Ath. And shall the warriors of our city, who are destined whenoccasion calli to enter the greatest of all contests, and to fight fortheir lives, and their children, and their property, and the wholecity, be worse prepared than boxers? And will the legislator,because he is afraid that their practising with one another may appearto some ridiculous, abstain from commanding them to go out andfight; will he not ordain that soldiers shall perform lesser exerciseswithout arms every day, making dancing and all gymnastic tend tothis end; and also will he not require that they shall practise somegymnastic exercises, greater as well as lesser, as often as everymonth; and that they shall have contests one with another in everypart of the country, seizing upon posts and lying in ambush, andimitating in every respect the reality of war; fighting withboxing-gloves and hurling javelins, and using weapons somewhatdangerous, and as nearly as possible like the true ones, in order thatthe sport may not be altogether without fear, but may have terrors andto a certain degree show the man who has and who has not courage;and that the honour and dishonour which are assigned to themrespectively, may prepare the whole city for the true conflict oflife? If any one dies in these mimic contests, the homicide isinvoluntary, and we will make the slayer, when he has been purifiedaccording to law, to be pure of blood, considering that if a few menshould die, others as good as they will be born; but that if fear isdead then the citizens will never find a test of superior and inferiornatures, which is a far greater evil to the state than the loss of afew.
Cle. We are quite agreed, Stranger, that we should legislate aboutsuch things, and that the whole state should practise them supposedAth. And what is the reason that dances and contests of this sorthardly ever exist in states, at least not to any extent worth speakingof? Is this due to the ignorance of mankind and their legislators?
Cle. Perhaps.
Ath. Certainly not, sweet Cleinias; there are two causes, whichare quite enough to account for the deficiency.
Cle. What are they?
Ath. One cause is the love of wealth, which wholly absorbs men,and never for a moment allows them to think of anything but theirown private possessions; on this the soul of every citizen hangssuspended, and can attend to nothing but his daily gain; mankind areready to learn any branch of knowledge, and to follow any pursuitwhich tends to this end, and they laugh at every other:-that is onereason why a city will not be in earnest about such contests or anyother good and honourable pursuit. But from an insatiable love of goldand silver, every man will stoop to any art or contrivance, seemlyor unseemly, in the hope of becoming rich; and will make noobjection to performing any action, holy, or unholy and utterlybase, if only like a beast he have the power of eating and drinkingall kinds of things, and procuring for himself in every sort of waythe gratification of his lusts.
Cle. True.
Ath. Let this, then, be deemed one of the causes which preventstates from pursuing in an efficient manner the art of war, or anyother noble aim, but makes the orderly and temperate part of mankindinto merchants, and captains of ships, and servants, and convertsthe valiant sort into thieves and burglars and robbers of temples, andviolent, tyrannical persons; many of whom are not without ability, butthey are unfortunate.
Cle. What do you mean?
Ath. Must not they be truly unfortunate whose souls are compelled topass through life always hungering?
Cle. Then that is one cause, Stranger; but you spoke of another.
Ath. Thank you for reminding me.
Cle. The insatiable life long love of wealth, as you were sayingis one clause which absorbs mankind, and prevents them from rightlypractising the arts of war:-Granted; and now tell me, what is theother?
Ath. Do you imagine that I delay because I am in a perplexity?
Cle. No; but we think that you are too severe upon themoney-loving temper, of which you seem in the present discussion tohave a peculiar dislike.
Ath. That is a very fair rebuke, Cleinias; and I will now proceedto the second cause.
Cle. Proceed.
Ath. I say that governments are a cause-democracy, oligarchy,tyranny, concerning which I have often spoken in the previousdiscourse; or rather governments they are not, for none of themexercises a voluntary rule over voluntary subjects; but they may betruly called states of discord, in which while the government isvoluntary, the subjects always obey against their will, and have to becoerced; and the ruler fears the subject, and will not, if he canhelp, allow him to become either noble, or rich, or strong, orvaliant, or warlike at all. These two are the chief causes of almostall evils, and of the evils of which I have been speaking they arenotably the causes. But our state has escaped both of them; for hercitizens have the greatest leisure, and they are not subject to oneanother, and will, I think, be made by these laws the reverse oflovers of money. Such a constitution may be reasonably supposed tobe the only one existing which will accept the education which we havedescribed, and the martial pastimes which have been perfectedaccording to our idea.
Cle. True.
Ath. Then next we must remember, about all gymnastic contests,that only the warlike sort of them are to be practised and to haveprizes of victory; and those which are not military are to be givenup. The military sort had better be completely described andestablished by law; and first, let us speak of running and swiftness.
Cle. Very good.
Ath. Certainly the most military of all qualities is generalactivity of body, whether of foot or hand. For escaping or forcapturing an enemy, quickness of foot is required; but hand-to-handconflict and combat need vigour and strength.
Cle. Very true.
Ath. Neither of them can attain their greatest efficiency withoutarms.
Cle. How can they?