Panathenaicus

He came, upon being summoned, and, having read through my discourse (for why take up time in relating what happened in the interval?) he took no offence at anything which I had written but, on the contrary, praised the speech in the highest possible terms and expressed views on each part of it which were very similar to those which I held. And yet it was manifest that he was not pleased with what I had said about the Lacedaemonians.

And he showed it forthwith; for he made bold to say that if the Spartans had done no other service to the Hellenes, at any rate, they deserved the gratitude of all men because they had discovered the best ways of life and not only followed these ways themselves but had taught them to the rest of the world.

This assertion, so brief and so brusque, furnished the reason why I did not close my speech at the point where I was inclined to end it. I thought that it would be shameful and reprehensible on my part to permit one who had been my pupil to make in my presence a statement which was unsound. With this in mind, I asked him whether he had no regard for his present auditors and was not ashamed of having said things which were impious and false and full of many contradictions.

“You will realize,” I said, “that your assertion is such as I have declared it to be if you will ask any intelligent men, first what they think are the best ways of life, and next how long a time has passed since the Lacedaemonians settled in the Peloponnesus. For there is no one who, among the ways of life, will not give preference to the practice of reverence in relation to the gods and of justice in relation to mankind and of wisdom in relation to all activities in general, and they will tell you that the Spartans have lived in the Peloponnesus not more than seven hundred years.

These things being so, if you speak the truth when you assert that they were the discoverers of the best ways of life, then it must follow that those who lived many generations before the Spartans settled there had no part in them—neither those who made the expedition against Troy nor those who were of the generation of Heracles and Theseus or of Minos, son of Zeus, or Rhadamanthus or Aeacus[*](Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus are half-legendary kings famed for their virtues, and especially their justice. they are sometimes pictured as dispensing justice in the world of the dead. See Plat. Gorg. 523.) or any of the others who are celebrated in song for the virtues which I have mentioned, but that all of them have in this respect a reputation which is false.

But if, on the other hand, you are speaking nonsense, and if it is fitting that men who were descended from gods should have cultivated these virtues more than all others and transmitted them to their successors as well, then you cannot escape being thought mad by all who hear you for being so reckless and unjust and undiscriminating in your praise. Furthermore, if you were praising them without having heard any of my speech, you would no less be speaking drivel, but you would not be manifestly contradicting yourself.

But now, since you have commended my discourse, which proves that the Lacedaemonians have committed many outrages both against their own kinsmen and the rest of the Hellenes, how could you then say that those who are open to these charges have been the leaders in the best ways of life

“Moreover, this consideration also has escaped you, that the things which have been overlooked, whether in ways of living or in the arts or in all other activities, are not discovered by any and every one, but by men who have superior endowments and are both able to learn the most of what has been discovered before their time and willing more than all others to give their minds to the search for what is new.

But in these respects the Lacedaemonians are more backward than the barbarians. For you will find that the latter have been both pupils and teachers of many discoveries, while the Lacedaemonians have fallen so far behind our common culture and learning that they do not even try to instruct themselves in letters[*](”Before the development of the body, that of the mind had completely to give way“ in Sparta. See Plut. Lyc. 16; Gilbert GCA p.64.)—a science which has so much power that those who understand and use it become apprized not only of the things which have been accomplished in their own time but also of the things which have come to pass in any age whatsoever.

Nevertheless, you have made bold to assert even of those who are ignorant of such matters that they have been the discoverers of the best ways of life, and that too when you know that they train their own boys in habits and practices by which they hope that, so far from becoming the benefactors of others, they will become most adept in doing injury to the Hellenes.

“Were I to go through all of these practices, I should greatly fatigue both myself and my hearers, but if I mention only a single one—one which they cherish most and by which they set most store—I think that I can put before you their whole manner of life. For every day they send out their boys, from the very cradle, as it were, with such companions as each may prefer, ostensibly to hunt, but in reality to steal[*](For this feature of their training see Plut. Lyc. 17-18; Xen. Const. Lac. 2.5 ff.; Gilbert, GCA p. 64.) the property of the people who live in the country.

In this practice, those who are caught are punished with fines and blows, while those who have accomplished the greatest number of thefts and have been able to escape detection enjoy a higher esteem among their fellow-youths than the others, and when they attain to manhood, provided they remain true to the ways which they practised in youth, they are in line for the most important offices.