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of shepherds such a man must become, with the wall built about him a sheepfold on a mountain. And when he hears that someone possesses ten thousand plethra of land or even more, possessing a wondrous amount, he thinks he hears of very small things, 12.29.10 accustomed as he is to looking at the whole earth. And when they sing the praises of families, how someone is noble for being able to show seven wealthy grandfathers, he considers the praise to come from men who are altogether dull and short-sighted, unable through lack of education to look always at the whole and to reckon that every man has had countless myriads of grandfathers and ancestors, among whom rich and poor and kings and slaves, barbarians and Greeks, have been many thousands of times for anyone, but when they pride themselves on a list of twenty-five ancestors and trace it back to Heracles, the son of Amphitryon, their pettiness appears absurd to him, that the twenty-fifth ancestor of Amphitryon was such as fortune happened to make him, and the fiftieth from him, he laughs that they are unable to reckon and 12.29.11 to rid a foolish soul of vanity. In all these things, then, such a man is laughed at by the many, being on the one hand, as it seems, arrogant, and on the other ignorant of what is at his feet and at a loss in every particular. You describe what happens perfectly, O Socrates. 12.29.12 But when he himself, my friend, draws someone upwards, and someone is willing to leave behind for him "what wrong do I do you or you me" for an examination of justice and injustice itself, what each of them is and in what they differ from all other things or from one another, or from "if a king is happy who possesses much gold" to an examination of kingship and of human happiness and misery in general, of what sort they both are and in what way it is proper for human nature to acquire the one and flee the other; when concerning all these things that small, sharp, legalistic soul must in turn give an account, then in turn he gives the reverse; dizzy from being suspended at a height and looking down from above, out of inexperience he is distressed and perplexed and stammers, providing laughter not for Thracian maids nor for any other uneducated person—for they do not perceive it—but for all who have been brought up in the opposite way 12.29.13 to slaves. This, then, Theodorus, is the character of each: the one, of the man who has been truly brought up in freedom and leisure, whom you call a philosopher, for whom it is no disgrace to seem simple and to be of no account when he encounters servile tasks, like not knowing how to pack up a bed-roll, nor how to sweeten a relish or flattering speeches; the other, of the man who can perform all such services rightly and quickly, but does not know how to throw on his cloak on the right like a free man, nor, having grasped the harmony of words, to hymn rightly the true life of gods and of blessed men. 12.29.14 If you could persuade all men, O Socrates, of what you say as you persuade me, there would be more peace and fewer evils among men. But it is not possible for evils to be destroyed, Theodorus—for there must always be something opposed to the good—nor for them to be established among the gods, but of necessity they haunt mortal nature 12.29.15 and this place. Therefore one must try to flee from here to there as quickly as possible. And flight is likeness to God as far as is possible; and likeness is to become just and holy with wisdom. But, my good sir, it is not at all easy to persuade men that the reasons for which the many say one ought to flee from wickedness and pursue virtue are not the reasons for which the one should be practiced and the other not, namely, 12.29.16 so that one may not seem to be bad and that one may seem to be good. For these are what is called an old wives' tale, as it seems to me, but the truth we speak as follows: God is in no way and in no manner unjust, but is as just as possible, and there is nothing more like him than whoever of us in turn becomes as just as possible. Concerning this is both the true 12.29.17 cleverness of a man, and his nothingness and unmanliness. For the knowledge of this is true wisdom and virtue, and the ignorance of it is manifest ignorance and vice; but the other seeming clevernesses and

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τῶν νομέων τὸν τοιοῦτον ἀναγκαῖον γίγνεσθαι, σηκὸν ἐν ὄρει τὸ τεῖχος περιβεβλημένον. γῆς δὲ ὅταν μυρία πλέθρα ἢ ἔτι πλείω ἀκούσῃ, ὅστις ἄρα κεκτημένος θαυμαστὰ πλήθει κέκτηται, πάνσμικρα δοκεῖ ἀκούειν, 12.29.10 εἰς ἅπασαν εἰωθὼς τὴν γῆν βλέπειν. τὰ δὲ δὴ γένη ὑμνούντων, ὡς γενναῖός τις ἑπτὰ πάππους πλουσίους ἔχων ἀποφῆναι, παντάπασιν ἀμβλὺ καὶ ἐπὶ σμικρὸν ὁρώντων ἡγεῖται τὸν ἔπαινον, ὑπὸ ἀπαιδευσίας οὐ δυναμένων εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἀεὶ βλέπειν οὐδὲ λογίζεσθαι ὅτι πάππων καὶ προγόνων μυριάδες ἑκάστῳ γεγόνασιν ἀναρίθμητοι, ἐν αἷς πλούσιοι καὶ πτωχοὶ καὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ δοῦλοι βάρβαροί τε καὶ Ἕλληνες πολλάκις μυρίοι γεγόνασιν ὁτῳοῦν, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι καταλόγῳ προγόνων σεμνυνομένων ἢ καὶ ἀναφερόντων εἰς Ἡρακλέα τὸν Ἀμφιτρύωνος ἄτοπα αὐτῷ καταφαίνεται τῆς σμικρολογίας, ὅτι δὲ ὁ Ἀμφιτρύωνος εἰς τὸ ἄνω πεντεκαιεικοστὸς ἦν οἵα συνέβαινεν αὐτῷ τύχη, καὶ ὁ πεντηκοστὸς ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, γελᾷ οὐ δυναμένων λογίζεσθαί τε καὶ 12.29.11 χαυνότητα ἀνοήτου ψυχῆς ἀπαλλάττειν. ἐν ἅπασι δὴ τούτοις ὁ τοιοῦτος ὑπὸ τῶν πολλῶν καταγελᾶται, τὰ μὲν ὑπερηφάνως ἔχων, ὡς δοκεῖ, τὰ δ' ἐν ποσὶν ἀγνοῶν τε καὶ ἐν ἑκάστοις ἀπορῶν. Παντάπασι τὰ γιγνόμενα λέγεις, ὦ Σώκρατες. 12.29.12 Ὅταν δέ γέ τινα αὐτός, ὦ φίλε, ἑλκύσῃ ἄνω καὶ ἐθελήσῃ τις αὐτῷ ἐκβῆναι ἐκ τοῦ «τί ἐγώ σε ἀδικῶ ἢ σὺ ἐμὲ» εἰς σκέψιν αὖ τῆς δικαιοσύνης τε καὶ ἀδικίας τί τε ἑκάτερον αὐτοῖν καὶ τί τῶν πάντων ἢ ἀλλήλων διαφέρετον, ἢ ἐκ τοῦ «εἰ βασιλεὺς εὐδαίμων κεκτημένος πολὺ χρυσίον» ἢ βασιλείας πέρι καὶ ἀνθρωπίνης ὅλως εὐδαιμονίας καὶ ἀθλιότητος ἐπὶ σκέψιν, ποίω τέ τινέ ἐστον καὶ τίνα τρόπον ἀνθρώπου φύσει τὸ μὲν κτήσασθαι αὐτοῖν προσήκει, τὸ δὲ ἀποφυγεῖν· περὶ πάντων τούτων ὅταν αὖ δέῃ λόγον διδόναι τὸν σμικρὸν ἐκεῖνον τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ δριμὺν καὶ δικανικόν, πάλιν αὖ τὰ ἀντίστροφα ἀποδίδωσιν· ἰλιγγιῶν τε ἀπὸ ὑψηλοῦ κρεμασθεὶς καὶ βλέπων μετέωρος ἄνωθεν ὑπὸ ἀηθείας ἀδημονῶν τε καὶ ἀπορῶν καὶ βαρβαρίζων γέλωτα Θρᾴτταις μὲν οὐ παρέχει οὐδ' ἄλλῳ ἀπαιδεύτῳ οὐδενί οὐ γὰρ αἰσθάνονται, τοῖς δ' ἐναντίως 12.29.13 ἢ ὡς ἀνδραπόδοις τραφεῖσι πᾶσιν. οὗτος δὴ ἑκατέρου τρόπος, ὦ Θεόδωρε, ὁ μὲν τῷ ὄντι ἐλευθερίᾳ τε καὶ σχολῇ τεθραμμένου, ὃν δὴ φιλόσοφον καλεῖς, ᾧ ἀνεμέσητον εὐήθει δοκεῖν καὶ οὐδενὶ εἶναι, ὅταν εἰς δουλικὰ ἐμπέσῃ διακονήματα, οἷον στρωματόδεσμον μὴ ἐπισταμένου συσκευάσασθαι μηδὲ ὄψον ἡδῦναι ἢ θῶπας λόγους· τοῦ δ' αὖ τὰ μὲν τοιαῦτα πάντα δυναμένου ὀρθῶς τε καὶ ὀξέως διακονεῖν, ἀναβάλλεσθαι δὲ οὐκ ἐπισταμένου ἐπιδέξια ἐλευθέρως οὐδ' ἁρμονίαν λόγων λαβόντος ὀρθῶς ὑμνῆσαι θεῶν τε καὶ ἀνδρῶν εὐδαιμόνων βίον ἀληθῆ. 12.29.14 Εἰ πάντας, ὦ Σώκρατες, πείθοις ἃ λέγεις ὥσπερ ἐμέ, πλείων ἂν εἰρήνη καὶ κακὰ ἐλάττω κατ' ἀνθρώπους εἴη. Ἀλλ' οὔτ' ἀπολέσθαι τὰ κακὰ δυνατόν, ὦ Θεόδωρε ὑπεναντίον γάρ τι τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἀεὶ εἶναι ἀνάγκη οὔτ' ἐν θεοῖς αὐτὰ ἰδρῦσθαι, τὴν δὲ θνητὴν φύσιν 12.29.15 καὶ τόνδε τὸν τόπον περιπολεῖ ἐξ ἀνάγκης. διὸ καὶ πειρᾶσθαι χρὴ ἐνθένδε ἐκεῖσε φεύγειν ὅτι τάχιστα. φυγὴ δὲ ὁμοίωσις θεῷ κατὰ τὸ δυνατόν· ὁμοίω σις δὲ δίκαιον καὶ ὅσιον μετὰ φρονήσεως γενέσθαι. ἀλλὰ γάρ, ὦ ἄριστε, οὐ πάνυ τι ῥᾴδιον πεῖσαι ὡς ἄρα οὐχ ὧν ἕνεκα οἱ πολλοί φασι δεῖν πονηρίαν μὲν φεύγειν, ἀρετὴν δὲ διώκειν, τούτων χάριν τὸ μὲν ἐπιτηδευτέον, τὸ δ' οὔ, ἵνα 12.29.16 δὴ μὴ κακὸς καὶ ἵνα ἀγαθὸς δοκῇ εἶναι. ταῦτα μὲν γάρ ἐστιν ὁ λεγόμενος γραῶν ὕθλος, ὡς ἐμοὶ φαίνεται, τὸ δὲ ἀληθὲς ὧδε λέγομεν· θεὸς οὐδαμῆ οὐδαμῶς ἄδικος, ἀλλ' ὡς οἷόν τε δικαιότατος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτῷ ὁμοιότερον οὐδὲν ἢ ὃς ἂν ἡμῶν αὖ γένηται ὅτι δικαιότατος. περὶ τοῦτο καὶ ἡ ὡς ἀληθῶς 12.29.17 δεινότης ἀνδρὸς καὶ ἡ οὐδένειά τε καὶ ἀνανδρία. ἡ μὲν γὰρ τούτου γνῶσις σοφία καὶ ἀρετὴ ἀληθινή, ἡ δὲ ἄγνοια ἀμαθία καὶ κακία ἐναργής· αἱ δ' ἄλλαι δεινότητές τε δοκοῦσαι καὶ