Athenian Stranger. And now, what will this city be? I do not mean toask what is or will hereafter be the name of the place; that may bedetermined by the accident of locality or of the original settlement-ariver or fountain, or some local deity may give the sanction of a nameto the newly-founded city; but I do want to know what the situationis, whether maritime or inland.
Cleinias. I should imagine, Stranger, that the city of which weare speaking is about eighty stadia distant from the sea.
Ath. And are there harbours on the seaboard?
Cle. Excellent harbours, Stranger; there could not be better.
Ath. Alas! what a prospect! And is the surrounding countryproductive, or in need of importations?
Cle. Hardly in need of anything.
Ath. And is there any neighbouring State?
Cle. None whatever, and that is the reason for selecting theplace; in days of old, there was a migration of the inhabitants, andthe region has been deserted from time immemorial.
Ath. And has the place a fair proportion of hill, and plain, andwood?
Cle. Like the rest of Crete in that.
Ath. You mean to say that there is more rock than plain?
Cle. Exactly.
Ath. Then there is some hope that your citizens may be virtuous: hadyou been on the sea, and well provided with harbours, and an importingrather than a producing country, some mighty saviour would have beenneeded, and lawgivers more than mortal, if you were ever to have achance of preserving your state from degeneracy and discordance ofmanners. But there is comfort in the eighty stadia; although the seais too near, especially if, as you say, the harbours are so good.
Still we may be content. The sea is pleasant enough as a dailycompanion, but has indeed also a bitter and brackish quality;filling the streets with merchants and shopkeepers, and begetting inthe souls of men uncertain and unfaithful ways-making the stateunfriendly and unfaithful both to her own citizens, and also toother nations. There is a consolation, therefore, in the countryproducing all things at home; and yet, owing to the ruggedness ofthe soil, not providing anything in great abundance. Had there beenabundance, there might have been a great export trade, and a greatreturn of gold and silver; which, as we may safely affirm, has themost fatal results on a State whose aim is the attainment of justand noble sentiments: this was said by us, if you remember, in theprevious discussion.
Cle. I remember, and am of opinion that we both were and are inthe right.
Ath. Well, but let me ask, how is the country supplied with timberfor ship-building?
Cle. There is no fir of any consequence, nor pine, and not muchcypress; and you will find very little stone-pine or plane-wood, whichshipwrights always require for the interior of ships.
Ath. These are also natural advantages.
Cle. Why so?
Ath. Because no city ought to be easily able to imitate itsenemies in what is mischievous.
Cle. How does that bear upon any of the matters of which we havebeen speaking?
Ath. Remember, my good friend, what I said at first about the Cretanlaws, that they look to one thing only, and this, as you bothagreed, was war; and I replied that such laws, in so far as theytended to promote virtue, were good; but in that they regarded apart only, and not the whole of virtue, I disapproved of them. And nowI hope that you in your turn will follow and watch me if I legislatewith a view to anything but virtue, or with a view to a part of virtueonly. For I consider that the true lawgiver, like an archer, aims onlyat that on which some eternal beauty is always attending, anddismisses everything else, whether wealth or any other benefit, whenseparated from virtue. I was saying that the imitation of enemieswas a bad thing; and I was thinking of a case in which a maritimepeople are harassed by enemies, as the Athenians were by Minos (I donot speak from any desire to recall past grievances); but he, as weknow, was a great naval potentate, who compelled the inhabitants ofAttica to pay him a cruel tribute; and in those days they had no shipsof war as they now have, nor was the country filled withship-timber, and therefore they could not readily build them. Hencethey could not learn how to imitate their enemy at sea, and in thisway, becoming sailors themselves, directly repel their enemies. Betterfor them to have lost many times over the seven youths, than thatheavy-armed and stationary troops should have been turned intosailors, and accustomed to be often leaping on shore, and again tocome running back to their ships; or should have fancied that therewas no disgrace in not awaiting the attack of an enemy and dyingboldly; and that there were good reasons, and plenty of them, for aman throwing away his arms, and betaking himself to flight-which isnot dishonourable, as people say, at certain times. This is thelanguage of naval warfare, and is anything but worthy of extraordinarypraise. For we should not teach bad habits, least of all to the bestpart of the citizens. You may learn the evil of such a practice fromHomer, by whom Odysseus is introduced, rebuking Agamemnon because hedesires to draw down the ships to the sea at a time when theAchaeans are hard pressed by the Trojans-he gets angry with him, andsays:
Who, at a time when the battle is in full cry, biddest to drag thewell-benched ships into the sea, that the prayers of the Trojans maybe accomplished yet more, and high ruin falls upon us. For theAchaeans will not maintain the battle, when the ships are drawn intothe sea, but they will look behind and will cease from strife; in thatthe counsel which you give will prove injurious.
You see that he quite knew triremes on the sea, in the neighbourhoodof fighting men, to be an evil;-lions might be trained in that wayto fly from a herd of deer. Moreover, naval powers which owe theirsafety to ships, do not give honour to that sort of warlike excellencewhich is most deserving of it. For he who owes his safety to the pilotand the captain, and the oarsman, and all sorts of rather inferiorpersons cannot rightly give honour to whom honour is due. But howcan a state be in a right condition which cannot justly award honour?