nd custom in this
matter, though what has been already quoted from Pausanias, in the
_Symposium_ of Plato, may be taken fairly to express the code of honour
among gentlemen.

In the _Plutus_,[140] Aristophanes is careful to divide "boys with
lovers," into "the good," and "the strumpets." This distinction will
serve as basis for the following remarks. A very definite line was drawn
by the Athenians between boys who accepted the addresses of their lovers
because they liked them or because they were ambitious of comradeship
with men of spirit, and those who sold their bodies for money. Minute
inquiry was never instituted into the conduct of the former class; else
Alcibiades could not have made his famous declaration about
Socrates,[141] nor would Plato in the _Phaedrus_ have regarded an
occasional breach of chastity, under the compulsion of violent passion,
as a venial error.[142] The latter, on the other hand, besides being
visited with universal censure, were disqualified by law from exercising
the privileges of the franchise, from undertaking embassies, from
frequenting the Agora, and from taking part in public festivals, under
the penalty of death. AEschines, from whom we learn the wording of this
statute, adds:[143] "This law he passed with regard to youths who sin
with facility and readiness against their own bodies." He then proceeds
to define the true nature of prostitution, prohibited by law to the
citizens of Athens. It is this: "Any one who acts in this way towards a
single man, provided he do it with payment, seems to me to be liable to
the reproach in question."[144] The whole discussion turns upon the word
_Misthos_. The orator is cautious to meet the argument that a written
contract was necessary in order to construct a case of _Hetaireia_ at
law.[145] In the statute, he observes, there is no mention of "contract"
or "deed in writing." The offence has been sufficiently established
"when in any way whatever payment has been made."

In order to illustrate the feeling of the Athenians with regard to
making profit out of paiderastic relations, I may perhaps be permitted
to interrupt the analysis of AEschines by referring to Xenophon's
character (_Anab._ si, 6, 21) of the Strategus Menon. The whole tenor of
his judgment is extremely unfavourable toward this man, who invariable
pursued selfish and mean aims, debasing virtuous qualities like ambition
and industry in the mere pursuit of wealth and power. He was, in