therefore invite Nicias and Laches, men of distinguished abilities and bravery, but some years younger than themselves, to a conference on that subject; and after having been spectators together of the feats of arms exhibited by Stesilaus, a professed master in the exercise of all weapons, they enter into conversation. Socrates, who happened to be present, is introduced by Laches to Lysimachus, as a person worthy to bear a part in their consultation. The first question is occasioned by the spectacle which they had just beheld, namely, “whether the management of arms be an exercise fit to be learned by young men of quality?" Nicias is desired first to deliver his opinion, which is, that it may give grace and agility to their persons, and courage and confidence to their minds; that it may make them more terrible to their enemies in battle, and more useful to their friends; and at the same time may inspire them with a laudable ambition to attain the higher and more noble parts of military NOTES. P. 189. El de vеwтEρоs, &c.] Socrates does not seem to have attained a great reputation and esteem till about this time of his life, when Aristophanes also first introduced him on the stage, Ol. 89. 1, in his Nepeλai. 194. Των δεινών και θαῤῥαλεων.] Which he afterwards defines, Δεινα μεν, ἁ και δεος παρεχει. θαῤῥαλεα δε, ά και μη δεος παρέχει. 195. Ποτερον ὁμολογεῖς μαντις ειναι.] Dacier explains well this piece of raillery on the supposed timidity and superstition of Nicias's character: but when he carries it still farther, and supposes it a part of Nicias's religion to believe in the bravery of the Crommyonian wild-sow (p. 196.), he grows insipid, and interprets the meaning of Socrates quite wrong. knowledge. Laches has a direct contrary opinion of it he argues from his own experience, that he never knew a man, who valued himself upon this art, that had distinguished himself in the war; that, the Lacedemonians, who valued and cultivated military discipline beyond all others, gave no encouragement to these masters of defence; that, to excel in it, only served to make a coward more assuming and impudent, and to expose a brave man to envy and calumny, by making any little failing or oversight more conspicuous in him. Socrates is then prevailed upon to decide the difference, who artfully turns the question of much greater importance for a young man of spirit to know, namely, "what is valour, and how it is distinguished from a brutal and unmeaning fierceness." By interrogating Laches and Nicias, he shews, that such as had the highest reputation for courage in practice, were often very deficient in the theory; and yet none can communicate a virtue he possesses, without he has himself a clear idea of it. He proves, that valour must have NOTES. P. 197. Aauaxov.] See his character in Plutarch in Nicias's life, and in Thucydides, and in Aristophanes in Acharnens : he was remarkable for his bravery and his poverty; he went to Sicily with Nicias and Alcibiades, as their colleague, Ol. 91. 1, and died there. Ib. Καλλιστα τα τοιαυτα ονοματα διαιρειν.] Prodicus is accordingly introduced in the Protagoras, p. 337, accurately distinguishing the sense of words, and defining all the terms he uses ; and again in the Protagoras, p. 358, and in the Meno, p. 75, and in the Charmides, p. 163. See also the Euthydemus, p. 277, and this seems to have been the subject of his EmideigiS πEVтηкоνтadρаxuos. Vid. Cratylum, p. 384. good sense for its basis; that it consists in the knowledge of what is, and what is not, to be feared; and that, consequently, we must first distinguish between real good and evil; and that it is closely connected with the other virtues, namely, justice, temperance, and piety, nor can it ever subsist without them. The scope of this fine dialogue is to shew, that philosophy is the school of true bravery. The time of this dialogue is not long after the defeat of the Athenians at Delium, Ol. 89. 1, in which action Socrates had behaved with great spirit, and thence recommended himself to the friendship of Laches. NOTES. Ρ. 197. Αληθώς Αιξωνεα.] Βλασφημον scilicet. Vid. Harpocration in Αιξωνας. 201. Acows.] The verse is in the Odyssey, P. v. 347: Αιδως ουκ αγαθη κεχρημενω ανδρι πρόικτη. Plato here reads—avdpi πapeival. And so again in the Charmides, p. 161. Ib. Hέw τaρa σe.] Accordingly Aristides and Thucydides were actually under the care of Socrates from this time; (see the Theages sub fin.) but they soon left him. HIPPARCHUS. Η, ΦΙΛΟΚΕΡΔΗΣ. THE intention of the dialogue is to shew, that all mankind in their actions equally tend to some imagined good, but are commonly mistaken in the nature of it; NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. Platon. Op. Edit. Serrani, Vol. 2. p. 225. Ρ. 225. Ινα τι και ήμεις των σοφων ῥηματων.] Ισοκωλα και ὁμοιοτέλευτα. 228. Hoλitη tw eμw.] Thucydides affirms the express contrary to Plato, that Hipparchus never reigned at all. Ουκ Ιππαρχος, ώσπερ δι πολλοι οιονται, αλλ' Ιππιας, πρεσβύτατος ων, εoxe η any. Thucyd. L. 6. Sect. 54. p. 379. Ed. Huds. Oxon but he agrees with Plato that the government of the Pisistratida was mild and popular, till the murder of Hipparchus. Hipparchus first brought the works of Homer to Athens; he was intimate with Simonides, and sent a galley to bring Anacreon to Athens, as I imagine, from Samos, after the death of Polycrates, which happened in the fourth year of Hippias's, (or according to Plato) of Hipparchus's reign.-The custom of the Rhapsodi successively repeating all Homer's poems during the Panathenæa.--Hermæ were erected by Hipparchus in the middle of Athens, and of every Anuos in Attica, with inscriptions in verse, containing some moral precept, written by himself. 229. Της αδελφης ατιμίαν της κανηφοριας.] Perhaps, της ΑΡΜΟΔΙΟΥ αδελφης της Κανηφορου, οι εν τη κανηφοριᾳ, unless χαριν οι ένεκα be understood. |