o.

ERYXIAS

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, Eryxias, Erasistratus, Critias.

SCENE: The portico of a temple of Zeus.

It happened by chance that Eryxias the Steirian was walking with me in
the Portico of Zeus the Deliverer, when there came up to us Critias
and Erasistratus, the latter the son of Phaeax, who was the nephew of
Erasistratus. Now Erasistratus had just arrived from Sicily and that
part of the world. As they approached, he said, Hail, Socrates!

SOCRATES: The same to you, I said; have you any good news from Sicily to
tell us?

ERASISTRATUS: Most excellent. But, if you please, let us first sit down;
for I am tired with my yesterday's journey from Megara.

SOCRATES: Gladly, if that is your desire.

ERASISTRATUS: What would you wish to hear first? he said. What the
Sicilians are doing, or how they are disposed towards our city? To my
mind, they are very like wasps: so long as you only cause them a little
annoyance they are quite unmanageable; you must destroy their nests
if you wish to get the better of them. And in a similar way, the
Syracusans, unless we set to work in earnest, and go against them with
a great expedition, will never submit to our rule. The petty injuries
which we at present inflict merely irritate them enough to make them
utterly intractable. And now they have sent ambassadors to Athens, and
intend, I suspect, to play us some trick.--While we were talking, the
Syracusan envoys chanced to go by, and Erasistratus, pointing to one of
them, said to me, That, Socrates, is the richest man in all Italy and
Sicily. For who has larger estates or more land at his disposal to
cultivate if he please? And they are of a quality, too, finer than any
other land in Hellas. Moreover, he has all the things which go to make
up wealth, slaves and horses innumerable, gold and silver without end.

I saw that he was inclined to expatiate on the riches of the man; so I
asked him, Well, Erasistratus, and what sort of character does he bear
in Sicily?

ERASISTRATUS: He is esteemed to be, and really is, the wickedest of
all the Sicilians and Italians, and even more wicked than he is rich;
indeed, if you were to ask any Sicilian whom he thought to be the worst
and the richest of mankind, you would never hear any one else named.

I reflected that we were speaking, not of trivial matters, but about
wealth and virtue, which are deemed to be of the greatest moment, and
I asked Erasistratus whom he c