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to legislate a common, but a friendly community, and they do not hear him saying: "And sharing with one another in dwellings and symposia and gymnasia, by necessity and by innate 9.49 desire they will be led to have intercourse with one another." But perhaps, blushing at the ridiculous laws of the philosopher, they try to cover up the teacher's error; but they ought to have remembered his words, that dear is the man, but dear is the truth; but of both being dear, dearer is the truth. 9.50 But then let us listen to his other laws; for these too are his: "For a woman, I said, beginning from the age of twenty, to bear children for the city; and for a man, when he has passed the sharpest prime of his running, from that time to beget for the city until the age of fifty-five." But these things do not have very clear harm, but the things that follow are worthy not of laughter, but even of lamentations and of a fire consuming the 9.51 all-beautiful laws; for he says these things: "But when the women and the men have passed the age of begetting, we shall, I suppose, leave them free to have intercourse with whomever they wish.., commanding them to be most zealous not to bring any conception to light, but if one should force its way, to dispose of it on the understanding that there is no nourishment for such a 9.52 one." What Echetus or Phalaris has legislated such things? Who has ever dared such pollutions with blood, as if doing lawful things? For by commanding not to bring them to light, he is doubtless enjoining to destroy the infants with abortifacient drugs, and those that survive the poisonous drug and are born, to dispose of them so that they not enjoy even common care, but are destroyed either by hunger or cold or become prey for wild beasts. What excess of cruelty do these things leave behind? 9.53 Such things, then, he has legislated concerning marriage and child-rearing; and what sort of things he relates concerning other licentiousness, is easy for one who wishes to learn. For he has supposed those who embrace unnatural lewdness to be blessed here and has said they will be happy when they depart from here; "For not a small prize," he says, "do they bear away for their love. For it is not the law for those who have already begun the heavenly journey to go any more into the darkness and the journey under the earth, but passing their life in brightness to be happy, journeying with one another, and winged for love's sake." And to these he adds these things: "O boy, and so divine will be the gift to you 9.54 of a lover's friendship." And he said these things not about those who love temperately, but about those who love licentiously; and it is easy to learn these things from his dialogues. Such a law neither Nero, the most shameful emperor of the Romans, nor Sardanapalus the Assyrian, notorious for his pleasures and luxuries, ever wrote or praised. For I think that even those who are excessively enslaved to sensual pleasures do not praise the passion, but serve it through time, 9.55 having made the custom a habit. And what need is there to say how many unlawful things he legislated also concerning murders? For he commands that the one who kills his own servant be unpunished, and the one who slays another's in a fit of anger pay only his price, and he decrees that the one who kills a free man in a fit of anger be exiled for only two years, and he commands that the one who kills with premeditation be exiled for three years, and the one who has done the same things after his exile he punishes with perpetual exile only. And he has legislated similar things also for fathers who kill children and for children who have killed fathers and for husbands who kill wives and for wives who kill husbands. 9.56 But the philosopher wrote such laws and has persuaded no one among men, not citizen, not foreigner, not townsman, not countryman, not Greek, not barbarian, not slave, not free, not man, not woman, not young, not old, not one brought up in letters, not one uninitiated in letters, to live according to these laws. 9.57 But I for my part will now read the laws which the fishermen and the tax collectors and the shoemaker brought to all men. And you, placing these and those side by side, marvel at the God-befitting rays of these. The philosopher, then, both admired licentious pederasty and pointed out its thrice-blessed prizes; but he

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νομοθετῆσαι κοινήν, ἀλλὰ φιλικὴν κοινωνίαν, καὶ οὐκ ἀκούουσι λέγοντος· "Καὶ οἰκήσεων καὶ ξυμποσίων καὶ γυμνασίων κοινωνοῦντες ἀλλήλοις, ὑπ' ἀνάγκης καὶ τῆς ἐμφύ 9.49 του ἐπιθυμίας ἄξονται πρὸς τὴν ἀλλήλων μῖξιν." Ἀλλ' ἴσως ἐρυθριῶντες ἐπὶ τοῖς καταγελάστοις τοῦ φιλοσόφου νόμοις, ξυγ καλύπτειν πειρῶνται τοῦ διδασκάλου τὴν ἁμαρτάδα· ἀλλ' ἔδει γε τῶν ἐκείνου λόγων ἀναμνησθῆναι, ὅτι φίλος μὲν ὁ ἀνὴρ, φίλη δὲ ἡ ἀλήθεια· ἀμφοῖν δὲ ὄντοιν φίλοιν, φίλτερον ἡ ἀλήθεια. 9.50 Ἀτὰρ οὖν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπακούσωμεν νόμων· αὐτοῦ γὰρ δὴ καὶ οὗτοι· "Γυναικὶ μέν, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, ἀρξαμένῃ ἀπὸ εἰκοσέτιδος τίκτειν τῇ πόλει· ἀνδρὶ δ' ἐπειδὰν τὴν ὀξυτάτην δρόμου ἀκμὴν παρῇ, τὸ ἀπὸ τούτου γεννᾶν τῇ πόλει μέχρι πεντεκαιπεντηκον ταετοῦς." Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν οὐ μάλα δήλην ἔχει τὴν βλάβην, τὰ δὲ ἑξῆς οὐ γέλωτος, ἀλλὰ καὶ θρήνων ἄξια καὶ πυρὸς τοὺς 9.51 παγκάλους ἀναλίσκοντος νόμους· λέγει γὰρ ταῦτα· "Ὅταν δὲ αἱ γυναῖκες οἵ τε ἄνδρες τοῦ γεννᾶν ἐκβῶσι τὴν ἡλικίαν, ἀφήσομέν που ἐλευθέρους αὐτοὺς ξυγγίνεσθαι, ὡς ἂν ἐθέλωσι .., διακελευ σάμενοι προθυμεῖσθαι μάλιστα μὴ εἰς φῶς ἐκφέρειν κύημα μηδέν, ἐὰν δέ τις βιάσηται, οὕτω τιθέναι, ὡς οὐκ οὔσης τροφῆς τῷ 9.52 τοιούτῳ." Τίς Ἔχετος ἢ Φάλαρις τοιαῦτα νενομοθέτηκε; τίς δὲ τοιαύτας μιαιφονίας, ὡς ἔννομά γε δρῶν, τετόλμηκε πώποτε; διακελευσάμενος γὰρ μὴ ἐκφέρειν εἰς φῶς, ἀμβλωθριδίοις δήπου διαφθείρειν φαρμάκοις τὰ βρέφη παρεγγυᾷ, τὰ δέ γε τοῦ δηλη τηρίου φαρμάκου περιγενόμενα καὶ τικτόμενα οὕτω τιθέναι, ὡς μηδὲ τῆς τυχούσης ἀπολαῦσαι κηδεμονίας, ἀλλ' ἢ λιμῷ ἢ κρυμῷ διαφθαρῆναι ἢ θηρίων γενέσθαι βοράν. Ποίαν ταῦτα ὠμότητος ὑπερβολὴν καταλείπει; 9.53 Τοιαῦτα μὲν δὴ περὶ γάμου καὶ παιδοποιΐας νενομοθέτηκεν· ὁποῖα δὲ καὶ περὶ τῆς ἄλλης ἀκολασίας διέξεισιν, εὐπετὲς τῷ βουλομένῳ καταμαθεῖν. Τοὺς γὰρ τὴν παρὰ φύσιν ἀσέλγειαν ἀσπαζομένους καὶ τῇδε μακαρίους ὑπείληφε καὶ ἐκδημήσαντας ἐντεῦθεν εὐδαίμονας ἔσεσθαι εἴρηκεν· "Οὐ μικρὸν" γάρ φησιν "ἆθλον τῆς ἐρωτικῆς φέρονται. Εἰς γὰρ σκότον καὶ τὴν ὑπὸ γῆς πορείαν οὐ νόμος ἐστὶν ἔτι ἐλθεῖν τοῖς κατηργμένοις ἤδη τῆς ὑπουρανίου πορείας, ἀλλὰ φανὸν βίον διάγοντας εὐδαιμονεῖν μετ' ἀλλήλων πορευομένους καὶ ὁμοπτέρους ἔρωτος χάριν." Τούτοις δὲ ἐπιλέγει ταῦτα· "Ὦ παῖ, καὶ οὕτω σοι θεία δωρήσεται 9.54 ἡ παρ' ἐραστοῦ φιλία." Καὶ ταῦτα οὐ περὶ τῶν σωφρόνως, ἀλλὰ περὶ τῶν ἀκολάστως ἐρώντων ἔφη· καὶ ῥᾴδιον ἐκ τῶν ἐκείνου διαλόγων ταῦτα μαθεῖν. Τοιοῦτον δὲ νόμον οὔτε Νέρων ὁ Ῥωμαίων αἰσχρότατος βασιλεὺς οὔτε Σαρδανάπαλος ὁ Ἀσσύριος, ὁ ἐν ἡδοναῖς καὶ τρυφαῖς διαβόητος, οὔτε ἔγραψεν οὔτε ἐπῄνεσε πώποτε. Ἐγὼ γὰρ οἶμαι καὶ τοὺς λίαν ταῖς ἡδυπαθείαις δουλεύοντας οὐκ ἐπαινεῖν τὸ πάθος, ἀλλὰ δουλεύειν τῷ χρόνῳ, 9.55 τὸ ἔθος ἕξιν ἐργασαμένους. Καὶ τί δεῖ λέγειν, ὅσα καὶ περὶ φόνων παρανόμως ἐνομοθέτησεν; Ἀθῷον μὲν γὰρ εἶναι κελεύει τὸν τὸν ἴδιον ἀναιροῦντα οἰκέτην, τὸν δὲ θυμῷ τὸν ἀλλότριον σφάττοντα τὴν τιμὴν μόνην ἐκτίνειν, τὸν δὲ θυμῷ τὸν ἐλεύθερον κτείναντα δύο μόνα φεύγειν ἔτη διαγορεύει, τὸν δὲ καὶ μετ' ἐπι βουλῆς ἀνελόντα τρία ἔτη προστάττει φεύγειν, τὸν δέ γε καὶ μετὰ τὴν φυγὴν τὰ αὐτὰ δεδρακότα ἀειφυγίᾳ ζημιοῖ μόνῃ. Παραπλήσια δὲ καὶ πατράσι παῖδας ἀνελοῦσι καὶ παισὶ πατέρας ἀπεκτονόσι καὶ ἀνδράσι γυναῖκας καὶ γυναιξὶν ἄνδρας νενομο θέτηκεν. 9.56 Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν φιλόσοφος τοιούσδε νόμους ξυνέγραψε καὶ οὐδένα πέπεικεν ἀνθρώπων, οὐ πολίτην, οὐ ξένον, οὐκ ἀστόν, οὐ χωρι τικόν, οὐχ Ἕλληνα, οὐ βάρβαρον, οὐ δοῦλον, οὐκ ἐλεύθερον, οὐκ ἄνδρα, οὐ γυναῖκα, οὐ νέον, οὐ πρεσβύτην, οὐ λόγοις ἐντε θραμμένον, οὐ λόγων ἀμύητον, κατὰ τούσδε βιῶναι τοὺς νόμους. 9.57 Ἐγὼ δὲ λοιπόν, οὓς οἱ ἁλιεῖς καὶ οἱ τελῶναι καὶ ὁ σκυτοτόμος ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις προσήνεγκαν, ἀναγνώσομαι νόμους. Ὑμεῖς δὲ τούτους κἀκείνους ἐκ παραλλήλου θέντες, τὰς θεοπρεπεῖς τούτων ἀκτῖνας θαυμάσατε. Ὁ μὲν οὖν φιλόσοφος καὶ τὴν ἀκόλαστον παιδεραστίαν ἐθαύ μασε καὶ τὰ τρισόλβια ταύτης ἐπιδέδειχεν ἆθλα· ὁ δὲ