Memorabilia

Now Critias bore a grudge against Socrates for this; and when he was one of the Thirty and was drafting laws with Charicles, he bore it in mind. He inserted a clause which made it illegal to teach the art of words. It was a calculated insult to Socrates, whom he saw no means of attacking, except by imputing to him the practice constantly attributed to philosophers,[*](i.e. the practice of making the worse appear the better argument. In Plato, Apol. 19b, Socrates makes Aristophanes (Clouds) author of this charge against him. Aristotle in the Rhetoric (B 24, 11) associates the practice with the name of Protagoras: cp. Diog. Laert. ix. 51.) and so making him unpopular. For I myself never heard Socrates indulge in the practice, nor knew of anyone who professed to have heard him do so. The truth came out.

When the Thirty were putting to death many citizens of the highest respectability and were encouraging many in crime, Socrates had remarked: It seems strange enough to me that a herdsman[*](Cyropaedia VIII. ii. 14.) who lets his cattle decrease and go to the bad should not admit that he is a poor cowherd; but stranger still that a statesman when he causes the citizens to decrease and go to the bad, should feel no shame nor think himself a poor statesman.

This remark was reported to Critias and Charicles, who sent for Socrates, showed him the law and forbade him to hold conversation with the young.May I question you, asked Socrates, in case I do not understand any point in your orders?You may, said they.Well now, said he,

I am ready to obey the laws. But lest I unwittingly transgress through ignorance, I want clear directions from you. Do you think that the art of words from which you bid me abstain is associated with sound or unsound reasoning? For if with sound, then clearly I must abstain from sound reasoning: but if with unsound, clearly I must try to reason soundly.

Since you are ignorant, Socrates, said Charicles in an angry tone, we put our order into language easier to understand. You may not hold any converse whatever with the young.Well then, said Socrates, that there may be no question raised about my obedience, please fix the age limit below which a man is to be accounted young.So long, replied Charicles, as he is not permitted to sit in the Council, because as yet he lacks wisdom. You shall not converse with anyone who is under thirty.

Suppose I want to buy something, am I not even then to ask the price if the seller is under thirty?Oh yes, answered Charicles, you may in such cases. But the fact is, Socrates, you are in the habit of asking questions to which you know the answer: so that is what you are not to do. Am I to give no answer, then, if a young man asks me something that I know? — for instance, Where does Charicles live? or Where is Critias?Oh yes, answered Charicles, you may, in such cases.

But you see, Socrates, explained Critias, you will have to avoid your favourite topic, — the cobblers, builders and metal workers[*](Cyropaedia VI. ii. 37.); for it is already worn to rags by you in my opinion.Then must I keep off the subjects of which these supply illustrations, Justice, Holiness, and so forth? Indeed yes, said Charicles, and cowherds too: else you may find the cattle decrease.

Thus the truth was out: the remark about the cattle had been repeated to them: and it was this that made them angry with him.So much, then, for the connexion of Critias with Socrates and their relation to each other.

I venture to lay it down that learners get nothing from a teacher with whom they are out of sympathy. Now, all the time that Critias and Alcibiades associated with Socrates they were out of sympathy with him, but from the very first their ambition was political advancement. For while they were still with him, they tried to converse, whenever possible, with prominent politicians.

Indeed, there is a story told of Alcibiades, that, when he was less than twenty years old, he had a talk about laws with Pericles, his guardian, the first citizen in the State.