Memorabilia

Ah, I am aware of that, answered Socrates; but the disposition of our city is now more to a good ruler’s liking. For confidence breeds carelessness, slackness, disobedience: fear makes men more attentive, more obedient, more amenable to discipline. The behaviour of sailors is a case in point.

So long as they have nothing to fear, they are, I believe, an unruly lot, but when they expect a storm or an attack, they not only carry out all orders, but watch in silence for the word of command like choristers.

Well, exclaimed Pericles, if they are now in the mood for obedience, it seems time to say how we can revive in them a longing for the old virtue and fame and happiness.

If then, said Socrates, we wanted them to claim money that others held, the best way of egging them on to seize it would be to show them that it was their fathers’ money and belongs to them. As we want them to strive for pre-eminence in virtue, we must show that this belonged to them in old days, and that by striving for it they will surpass all other men.

How then can we teach this?I think by reminding them that their earliest ancestors of whom we have any account were, as they themselves have been told, the most valiant.

Do you refer to the judgment of the gods,[*](i.e., between Poseidon and Athena for the possession of Attica.) which Cecrops delivered in his court because of his virtue?Yes, and the care and birth of Erectheus,[*](Iliad, II. 547. Ἐρεχθῇος μεγαλήτορος οὕ ποτ᾽ Ἀθήνη θρέψε Διὸς θυγάτηρ, τέκε δὲ ζείδωρος Ἄρουρα.) and the war waged in his day with all the adjacent country, and the war between the sons of Heracles[*](The Athenians claimed that it was through their assistance that the sons of Heracles gained the victory (Herodotus, ix. 27).) and the Peloponnesians, and all the wars waged in the days of Theseus,[*](Against the Amazons and Thracians.) in all of which it is manifest that they were champions among the men of their time.

You may add the victories of their descendants,[*](In the great Persian wars.) who lived not long before our own day: some they gained unaided in their struggle with the lords of all Asia and of Europe as far as Macedonia, the owners of more power and wealth than the world had ever seen, who had wrought deeds that none had equalled; in others they were fellow-champions with the Peloponnesians both on land and sea. These men, like their fathers, are reported to have been far superior to all other men of their time.Yes, that is the report of them.

Therefore, though there have been many migrations in Greece, these continued to dwell in their own land: many referred to them their rival claims, many found a refuge with them from the brutality of the oppressor.