimes till we had drowned such cares and troubles
as are common to the life of man in Lethe's bowl; * or oft-
times till we had steeped our souls in song and dance" and
revelry; ofttimes . till the flame of passion kindled in the
breasts of my companions and my own." But now, well-
aday, I am deprived of those who took delight in me, because
I have slaves instead of friends as my companions; I am
robbed of my once delightful intercourse with them, because
I discern no vestige of goodwill towards me in their looks.
And as to the wine-cup and slumber — these I guard
against, even as a man might guard against an ambuscade.
Think only to dread a crowd, to dread solitude, to dread
the absence of a guard, to dread the very guards that guard,
to shrink from having those about one's self unarmed, and
yet to hate the sight of armed attendants. Can you conceive
* Or, “I wish I could disclose to you (he added) those heart-easing joys.”
For eighpoorêvas cf. Od. vi. I 56; Aesch. P. V. 540 ; Eur. Bacch. 376. A
favourite word with our author ; see Ages. ix. 4 ; Cyrop, passim ; Mem. III.
viii. Io (above, p. Io9); Æcon. ix. I2, p. 242.
° Lit. “delighting I in them and they in me.”
* Or, “when I sought tranquillity I was my own companion.”
* Or, “in sheer forgetfulness.”
” Or, “absorbed our souls in Song and festal cheer and dance.” Cf. Od.
viii. 248, 249, alei 6’ huſv 6ais Te plMm Ki6apts Te Xopoi Te eluard T' &muowgä
Xoetpd Te 0eppä kai evval, “and dear to us ever is the banquet and the harp
and the dance, and changes of raiment, and the warm bath, and love and
sleep” (Butcher and Lang). -
* Reading as vulg. ētruffugias. Breit, cf. Mem. III. ix. 7 (above, p. III);
Plat. Phaed. II6 E, “he has eaten and drunk and enjoyed the society of his
beloved " (Jowett). See Symp, the finale (above, p. 350); or if, after Weiske
and Cobet, eúðuptas, transl. “to the general hilarity of myself and the whole
company'' (cf. Cyrop. I. iii. 12, IV. v. 7), but this is surely a bathos rhetorically.
cH. vi. § 4-11 MISER, AH MISER, QUERENDUM EST 373
more troublous circumstance P + But that is not all. To
place more confidence in foreigners than in your fellow-
citizens, nay, in barbarians than in Hellenes, to be consumed
with a desire to keep freemen slaves and yet to be driven, will
he nill he, to make slaves free, are not all these the symptoms
of a mind distracted and amazed with terror P
For terror, you know, not only is a source of pain indwell-
ing in the breast itself, but, ever in close attendance, shadowing
the path,” becomes the destroyer of all sweet joys.
And if you know anything of war, Simonides, and war's
alarms; if it was your fortune ever to be posted close to the
enemy's lines,” try to recall to mind what sort of meals you
made at those times, with what sort of slumber you courted
rest. Be assured, there are no pains you then experienced,
no horrors to compare with those that crowd upon the despot,
who sees or seems to see fierce eyes of enemies glare at him,
not face to face alone, but from every side.
He had spoken so far, when Simonides took up the thread
of the discourse, replying: Excellently put. A part I must
admit, of what you say ; since war is terrible. Yet, Hiero,
you forget. When we, at any rate, are out campaigning, we
have a custom ; we place sentinels at the outposts, and when
the watch is set, we take our suppers and turn in undauntedly.
And Hiero answered : Yes, I can well believe you, for
the laws are the true outposts,” who guard the sentinels,
keeping their fears alive both for themselves and in behalf of
you. Whereas the tyrant hires his guards for pay like harvest
labourers.” Now of all functions, all abilities, none, I
presume, is more required of a guard than that of faithfulness ;
and yet one faithful man is a commodity more hard to find
than scores of workmen for any sort of work you like to name ;"
1 Or, “a worse perplexity.” See Hell. VII. iii. 8.
* Reading avpirapakoxov6óu Xupaedºv. Stob, gives ovgºrapopaprów
Xvpavtºp. For the sentiment cf. Cyrop. III. i. 25.
* Or, “in the van of battle, opposite the hostile lines.”
4 Or, “beyond the sentinels themselves is set the outpost of the laws,
who watch the watch.” For the style see Trans, vol. ii. p. lxv. foll, in reference
to the Agesilaus.
° Or, “ten-day labourers in harvest-time.”
6 Or, “but to discover one single faithful man is far more difficult than
scores of labourers in any field of work you please.”
374 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. VI. § 1 I-16
and the more so, when the guards in question are not forth-
coming except for money's sake; 1 and when they have it in
their power to get far more in far less time by murdering
the despot than they can hope to earn by lengthened service
in protecting him.
And as to that which roused your envy, our ability, as
you call it, to benefit our friends most largely, and beyond all
else, to triumph over our foes—here, again, matters are not
as you Suppose.
How, for instance, Can you hope to benefit your friends,
when you may rest assured the very friend whom you have
made most your debtor will be the happiest to quit your
sight as fast as may be P since nobody believes that anything
a tyrant gives him is indeed his own, until he is well beyond
the donor's jurisdiction.
So much for friends, and as to enemies conversely. How
can you say “most power of triumphing over enemies,” when
every tyrant knows full well they are all his enemies, every
man of them, who are despotically ruled by him P And to
put the whole of them to death or to imprison them is hardly
possible; or who will be his subjects presently P Not so, but
knowing they are his enemies, he must perform this dexterous
feat:” he must keep them at arm’s length, and yet be com-
pelled to lean upon them.
But be assured, Simonides, that when a tyrant fears any
of his citizens, he is in a strait; it is ill work to see them
living and ill work to put them to the death. Just as might
happen with a horse; a noble beast, but there is that in him
makes one fear he will do some mischief presently past curing.”
His very virtue makes it hard to kill the creature, and yet to
turn him to account alive is also hard ; SO careful must one be,
he does not choose the thick of danger to work irreparable
harm. And this, further, doubtless holds of all goods and
chattels, which are at once a trouble and a benefit. If painful
1 Or, “are merely hirelings for filthy lucre's sake.”
* Lit. “he must at one and the same moment guard against them, and
yet be driven also to depend upon them."
* Lit. “good but fearful (i.e. he makes one fear), he will some day do
some desperate mischief."
CH. vi. § 16-
::::::::::::, ; HONOUR AND PROUD ATTRIBUTES 375
to their owners to possess, they are none the less a source of
pain to part with.
VII.-Now when he had heard these reasonings, Simonides
replied : O Hiero, there is a potent force, it would appear,
the name of which is honour, so attractive that human beings
strain to grasp it," and in the effort they will undergo all
pains, endure all perils. It would further seem that even
you, you tyrants, in spite of all that sea of trouble which a
tyranny involves, rush headlong in pursuit of it. You must
be honoured. All the world shall be your ministers; they
shall carry out your every injunction with unhesitating zeal.”
You shall be the cynosure of neighbouring eyes; men shall
rise from their seats at your approach ; they shall step
aside to yield you passage in the streets.” All present shall
at all times magnify you," and shall pay homage to you both
with words and deeds. Those, I take it, are ever the kind of
things which subjects do to please the monarch,” and thus they
treat each hero of the moment, whom they strive to honour."
Yes, Hiero, and herein precisely lies the difference be-
tween a man and other animals, in this outstretching after
honour." Since, it would seem, all living things alike take
pleasure in meats and drinks, in sleep and sexual joys. Only
the love of honour is implanted neither in unreasoning brutes &
* Lit. ‘‘ that human beings will abide all risks and undergo all pains to
clutch the bait." * Cf. Cyrop. II. iii. 8 ; VIII. i. 29.
3 Cf. Mem. II. iii. 16; Cyrop. VII. v. 20.
4 yepatpaat, poetic. Cf. Cyrop. VIII. i. 39 ; Hell. I. vii. 33 (Trans.
vol. i. p. 36); Econ. iv. 8 (above, p. 214); Herod. v. 67 ; Pind. O. iii. 3,
v. II ; AV. v. I 5 ; Od. xiv. 437, 44I ; //, vii. 321 ; Plat. Rep. 468 D, quoting
IZ. vii. 32 I. -
5 Reading roſs Tupdvvots, or if Toys Tupdvvous, after Cobet, “That is how
they treat crowned heads.”
6 Cf. Tennyson, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington :
With honour, honour, honour to him,
Eternal honour to his name.
7 Or, “in this strong aspiration after honour.” Holden aptly cf. Spectator,
No. 467 : “The love of praise is a passion deeply fixed in the mind of every
extraordinary person ; and those who are most affected with it seem most to
partake of that particle of the divinity which distinguishes mankind from the
inferior creation.”
8 &Xó)ots, i.e. “without speech and reason ''; cf. modern Greek 6 &\oyos
= the horse (sc. the animal far excellence). See Horsemanship, viii. 14.
376 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. VII. § 3-9
nor universally in man. But they in whose hearts the passion
for honour and fair fame has fallen like a seed, these unmis-
takably * are separated most widely from the brutes. These
may claim to be called men,” not human beings merely. So
that, in my poor judgment, it is but reasonable you should
submit to bear the pains and penalties of royalty, since you
are honoured far beyond all other mortal men. And indeed
no pleasure known to man would seem to be nearer that of
gods than the delight & which centres in proud attributes.
To these arguments Hiero replied : Nay, but, Simonides,
the honours and proud attributes bestowed on tyrants have
much in common with their love-makings, as I described
them. Like honours like loves, the pair are of a piece.
For just as the ministrations won from loveless hearts * are
felt to be devoid of grace, and embraces forcibly procured
are sweet no longer, so the obsequious cringings of alarm
are hardly honours. Since how shall we assert that people
who are forced to rise from their seats do really rise to
honour those whom they regard as malefactors P or that
these others who step aside to let their betters pass them
in the street, desire thus to show respect to miscreants P*
And as to gifts, it is notorious, people commonly bestow them
largely upon those they hate, and that too when their fears
are gravest, hoping to avert impending evil. Nay, these are
nothing more nor less than acts of slavery, and they may
fairly be set down as such.
But honours have a very different origin,” as different to
my mind as are the sentiments to which they give expression.
See how, for instance, men of common mould will single out
a man, who is a man," they feel, and competent to be their
* #öm, ipso facto.
* See Amaë. I. vii. 4 (Trans. vol. i. p. Io2); Frotscher ap. Breit. cf.
Cic, ad Fame. v. 17. 5, ‘‘ut et hominem te et virum esse meminisses.”
* Or, “joyance.” See above, p. 372, n. I.
* Or, ‘‘the compliance of cold lips where love is not reciprocated is . .
* Or, “to rank injustice.”
° Lit. ‘‘Honours would seem to be the outcome and expression of con-
ditions utterly remote from these, in fact their very opposites.”
7 Cf. Napoleon's accost of Goethe, “Vous étes un homme,” and “as
Goethe left the room, Napoleon repeated to Berthier and Daru, Voilà an
homme /" " (The Life of Goethe, Lewes, p. 5oo).
j y
}
cH, vii. § 9-12 WORTHLESS IF NOT SPONTANEOUS 377
benefactor; one from whom they hope to reap rich blessings.
His name lives upon their lips in praise. As they gaze at
him, each one among them sees in him a private treasure.
Spontaneously they yield him passage in the streets. They
rise from their seats to do him honour, out of love not fear ;
they crown him for his public' virtue's sake and benefactions.
They shower gifts upon him of their own free choice. These
same are they who, if my definition holds, may well be said
to render honour to their hero by such service, whilst he
that is held worthy of these services is truly honoured.
And for my part I can but offer my congratulations to
him. “God bless him,” say I, perceiving that so far from
being the butt of foul conspiracy, he is an object of anxiety
to all, lest evil should betide him ; and so he pursues the
even tenour of his days in happiness exempt from fears and
jealousy % and risk. But the current of the tyrant's life runs
differently. Day and night, I do assure you, Simonides, he
lives like one condemned by the general verdict of mankind to
die for his iniquity.
Now when Simonides had listened to these reasonings
to the end,” he answered : How is it, Hiero, if to play the
tyrant is a thing so villainous,” and that is your final judgment,
how comes it you are not quit of so monstrous an evil?
Neither you, nor, for that matter, any monarch else I ever
heard of, having once possessed the power, did ever of his
own free will divest himself of sovereignty. How is that,
Hiero P \"
For one simple reason (the tyrant answered), and herein lies
the supreme misery of despotic power; it is not possible even
to be quit of it.” How could the life of any single tyrant
suffice to square the account P How should he pay in full
to the last farthing all the moneys of all whom he has robbed P
* Reading Kouvīs, which ought to mean “common to them and him ";
if with Cobet kolvin, transl. “in public crown him for his virtue's sake, a
benefactor.”
? Or, “without reproach.” * Cf. Econ. xi. I.
* Or, “if to monarchise and play the despot.”
* Holden aptly cf. Plut. Sol. 14, KaNöv pučv eivat Thu Tupauviða Xaptov,
oùk &xely 68 &tró8agu, “it was true a tyranny was a very fair spot, but it
had no way down from it” (Clough, i. p. 181).
378 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" (; ; , ,”
with what chains laid upon him make requital to all those he
has thrust into felons’ quarters ?" how proffer lives enough to
die in compensation of the dead men he has slain P how die
a thousand deaths P
Ah, no | Simonides (he added), if to hang one's self out-
right be ever gainful to poor mortal soul, then, take my word
for it, that is the tyrant's remedy : there's none better suited *
to his case, since he alone of all men is in this dilemma,
that neither to keep nor lay aside his troubles profits him.
VIII.-Here Simonides took up the thread of the dis-
course * as follows: That for the moment, Hiero, you should
be out of heart regarding tyranny # I do not wonder, since
you have a strong desire to be loved by human beings, and
you are persuaded that it is your office which balks the realisa-
tion of your dream.
Now, however, I am no less certain I can prove to you
that government * implies no obstacle to being loved, but
rather holds the advantage over private life so far. And
whilst investigating if this be really so, let us not embarrass
the inquiry by asking whether in proportion to his greater
power the ruler is able to do kindness on a grander scale.
But put it thus: Two human beings, the one in humble
circumstances," the other a despotic ruler, perform a common
act; which of these twain will, under like conditions," win the
larger thanks P I will begin with the most trifling * examples;
t;
* Or, “how undergo in his own person the imprisonments he has in-
flicted P’’ Reading dutitréaxou, or if duritrapáo you, transl. “how could he
replace in his own person the exact number of imprisonments which he has
inflicted on others?”
* Or, “nought more profitable to meet the case.” The author plays on
Xva'ute) et according to his wont.
* Al. “took up the speaker thus.”
“In reference to despotic rule.”
Tô dipxelv. Cf. Cyrop, passim. See Sketch (Trans, vol. i. p. x.c.).
“A private person.”
Lit. ‘‘ by like expenditure of power.”
āpxopal got. Lit. “I’ll begin you with quite commonplace examples."
Holden cf. Shakesp. Merry Wives, i. 4. 97, “I’ll do you your master
what good I can "; Much Ado, ii. 3. I 15, “She will sit you.” For the
distinction between trapačetypad.Twu = examples and ÜTroöetypata = suggestions
See Horsem. ii. 2; Econ. xii. 18, p. 257, n. I.
&A
.
CH, VIII. § 3-5 THE POET SUGGESTS A CONSOLATION 379
and first a simple friendly salutation, “Good day,” “Good
evening,” dropped at sight of some one from the lips of here
a ruler, there a private citizen. In such a case, whose saluta-
tion will sound the pleasanter to him accosted P
Or again," let us suppose that both should have occasion
to pronounce a panegyric. Whose compliments will carry
farther, in the way of delectation, think you ? Or on occa-
Sion of a Solemn Sacrifice, suppose they do a friend the honour
of an invitation.” In either case it is an honour, but which
will be regarded with the greater gratitude, the monarch's or
the lesser man's P -
Or let a sick man be attended with a like solicitude by
both. It is plain, the kind attentions of the mighty potentate *
arouse in the patient's heart immense delight.”
Or say, they are the givers of two gifts which shall be like
in all respects. It is plain enough in this case also that “the
gracious favour” of his royal highness, even if halved, would
more than counterbalance the whole value of the commoner's
“donation.” 9
Nay, as it seems to me, an honour from the gods, a grace
divine, is shed about the path of him the hero-ruler." Not only
* “Come now.”
* Cf. Meye. II, iii. II (above, p. 55) as to “sacrifices as a means of
social enjoyment.” Dr. Holden cf. Aristot. AVic. Eth. VIII. ix. 16o, “And
hence it is that these clan communities and hundreds solemnise sacrifices, in
connection with which they hold large gatherings, and thereby not only pay
honour to the gods, but also provide for themselves holiday and amusement”
(R. Williams). Thuc. ii. 38, “And we have not forgotten to provide for
our weary Spirits many relaxations from toil; we have regular games and
sacrifices throughout the year" (Jowett), Plut. Them. v., kai yüp (pt)\otºrmv
ôvta Kai \apirpov čv ra's Tepi Toys £évows Śatrávas . . . “For loving to
Sacrifice often, and to be splendid in his entertainment of strangers, he
required a plentiful revenue” (Clough, i. 236). To which add Theophr.
Char. xv. 2, The Shameless Man : eita 000 as Tois 6eots at Tôs pºèv Šettvely
trap' étépg, Tå Öé kpéa ditrotufféval &\al tróa'as, K.T.A., “then when he has
been Sacrificing to the gods, he will put away the Salted remains, and will
himself dine out” (Jebb).
* “Their mightinesses,” or as we might say, “their serene highnesses.’
y
Cf. Thuc. ii. 65. * “The greatest jubilance.”
* Or, “half the great man's ‘bounty' more than outweighs the small
man's present.” For 6&pmua cf. Aristot, AV. E. I. ix. 2, ‘‘happiness . . . a
free gift of God to men.”
° Lit. “attends the footsteps of the princely ruler.” Cf. Cyrop. II. i. 23,
Plat. Laws, 667 B, for a similar metaphorical use of the word.
38O HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. VIII. § 5-9
does command itself ennoble manhood, but we gaze on him
with other eyes and find the fair within him yet more fair who
is to-day a prince and was but yesterday a private citizen."
Again, it is a prouder satisfaction doubtless to hold debate with
those who are preferred to us in honour than with people on
an equal footing with ourselves.
Why, the minion (with regard to whom you had the
gravest fault to find with tyranny), the favourite of a ruler,
is least apt to quarrel ” with gray hairs : the very blemishes
of one who is a prince soon cease to be discounted in their
intercourse.”
The fact is, to have reached the zenith of distinction in
itself lends ornament,” nay, a lustre effacing what is harsh
and featureless and rude, and making true beauty yet more
splendid. - -
Since then, by aid of equal ministrations, you are privi-
leged to win not equal but far deeper gratitude : it would
seem to follow, considering the vastly wider sphere of help-
fulness which lies before you as administrators, and the far
grander scale of your largesses, I say it naturally pertains to
you to find yourselves much more beloved than ordinary
mortals; or if not, why not ?
Hiero took up the challenge and without demur made
answer: For this good reason, best of poets, necessity Con-
strains us, far more than ordinary people, to be busybodies.
We are forced to meddle with concerns which are the very
fount and springhead of half the hatreds of mankind.
We have moneys to exact if we would meet our necessary
expenses. Guards must be impressed and sentinels posted
* Tô dipxelv, “his princely power makes him more noble as a man, and
we behold him fairer exercising rule than when he functioned as a common
citizen.” Reading ka)\\{w, or if #8tov, transl. “we feast our eyes more
greedily upon him.”
* Lit. “feels least disgust at age"; i.e. his patron's years and wrinkles.
3 Cf. Plat. Phaedr. 231 B.
* Or, “The mere prestige of highest worship helps to adorn." See
Aristot. AV. E. I. xi. I7. As to airò Tô Terup?a 6au pº a. I think it is the
āpxwy who is honoured by the rest of men, which rupº helps to adorn him.
Others seem to think it is the trauðuká who is honoured by the épxov. If so,
transl. : “The mere distinction, the privilege alone of being highly honoured,
lends embellishment,” etc.
CH. VIII. § 9, Io-
:::::::::: *} A MONARCH's OPPORTUNITY FOR GOOD 381
wherever there is need of watch and ward. We have to
chastise evil-doers; we must put a stop to those who would
wax insolent." And when the season for swift action comes,
and it is imperative to expedite a force by land or sea, at
such a crisis it will not do for us to entrust the affair to easy-
goers. -
Further than that, the man who is a tyrant must have
mercenaries, and of all the burdens which the citizens are
called upon to bear there is none more onerous than this,
since nothing will induce them to believe these people
are supported by the tyrant to add to his and their pres-
tige,” but rather for the sake of his own selfishness and
greed.
IX.—To these arguments Simonides in turn made answer:
Nay, Hiero, I am far from stating that you have not all these
divers matters to attend to. They are serious duties,” I admit.
But still, what strikes me is, if half these grave responsibilities
do lend themselves undoubtedly to hatred,” the remaining
half are altogether gratifying. Thus, to teach others * arts of
highest virtue, and to praise and honour each most fair per-
formance of the same, that is a type of duty not to be dis-
charged save graciously. Whilst, on the other hand, to scold
at people guilty of remissness, to drive and fine and chasten,
these are proceedings doubtless which go hand and hand with
hate and bitterness.
What I would say then to the hero-ruler is : Wherever
force is needed, the duty of inflicting chastisement should be
assigned to others, but the distribution of rewards and prizes
must be kept in his own hands."
Common experience attests the excellence of such a
* Or, “curb the over-proud in sap and blood.”
* Reading with Breit. els, Tipºds, or if the vulg. to otiuous, transl. “as
equal merely to themselves in privilege”; or if with Schenkl (and Holden,
ed., 3) tootupatas, transl. ‘‘their firm persuasion is these hirelings are not
supported by the tyrant in the interests of equality but of undue influence.”
* Cf. Econ. vii. 41 (above, p. 233).
* Or, “tend indisputably to enmity.”
* Or, “people,” “the learner.”
* Cf. Cyrop, VIII. ii. 27; ib. i. 18; Hipparch, i. 26.
382 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. IX. § 4-7
system.” Thus when we ? wish to set on foot a competition
between choruses,” it is the function of the archon * to offer
prizes, whilst to the choregoi º is assigned the duty of
assembling the members of the band ; * and to others 7 that
of teaching and applying force to those who come behindhand
in their duties. There, then, you have the principle at once :
The gracious and agreeable part devolves on him who rules,
the archon; the repellent counterpart 8 on others. What is
there to prevent the application of the principle to matters
politic in general P9
All states as units are divided into tribes (ºbvXás), or
regiments (uápas), or companies (Aóxovs), and there are
officers (àpxovres) appointed in command of each division.”
Well then, suppose that some one were to offer prizes”
to these political departments on the pattern of the choric
prizes just described ; prizes for excellence of arms, or skill in
tactics, or for discipline and so forth, or for skill in horseman-
ship ; prizes for prowess” in the field of battle, bravery in war;
prizes for uprightness” in fulfilment of engagements, contracts,
covenants. If so, I say it is to be expected that these several
matters, thanks to emulous ambition, will one and all be
1 Or, “current incidents bear witness to the beauty of the principle.”
* huſiv. The author makes Simonides talk as an Athenian.
3 Lit. ‘‘when we wish our sacred choirs to compete.”
* Or, “magistrate”; at Athens the Archon Eponymos. See Boeckh,
P. E. A. p. 454 foll. Al, the 30)\offétat. See Pollux, viii. 93 ; cf. Aeschin.
c. Ctes. I3.
* Or more correctly at Athens the choragoi = leaders of the chorus.
° i.e. the choreutai.
7 Sc. the choro-didaskaloi, or chorus-masters.
8 ré, duríTvTra, “the repellent obverse,” “the seamy side.” Cſ. Theogn.
1244, #60s &xwy 66Xtov triartos &vt{TvTov. Hell. VI. iii. II (Trans, vol. ii.
p. 155).
9 Or, “Well then, what reason is there why other matters of political
concern—all other branches of our civic life, in fact—should not be carried
out on this same principle P’’
10 e.g. Attica into ten phylae, Lacedaemon into six morae, Thebes and
Argos into lochi. See Aristot. Pol. v. 8 (Jowett, i. 166); Hell. VI. iv. I3 ;
VII. ii. 4 (Trans. vol. ii. pp. 161, 202).
11 See Revenues, iii. 3.; A. Zurborg, de Xen. Lib. 72d IIópot inscribiºur,
p. 42 ; Trans. vol. ii. p. 331, where the author harps upon the same string.
12 Cf. Hell. III. iv. 16; IV, ii. 5 foll. (Trans. vol. ii. pp. 29, 48).
13 “In reward for justice in, etc.” See Revenues, l.c. ; and for the evil
in question, Thuc. i. 77; Plat. Rep. 556.
cH. ix. $7-10 AS FOSTERER OF THE ARTS OF CIVIC LIFE 383
vigorously cultivated. Vigorously why, yes, upon my soul, and
what a rush there would be How in the pursuit of honour
they would tear along where duty called: with what promptitude
pour in their money contributions 4 at a time of crisis.
And that which of all arts is the most remunerative, albeit
the least accustomed hitherto to be conducted on the principle
of competition *—I mean agriculture—itself would make enor-
mous strides, if some one were to offer prizes in the same
way, “by farms and villages,” to those who should perform
the works of tillage in the fairest fashion. Whilst to those
members of the state who should devote themselves with
might and main to this pursuit, a thousand blessings would be
the result. The revenues would be increased ; and self-
restraint be found far more than now, in close attendance on
industrious habits.” Nay further, crimes and villainies take
root and spring less freely among busy workers.
Once more, if commerce 4 is of any value to the state,
then let the merchant who devotes himself to commerce on
the grandest scale receive some high distinction, and his
honours will draw on other traders in his wake.
Or were it made apparent that the genius who discovers a
new source of revenue, which will not be vexatious, will be
honoured by the state, a field of exploration will at once be
opened, which will not long continue unproductive.”
And to speak compendiously, if it were obvious in each
department that the introducer of any salutary measure what-
soever will not remain unhonoured, that in itself will stimulate
a host of people who will make it their business to discover
some good thing or other for the state. Wherever matters
of advantage to the state excite deep interest, of necessity
discoveries are made more freely and more promptly perfected.
1 eloqêpotev, techn. of the war-tax at Athens. See A’evenues, iii. 7 foll. ;
iv. 34 foll. (Trans, vol. ii. p. lxxviii.); Thuc. iii. 19 ; Boeckh, P. E. A. pp.
470, 539. Cf. Aristot. Pol. v. II. Io, in illustration of the tyrant's usual
method of raising money.
* A/. “And what will be the most repaying . . . being a department
of things least wont,” etc.
3 Or, “soundness of soul much more be found allied with Occupation."
4 Cf. Revenues, l.c.
5 Lit. '' that too is an inquiry which will not long lie fallow."
384 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" (; ; *... "
But if you are afraid, O mighty prince, that through the
multitude of prizes offered under many heads, expenses also
must be much increased, consider that no articles of commerce
can be got more cheaply than those which people purchase
in exchange for prizes. Note in the public Contests (choral,
equestrian, or gymnastic) * how Small the prizes are and yet
what vast expenditure of wealth and toil, and painful super-
vision these elicit. *
x.—And Hiero replied : Thus far you reason prettily,
methinks, Simonides ; but about these mercenary troops have
you aught to say P Can you suggest a means to avoid the
hatred of which they are the cause P Or will you tell me that
a ruler who has won the affection of his subjects has no need
of body-guards P
Nay, in good sooth (replied Simonides), distinctly he will
need them none the less. I know it is with certain human
beings as with horses, some trick of the blood they have,
some inborn tendency ; the more their wants are satisfied,
the more their wantonness will out. Well then, to sober and
chastise wild spirits, there is nothing like the terror of your
men-at-arms.” And as to gentler natures,” I do not know by
what means you could bestow so many benefits upon them
as by means of mercenaries. .
Let me explain : You keep them, I presume, in the first
instance, for yourself, as guards of your Own person. But
for masters, owners of estates and others, to be done to death
with violence by their own slaves is no unheard-of thing.
Supposing, then, the first and foremost duty laid on mer-
cenary troops were this ; they are the body-guards of the
whole public, and bound as such to come to the assistance of
all members of the state alike, in case they shall detect some
1 Reading Tpotuffeuévay with Cobet.
2 Lit. ‘‘hippic, gymnic, and choregic contests.”
3 e.g. “in the choral dances (1) money on the part of the choragoi; (2)
pains on the part of the choreutai ; (3) supervising care on the part of the
choro-didaskaloj, and so mutatis madandis of the hippic and gymnic.”
4 Lit. ‘‘spear-bearers"; the title given to the body-guard of kings and
tyrants.
5 Lit. ‘‘the beautiful and good,” the ka)\oſs Káya.000s. See Econ. vi. II
foll, (above, p. 224).
CH. X. § 4-7 MERCENARIES AS A NATIONAL Gl) ARD 385
mischief brewing * (and miscreants do spring up in the hearts
of states, as we all know); I say then, if these mercenary
troops were under orders to act as guardians of the citizens,”
the latter would recognise to whom they were indebted.
But in addition to these functions, such a body might
with reason be expected to create a sense of courage and
Security, by which the country labourers with their flocks
and herds would greatly benefit, a benefit not limited to your
demesne, but shared by every farm throughout the rural district.
Again, these mercenaries, if set to guard strategic points,”
would leave the citizens full leisure to attend to matters of
more private interest.
And again, a further function : Can you conceive a service
better qualified to gain intelligence beforehand and to hinder
the Secret sudden onslaughts of a hostile force, than a set of
troopers always under arms and fully organised ?”
Moreover, on an actual campaign, where will you find an
arm of greater service to the citizens than these wage-earning
troops ?" than whom, it is likely, there will none be found
more resolute to take the lion's share of toil or peril, or do
outpost duty, keeping watch and ward while others sleep,
brave mercenaries.
And what will the effect be on the neighbour states con-
terminous with yours ?" Will not this standing army lead
them to desire peace beyond all other things P. In fact, a
compact force like this, so organised, will prove most potent
to preserve the interests of their friends and to damage those
of their opponents.
* “If they become aware of anything of that sort." Is not this modelled
on the kpvirtela 2 See Pater, Plato and Platonism, ch. viii. “Lacedaemon,"
P. º, “as their police.” Toºrovs, sc. “the citizens”; al. “the evil-
doers.” If so, transl. “to keep watch and ward on evil-doers; the citizens
would soon recognise the benefit they owe them for that Service."
* Or, “as garrisons of critical positions,” like Phylé or Deceleia near
Athens.
4 Or, ‘‘trained to act as one man.” See Sturz, s. v.
* The author is perhaps thinking of some personal experiences. He
works out his theory of a wage-earning militia for the protection of the state
in the Cyropaedeia. See esp. VII. v. 69 foll.
6 Or, “that lie upon your borders,” as Thebes and Megara were “nigh-
bordering" to Athens. Cf. Eur. Rhes. 426 ; Soph. Fr. 349.
VOL. III -— I 2 C
386 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" {::::::...,
And when, finally, the citizens discover it is not the habit
of these mercenaries to injure those who do no wrong, but
their vocation rather is to hinder all attempts at evil-doing;
whereby they exercise a kindly providence and bear the brunt
of danger in behalf of the community, I say it must needs
be, the citizens will rejoice to pay the expenses which the
force entails. At any rate, it is for objects of far less import-
ance that at present guards" are kept in private life.
XI.-But, Hiero, you must not grudge to spend a
portion of your private substance for the common weal.
For myself, I hold to the opinion that the sums expended
by the monarch on the state form items of disbursement more
legitimate * than those expended on his personal account.
But let us look into the question point by point.
First, the palace: do you imagine that a building, beau-
tified in every way at an enormous cost, will afford you greater
pride and ornament than a whole city ringed with walls and
battlements, whose furniture consists of temples and pillared
porticoes,” harbours, market-places P
Next as to armaments : Will you present a greater terror
to the foe if you appeared furnished yourself from head to
foot with bright emblazonrie and horrent arms; * or rather
by reason of the warlike aspect of a whole city perfectly
equipped P
1 ‘‘ Police or other.’’
* els to 66 ov. Holden cf. Anab. I. iii. 8. Aristoph. Clouds, 859, &ctrep
IIepuk\éms eis Tó 6éov dirtóNega : “Like Pericles, for a necessary purpose, I have
lost them.”
* Reading Tapao Téat, properly “pilasters” (Poll. i. 76. Io. 25) = “antae,”
hence “templum in antis" (see Vitruv. iii. 2. 2); or more widely the entrance
of a temple or other building. (Possibly the author is thinking of “the Pro-
pylaea."). Cf. Eur. Phoen. 415 ; I. T. II 59. = a Taffgot, Herod. i. 179 ;
Hom. ZZ. xiv. 167; Od. vii. 89, a raffuot 6' 3pyūpeot év XaXkéq &gtao av of 66.
The brazen thresholds both sides did enfold
Silver pilasters, hung with gates of gold (Chapman).
AZ. Tao Táort, = colonnades.
* Or, “with armour curiously wrought a wonder and a dread.” &TXots
roºs éktray}\otáTots, most magnificené, awe-inspiring, a poetical word which
occurs only in this passage in prose (Holden). L. & S. cf. Hom. IZ. i. 146,
xxi. 589, of persons; Od. xiv. 552, of things. Pind. Pyth. iv. 14o ; Isth,
7 (6), 30.
CH. xi. § 4-8 A MONARCH’S TRUE FIELD OF AMBITION 387
And now for ways and means : On which principle do
you expect your revenues to flow more copiously—by keeping
your own private capital" employed, or by means devised to
make the resources of the entire state * productive P
And next to speak of that which people hold to be the
flower of institutions, a pursuit both noble in itself and best
befitting a great man—I mean the art of breeding chariot-
horses *—which would reflect the greater lustre on you, that
you personally * should train and send to the great festal
gatherings & more chariots than any Hellene else? or rather
that your state should boast more racehorse-breeders than the
rest of states, that from Syracuse the largest number should
enter to contest the prize P
Which would you deem the nobler conquest—to win a
victory by virtue of a chariot, or to achieve a people's happiness,
that state of which you are the head and chief ? And for my
part, I hold it ill becomes a tyrant to enter the lists with
private citizens. For take the case he wins, he will not be
admired, but be envied rather, when it is thought how many
private fortunes go to swell the stream of his expenditure;
while if he lose, he will become a laughing-stock to all man-
kind.6
No, no I tell you, Hiero, your battlefield, your true arena
is with the champion presidents of rival States, above whose
lesser heads be it your destiny to raise this state, of which
you are the patron and supreme head, to some unprecedented
height of fortune, which if you shall achieve, be certain you
will be approved victorious in a contest the noblest and the
most stupendous in the world.
Since what follows P. In the first place, you will by one
1 Reading tôia, al. l8tg, - “your capital privately employed.”
2 Lit. ‘‘ of all citizens alike,” “every single member of the state.”
3 Cf. Plat. Laws, 834 B.
4 L. Breitenbach cf. Pind. Ol. i. 82 ; Pyth. i. 173 ; ii. IoI ; iii. 96.
5 “Our solemn festivals,” e.g. those held at Olympia, Delphi, the
Isthmus, Nemea. g
6 Or, “you will be mocked and jeered at past all precedence,” as historic-
ally was the fate of Dionysius, 388 or 384 B.C. (?); and for the possible con-
nection between that incident and this treatise, See above, Introd. p. lxxiii.; also
Trans, vol. i. p. cxxvii.; Lys. Olymp. ; and Prof. Jebb's remarks on the
fragment, Att. Or, i. p. 203 foll. Grote, H. G. xi. 4o foll. ; Plato, iii. 577.
388 HIERO, OR “THE TYRANT" CH. XI. § 8-13
swift stroke have brought about the very thing you have set
your heart on, you will have won the affection of your subjects.
Secondly, you will need no herald to proclaim your victory;
not one man only, but all mankind, shall hymn your virtue.
Wherever you set foot you shall be gazed upon, and not
by individual citizens alone, but by a hundred states be
warmly welcomed. You shall be a marvel, not in the private
circle only, but in public in the sight of all.
It shall be open to you, So far as safety is concerned, to
take your journey where you will to see the games or other
spectacles; or it shall be open to you to bide at home, and
still attain your object. -
Before you shall be gathered daily an assembly, a great
company of people willing to display whatever each may
happen to possess of wisdom, worth, or beauty;" and another
throng of persons eager to do you service. Present, regard
them each and all as sworn allies; or absent, know that each
and all have one desire, to set eyes on you.
The end will be, you shall not be loved alone, but
passionately adored, by human beings. You will not need
to woo the fair but to endure the enforcement of their loving
Sult.
You shall not know what fear is for yourself; you shall
transfer it to the hearts of others, fearing lest some evil
overtake you. You will have about you faithful lieges, will-
ing subjects, nimble servitors. You shall behold how, as a
matter of free choice, they will display a providential care for
you. And if danger threatens, you will find in them not
simply fellow-warriors, but champions eager to defend you with
their lives.”
Worthy of many gifts you shall be deemed, and yet be
never at a loss for some well-wisher with whom to share
them. You shall command a world-wide loyalty; a whole
people shall rejoice with you at your good fortunes, a whole
people battle for your interests, as if in very deed and truth
their own. Your treasure-houses shall be coextensive with
the garnered riches of your friends and lovers.
* Or, “to display their wares of wisdom, beauty, excellence.”
* Not a ſupwaxou, but Tpógaxot.
CH. XI. § 13-15 UNSELFISH RULE–ITS GREAT REWARD 389
Therefore be of good cheer, Hiero ; enrich your friends,
and you will thereby heap riches on yourself. Build up and
aggrandise your city, for in so doing you will gird on power
like a garment, and win allies for her."
Esteem your fatherland as your estate, the citizens as
comrades, your friends as your own children, and your sons
even as your own soul. And study to excel them one and all
in well-doing; for if you overcome your friends by kindness,
your enemies shall nevermore prevail against you.
Do all these things, and, you may rest assured, it will be
yours to own the fairest and most blessed possession known
to mortal man. You shall be fortunate and none shall envy
you.”
* Some commentators suspect a lacuna at this point.
* AZ. “It shall be yours to be happy and yet to escape envy.” The
concluding sentence is gnomic in character and metrical in form. See Pol.
Lac. xv. 9 (Trans, vol. ii. p. 324).
I N D E X
ACHILLES, Sym. iv. 6, p. 312 ; hon-
oured his teachers, viii. 23, p. 342 ;
the comrade of Patroclus, æð. 31,
P. 344.
Acúmenus, the well-known physician,
Mem. III. xiii. 2, p. 125.
Aegean Sea, Econ, xx. 27, p. 286.
Aeschylus of Phlius, Symt. iv. 63, p.
327.
Agamemnon, Meyz. III. i. 4, p. 81 ;
ió. ii. I, p. 83; Sym. iv. 6, p. 312.
Agathon, the poet, Symt. viii. 32, p.
344.
Aidós (Modesty), worshipped at Lace-
daemon, Syme. viii. 35, p. 349.
Ajax (Aias), Sym. iv. 6, p. 312.
Alcibiades, ‘‘the arch-democrat,” had
been “a companion of Socrates,”
characterised, Mem. I. ii. 12, p. 8 ;
why Critias and, frequented the society
of Socrates, 2b. 25. I6, p. 9 ; tem-
porary influence of Socrates for good
upon ; what wrought his ruin, 26. £3.
24, p. II ; the author Sums up
concerning the intimacy of, and
Critias with Socrates, ib. ib. 39, p.
14 ; when a youth, held a discussion
with Pericles his uncle on law, 26.
£b. 40 foll., p. I 5 foll. ; the Son of,
and Critobulus, ió. I. iii. 8, p. 23.
Alexander, son of Priam (i.e. Paris),
Symz. iv. 20, p. 315.
Amphiaraús, cold Spring in the cave
of, Mem. III. xiii. 3, p. 125.
Anaideia (Immodesty), Sym, iv. 6, p.
I 2.
Aſſºgons (of Clazomenae), his phy-
sical tenets criticised by Socrates,
Mem. IV. vii. 6, p. 177.
Anaximander, an interpreter of Homer,
Sym, iii. 6, p. 308.
Antiphon (“the sophist"), conversa-
tions between Socrates and, Mem.
I. vi. I foll., pp. 32-35.
Antisthenes (founder of the Cynic
school), Socrates and, ‘‘ on the
value of a friend," Mem. II. v. I,
p. 6o ; his attachment to Socrates,
ib. III. xi. I7, p. 122; (as a per-
Sonage of the Symposium), in com-
pany of Socrates, Sym. i. 3, p. 294;
puts a home question to Socrates,
ið. ii. Io, p. 3Oo ; re the question
“Can courage be taught 2'' ib. ib.
II, p. 3OT ; eager to cross-question
Callias, ió. iii. 4 ; and Nicératus,
ió. ib. 6, p. 306 foll, ; wealth his
pride, ib. ib. 8, p. 308 ; applies the
elemchºgs, ió. iv. 2 foll., p. 31 O ;
maintains his thesis, éð. ió. 34 foll.,
p. 319 foll. ; his skill in match-
making proved by Socrates, 26. ió.
6I-64, p. 326 foll, ; on musical
themes, ió. vi. 5, p. 332 ; eggs on
the jester Philippus, ió, ió. 7, p.
333 ; proclaims his love for So-
crates, ió. viii. 4, p. 337.
Antisthenes, a wealthy Athenian chosen
Stratēgos, Mem. III. iv. I, 3, 4, p.
88 foll.
Anytus (one of the “accusers,” ot
'Ypayápévot, Mem. I. i. 1), a tale
concerning Socrates and, Apol. 29
foll., p. I94 foll.
392 INDEX
Aphrodité, Ourania and Pandémos,
Sym. viii. 9, p. 338.
Apollo, his answer concerning Socrates
justified, Apol. I4, p. 189.
Apollodórus, his attachment to So-
crates, Meyz. III. xi. I7, p. I22 ;
a touching tale concerning “...the
master" and, Apol. 28, p. 193.
Archedémus (possibly the demagogue,
Aſell. I. vii. 2), a lawyer employed
by Crito at Socrates' suggestion
against ‘‘sycophants,” Mem. II. ix.
3, p. 76.
Areopagos, the council of, Mem. III.
W. 20, p. 96.
Ariadne and Dionysus, Sym. ix. 2
foll., p. 349 foll.
Ariaeus, the friend and supporter of
Cyrus, Econ. iv. 19, p. 217 (see
Trans. vol. i. Index, s. n.).
Aristarchus, Socrates and, Memº. II.
vii. p. 70 foll.
Aristippus (founder of the Cyrenaic
school), a discussion between So-
crates and, Memz. II. i. p. 38 foll. ;
sets himself in turn to cross-examine
Socrates, ib. III. viii. p. Io 5 foll.
Aristodémus, ‘‘the little,” Socrates
and, on ‘‘Deity,” Mem. I. iv. p. 25
foll,
Art of husbandry (Agriculture), Econ.
iv. 4, p. 213 et passim.
Asclépius (Lat. Aesculapius), hot Spring
in the temple of, Al/em. III. xiii. 3,
p. I25.
Asia, Mem. II. i. Io, p. 4I.
Aspasia, Mem. II. vi. 36, p. 69 ;
Ecozz. iii. I4, p. 212.
Athéna, beautiful old men chosen
Thallophoroi for, Sym. iv. I7, p.
3I5.
Athenian, the author makes Simonides
talk as an, A/zero, ix. 4, n. 2, p.
382.
Athenians (Athenian public), how could
the prosecution (ol ypayápºevot) have
persuaded the, that Socrates was
guilty P Memº. I. i. I, 20, pp. I, 6;
the, (as a people) consult the gods
by ‘Oracle, ió. iv. I5, p. 29 ; are
distinguished not more by beauty
of speech, stature, and strength of
limb than by love of honour, ió. III.
iii. 13, p. 87 ; re the “elections"
(from a rejected candidate's point
of view), ib. iv. I, p. 88 ; merits
and shortcomings of [discussed in
a conversation between Socrates and
the younger Pericles (413 B.C. P)],
Żó. v. I foll., p. 91 foll. ; e.g.
compare favourably with the Boeo-
tians as regards numbers, physigzae,
“solidarity,” love of honour, 2b. 26.
2 foll., p. 91 ; prestige of, lowered
after ‘‘Lebadeia '' and “Delium,”
ið. 20, 4 foll., p. 92 ; to what appeal
susceptible; pre-eminence in virtue
a legacy from their heroic ancestors,
Cecrops, Theseus, etc.; noble deeds
of, against the Persians; fixity of,
as a people in their own land amid
the general flux of populations and
states; their state “ein fester Burg,”
a court of appeal and harbour of re-
fuge for the oppressed, ió. ió. 12 foll.,
p. 94 ; compared with the Lacedae-
monians as to reverence for old age,
cultivation of the body, obedience to
magistrates ; delight in litigation of,
ió. ib. I 5, 16, p. 95; Still not Sumitten
with incurable depravity, e.g. disci-
pline of, in naval affairs, gymnastic
contests, choruses ; the mass of,
more amenable to discipline than
the classes (hoplites and Amights);
signs that orderliness has not died
out of ; in military affairs officered
by those who lack the special étra-
a Tijum, ib. ib. 18-21, p. 96; a corps of
young able-bodied, to serve as light
infantry on the frontier (a military
Suggestion), ib. ib. 27, p. 97; Glaucon
and the, 26. vi. I5, p. Ioz ; Socrates
and Epigenes 7e that contest which
the, will one day wage against the
national foe, 26. xii. 1, p. 122 ;
eijøxeſo-flat in the speech of, (i.e. in
Attic phraseology) defined by So-
Crates, £0. xiv. 6, p. 129; a cox-
comb's maiden speech to, (= Men
of Athens !) ib. IV. ii. 4, 5, pp.
I33, I 34 ; juries of, susceptible to
persuasion, Apol. 4, p. 186; in the
Assembly (Socrates argues), listen to
INDEX 393
experts not relations, ib. 20, p. 191 ;
attitude of the, to wealthy citizens,
Acon. ii. 6, p. 206; how the, may
be taught courage in battle by an
object lesson (Antisthenes festive
Zoquitºr), Sym. ii. I3, p. 301.
Athens (the city or state of), Mem. I.
i. I ; the gods acknowledged by ;
the common altars of, iff. ib., I,
2, p. I ; the magistrates of, (state
officers) appointed ‘‘ by the bean,”
36. ii. 9, p. 7 ; Critias and Alci-
biades wrought the greatest evil to,
26. #6. I2, p. 8 ; Socrates worthy
of honour from, ió. ib. 62, 64,
pp. 20, 2I ; duty to parents recog-
nised by, in the docimasia, ib. II.
ii. I 3, 14, p. 53 ; how Pericles by
his incantations and Themistocles
by an annulet won the love of, ió.
vi. I 3, p. 63; an incident concern-
ing the party Strife in (4O4, 403
B.C.), £0. vii. 2, p. 7o ; life at,
no easy matter for a man who
would mind his own affairs (Crito
Zog.), £0. ix. I, p. 76; arrival
of Dionysodorus in, ib. III. i. 1, p.
8o; Socrates (EX) on the cavalry
at, ib. iii. I4, p. 87 [cf. Hip-
parch]; how the prestige of, may
be raised, iff. v. I ; no disaffection
at, ib. ib. 2, p. 91 ; what the
would-be statesman needs at, ió.
vi. I 8, vii. 7, 9, pp. Io9, Io9 ; how
to get to Olympia from, 26. xiii. 5,
p. 126; Hippias revisits, ib. IV. iv.
5, p. 154 ; contributions imposed by,
on wealth, Econ. ii. 6, p. 205; the
hardships of a wealthy man at,
(Charmides festive log.), Sym. iv.
32, p. 318; let the would-be leader
of, learn by what Sage wisdom
Solon established his consummate
laws for, 2b, viii. 40, p. 347.
Attica, property “across the frontier"
and “in,” Mem. II. viii. I, p. 75 (cf.
Sym. iv. 31, p. 318); the Boeotians
threaten an incursion into, (B.C. 2),
Al/em. III. v. 5, p. 92 ; engirdled by
a ring of natural fortresses, ió, ió.
25, p. 97.
Autolycus, son of Lycon, victor in the
pankration (420 B.C., al. 421), Sym.
i. 2, p. 293; entertained by Callias,
20. 20. 4, p. 294 ; his beauty, ió. ib.
9, p. 295; is most proud of his
father, ió. iii. I 3, p. 309 ; Callias'
love for, ió. viii. 7, 37, pp. 338,
346; with his father leaves the
Supper-party to take his “constitu-
tional,” ib. ix. I, p. 348 (cf. § 7,
p. 350). [See Plut. Lysand. xv.;
Diod. Sic. xiv. 5; and cf. Aſell. II.
iii. I4.
BACCHUS (s. Dionysus) and Ariadne,
Synt. ix. 2, p. 349.
‘‘ Barbarians,” Themistocles famous
even annong, Meyz. III. vi. 2, p. 99 ;
divine omniscience a tenet common
to Hellenes and, Sym. iv. 47, p.
322 ; Hellenes and, ió. viii. 38, p.
347.
Boeotia, in old days harried by the
Athenians, Mem. III. v. 4, p. 92.
Boeotians, the, compared with the
Athenians, Mem. III. v. 2, 4, p. 92.
[Cf. Hipparch, vii. 3. ]
CALLIAS, son of Hipponicus, lover of
Autolycus, in whose honour he gives
a banquet, to which he invites
Socrates, etc., an excellent host,
Sym. passim ; very wealthy, ib. iv.
37, p. 320 ; ‘‘proxenos" of the
Lacedaemonians, ió. viii. 39 ; “eu-
patrid" by birth, priest of the dei-
ties worshipped in the “mysteries,”
7%. 26. 40, p. 347; has spent Sums
on Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus,
etc., to learn wisdom, ib. i. 5, p.
294 (cf. iv. 62, p. 327); challenged
by Socrates to display his wisdom,
claims as his strong point that he
can make men better, ib. iii, 4, p.
306; defends his thesis, ió. iv. I
foll., p. 31 O ; how, may turn to
good account his passionate attach-
ment, ib. viii. 37 foll., p. 346 foll. ;
appeals to Socrates to introduce
him to the State, ió, ió. 42, p. 348;
sets off with Socrates to join Lycon
and Autolycus, ib, ad fin. p. 35o.
394
INDEX
Callipides the actor, his power of ex-
citing tears, Sym. iii. II, p. 309.
Carthaginians, the ruling power in
Africa, Mem. II. i. Io, p. 41.
Cebes, Simmias and (Thebans), true
companions of Socrates, Meyz. I. ii.
48, p. I6 (cf. ib. III. xi. 17, p. 122).
Cecrops, for his virtue's sake chosen
“Judge of Gods,” Memº. III. v. Io,
D. 93.
Ceramon, an employer of labour on a
grand Scale in Athens, Mem. II. vii.
3, p. 7I.
Chaerecrates, younger brother of Chae-
rephon, a true companion of So-
crates, Mem. I. ii. 48, p. 16; how
Socrates healed certain differences
between, and his brother, 2b. II. iii.
I foll., p. 53 foll.
Chaerephon, brother of the above, a
true companion, AZemz. I. ii. 48, p.
I6; 25, II. iii. I foll., p. 53 foll. ;
how, put a question to the god at
Delphi concerning Socrates, and the
answer received, Apol. I4, p. 188.
Charicles and Critias (“nomothetai’
of the Thirty), their edict against
teaching “the art of words,” and
angry colloquy with Socrates, Mem.
I. ii. 31 foll., p. I2 foll,
Charmides, son of Glaucon (maternal
uncle of Plato, afterwards associated
with the Thirty), Mem. III. vi. I,
p. 98 ; diffident about entering poli-
tical life ; a conversation between
Socrates and, æð. vii. I foll., p.
Io3 foll. ; (a personage of the Sym-
posium), invited in company with
Socrates, Sym. i. 3, p. 294 ; de-
picted as possessing a lively humour,
26. ii. I5, p. 302, iv. 8, p. 312 ;
‘‘poverty is his pride l’’ ib. iii. 9,
p. 309 ; defends his thesis, ió. iv.
29-33, pp. 318, 319; once caught
Socrates dancing ; of an athletic
build, ió. iv. 17, p. 317 ; his erotic
disposition (shown in his humorous
remarks), 25. iii. I, iv. 17, pp. 306,
317 ; (and testified to by Socrates),
ib. viii. 2, p. 337. [Cf. Plat. Charm. )
Cheiron, honoured by Achilles, Sym.
viii. 23, p. 342.
Circe (Kirké), Mem. I. iii. 7, p. 23
(a “Socratic” gloss on Homer).
Cleinias, beloved by Critobulus, Sym.
iv. I2 foll., p. 314 foll, ; cf. Mem.
I. iii. 8, p. 23.
Cleiton, the sculptor, Socrates and,
(a conversation on his art), Mem.
III. x. 6 foll., p. II 5 foll.
Collytus (an Attic déme), Démeas of,
Mem. II. vii. 6, p. 72.
Critias, the arch-oligarch (one of the
Thirty), had been a “companion
of Socrates,” characterised, Mem.
I. ii. 12, p. 8 ; why, and Alcibiades
sought the society of Socrates, ió.
Żó. I6, p. 9; temporary influence
for good of Socrates upon, and after-
corruption of, 26. 20. 24, p. II ,
his passion for Euthydemus : how
checked by Socrates (a tale), 26. £0.
29, p. 12; his animus, ió, ú/. 31, p.
I3 ; associated with Charicles as
nomothetēs of the Thirty, framed a
law against teaching “the art of
words”; Socrates summoned before,
and colloquy with, ió, ió. 31-38,
p. 13 ; the author on the kind of
intimacy which subsisted between,
and Socrates, 26. £6. 39, p. I4.
Crito, a true companion of Socrates,
Mem. I. ii. 48, p. 16; how So-
crates helped, as the result of a con-
versation, to protect himself against
informers, ió. II. ix. I foll., p. 76
foll.
Critobulus (son of Crito), Socrates'
warning to (“the danger of a kiss”),
Mem. I. iii. 8, p. 23 ; Socrates and,
(a conversation on the art of selecting
friends), ib. II. vi., p. 60 foll, ;
Socrates and, (a conversation on
“household management”), Econ.
i.-vi., pp. 199-225; his wealth and
liabilities, ió. ii. 3, p. 205 ; his
fondness for the play, ió. iii. 7, p.
2Io; his horses, 26. £b. 9 foll. p.
2II ; his young wife, ió. ib. II, p.
212 ; (a personage of the Sym2-
posium), invited with Socrates, Sym.
i. 3, p. 294 ; and the jester, 26. £0.
I6, p. 297 ; newly married, ib. ii.
3, p. 298; prides himself on beauty,
INDEX
36. iii. 7, p. 308; defends the thesis,
£3. iv. Io foll., p. 313 foll. ; pro-
claims his passionate admiration of
Cleinias, 26. 26. I2, p. 314 ; Socrates
pretends to rival, in beauty, à. ib.
I9 foll., p. 315; “passion-crazed,”
consigned by his father (Crito) to
the care of Socrates and much im-
proved, 26. ib. 24 foll. p. 316;
Socrates and, at the grammarian's
(as reported by Charmides); Socra-
tes Solemnly warns, ib. ib. 27, 28,
p. 317 ; the case : Socrates versus,
verdict in favour of, ib. v. I-Io, pp.
328-33 I ; a votary of Erós, ò. viii. 2,
P. 337.
Cyrébus, a successful baker, Mem. II.
vii. 6, p. 72.
Cyrus [(the Great), apparently re-
ferred to], a saying of, Econ. iv. I6,
p. 216.
Cyrus (the younger), had he lived
would have proved a prince of rulers:
proofs of the proposition (taken
from the Anabasis), Econ. iv. 18, 19,
pp. 216, 217 ; a tale concerning,
and Lysander (told to a friend of
the latter at Megara), iff. ib. 21-25,
pp. 217, 218.
DAEDALUS, on account of his wisdom
seized and enslaved by Minos, etc.,
Mem. IV. ii. 33, p. I44.
Dailochus, Hiero explains the nature of
his love for, Hiero, i. 31, p. 360.
Aalpióvvov, Tó, “the divine thing” (or
private oracle of Socrates), Mem. I.
i. 2, 4, pp. I, 2 ; b. IV. viii. I, 5,
pp. I79, 180 ; Apol. 4, p. 186. [Cf.
Memº. I. iv. I 5, p. 29 ; IV. iii. I2,
p. I5I.]
“Delia,” the, or lesser Delian festival,
Mem. IV. viii. 2, p. 179. -
Delium, the battle of (424 B.C.), dis-
astrous to the prestige of Athens,
Memº. III. v. 4, p. 92.
Delos, the sacred island, Memº. III.
iii. I2, p. 87 ; ib. IV. viii. 2, p.
I79.
Delphi (or Pytho), and the inscription
on the temple at, Mem. IV. ii. 24,
p. I42 ; the answer of the god at,
395
inculcating worship vópºp tróNews,
tö. iii. I6, p. I 52 [cf. Mem. I.
iii. I, p. 21]; Apol. I2, I4, pp.
188, 189. *
Démeas, of Collytus (a manufacturer),
Memz. II. vii. 6, p. 72.
Diodórus, persuaded by Socrates, after
a conversation, to relieve Hermo-
genes, Al Zemz, II. x. I, p. 78.
Dionysodorus (of Chios), a professor
of “strategia,” arrives at Athens,
Mem. III. i. I, p. 8o.
Dioscuri (the great twin-brethren),
for beauty - of- soul's sake made
immortal by Zeus, Sym. viii. 29, p.
343.
Draco, the laws of, Econ. xiv. 4, p.
26I.
ELEIANS, the, peculiar institutions of,
Syme, viii. 34, p. 345.
Epicharmus cited, Mem. II. i. 20, p.
45.
Epigenes, Socrates and, a conversation
on “duty to the body,” Mem. III.
xii. I, p. 122.
Erasinides, one of the ‘‘ nine '' Ath-
enian generals tried, plug pºpq, for
neglect of duty at Arginusae, and
condemned to death, Mem. I. i. 18,
P. 5.
Erechtheus, the hero-king of Athens,
his marvellous birth and bringing-
up, and valorous deeds, Mem.
III. v. Io, p. 93 ; founder of the
Eleusinian rites, Sym. viii. 40, p.
347.
Erós, a mighty divinity coequal in
time with the everlasting gods, but
in form the youngest, embracing all
things in magnitude, but enshrined
in the Soul of man, Sym. viii. I,
p. 336.
Europe, Memt. II. i. Io, p. 4I.
Euthèrus, Socrates and, (a helpful
conversation), Mem. II. viii. I foll.,
p. 74 foll.
Euthydémus, base attachment of Cri-
tias to, Mem. I. ii. 29, p. 12; ‘‘the
beautiful"; his library; and conceit
of wisdom, etc. ; Socrates' mode of
dealing with, and conversion of,
396
INDEX
[Ist conversation], ió. IV. ii. I-40,
p. I32 foll. ; is brought to orangpo-
a ſum Tepi 6eoûs, a wise and healthy
frame of mind with regard to the
gods [2nd conversation], ºb. IV. iii.
2 foll., p. I.47 foll. ; is encouraged
to self-command as the basis of
virtue [3rd conversation], ib. IV. v.
2 foll., p. 162 foll. ; and initiated
in “dialectic” [4th conversation],
76. vi. 2 foll., p. 167 foll.
Euxine Sea, Econ. xx. 27, p. 286.
GANYMEDE, not for his body's sake,
but for his soul's, translated : a
“Socratic '' derivation of the name,
Sym. viii. 3o foll., p. 343 foll.
Glaucon, son of Ariston (Plato's
brother), his ardour to become
leader of the state ; convinced of
ignorance and deterred by Socrates
in a conversation, Memº. III. vi. I
foll., p. 98.
Glaucon (the elder), father of Char-
mides, Mem. III. vii. I, p. Io9.
Gorgias (of Leontini, the famous so-
phist), large sums paid by his pupils
to learn “wisdom" of, Sym. i. 5,
p. 294 ; his metaphorical phrase-
ology, Łó. ii. 26, p. 305.
Gorgons, the (he who looks at, is
turned into Stone), Sym. iv. 24, p.
3 IZ.
Graces, the, with the Hours and
Nymphs depicted dancing, Sym.
vii. 5, p. 336.
Greece. See Hellas.
Greeks. See Hellenes.
HELLAS (Greece), Mem. III. vi. 2, p.
99 ; Sym. viii. 39, p. 347.
Hellenes (Greeks), Sym. iv. 47, p. 322 ;
ið. viii. 38, p. 347.
Héra (Lat. Juno), Socrates has not
sacrificed to other gods in place of
Zeus and ; “by,” a polite form of
oath, Mem. I. v. 5, p. 31 (et freq.),
Bcom. X. I, xi. I9, pp. 244, 251 ;
Sym. iv. 45, p. 32 I.
Heracleia, the stranger from, at Athens
(perhaps Zeuxippus), Sym. iv, 63,
p. 327.
Heracles, ‘‘the choice of " (a specimen
composition of Prodicus'), Mem. II.
i. 21 foll., p. 45 foll. ; Zeus raised,
to immortality through admiration
of his Soul, Syme. viii. 29, p. 343.
Heraclidae, the, assisted by the Ath-
enians against the men of the Pelo-
ponnese, at “the Return,” Mem.
III. v. Io, p. 93.
Hermogenes, son of Hipponicus, a
true companion of Socrates, Mem.
I. ii. 48, p. 16; a good Soul, worth
having as a friend, ib. II. x. 3,
p. 78 ; his testimony concerning
Socrates' behaviour in face of the
indictment, etc. (as reported to the
author), ib. IV. viii. 4, p. 180 ;
Apol. 2, p. 185; how, exhorted
Socrates to bethink him of his de-
fence, and of Socrates' reply to, etc.,
7%. 9, p. 187; (a member of the
Symposium), in company with So-
crates, Sym. i. 3, p. 293; (depicted
as a grave and silent man, not of
this world, gentle and religious);
puts a question to Antisthenes, ió.
iii. 8, p. 308; ‘‘the virtue and power
of his friends, who condescend to
care for him,” that is his boast, 26.
iii. I4, p. 310 ; Surprised at the
apparent levity of “the master” re
a grave matter, Ö. iv. 23, p. 316;
defends his thesis : his friends are
the gods, 2%. iv. 47 foll., p. 322
foll. ; silent amidst the general
hilarity, Žb. vi. I, p. 331 ; playfully
bantered by Socrates, defines Tap-
outa, ió. vi. 2-4, p. 332 ; his heart
consumed with passion for a fair
ideal (ka)\okāya.6ta) (S. log.), ib.
viii. 3, p. 337; exclaims in admira-
tion of Socrates and his subtle
method of appealing to a man's
better self (elpwyetc.), £0. £b. 12,
D. 339.
Hesiod cited, Mem. I. ii. 56, p. 18 ;
20, iii. 3, p. 22 ; 26. II. i. 20, p. 44.
Hiero (the elder), “tyrant” of Syra-
cuse, 476-467 B.C., an imaginary
conversation between, and the poet
Simonides, Hiero, passim, pp.
353-389.
INDEX 397
Hippias of Elis, revisiting Athens,
banters Socrates on the sameness of
his talk; Socrates' reply to ; troAv-
p.a.0%s; converses with Socrates “on
the topic of justice,” Mem. IV. iv. 5
foll., p. 154 foll. ; Antisthenes intro-
duced Callias to, who taught him his
“art of memory,” with what result
(Soc. festive log.), Sym. iv. 62, p. 327.
Hippocrates, the Athenian general,
defeated at Delium, Mem. III. v. 4,
p. 92.
Hipponicus, father of Callias, Sym. i.
2, p. 293 ; and Hermogenes, Mem.
IV. viii. 4, p. 180 ; Apol. 2, p. 185.
Homer, cited, Mem. I. ii. 58, p. 19 ;
ið. II. vi. II, p. 63 ; Sym. iv. 6, 7,
p. 312 ; 26. iv. 45, p. 322 ; 26. viii.
30, p. 344 ; a Socratic gloss on,
Mem. I. iii. 7, p. 23 ; most ad-
mirable of the epic poets, ió.
iv. 3, p. 26 ; his works in a good
library, ib. IV. ii. Io, p. 136;
ascribes the gift of prophecy to
people at the point of death, Apol.
30, p. 194 ; Nicératus learnt as a
boy and can still repeat the whole
of, by heart, Sym2. iii. 5, p. 307; has
touched on every human topic, ió.
iv. 6, p. 312.
Hours, the, depicted dancing, Sym.
vii. 5, p. 336.
IACCHUS, Sym. viii. 4o, p. 347.
Ischomachus, the pattern of a ka)\ós
Te Kāya,66s, Ecozz, vi. I7, p. 225 ;
how Socrates, met and conversed
with, concerning household man-
agement, etc., 26. vii.-xxi., pp.
225-290 ; his young wife : how,
after prayer initiated her into her
duties as joint-head of the house-
hold, 26. vii. 3 foll., pp. 226-233 ;
on the beauty of order, ib. viii. I
foll., pp. 233-236; his visit to the
“great Phoenician”: his talk with the
‘' first mate,” ib. 26. I I-16, pp. 236-
238; and of the moral which, draws
for his wife's benefit concerning
order in a house, ió. 20. I7-23, pp.
238, 239; as to arrangement of
furniture, 25. ix. I-IO, pp. 239-242 ;
on the qualities of the housekeeper
and the higher functions of the
housewife, iff. ib. II-19, pp. 242-
244 ; how, taught his wife the
mistake of meretricious ornament
and the Secret of true beauty, ib.
x. I foll., pp. 244-247; his daily
occupations with an eye to health,
aptitude for war, and money-making,
70. xi. 7 foll., p. 248 foll. ; recounts
a country gentleman's pursuits, ió.
Żó. I4-18, pp. 250, 25I ; and
training as a citizen in the art of
debate, 2%. 7%. 22-25, pp. 251-253 ;
On the qualities and education of a
Steward or bailiff, ió. xii. 2 foll. pp.
253-256, as to “the master's eye,”
£ö. 26. 20, p. 257; on the art of
ruling and how it may be taught by
a simple method, ib. xiii. 4 foll., pp.
258-26o ; on the need of honesty in
the ‘‘ alter ego,” ió. xiv. 2, p. 26o ;
as to how uprightness may best be
taught, ió. ib. 3-7, pp. 261, 262 ; de
re rustica : on the ‘‘philanthropy”
of the art of agriculture, ib. xv. 4
foll., p. 263; maintains that it is the
easiest of all the arts to learn, ió. ib.
Io foll., p. 265; combats the idea
held by theoretical writers that it has
any special subtlety ; on the sim-
plicity of its methods, ib. xvi. I foll.,
p. 265 ; undertakes to give Socrates
a lesson (or rather to reawaken his
own latent knowledge) concerning
details, the ſhow, when and wherefore
of it, e.g. the soil and when to
plough, 26. £5. Io foll., pp. 267,
268; Sowing, ib. xvii. I foll., pp.
268, 269 ; hoeing and weeding, ió.
ið. I2 foll., p. 270 ; reaping, ió.
xviii. I foll., pp. 27.I., 272 ; threshing,
Żó. ib. 3 foll., p. 273 ; winnowing,
ið. 20. 6-9, pp. 273, 274; teaches
Socrates the processes of planting
fruit-trees (e.g. the vine and fig), ib.
xix. 2 foll., pp. 275-278; the olive,
70. 20. I3 foll., pp. 278, 279 ; harps
on the theme that husbandry is the
most humane of arts, ib. ib. 17 foll.,
p. 280 , explains the varying for-
tunes of farmers as due less to lack
398
INDEX
of knowledge than of pains and
carefulness, ió. xx. 2 foll., p. 281 ;
e.g. neglect to manure or treat the
soil chemically, ió. 25. Io foll., p.
282 ; his homily on earth the
discoverer of a man's worth and
honesty, iff. ib. I3 foll., p. 283 ; on
the need of seeing that the labourers
work steadily and honestly, ib. 25.
I6 foll., pp. 283, 284 ; cites the case
of his own father in proof that agri-
culture is a paying and enjoyable
business, ib. ib. 22 foll., p. 285 foll. ;
must, however, in the end admit
that the faculty of command is a
size qua 7zon of success here as
elsewhere, ib. xxi. 2, p. 287 ; illus-
trates in proof of this contention from
naval and military affairs, ió. ib. 3
foll., p. 287 foll. ; pictures an ideal
landlord, ió. ib. Io, p. 289 ; his
peroration, £0. ió. I2, p. 290.
LACEDAEMONIANS, the, pay reverence
to old age : pay attention to the
body : obey their magistrates and
the laws, Menz. III. V. I 5, p. 95 ;
their arms the shield and the spear,
26. ix. 2, p. Io9 ; the lesson
taught by Lycurgus to, (sc. obedi-
ence to the laws), ib. IV. iv. 15, p.
157; their customs and high stand-
ard with regard to masculine attach-
ments, Sym. viii. 35, p. 345. [Cf.
Aol. Zac. ii. I3. ]
Lamprocles, Socrates and his elder Son,
a conversation on the duty of a son
to his mother, Mem. II. ii. I foll.,
p. 49 foll.
Lebadeia (in Boeotia), battle of, dis-
astrous to the prestige of Athens,
Mem. III. v. 4, p. 92.
Libya [i.e. Africa], Meyz. II. i. Io, p. 4I.
Libyans, the (in general), subject to
the Carthaginians, Mem. II. i. Io,
P. 4I.
Lichas, the famous citizen of Sparta,
Socrates compared with, Mem. I.
ii. 61, p. 20.
Love. See Erós.
Lycabettus, Mount (above Athens),
dry soil of, Econ. xix. 6, p. 276.
Lycon, father of Autolycus (figures
in the Symposium), entertained by
Callias with the lad himself, Sym, i.
2, p. 294 ; his talk with Socrates
concerning unguents, ió. ii. 4, p.
299; prides himself upon his son,
2%. iii. I2, p. 309 ; proved by
Callias to be the richest man in the
World, 2.0. 70. I3, I4, p. 310 ;
about to retire with his son, apos-
trophises Socrates as a true ka)\ós
Te Káya.0ós, ò. ix. I, p. 348.
Lycurgus, the great lawgiver, instilled
into the men of Lacedaemon obedi-
ence to the laws, Mem. IV. iv. I5,
p. I 57 ; the remarkable words of
the Oracle concerning, Apol. I 5, p.
I89.
Lydians, the, subject to the Persians,
Mem. II. i. Io, p. 4I.
Lysander, his colloquy with Cyrus the
younger, as reported to a friend at
Megara, Econ. iv. 20, p. 217.
MAEOTIANS, the, subject to the
Scythians, Mem. II. i. Io, p. 41.
Megarians, the, their chief industry,
Mem. II. vii. 6, p. 72.
Melanippides, the dithyrambic poet,
Mem. I. iv. 3, p. 26.
Melétus, one of the three official
accusers (oi Ypaydgevoi) (see Mem.
I. i. I, p. I), the suit instituted
by, Mem. IV. iv. 4, p. I 53 ; ió.
viii. 4, p. 180 ; Apol. Io, p. 188;
Socrates cross-examines, £5. 19, 20,
2I, pp. I90, IQI.
Menon, a maker of cloaks (XXavíðes)
at Athens, Mem. II. vii. 6, p. 72.
Mithres (the Persian sun-god), an
Oath by, Econ. iv. 24, p. 217. -
Mysians, the, and Pisidians, Mem.
III. V. 26, p. 97.
NAIADS, the, are mothers of the
Sileni, Syme. v. 7, p. 330.
Nausicycles, a well-to-do manufacturer
in Athens, Mem. II. vii. 6, p. 72.
Nestor, Sym. iv. 6, p. 312.
Nicératus, Son of Nicias (a personage
of the Symposium), appears in at-
tendance on his friend Callias, Sym.
INDEX
i. 2, p. 293; newly married, ib. ii.
3, p. 298; his father made him, as
a boy, learn the whole of Homer by
heart, and that is his pride now ;
has listened to “rhapsodes" and
paid fees to interpreters of the
Sacred text, ió. iii. 5, p. 307; puts
a question to Hermogenes, ió. 26.
I4, p. 310 ; defends his thesis, ib.
iv. 6 foll., pp. 3II, 312 ; re
‘‘ onions,” ió. ib. 8, 9, p. 313; his
propensity to riches “scripturally ”
explained, 26. £6. 45, p. 322 ; his
humour, 26. £6. 51, p. 324 ;
“adores his wife and is by her
adored, one hears ” (Socrates log.),
ib. viii. 3, p. 337 ; Socrates appeals
to, as an authority on Homer, 20.
£3. 31, p. 344.
Nicias, son of Nicératus, the well-
known statesman (father of the
above), the price he paid for a
superintendent of his silver mines,
Mem. II. v. 2, p. 6o.
Nicias, “the foreigner” [three MSS.
give toſ étriXºrov, sc. &T)\ºtov, for
which Cobet conjectures toū Nuk-
mpdrov], his horse, Econ. xi. 4, p.
248. -
Nicomachides, Socrates and, a re-
jected candidate for the office of
Strategia, Mezz. III. iv. I foll., p.
88 foll.
Nicostratus, the actor, Sym. vi. 3, p.
332.
Nymphs, depicted dancing, Symz. vii.
5, p. 336.
ODYSSEUS (Lat. Ulixes, Angl. Ulysses),
how, escaped the wiles of Circé,
Mem. I. iii. 7, p. 23; the secret of
his oratory, 20. IV. vi. I5, p. I75 ;
Palamedes slain by, Łó. ii. 33,
p. I45; Apol. 26, p. I93. [Cf.
Hunting, i. II.]
Olympia, Mem. III. xiii. 5, p.
I25.
Olympus, the abode of the gods,
Ganymede translated to, Sym. viii.
3O, P. 344. tº tº º
Orestes and Pylades, Sym. viii. 31,
D. 344;
399
PALAMEDES, the “woes of,” for his
wisdom's sake slain in envy by Odys-
Seus, Mem. IV, ii. 33, p. 145; ‘‘his
end not unlike my own " (Socrates
łog.), Apol. 26, p. 192.
Panathenaic, the great, festival, Syzyz.
i. 2, p. 293.
Parrhasius, the painter, Socrates and,
a conversation on the principles of
his art, Mem. III. x. I foll., p. II3
foll.
Patroclus, the “comrade ’’ of Achilles,
Sym. viii. 31, p. 344.
Pausanias, the lover of Agathon, his
“apologia " criticised by Socrates,
Sym. viii. 32, p. 344. [Cf. Plat.
Protag. 31.5 D (a personage of
Plat. Symposium).]
Peiritholis, Theseus and, Sym. viii.
3I, D. 344.
Peisander, 3. Pisander, the Athenian
oligarchical Orator, Sym. ii. 14, p.
3OI.
Peloponnesians, the, Boeotia power-
less against Athens without the
support of, once, Mem. III. v. 4,
p. 92 ; the men of Athens helped
the Heraclidae against, ió. 26. Io,
p. 93 ; in common with, the men
of Athens distinguished themselves
against the Persians, ió. ib. II, p. 94.
Pericles, Alcibiades and, a discussion
on “law," Mem. I. ii. 4o foll., p.
I5 foll. ; the “charms” by which
he won the city's love, ió. II. vi.
13, p. 63; 6 tróvv, or “the great,”
ió. III. v. I, p. 91 ; Themistocles,
and Solon, Sym. viii. 39, p. 347.
Pericles, the younger (son of the above),
Socrates and, a conversation on the
political outlook of Athens under an
able minister (411 B.C. 2 circa),
Mem. III. v. I foll., p. 91 foll.
Persia, the king of, an example in his
regard for the arts of husbandry
and war, Econ, iv. 4 foll., p. 213
foll. -
Persians, the, are the ruling power in
Asia, Memº. II. i. Io, p. 4I ; lords
of Asia and of Europe as far as
Macedonia at the time of the Per-
sian wars, £6, III. V. I I, p. 94.
4OO
INDEX
Phaedondas (al. Phaedondes), “a true
companion" of Socrates, Mem. I. ii.
48, p. 16.
Phalèrum (Phaleron), the marsh mea-
dows of, typically moist soil, Econ.
xix. 6, p. 276.
Philippus, the jester (a personage of
the Symposium), his comical entrée
and behaviour at table, Sym. i. II
foll., p. 295 foll. ; pokes “Aristo-
phanic" fun at Peisander, ió. ii. I4 ;
and Charmides, ió. 26. 20 ; dances a
pas seul, ió. ib. 23; his “rider”
to the rule of drinking, ib. ib.
27, pp. 302-305; his “forte,"
ib. iii. I I, p. 309 ; defends his
thesis, ió. iv. 50, p. 323; banters
the Syracusan showman, 26. £5. 55,
p. 325; “full of comparisons," ib.
vi. 8 foll., p. 334. -
Phoenician, the great, merchant
vessel, Econ. viii. II, p. 236.
Phoenix, Cheiron and, honoured by
Achilles, Sym. viii. 23, p. 342.
Phrygians, the, under the rule of
Persia, Memz. II. i. Io, p. 4I.
Piraeus, the exodus to, during the
civil war, Mem. II. vii. 2, p. 70 ;
Callias' house in, Sym. i. 2, p. 293.
Piritholis, Theseus and, Syme. viii. 31,
P. 344.
Pisidians, Mysians and, Mem., III. V.
26, p. 97.
Pistias (a corselet maker), Socrates
and, (a conversation on his art),
Mem. III. x. 9, p. II6.
Plato, Socrates' care for, Mem. III.
vi. I, p. 98.
Polycleitus, the famous sculptor, Mem.
I. iv. 3, p. 26.
Procrustes, Sinis, Sciron, and, Mem.
II. i. I4, p. 42.
Prodicus (of Ceos), his “composition"
about Heracles, Mem. II. i. 21, p. 45 ;
sums spent by Callias on, and the
other great Sophists, Sym. i. 5, p.
294; Antisthenes procured a meet-
ing between, and Callias, ib. iv. 62,
p. 327.
Protagoras (of Abdera, the eldest of
the elder sophists), Callias and,
Symt. i. 5, p. 294.
Pylades, Orestes and, Sym. viii. 31,
P. 344.
Pythia, the, rule laid down by, as to
worship vöp,q) tróNews, Mem. I. iii.
I, D. 2 I.
RHAPSODISTS, or “Rhapsodes,” empty
pated, Mem. IV. ii. Io, p. 136 ;
know Homer by heart, but are a
silly set of folk, Sym. iii. 6, p. 307.
SARDIS, Cyrus' paradise at, Econ. iv.
2O, p. 2 I7.
Sciron, Sinis, and Procrustes, Mem.
II. i. I4, p. 42.
Scylla, why mortals dread, Mem. II.
vi. 31, p. 67.
Scythians, the, the Maeotians are ruled
by, Mem. II. i. Io, p. 4I ; their
arms “bows and arrows," ib. III.
ix. 2, p. Io9.
Sicilian Sea, the, Æcon. xx. 27, p. 286.
Sileni, Socrates, his likeness to the,
Sym. iv. 9, p. 315; born of Naiads,
2b. v. 7, p. 330.
Simonides (of Ceos), the poet, his visit
to Hiero, and his conversation with
the ‘‘ tyrant,” Hiero, passim.
Sinis, Sciron, and Procrustes, Mem.
II. i. I4, p. 42. -
Sirens, the, their incantation song to
Odysseus, Mem. II. vi. II, p. 63 ;
why mortals are allured by, ió. ib.
3I, p. 67.
Socrates (son of the statuary Sophron-
iscus and of the midwife Phaenarete,
born at Athens, not earlier than
47I, nor later than May or June
469 B.C.); the author cannot im-
agine by what arguments the
prosecution (of Ypayápºevot) per-
suaded an Athenian jury that
his life was forfeit to the state ;
counts of the indictment against,
(1) “impiety,” (2) “corruption of
the young,” Mem. I. i. I, p. I [cf.
Apol. Io, p. 188]; re (I) his “or-
thodoxy,' faith and piety; his 6at-
póvuov [see s. v. J.; his views as to
the proper spheres of éirta Tijum and
pavtuki), ió. ió. 2-9, pp. 2, 3 ; lived
azz grand four an innocent life ;
INDEX - 4OI
unlike the “physical philosophers,”
did not speculate concerning the
‘‘ nature of the universe,” but never
wearied of discussing “human "
topics : “what is piety?” etc., iff.
ið. Io-I6, pp. 4, 5 ; his upright
conduct as a member of the Boulé
and “Epistates” of the Ecclesia at
the trial of the generals after Argin-
usae connected with his firm faith
in divine onniscience, 26. £6. I'7–19,
pp. 5, 6, re (2) the reverse of a
corrupter of youth ; did not profess
to teach virtue, but ‘‘infected ''
others by his own virtue ; his self-
control and endurance ; with the
scantiest of worldly goods had a
sufficiency [cf. Econ. ii. 3, p. 205];
did not neglect the body nor pamper
it ; no fop [cf. Mem. I. iii. 5; vi. 2;
II. i. 3, pp. 22, 32, 39]; would
not take money for his Society, and
why? [cf. Apol. 26, p. 193], Menz. I.
ii, I-8, pp. 6, 7.
The author rebuts certain allega-
tions against, on the part of ‘‘the
accuser” (à Kathyopos) [see Con-
spectus] that, (a) “caused his
associates to despise the laws by
harping on the folly of appointing
officers of state ‘by the bean,’” iſ. ib.
9-11, pp. 7, 8; (8) “was responsible
for the misdeeds of Critias and
Alcibiades,” once his associates, 26.
ià. I2-28, pp. 8-12 ; (parenthetically
the author recounts how, reproved
Critias re his base passion for
Euthydemus, and thereby made an
enemy of him ; and the attempts of
Critias and Charicles to muzzle,
whose talk about “Sorry herds-
men,” etc., was damaging to them ;
illustrative anecdotes concerning,
and “the Thirty,’’ ió. ib. 29-38, pp.
I2-14 ; the true companions of, 26.
ió. 47, 48, pp. 16, 17); (Y) re the
allegation that, “taught Sons to
bemire their fathers and despise
their kith and kin’’; the real import
of his remarks,” 20, £0. 49-56, pp.
17, 18; (6) “quoted the poets with
an immoral intent anti-democratic-
VOL. III — I
ally ” ; the charge rebutted ; was
worthier to have received honour
from the state than death, ió. ib. 56-
64, pp. 18-2I.
The author will set down his
“recollections” in proof that,
benefited his associates partly by
the display of his own virtue, partly
by verbal discourse and argument,
76. iii. I, p. 21 ; as regards re-
ligion, his rule of worship vópºp
TrôNews ; his formula of prayer ; his
application of the principle kaðóðva-
puv ćpöely [see below, IV. iii.
I7]; his trust in divine counsel;
his temperate style of living ; gloss
On Od. x. 233, 20. £5. I-8, pp.
2I-23; re “Aphrodisia”, and Xen-
ophon (a conversation concerning
Critobulus as to the possible danger
of even a kiss); his strength of soul
and independence of sensuous plea-
Sures and pains, 26. £0. 8-15, pp.
23-25. As against a current belief
[see Conspectus] that “however ex-
cellent, was negatively as a master
of ‘protreptic,’ he was incapable of
positively guiding others to virtue,”
the author suggests that those who
entertain this view should weigh
not only what, effected Koxaatmptov
êvéka by applying his elemchus to
people puffed up with the conceit of
knowledge, but his everyday talk
with those who spent their time
with him, and then decide whether
he was incapable of making his
associates better or not, ió. iv. I, p.
25 ; take, for instance, his conversa-
tion with Aristodemus, Tepi Öat-
povtov (on Providence); his argu-
ment from design, 26. £6. 2.-I4, pp.
26-29; his “private oracle” [cf.
below, IV. iii. 22], ió. ib. I 5-18,
pp. 29, 30 ; how and by what
language, led his listeners forward
to that corner-stone of virtue, ély-
kpáTeta (self-control); “well-tem-
pered words, yet his own continency
shone forth even more in his acts
than in his language” [cf. above,
I. ii. 6], ió. v. I-6, pp. 30-32 ; and
2 D
4O2
INDEX
Antiphon (three conversations);
defends his manner of life; (1) not
a professor of the art of miserable-
ness (kakoëalpovia), but aiming at
godlike independence (Tö pumäevös
ôeto 6a, 6etov), ió. vi. I-IO, pp.
32-34 ; (2) refuses money payments
because wisdom, like beauty, is too
sacred a thing to be sold in the
market; ‘‘the Sophist prostitutes
wisdom, the wise man bestows it
freely on his friends”; the author
testifies that this talk led his hearers
on to Ka}\okāya.6ta (a noble standard
of living), 26. £b. II-I4, pp. 34, 35 ;
(3) how without an active share in
‘‘politics" himself could, expect to
make statesmen of others ? his reply,
£b. ib. I 5, p. 35. The author asks,
Did not, by deterring his associates
from false-seeming stimulate them
to virtue 2 his precept, that there is
220 better 7°oad to renown tha72 to
become good in whatsoever one would
wish to be esteemed good [cf. below,
II. vi. 39, p. 70], and the manner
in which he enforced the principle,
Żó. vii. I-5, pp. 35-37. How, in-
cited his followers to cultivate self-
control and endurance, d ??opos of
the licence which one of his asso-
ciates indulged in, 26. II. i. I, p.
38; and Aristippus (a conversation
on self-control versus self-indulgence),
propounds a problem of education :
“Of two children, how to bring up
the one to rule and the other to be
ruled P” educing that principles of
continence and endurance must
from infancy be engrained in the
one and pretermitted in the other,
Żó. 26. 2-6, pp. 38-40 ; puts a
home question, Aristippus' answer
to which raises a further question :
“Which of the two, ruler or ruled,
leads the pleasanter life 2'' illus-
trates from ruling and subject
nations, 26. £6. 7-IO, pp. 40, 4 I
to Aristippus' proposal to choose a
via media between rule and slavery,
points out the difficulty which the
members of any state would experi-
ence in making such election ; ban-
ters Aristippus on his aspiration to
become a roving foreigner, ió. ib.
II-I6, pp. 42, 43 ; in answer to
the objection that “the happiness of
the ‘’art royal' would seem to be
no better than the misery of the
slave,” points out the difference
between Self-imposed pains and
those inflicted by others, as in
hunting, only the spiritual quest is
more exhilarating, 26. 26. I7-2O, p.
44; quotes Hesiod and Epicharmus,
and repeats the substance of Pro-
dicus’ ‘‘ Education of Heracles by
Virtue" in support of his contention,
the moral being that “it is well to
bethink us of the future of our
lives," ió, úð. 20-34, pp. 44-49 ;
and Lamprocles (a conversation on
filial duty), had noticed his elder
son's ill-temper towards his mother
and reasons with the lad , leading
him to see the enormity of ingrati-
tude in proportion to the greatness
of the benefit received ; the supreme
debt due to parents: the self-sacri-
ficing mother; a mother's “Savag-
ery" is after all not so hard to bear ;
the boy admits that he is not pre
pared to stand alone and fight the
battle of life single-handed ; others
even chance fellow-travellers have
claims upon him ; “What?” asks,
“this, that, and the other stranger,
and not your own mother, who
loves you more than all else? what,
then, do you expect to become of
you—considering, too, the view of
duty to parents which the state up-
holds?"; exhorts the lad to pray
forgiveness of Heaven wherein he
has offended against his mother, ió.
ii. I-I4, pp. 49-53.
And Chaerecrates (on brotherly
love); a propos of differences between
the brothers, Chaerecrates and Chae-
rephon, both his intimates; addresses
the younger and brings him by
course of argument to see that a
pair of brothers are intended by
nature to work each for the other's
INDEX 4O3
good, and can well do so though
Seas divide them, 25. iii. I-19, pp.
53-57. -
How, discoursed on friendship
in language calculated to help One
to choose and use one's friends
aright, 2%. iv. I-7, pp. 58, 59;
and Antisthenes, another argu-
ment on the same topic tending
to promote self-examination : “Of
what worth am I to my friends?”
Żó. v. I-5, pp. 59, 60; azed Critoözélus,
Żó. vi. I-39, pp. 60-70 ; On the test
of a good friend, ió. ib. I-7, pp. 60,
62; how to win a friend's love, ió. 20.
8, 9, p. 62 ; by what incantations
and philtres; the song of the sirens;
the love-charm of Pericles ; the
amulet of Themistocles, 26. 25. I 3-
15, p. 63; the elective affinity of
the good, ib. 76. I6-27, pp. 64-67
[cf. Fichte, The Vocation of Man,
p. I4o foll., Eng. trans,] ; “an
authority in matters of love,” ió. 26.
28, p. 67 [cf. Sym. viii. 2, p. 337] ;
quotes Aspasia re “good match-
makers,” ib. ib. 28, p. 67 ; the One
true guiding principle: “In whatso-
ever you desire to be esteemed good,
endeavour to be good,” ió. ib. 39,
p. 7o [cf. above, I. vii. I, p. 25];
a wise physician, his two ways of
treating friends in distress : by a dose
of common sense, and by teaching
them to help one another, Kač60-
vapuy; and Aristarchus (a conversa-
tion); (this friend, owing to the
party strife, finds himself called
upon to support his sisters, his
cousins, and his aunts, fourteen
free-born souls, and is at his wit’s
end how they are to live), ib. vii. I,
2, p. 7o ; proves to Aristarchus
“inductively" that if this, that, and
the other employer of slave labour
can, as manufacturers, Support
their households and make a profit,
a fortiori Aristarchus and his free-
born household can do the same :
they have the étuo Tijum requisite,
that is admitted, the work is Suited
to women, honourable and enjoy-
able ; why does not Aristarchus
initiate his friends into what will
probably turn out a profitable busi-
mess? ib. ib. 3-Io, pp. 71-73. The
author tells how the plan succeeded,
and how at their next interview,
had to remind his friend of the fable
of the dog and the sheep, iff. ib. II-
I4, p. 74 ; and Ezathérus (a con-
versation with an old friend in
reduced circumstances), forced to
take to manual labour; recommends
as more suitable to a man getting
on in years the work of a manager
on an estate [cf. Econ. xii. 3, xxi. 9];
humorously sets aside the objection
that such work implies slavery and
liability to be called to account,
and ends by pointing out the secret
of Success in work, ió. viii. I-6, pp.
74-76. Again, had heard Crito
complain that “life at Athens was
no easy matter for a man who
wished to mind his own affairs” (on
account of Sycophants), a conversa-
£ion between, and Crito ensued ;
on the analogy of a sheep-dog to
keep off wolves, suggests to his
friend to procure the services of
Archedemus (who very soon proved
one too many for the whole pack of
Wolves), ió. ix. I-8, pp. 76-78; and
Diodórus (a discussion), in course of
which, brings Diodórus (by a process
of “induction") to see that Hermo-
genes is worth Securing as a friend,
7%. X. I-6, pp. 78, 79. The author
Sets forth how, helped aspirants to
offices of honour in the state, éirt-
AleXeſs &v épéYouTo Totòv, by making
them painstaking in reference to
their several objects of ambition,
III. i. I, p. 8o ; e.g., á propos of
the arrival of a professor of strategia
(Dionysodórus) in Athens, per-
Suaded a young man who wished to
obtain the Office of stratēgos to go
and take lessons, and after the
course was concluded, puts him
through his catechism, “ironically";
and the youth (a conversation on the
duties of a stratēgos), showing that
4O4.
INDEX
“tactics,” though essential, are not
the sum total of strategia, ió. 26. 2-
II, pp. 80-83 ; and a newly-elected
stratēgos (a discussion on the virtue
of the good leader); asks why Homer
calls Agamemnon “the People's
Pastor” and “a good king ”P and
lays bare as the kernel of the matter
that it is the ‘‘ function of a leader
to render happy those whom he
undertakes to lead,” ió. ii. I-4,
pp. 83, 84; and a youth appointed
“ hipparch " (a discussion con-
cerning “the duties of a cavalry
general nowadays at Athens"), step
by step elicits the several duties in
reference to the state, the horses,
the troopers, the general himself,
who must, beyond his other gifts,
have command of speech and argu-
ment; the happy prospects of the
state cavalry under “ such '' a
leader, ib. iii. I-I4, pp. 84–88;
and AVicomachides (a disappointed
candidate for the office of stratēgos),
a discussion on ‘‘the need of eco-
nomic ability in a commander-in-
chief” (who is also at the head of the
war office); ironically and humor-
ously, but also seriously, inquires
into the qualifications of the Suc-
cessful candidate Antisthenes, who
is, it seems, a successful business
man ; the conclusion being that
devotion to public affairs and the
administration of private property
imply qualitatively the same ca-
pacity, ió. iv. I-I2, pp. 88-90 ;
and Pericles, the son of the great
statesman, who will one day be a
stratēgos (a conversation on ‘‘the
present low condition and the
happy future prospects of Athens,
as regards military affairs, under
an able stratēgos”); “ironically ”
anticipates the good time coming
when Pericles will be stratēgos [cf.
above, II. vi. II, I2, the Sirens'
incantation Song, reserved for Souls
athirst for fame, of virtue emulous],
and proceeds to balance the argu-
ments for and against this opti-
mistic view, instituting a comparison
between Athens and Boeotia not un-
favourable to Athens, 25. III. v. I-4,
pp. 91, 92 ; suggests that the State
was never more tractably disposed ;
“noblesse oblige”; headship is the
legacy of our heroic ancestors (Ce-
crops, Erectheus, Theseus, and the
men of Marathon and Salamis);
Athens “the unmoved,” ió. ib. 5-
I2, pp. 92-94 ; we are simply vic-
tims of our own success; we can
rediscover the institutions of our
forefathers, or we may imitate a
successful foreign rule of life ; we
are not smitten with incurable de-
pravity ; the council of Areopagus
a proof to the contrary, ió. ib. I3-
20, pp. 94-96 ; lack of étruatºjum in
military officers probably the source
of indiscipline; fancy the leader of
an orchestra ignorant of music, and
so of other arts, but “most generals
are amateurs’’; an argumentum ad
homânem, military reforms; a final
appeal to Pericles to realise in action
what he mentally assents to as likely
to be useful to the state, for honour's
Sake, ib. 20. 21-28, pp. 96-98; and
Glaucon (Plato's brother, a preco-
cious stripling, would-be politician
and prime minister, who wants to
deliver a course of speeches to the
People at the age of nineteen), (a
conversation on ‘‘the need of éiru-
a Tſum in the statesman "); for the
sake of Charmides and Plato way-
lays the young fellow, and with
wonted “irony” engages him in
talk as already an authority in poli-
tics, ió. vi. I, 2, p. 98 ; step by
step convinces him of ignorance
concerning each and all of the
matters which he admits that a
politician should be versed in, 25.
26, 2-12, pp. 99-IoI ; re “Supply,”
he might study the question in the
first instance on a small scale, by
improving the resources of a single
estate (his uncle's), and if he can't
persuade his uncle to listen to his
advice, how can he hope to persuade
INDEX . 405
the whole Athenian people? 25. ib.
I3-I 5, p. IO2 ; enforces the moral,
‘‘try to make sure of one accom-
plishment: the knowledge, as far as
in you lies, of that which you wish
to do,” 26. 20. I6-18, p. Io9 ; and
Charmides (who, with great natural
gifts, is diffident about entering on
“politics)” (a conversation on “self-
depreciation ”), it being agreed that
it is the duty of the competent man
to enter into the arena of politics
no less than that of the national
games, to win honour for himself
and his country; proceeds to prove
to Charmides—who is a master of de-
bate respected in the conversazioni
of the ‘‘ clubs ''-that he is the com-
petent man and therefore shirking
his duty, £0. vii. I, 2, p. Io9 ; and
'as to Charmides' hesitation to face
the public, points out that the
arithmetician counts, the musician
plays, etc., every bit as well in a
crowd as in his privacy, ió. ib. 3, 4,
p. IOA ; on the composition of the
Public Assembly, ib. ib. 5-7, p. Ioa ;
the moral being that a man should
not be ignorant of himself, but
strive to cultivate, for his own sake
and that of others, his best gifts,
20, 26. 8, 9, p. IOS.
And Aristippus (who sets himself
to cross-examine, as he had himself
been cross-examined by, on a former
occasion), a discussion concerning
Tô &ya.0ów, Tô ka)\óv (“the good,”
“the beautiful”), being minded to
benefit those with him answers less
in the style of a debater than of (a
deontologist), a man persuaded of
the Supreme importance of right
conduct, ió. viii. I, p. IO 5 ; main-
tains that the good is good for some-
thing (i.e. relative); that beauty
is relative; that the standard by
which to test the good and the beau-
tiful is “what the thing happens
to be useful for,” ió. ib. 2-8, pp.
IoS-Io'7; gives (by the way) a good
lesson on architectural principles in
arguing, step by Step, the proposi-
tion that “a house must be at once
beautiful and useful,” ib. ib. 8, 9,
pp. Io'7, Io& ; on fresco and house
decoration, the fittest site for a
temple or altar, 7%. 3%. Io, p. Io9.
A'e the question, “Can courage be
taught 2'' 20. ix. I-3, pp. Io9, Io9 ;
did not distinguish between orogºta
and 0 (0%poor&um, 75. ió. 4, p. Io9 ;
Said that justice and all other virtue
is wisdom (äperm gogºta), ió. ib. 5,
p. IIo ; On madness, envy, leiszcze,
Żó, úð. 6-9, pp. I Io, III ; defineskings
and 7zzlers as ‘‘ those who have the
Special Knowledge (étrio Túpm) (thus
“in the art of spinning wool women
are the rulers of men, because
they have the knowledge of the
art and men have not"); argues
that “the tyrant" is no exception
to the rule : he must exercise his
tyranny wisely or pay the penalty,
26. £6. IO-I3, pp. III, II2 ; on
good conduct (eitſpašía) as the best
aim and pursuit in life, ib. ib. 14,
I5, pp. II2, II3.
If chance brought, into conversa-
tion with any one possessed of an art
or métier, he never failed to be useful
to the individual, ib. x. I, p. II 3 ;
and Parrhasius (a conversation in the
artist's studio on the first principles
of painting); a definition started,
what flows from it ; argues that
moods of the soul may be repre-
Sented, 26. 20. I-5, pp. II.3, II4 ;
suggests a theory as to the highest
function of the art, ió. ib. 5, p. II 5;
and Cleiton (a conversation in the
atelier of the Sculptor, on “guiding
principles”), a first principle being
arrived at, deduces that ‘‘ the
sculptor is called upon to embody
in an ideal form the energies of the
soul,” 26. £0. 6-8, pp. II 5, II6;
and Pistias, the corselet maker (a
conversation in the shop of the latter
“on the esentials”), draws out the
sub-conscious knowledge of the artist
(the principles by which he has
been guided in turning out a well-
fitting article, and what is meant
4O6
INDEX
by well-fitting), ib. ib. 9-14, pp.
II6, 117; and Theodoſé (a con-
versation ‘‘de azºte amatoria "), ió.
xi. I foll., p. II.7 foll. ; etc., pay a
visit to the fair woman in her house,
where she is posing to a painter,
ib. ib. 2, p. 118; starts a problem ;
cross-questions Theodoté (in his
“ironic ’’ manner : on the spider;
skill needed in hunting hares (an
“inductive” argument), ió. ib. 3-
I4, pp. II8-121 ; on his own lack
of leisure ; on the philtres and love-
charms and magic wheels with
which he draws his friends ; when
Theodoté visits him he may perhaps
be ‘‘ not at home '' for reasons, 26.
7%. I5-18, pp. I2 I, I22 ; and Epi-
genes (a somewhat sickly youth), (a
conversation on duty to the body), ib.
xii. I foll., p. 122 foll. ; on the
disadvantages attendant on a bad
bodily habit and the advantages of
a good, 20. ib. 2-4, p. 123 ; on the
need of private military training at
Athens, and the high ideal of bodily
perfection which each should set
before himself, iff. ib. 5-8, p. 124.
Anecdotes illustrating the happy
humour of, on various occasions, 26.
xiii. I-6, pp. I24-126 ; and his
table-talk (d. propos of definitions,
etc.), ib. xiv. I-5, pp. 126-128;
on the meaning of the Attic eſſay-
Xeforóat, 26. 20. 6, p. I29.
The author maintains once more
that to be with, was a priceless gain;
even the recollection of him when he
was gone was felt as no small benefit
by those who accepted him, 70.
IV. i. 1, p. 130 ; nor was he less
helpful to his acquaintance in his
lighter than in his graver moods,
e.g. his saying, “I am in love with
so and so,” but his love was of the
soul; by what tokens, detected a
good nature, ió. 20. I, 2, p.
130 ; his different way of dealing
with different kinds of people : (1)
those who out of belief in their own
native ability despise learning, ib.
£0. 3, 4, p. 131 ; (2) those so
eaten up with pride of riches they
think they can dispense with further
education, £0. ib. 5, p. 132 ; (3)
those who, on the ground of having
had the best education, have, as
they imagine, attained to wisdom,
26. ii. I, p. 132. The author
describes how, dealt with this last
type in the case of Euthydemus
‘‘the beautiful” ; how, noted the
young man's weaknesses, and in a
certain saddler's shop raised a dis-
cussion concerning Themistocles
for his benefit, and on a subse-
quent occasion made fun of the
exordium to a maiden - speech
in parliament which the young
man might be supposed to be pre-
paring ; and how, when at length
the youth was disposed to pay
attention to what was said but pre-
served a discreet silence, for his
benefit raised the question why
politics of all arts should be exempt
from special training P ib. ib. I-7,
pp. I 32-I35.
(The téte-à-féfe discussion held be-
tween, and Ezzāhydemus in the sad-
dler's shop, ib. ib. 8 foll., p. 135 foll.);
compliments Euthydemus on his col-
lection of books and his desire to
excel in the “art royal,” ib. ib. 8-11,
pp. I35, I 36 ; Suggests that with-
out justice and uprightness (Öukato-
atum) this excellence is unattain-
able ; applies his “elenchus " :
‘‘What are the ‘works ' of the
‘just man'?”; “May not what is
‘wrong' towards friends be ‘right’
towards foes P or even towards
friends under certain circum-
stances P '' ib. 23. II-18, pp.
I37-139 ; raises a further point :
“Which is worse, an intentional or
an unconscious wrong P” (given
“there is a science of right just as
there is of grammar ’’), ib. ib.
I9-2I, pp. I 39, I4o ; on the con-
notation of the epithet &vöpatroë6-
ôets applied to men, and the import
of the Delphic precept “A now thy-
self” individually and to the body
INDEX 4O7
politic, č, ć6. 22-29, pp. I4I-
I43 ; initiates Euthydemus in the
method of Self-examination : ‘‘ are
things ‘good ' and ‘bad ' abso-
lutely or relatively 2” e.g. health 2
wisdom 2 (take the case of Daed-
alus; and what of the “woes of
Palamedes "P); or happiness (Tö ei-
ôaupovéïv), considering its compon-
ents P ib. 20, 30-36, pp. 143-146;
turning to the state, tests Euthy-
demus' knowledge : “what is a
‘democracy' 2" “who are ‘the
people'?” “how are ‘rich' and
‘poor' to be defined 7” iſ, ió.
36-39, p. 146; the “rapproche-
ment" between, and Euthydemus as
the result of the above mazezzsis, and
the alteration of the master's method
in consequence, 7%. 20. 40, p. I47.
The author points out that,
was in no hurry for those who
were with him to become Nektukot,
Trpaktukot, and pumxavukot without a
well-laid foundation of self-coſt-
trol (awqipogium), ib. iii. I, p.
147; instilled a “wise spirit in
reference to the gods” (witness a
discussion between, and Euthy-
demus on the relation of man
to the gods, ió. ib. 2 foll., p.
147 foll.); argues from design :
the adaptation to man's needs of
light and darkness; Sun, moon,
and stars; earth and water ; fire ;
the seasons; the lower animals; the
infinite beauty, utility, and variety of
nature and the corresponding adjust-
ment of man to his “milieu’’; the
human faculties of reason, memory,
and interpretative speech (whence
come societies, law, citizenship, the
state) are all proofs of Divine benevo-
lence towards man, 70. 6. 2-12, pp.
147-15o ; on “means of grace"
(the possibility of forecasting the
future and directing our steps with
regard to matters transcending
human knowledge, Ště pavtukås), as
a further proof of divine regard,
Žö, ää. I2, p. 150 ; 7 e his own
private sign, maintains that the
gods themselves suggest that man
must walk not by sight but by faith;
witness their own invisibility and
yet the potency of their operations;
the Supreme God ; the sun-god ;
the winds ; the human soul itself,
7%. 70. I2-I4, pp. I 5 I, I52 ; as to
how we are to requite this love of
God towards us, vöpiq, TóNews and
Kač6%uapuv, ió. ib. 16, 17, p. I 52.
Thus did, make his com -
panions more devout and more
virtuous, ió. ib. 18, p. I 53 ; his
respect, theoretic and practical, for
justice and uprightness (Tö Öikatov),
ið. iv. I foll., p. I 53 foll. ; e.g.
his law - abidingness in private,
and in public on several occasions;
when “Epistates" 7:e the uncon-
stitutional proceedings of the assem-
bly; verszes the “Thirty"; in the
conduct of his case at the time of
the trial, 26. £6. 2-4, pp. I 53, I 54
[cf. ib. IV. viii. 4 foll., p. 180 ;
Apol. 2 foll., p. 185] ; maintained
these views frequently in conversa-
tion ; cf. his discussion with Aſippias
on justice and uprightness, ib. ib.
5 foll., p. 154 foll. ; defends the
Sameness of his talk versus the ver-
satility of Hippias ; will be glad to
hear Hippias' new views about
justice ; asked for a plain statement
of his own beliefs, refers Hippias to
his conduct in life as the best answer
he can give ; being taxed with
shirking a plain statement, asserts
that “the lawful is the just " (Tö
wópºupov 6ixatov), and that “the
two terms are synonymous,” ib.
ió. 5-13, pp. I 55, I56 ; cross-
examines Hippias in proof of his
assertion ; distinguishes ‘‘law '' and
“laws”; on Lycurgus, and “obed-
ience to law " as necessary to the
health of States and in private
life, 26. 26. I3-18, pp. I 56-I 59 ;
interrogates Hippias as to “the
unwritten laws,” which would seem
to be divinely engraven in the heart
of man, not artificially enacted, and
which carry their own Sanction, e.g.
408
INDEX
~
“worship the gods,” “honour thy
parents,” 23. 20. I9-2I, pp. I 59,
I6o ; as to the natural Sanction
attaching to the unwritten law
against incest Or ingratitude, as
pointing to a Superhuman legis-
lator : the conclusion to be drawn,
Żó. 25. I9-25, pp. I60-162 ; So,
helped to make those who came
near him more just and upright,
Żó. ib. 25, p. I62.
How, made those with him (Tpak-
Tukayrépovs) more vigorous in action,
by acting up to his belief in self-
discipline and by encouraging the like
self-restraint in others, āb. v. I foll., p.
162 foll, ; e.g., and Euthydemus (a
series of discussions), on freedom,
wisdom, sobriety, carefulness, as
liable to be interfered with by in-
continence, 26. 26. 2-7, pp. I62-
I64; and generally maintains that
capacity is based on self-control,
which alone, moreover, has the
passport to man's highest pleasures,
and differentiates him from the
lower animals, 26. 26. 8-II, pp.
164, 165; thus men reach the
height of goodness and happiness,
and become most capable of reason-
ing and discussion : dialectic (Öua-
Xéºyed 6a), áb. ib. 12, p. 166.
How, fostered this greater ‘‘dia-
lectic” capacity among his inti-
mates, and his opinion as to the
importance of the method, ib.
vi. 1, p. 166; “definitions” arrived
at by, in dialectic debate with Euthy-
demus : e.g., piety, justice, wisdom,
the good, the beautiful, courage,
ió. ib. 2-II, pp. 167-173; defines
Åingdom, tyranny, three forms of
polity—aristocracy, plutocracy, de-
mocracy, ió. ió. I2, pp. I73, I74;
had a way of bringing back a
discussion to the question at bottom;
his own method of conducting an
argument, Ötö. Töv pºd) to ta. Öpo-
Xo youpévay (from One admitted
proposition to another); on the
Homeric epithet “safe" (do pa)\ffs)
applied to Odysseus as an orator,
7%. 3%. I3-I5, pp. 174, 175 ; de-
clared his own opinions frankly ; .
fostered independence (of thought,
etc.) in others; his constant en-
deavour to ascertain the étrio Túpam
of others, to teach as far as in him
lay, and where deficient in acquaint-
ance with the subject himself to
introduce his friends to those who
knew, ió. vii. I, pp. 175, 176; did
not fail to teach up to what point
an educated man should acquire
empiric knowledge of any matter
(épſtreupov eival ékáo Tov Tpdyparos),
e.g. of geometry or astronomy,
“ though well versed himself” in
both, 26. £b. 2-5, pp. I76, 177; in
regard to things celestial, set his
face against attempts to excogitate
(ºpovrto Thu yūyvea:0at) the méca-
migue céleste employed by Godhead ;
his strictures on Anaxagoras, £5, £5.
6, 7, pp. 177, I78; inculcated the
study of “logistic" (Xoytoplots), but
within the limits of utility; urged
upon those who were with him to
pay the utmost attention to health,
learning from adepts, and by careful
study of their own case becoming
their own doctors; when any one
came seeking for help which no
human wisdom could supply, coun-
selled him to give heed to gavrukº,
£b. ib. 8, 9, p. 178.
The saying of, touching his private
oracle (tò 6alpóviov) justified by the
author against a possible criticism,
20. viii. I, p. 179 ; the style of his
defence ; his cheerfulness and calm
content during the thirty days' in-
terval between his condemnation
and death, b. 25, I-3, p. 179;
certain facts which the author has
heard from Hermogenes concerning;
his refusal to consider the line of his
defence beforehand; “his past life
the best preparation ”; “the oppo-
sition of the divinity”; “it might
well be that to the Godhead it
should appear better for him to
close his life at once,” for many
reasons; “to die unjustly no shame
INDEX 409
to him, but to those who unjustly
slay him "; “the undying witness
which will be borne him that he
never at any time did wrong to any
man, or made him a worse man,
but ever tried to make those better
who were with him,” ió. ib. 4-Io,
pp. 180, 181 [cf. Apol. I foll.]; the
author's tribute to the memory of,
fö. ib. II, p. 182.
The Apology of, p. 185 foll. ; his
Aeya)\myopia at the time of his trial
accounted for by the author, ib. I, 2,
p. 185; the statements of Hermogenes
[see Mem. IV. viii. 4 foll., p. 18O
foll.] as to “a conversation with,
before the trial,” in proof that,
clearly foresaw his end and ac-
cepted (on the strength of his
ôatpiffitov) the will of God with
regard to it, Apol. 3-9, pp. 186,
187; as to “what, said at the trial :
rebutting the charge of ‘impiety’;
as to ‘the divine sign,' and the
answer given to Chaerephon by the
god at Delphi concerning him,”
Żó. Io-I5, pp. 188, 189 ; “how,
justified the testimony of the oracle
and in cross-examination of Melétus
rebutted the second count of the
indictment whilst defending his
position ze education,” 20. I5-2I,
pp. 189-191 ; what these state-
ments conclusively prove in the
author's opinion concerning, fur-
ther shown by his refusal to sug-
gest counter damages, and his re-
ply to those who wished to steal
him out of prison, ib. 22, 23, p.
191 ; his final address to the court,
likening himself to Palamedes, and
the cheerfulness of his demeanour as
he left the court-house and on his
way to the prison, ió. 23-27, pp. I92,
I93; and Apollodorus, on Seeing
Anytus, is minded to utter a predic-
tion (as Homer has it) on the point of
death, ib. 28–31, pp. 193, 194; the
author's Summing up concerning,
‘‘the wisest and noblest of men,"
ið. 32-34, p. I95.
And Criſobulus (a discussion con-
cerning “economy”), Econ, i.-vi. pp.
I99-225 [see Analysis]; by cross-
questioning, arrives at the function of
the science; the meaning of “oikos";
a definition of wealth as that and
that only whereby the owner may be
benefited (e.g. “money” may not be
“wealth,” “foes” may be; against
such enemies as a man's own pas-
sions we must wage ceaseless war for
freedom's Sake, ió. i. I-23, pp. 199-
204; on “riches” and “poverty”; his
whole possessions worthin the market
say twenty guineas, yet practically
better off than his wealthy friend,
since he has the art of creating a
Surplus, ió. ii. I-8, pp. 204-206 :
not a professor of the science of
economy, but will play the part of
guide as far as he can ; has made
it his business to discover the greatest
adepts in the various branches of
knowledge, and will gladly introduce
Critobulus to these [cf. Mem. IV.
vii. I, p. 176] ; Econ. ii. 9-18, pp.
205-208; in a sort of object lesson,
points out six essentials of “econ-
omy” [see Analysis]; banters Cri-
tobulus on his playgoing propensi-
ties; on the profit to be got out of
horses; on the relation of husband
and wife ; will introduce Critobulus
to Aspasia, Žb. iii. pp. 209-2I2 ;
on “base mechanic arts" (ai
8avava'ukal Téxvat); thinks that the
Great King sets a good example in
his regard for the “arts of hus-
bandry and war,” ió. iv. I-4, p.
213; on the Persian system of gov-
ernment ; on “paradises"; tells an
anecdote of Cyrus ; repeats a tale
told by Lysander to a ſoreign friend
at Megara concerning the younger
Cyrus and his “paradise” at Sardis,
fö. ib. 5-25, pp. 214-2I 8 ; his
object to show that the mighty ones
of the world respect tillage ; sounds
the praises of agriculture and of
mother earth ; points out that “the
operations of husbandry no less
than those of war lie in the hands of
the gods,” ib. v. I-20, pp. 218-222;
4IO
INDEX
resumes the discussion of “econ-
omy,” recapitulating the points
agreed upon (Öpoxoyoſuéva) [cf.
Mem. IV. vi. I 5, p. 175], Econ. vi.
I-12, pp. 222-229; narrates how he
went the round of the city searching
for a ‘‘beautiful and good" man,
and finally chanced upon one worthy
the title in the person of Ischo-
machus, ib. 20. I2-17, pp. 224, 225;
narrates his introduction to Ischo-
machus in the portico of Zeus
Eleutherios, and the conversation
which ensued (Econ. vii.-xxi. pp.
225-290); concerning the good
man's title, KaNés kāya.0ós ; his out-
door life ; his wife's indoor duties ;
her initiation into these as a bride
barely fifteen years of age, and how
they said prayers together, ió. vii.
I-8, pp. 225-227.
Learns with the greatest delight[cf.
x. I] from Ischomachus what he first
essayed to teach his wife concerning
thefunction of the womanin the house-
hold as mistress, wife, and mother,
26. £6. 9-43, pp. 227–233; hears the
sequel to the story: how Ischomachus
instructed his wife in the beauty of
orderliness, 26. viii. I-IO, pp. 233-
236 ; and concerning Ischomachus'
visit to the “great Phoenician” mer-
chantman, and of the lesson thence
derived, ió. 26. II-23, pp. 236–
239; inquiring how the wife pro-
fited by her husband's instruction,
hears of the arrangement of furniture
established in their house ; of the
choice of a housekeeper, and the
duties of the mistress, and how
readily these were undertaken, ió.
ix. I-19, pp. 239-244; apostrophises
the brave and virile intelligence of
the woman, and listens with ecstatic
delight [cf. ix. 9] while Ischo-
machus recounts another instance
of his wife's large-mindedness in
giving up meretricious ornaments,
20. X. I-13, pp. 244-247.
Satisfied with what he has heard
about the wife's occupations, desires
to hear from beginning to end the
Story of a beautiful and good man's
works; demurs to the notion of
reforming in any way a model
gentleman, “ironically ” describing
himself as an “empty babbler”
and ‘‘measurer of the air” [accord-
ing to the popular Aristophanic
caricature of him], and, what is a
worse Stigma, “a poor man,” d
propos of which he tells an anec-
dote ; humorously proposes to begin
imitating Ischomachus' virtue “to-
morrow,” if only he may learn the
Secret of it now, ië, xi. I-6, pp.
247, 248 ; professes surprise at the
inclusion of “wealth” and “money-
making '' among Ischomachus' Ob-
jects of pursuit; is satisfied by his
answer ; begs to hear in his own
order how Ischomachus studies (I)
bodily health and strength ; (2)
Safety in war with honour; (3)
money-making (to the advantage
of one's self and the state);
assured that (given a man has
enough to eat) each flows as a con-
sequence from the other, desires to
hear particulars in each case, æð. 20.
7-13, pp. 248-250 ; learns and
approves of a country gentleman's
daily pursuits, compliments IScho-
machus on his compendious system,
healthy looks, and high repute, but
hearing he has many detractors
would fain know whether and how
Ischomachus practises the training
of a citizen in argumentative de-
bate, and is assured on that head;
(Ischomachus has ample opportun-
ity to appear for the “defence” or
“prosecution”; has pleaded ere now
before his own wife, and has no skill
to make the worse appear the better
cause), 2%. 70. I4-25, pp. 250-253.
Apologises for detaining Ischo-
machus possibly too long to
the neglect of affairs at home, and
learns that Ischomachus is in no
hurry, and that his affairs are being
attended to by bailiffs on the farms,
26. xii. I, 2, p. 253 ; inquires as to
the qualities and education of the
INDEX 4II
bailiff; wonders how Ischomachus
contrives to teach his alter ego
“loyalty,’’ ‘‘ carefulness and appli-
cation ” (always thought it was be-
yond the power of any teacher to
teach these virtues); cross-questions
Ischomachus as to the type of
person capable of being taught ;
ascertains that the master himself,
if he would teach carefulness, must
be careful, and that there is nothing
like the “master's eye” to call
forth latent capacities, iff. ib. 3-
20, pp. 254-257; learning that the
bailiff must know practical details
of course, and further be capable
of ruling, asks how Ischomachus
contrives to educate another in So
royal an art, 26. xiii. I-I2, pp. 258-
26o ; elicits that besides these
qualities the perfect bailiff must be
just and virtuous; learns to his
astonishment that Ischomachus
actually undertakes to teach “jus-
tice,” and by what means, ió.
xiv. I-Io, pp. 260-262.
Having summed up the qualities
requisite to the overseer, reverts to a
point hitherto lightly dealt with—the
need of knowing the several processes
of husbandry, and insists that in order
to set about the work of tilling with
success one must know zeyhat things
he has to do, and the how and the
when of them ; and all the more, if,
as Ischomachus assures him, agri-
culture is of all arts the easiest to
learn, ought he to be ready to ex-
plain its details, 26. xv. 1-13, pp.
262-265; is presently convinced by
Ischomachus, contrary to his prior
belief, that no one need abstain
from agriculture, from fear he will
not recognise the nature of the Soil
(which is an affair of simple observ-
ation), and recalls a fact concerning
fishermen in favour of that view, ió.
xvi. I-7, pp. 265, 266.
By a series of questions Ischoma-
chus “revives the recollection” of the
art of husbandry latent in the mind
of, and firstly, as to the Soil , when
to plough and how to break fallow,
ió. ib. 8-15, pp. 266-268; being next
interrogated as to the period of seed
time, shows himself possessed of
the popular wisdom, which he traces
to God's teaching ; and as to the
art of scattering the seed, answers
correctly ; beats about for an illus-
tration before concluding that a
weaker soil must receive a scantier
dose of seed ; as to hoeing and
weeding, readily takes the correct
view ; on the advantage of a good
“simile,” ib. xvii. I-15, pp. 268-272;
as to reaping, threshing, win now-
fing, answers so glibly and with such
correctness that the only conclusion
is “he must have known about these
matters previously but uncon-
Sciously, "ió. xviii. I-IO, pp. 272-275;
as to planting, feels ignorant but
answers correctly; his type of dry and
moist Soils in Attica ; plays on the
word “eyes” in picturing the growth
of vines; as to the fig-tree; and the
olive ; finds that after all he is not
so ignorant ; reflecting on the pro-
cess, is disposed to ask, “Does
teaching consist in putting ques-
tions?” his explanation of the
principle of teaching by analogies,
26. xix. I-I6, pp. 275-279.
Asks why, if the details of the art
of husbandry are thus easy to learn,
all farmers do not fare alike, and
is instructed by Ischomachus that
care more than knowledge is needed
to success in agriculture, but that,
given the requisite heed and energy,
the pursuit of agriculture is a most
paying investment, ib. XX. I foll.,
p. 280 foll. ; is let into the secret of
buying land, cultivating it, and Sell-
ing it at a great profit (a “discovery”
of Ischomachus' father, who of all
Athenians had the greatest love for
agricultural pursuits); asks a pointed
question, and jests at the qu)\o-
'yewpºyia of Ischomachus' father,
which seems to bear a striking re-
semblance to the pu)\ogutta (corn-
hunger) of the merchant (a humorous
4 I2
INDEX
illustration); arrives at a “con-
cordat, " £6. £b. 21-29, pp. 285-287;
professes himself persuaded that
“of all the arts that of husbandry
is the easiest to learn "; Ischo-
machus on his side subscribes to
the opinion of, that as regards the
faculty of command (which is
common to every kind of business),
people differ largely from one an-
other ; and this faculty (partly
divine) is of greatest import in every
Operation which needs the instru-
mentality of man, not excepting agri-
culture, ib. xxi. I foll., p. 287 foll.
(As the central figure of the
Symposium), along with certain
others hailed by Callias, and invited
to grace his banquet as ‘‘persons
who have attained to purity of
Soul"; banters Callias on his wis-
dom, purchased from the great
Sophists at large cost, whereas he
and his are only hand-to-mouth
philosophers; declines the invita-
tion, but, not to displease Callias,
presently with the rest agrees to
accompany their host, Sy/z. i. 3-7,
p. 294 ; apostrophises Callias as a
princely entertainer, who, having
Set before his guests a faultless
dinner, must needs feast eye and
ear on delightful sights and sounds,
but deprecates the addition of un-
guents; his “rationale" of scents;
and Lycozz, on the fragrance of true
nobility, reserved for old men ;
quotes Theognis, 35 foll, ; and to
Lycon’s “Do you hear that, my
son P” answers for the lad ‘‘that
he does, and puts the precept into
practice,” etc. ; proposes to defer
the debatable question, “Can wis-
dom be taught P” to a more oppor-
tune moment, ió. ii. 2-7, pp. 298,
299; d. propos of the girl's perform-
ance with the hoops, argues that
woman's nature is nowise inferior
to man's, which should be an en-
couragement to those of the com-
pany who have wives; in reply to
the somewhat brusque challenge of
Antisthenes, explains (humorously,
on the principle of “the grey mare")
why he took Xanthippe to wife, ib.
7%. 8-IO, p. 300 ; asks Antisthenes
(d propos of the dancing girl's per-
formance with the knives) “will
any one now deny that courage can
be taught?” d propos of the boy's
performance, comments on the en-
hanced beauty of his body in move-
ment ; would like to have a dancing
lesson himself from the Syracusan :
defends his taste for dancing ;
appeals to Charmides “if he did not
catch him in the act only the other
morning P” etc., iff. ib. I 5–20, pp.
3O2, 303 ; if drinking is to be the
rule of the feast, approves, but,
“in Gorgian phrase,” prefers “a
frequent mizzle” of small glasses to
large potations, Žb. 26. 24-27, p.
305 ; having passed an encomium
on the young people and their skill
to amuse the company, insists that
their elders should do something
now to heighten the festivity ;
appeals to Callias to give the pro-
mised exhibition of his wisdom ;
Suggests a philosophic pastime, 26.
iii. 2, 3, p. 306 ; 7 e the fatuity of
the ordinary paywóot (reciters),
points out that they haven't the key
to the spiritual meaning of the
sacred text, but that Nicératus,
who has paid large sums to the
great interpreters of Homer, is in a
better position ; takes the sense of
the company as to what they will
severally defend as their thesis;
and for himself solemnly asserts
that his “forte” consists €7-i plaq-
Tpotreig, ib. 70. 6-Io, pp. 308, 309 ;
sets the philosophical debate going ;
playfully intervenes between Callias
and his cross-examiner Antisthenes,
ºb. iv. I-5, pp. 310, 3II ; comments
punningly on Nicératus' Homeric
‘‘ onion that can Sweeten cup as
well as platter,” ib. ib. 8, p. 313;
in answer to the boast of Critobulus,
that he could win a lºiss from the
dancing girl or boy more speedily
INDEX 4I 3
witnout a word spoken than could
the Sage (who is “uglier than all the
Sileni of the Satyric drama”) by half
a hundred subtle arguments, pro-
poses to obtain a verdict on the
point of beauty presently at the bar
of the Said girl and boy; protests
against the continual dragging in
of Cleinias by Critobulus; in reply
to Hermogenes, gives a history of
the malady from which Critobulus
Suffers; tells how Crito consigned
his son to him hoping for a cure,
and how the patient has prospered
Since ; insists on the danger of even
a kiss [cf. Meme. I. iii. 8-14] ;
humorously admits the appositeness
of Charmides' retort (Physician,
heal thyself 1) concerning himself
and the patient at the grammarian's
poring over one book side by side,
and warns Critobulus to hold aloof
till his beard has grown, Symz. iv. 16-
28, pp. 315-317 ; calls on Anti-
Sthenes in his turn to explain how
with his scanty means he can boast
of wealth, ió. ib. 34, p. 319; Anti-
Sthenes (in course of his speech)
points to, ‘‘ from him it was I got
these riches (of the soul); he, did
not supply me with it by weight or
measure,” etc. ; what Antisthenes
values most is “freedom to spend
whole days in pure scholastic inter-
course with, to whom he is devoted,”
etc., b. 20, 43, 44, p. 321 ; would
gladly learn of Hermocrates “what
Service he pays the gods so to
Secure their friendship,” concludes
that the gods delight in Ka}\okó-
'ya.6ta, 26. £0. 49, p. 323; and the
Syracusan, re the corruption of his
boy; applies his “elenchus,” ib. ib.
53-55, p. 324 ; defends his own
thesis, showing that the art he
boasts is after all not so discredit-
able ; devolves it upon the arch-go-
between Antisthenes ; mentions the
triumphs of Antisthenes in intro-
ducing couples to one another, e.g.
Callias and Prodicus, Callias and
Hippias, himself and the Heracleot
stranger, himself and Aeschylus of
Phlius; cannot but conclude that
Antisthenes is a first-rate match-
maker, etc., 26. 20. 56-64, pp. 325-
328; re the case, v. Critoözzlies,
calls upon Critobulus to undergo
the divákpugus; cross-examines him
as to the quality of beauty ; proves
that his own eyes, nose, mouth are
the lovelier, and that his resem-
blance to the Sileni is a point in his
favour ; directs proceedings at the
end of the trial ; unanimous verdict
against, ió. v. I-IO, pp. 328-331 ;
and Hermogenes; asks Hermogenes
(who is silent in the midst of the
general hubbub) to define Tapouta
(a drunken brawl); discusses the
definition humorously, ió. vi. I-5,
pp. 331, 332 ; a passage of arms
between, and the Syracusan (who
apparently has seen the “Clouds”);
ventures in self-defence a “frigid "
joke, making a pun on divajº exe-
OTáTayu, ió. ib. 6, 7, p. 333; and
Philippus (whose comparisons are
“odorous"); succeeds in allaying
‘‘the storm in a wine-stoup,” ió. ib.
8-IO, p. 334 ; trolls a catch, ió. vii.
I, p. 335 ; appeals to the Syracusan
in behalf of the boy and girl to sub-
stitute for the marvels of the acrobat
Some pantomime in dance, such as
the Graces, the Hours, and the
nymphs are made to tread in pic-
tures, ió. ió. 2-5, pp. 335, 336 :
essays a novel argument in praise
of "Epws (divine Love), ib. viii. I
foll., p. 336 foll. ; cannot name the
time when he has not been ‘‘in
love” [cf. Mem. IV. i. 2, p. 130};
he and all the company are votaries
(9uagóTat) of the god, ib. ib. 2, p.
337 ; and Antisthenes ; plays the
coquet; apostrophises Callias as a
lover of the noblest type ; on Aph-
rodite ‘‘ Ourania '' and ‘‘ Pan-
démos," ió, ió. 3-II, pp. 338, 339 ;
and Hermogenes; testifies that love
of the Soul is greatly superior to
carnal affection ; that the true edu-
cator who trains another in the path
4I4.
INDEX
of virtue may well be honoured,
as Cheiron and Phoenix were by
Achilles; apologises for the touch
of turbulence in his speech, ib. ib.
I2-24, pp. 339-342 ; will prove by
mythic argument that not men only
but gods and heroes set greater
store by friendship of the soul than
bodily enjoyment; concerning Zeus
and mortal women, Heracles and
the Dioscuri; on the etymology of
Ganymede, ió. ib. 28-31, pp. 343,
344; appeals to Nicératus whether
Homer does not represent Patroclus
as the “comrade” of Achilles;
cites the friendship of Orestes and
Pylades, Theseus and Peiritholis ;
his strictures on the “apology" of
Pausanias in behalf of a peculiar
institution ; compares the customs
of Elis and Thebes unfavourably
with those of Athens and Lace-
daemon, 2%. 3%. 31-35, pp. 344,
345; his final argument and appeal
to the higher selves of Callias and
Autolycus; concerning Themisto-
cles, Pericles, Solon, and Lycurgus;
the opportunity of an “eupatrid "
and ‘‘dadouchos,” etc., at Athens ;
apologising for the Serious turn of
his discourse, states “it has long
been his wont to share the city's
passion for noble-natured Souls,
emulous in pursuit of virtue"; and
Callias, as to the best passport to
“political" fame, ió. ió. 36-43, pp.
346-348; Lycon apostrophises, as
in truth “a beautiful and good
man,” ib. ix. I, p. 348; and others
(the last to go) set off with Callias
to join Lycon and Autolycus in
their walk, ió. 20. 7, p. 35o.
Solon, the laws of, Econ. xiv. 4, p.
261 ; the wisdom of, Sym. viii. 39,
p. 347. &
Stesimbrotus of Thasos (an authority
on Homer), the sums expended by
Nicératus on, Sym. iii. 6, p. 3O8.
Syracusan, the, showman with his
troupe (in the Symposium), enters
to promote the revelry, Syºn. ii. I,
p. 297 ; an opportunity for, (Anti-
sthenes log.), ië. ib. 13 foll.,
foll, ; Socrates would like,
in dancing from, ió. ib. 16, 1.
what he prides himself upon,
52 foll., p. 324 foll, ; his ons,
on Socrates, ió. vi. 6 foll., ,
foll, ; Socrates “educates,”
2 foll., p. 335 foll. ; ready re.
of, and exit, ib. viii. 1, p.
enter, with a speech introd,
“Bacchus and Ariadne,” ib. i.
*
}
P. 349. -
Syrians, the, Phrygians, and Lydia,
Asiatics ruled by the Persians, M.
II. i. Io, p. 4I.
TANTALUS, the torture of, Econ. .
I2, p. 29O.
Thasian wine, Sym. iv. 4I, p. 321
Thebans, the, and the Eleians, pecu
institutions of, Sym2. viii. 34, p.
Thebes, the selfish policy of
above, “Boeotians”), Mem. T
2, p. 91.
Themistocles, the amulet by wh
won the city's love, Mem. Ii
I3, p. 63; world-famous, ió.
vi. 2, p. 99 ; was it through c.
sorting with wise men or by
own talent, that, attained to p
tical eminence? ib. IV. ii. 2, p. I
by what étruo Tàum did, achieve,
freedom of Hellas? Sym. viii.
D. 347. .
Theodórus (of Cyrene), the ma
matician, Me/2. IV. ii. Io, p. )
Theodoté (a beauty), Socrates ar
conversation de azºte amazoria, A
III. xi. I foll., p. II7 foll.
Theognis quoted, Mem. I. ii.
Io ; Syme. ii. 4, p. 299.
Theseus, his valorous deeds,
III. v. Io, p. 93 ; and Pei,
Syme. viii. 31, p. 344.
Thracians, the, their light Shio
javelins, Mem. III. ix. 2, p.
Thrasyllus, and the other gene
“Arginusae,” the case of, ,
i. I8, p. 5.
Tolmides, the disaster of the Af
º
at Lebadeia under, Memz.
p. 92.
INDEX 4I 5
‘IPPE, wife of Socrates, a pointed the portico of, Econ. vii. I, p. 225;
tion put to Socrates by Anti- one and indivisible, has many titles,
nes concerning, Sym. ii. Io, p. Syme. viii. 9, p. 338; an argument
º: , ; her supposed shrewishness in favour of the higher love drawn
* = Mem. II. ii.). from the conduct of, towards men
pnon, Socrates and, a conversa- and women, 26. £6. 29, p. 343; p.ſ.
n on “the danger of a kiss” Ata, by, a common form of assevera-
- early “recollection ” of the tion, like the French Mozz Diez /
uthor's], Mem. I. iii. 8 foll., p. Mem. I. iv. 9 et passim.
* 3 foll. Zeuxis, the greatest living painter,
- Mem. I. iv. 3, p. 26 ; Econ. x. 1,
US (Lat. Jupiter), “Eleutherios” p. 244.
END OF vol. III (PART 1)
Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh.

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