respect.

Soc. And which of the two would you take to be the more united
people--the friendlier among themselves?

Per. The Athenians, I should say, for so many sections of the Boeotians,
resenting the selfish policy (3) of Thebes, are ill disposed to that
power, but at Athens I see nothing of the sort.

(3) "The self-aggrandisement."

Soc. But perhaps you will say that there is no people more jealous of
honour or haughtier in spirit. (4) And these feelings are no weak
spurs to quicken even a dull spirit to hazard all for glory's sake and
fatherland.

(4) Reading {megalophronestatoi}, after Cobet. See "Hipparch," vii. 3;
or if as vulg. {philophronestatoi}, transl. "more affable."

Per. Nor is there much fault to find with Athenians in these respects.

Soc. And if we turn to consider the fair deeds of ancestry, (5) to
no people besides ourselves belongs so rich a heritage of stimulating
memories, whereby so many of us are stirred to pursue virtue with
devotion and to show ourselves in our turn also men of valour like our
sires.

(5) See Wesley's anthem, Eccles. xliv. 1, "Let us now praise famous
men and our fathers that begat us."

Per. All that you say, Socrates, is most true, but do you observe that
ever since the disaster of the thousand under Tolmides at Lebadeia,
coupled with that under Hippocrates at Delium, (6) the prestige of
Athens by comparison with the Boeotians has been lowered, whilst the
spirit of Thebes as against Athens had been correspondingly exalted, so
that those Boeotians who in old days did not venture to give battle
to the Athenians even in their own territory unless they had the
Lacedaemonians and the rest of the Peloponnesians to help them, do
nowadays threaten to make an incursion into Attica single-handed; and
the Athenians, who formerly, if they had to deal with the Boeotians (7)
only, made havoc of their territory, are now afraid the Boeotians may
some day harry Attica.

(6) Lebadeia, 447 B.C.; Delium, 424 B.C. For Tolmides and Hippocrates
see Thuc. i. 113; iv. 100 foll.; Grote, "H. G." v. 471; vi. 533.

(7) Reading {ote B. monoi}, al. {ou monoi}, "when the Boeotians were
not unaided."

To which Socrates: Yes, I perceive that this is so, but it seems to me
that the state was never more tractably disposed, never so ripe for
a really good leader, as to-day. For if boldness be the parent of
carelessness, laxity, and insubordination, it is the part of fear to