Phocion

This son of Phocion,[*](Cf. chapters xx. and xxx. 1.) we are told, turned out to be a man of no worth in general, and once, being enamoured of a girl who was kept in a brothel, chanced to hear Theodorus the Atheist discourse in the Lyceium as follows: If there is no disgrace in ransoming a man beloved, the same is true of a woman loved; what is true of a comrade, is true also of a mistress. Accordingly, his passion leading him to think the argument sound, he ransomed his mistress. But Phocion’s fate reminded the Greeks anew of that of Socrates;[*](In 399 B.C.) they felt that the sin and misfortune of Athens were alike in both cases.