There is no difficulty, I said, in seeing how war will be carried on by them.
How ?
Why, of course they will go on expeditions together ; and will take with them any of their children who are strong enough, that, after the manner of the artisan’s child, they may look on at the work which they will have to do when they are grown up ; and besides looking on they will have to help and be of use in war, and to wait upon their fathers and mothers. Did you never observe in the arts how the potters’ boys look on and help, long before they touch the wheel ?
Yes, I have.
And shall potters be more careful in educating their children and in giving them the opportunity of seeing and practising their duties than our guardians will be ?
The idea is ridiculous, he said.
There is also the effect on the parents, with whom, as with other animals, the presence of their young ones will be the greatest incentive to valor.
That is quite true, Socrates ; and yet if they are defeated, which may often happen in war, how great the danger is ! the children will be lost as well as their parents, and the State will never recover.
True, I said ; but would you never allow them to run any risk ?
I am far from saying that.
Well, but if they are ever to run a risk should they not do so on some occasion when, if they escape disaster, they will be the better for it ?
Clearly.
Whether the future soldiers do or do not see war in the days of their youth is a very important matter, for the sake of which some risk may fairly be incurred.
Yes, very important.
This then must be our first step — to make our children spectators of war ; but we must also contrive that they shall be secured against danger ; then all will be well.
True.
Their parents may be supposed not to be blind to the risks of war, but to know, as far as human foresight can, what expeditions are safe and what dangerous ?
That may be assumed.
And they will take them on the safe expeditions and be cautious about the dangerous ones ?
True.
And they will place them under the command of experienced veterans who will be their leaders and teachers ?
Very properly.
Still, the dangers of war cannot be always foreseen ; there is a good deal of chance about them ?
True.
Then against such chances the children must be at once furnished with wings, in order that in the hour of need they may fly away and escape.
What do you mean ? he said.
I mean that we must mount them on horses in their earliest youth, and when they have learnt to ride, take them on horseback to see war : the horses must not be spirited and warlike, but the most tractable and yet the swiftest that can be had. In this way they will get an excellent view of what is hereafter to be their own business ; and if there is danger they have only to follow their elder leaders and escape.
I believe that you are right, he said.
Next, as to war ; what are to be the relations of your soldiers to one another and to their enemies ? I should be inclined to propose that the soldier who leaves his rank or throws away his arms, or is guilty of any other act of cowardice, should be degraded into the rank of a husbandman or artisan. What do you think ?
By all means, I should say.
And he who allows himself to be taken prisoner may as well be made a present of to his enemies ; he is their lawful prey, and let them do what they like with him.
Certainly.
But the hero who has distinguished himself, what shall be done to him ? In the first place, he shall receive honor in the army from his youthful comrades ; every one of them in succession shall crown him. What do you say ?
I approve.
And what do you say to his receiving the right hand of fellowship ?
To that too, I agree.
But you will hardly agree to my next proposal.
What is your proposal ?
That he should kiss and be kissed by them.
Most certainly, and I should be disposed to go further, and say : Let no one whom he has a mind to kiss refuse to be kissed by him while the expedition lasts. So that if there be a lover in the army, whether his love be youth or maiden, he may be more eager to win the prize of valor.
Capital, I said. That the brave man is to have more wives than others has been already determined : and he is to have first choices in such matters more than others, in order that he may have as many children as possible ?
Agreed.
Again, there is another manner in which, according to Homer, brave youths should be honored ; for he tells how Ajax, after he had distinguished himself in battle, was rewarded with long chines, which seems to be a compliment appropriate to a hero in the flower of his age, being not only a tribute of honor but also a very strengthening thing.
Most true, he said.
Then in this, I said, Homer shall be our teacher ; and we too, at sacrifices and on the like occasions, will honor the brave according to the measure of their valor, whether men or women, with hymns and those other distinctions which we were mentioning ; also with
“seats of precedence, and meats and full cups ;”
and in honoring them, we shall be at the same time training them.
That, he replied, is excellent.
Yes, I said ; and when a man dies gloriously in war shall we not say, in the first place, that he is of the golden race ?
To be sure.
Nay, have we not the authority of Hesiod for affirming that when they are dead
“They are holy angels upon the earth, authors of good, averters of evil, the guardians of speech-gifted men” ?
Yes ; and we accept his authority.
We must learn of the god how we are to order the sepulture of divine and heroic personages, and what is to be their special distinction ; and we must do as he bids ?
By all means.
And in ages to come we will reverence them and kneel before their sepulchres as at the graves of heroes. And not only they but any who are deemed pre-eminently good, whether they die from age or in any other way, shall be admitted to the same honors.
That is very right, he said.
Next, how shall our soldiers treat their enemies ? What about this ?
In what respect do you mean ?
First of all, in regard to slavery ? Do you think it right that Hellenes should enslave Hellenic States, or allow others to enslave them, if they can help ? Should not their custom be to spare them, considering the danger which there is that the whole race may one day fall under the yoke of the barbarians ?
To spare them is infinitely better.
Then no Hellene should be owned by them as a slave ; that is a rule which they will observe and advise the other Hellenes to observe.
Certainly, he said ; they will in this way be united against the barbarians and will keep their hands off one another.
Next as to the slain ; ought the conquerors, I said, to take anything but their armor ? Does not the practice of despoiling an enemy afford an excuse for not facing the battle ? Cowards skulk about the dead, pretending that they are fulfilling a duty, and many an army before now has been lost from this love of plunder.
Very true.
And is there not illiberality and avarice in robbing a corpse, and also a degree of meanness and womanishness in making an enemy of the dead body when the real enemy has flown away and left only his fighting gear behind him — is not this rather like a dog who cannot get at his assailant, quarrelling with the stones which strike him instead ?
Very like a dog, he said.
Then we must abstain from spoiling the dead or hindering their burial ?
Yes, he replied, we most certainly must.
Neither shall we offer up arms at the temples of the gods, least of all the arms of Hellenes, if we care to maintain good feeling with other Hellenes ; and, indeed, we have reason to fear that the offering of spoils taken from kinsmen may be a pollution unless commanded by the god himself ?
Very true.
Again, as to the devastation of Hellenic territory or the burning of houses, what is to be the practice ?
May I have the pleasure, he said, of hearing your opinion ?
Both should be forbidden, in my judgment ; I would take the annual produce and no more. Shall I tell you why ?
Pray do.
Why, you see, there is a difference in the names “discord” and “war,” and I imagine that there is also a difference in their natures ; the one is expressive of what is internal and domestic, the other of what is external and foreign ; and the first of the two is termed discord, and only the second, war.
That is a very proper distinction, he replied.
And may I not observe with equal propriety that the Hellenic race is all united together by ties of blood and friendship, and alien and strange to the barbarians ?
Very good, he said.
And therefore when Hellenes fight with barbarians, and barbarians with Hellenes, they will be described by us as being at war when they fight, and by nature enemies, and this kind of antagonism should be called war ; but when Hellenes fight with one another we shall say that Hellas is then in a state of disorder and discord, they being by nature friends ; and such enmity is to be called discord.
I agree.
Consider then, I said, when that which we have acknowledged to be discord occurs, and a city is divided, if both parties destroy the lands and burn the houses of one another, how wicked does the strife appear ! No true lover of his country would bring himself to tear in pieces his own nurse and mother : There might be reason in the conqueror depriving the conquered of their harvest, but still they would have the idea of peace in their hearts, and would not mean to go on fighting forever.
Yes, he said, that is a better temper than the other.
And will not the city, which you are founding, be an Hellenic city ?
It ought to be, he replied.
Then will not the citizens be good and civilized ?
Yes, very civilized.
And will they not be lovers of Hellas, and think of Hellas as their own land, and share in the common temples ?
Most certainly.
And any difference which arises among them will be regarded by them as discord only — a quarrel among friends, which is not to be called a war ?
Certainly not.
Then they will quarrel as those who intend some day to be reconciled ? Certainly.
They will use friendly correction, but will not enslave or destroy their opponents ; they will be correctors, not enemies ?
Just so.
And as they are Hellenes themselves they will not devastate Hellas, nor will they burn houses, nor ever suppose that the whole population of a city — men, women, and children — are equally their enemies, for they know that the guilt of war is always confined to a few persons and that the many are their friends. And for all these reasons they will be unwilling to waste their lands and raze their houses ; their enmity to them will only last until the many innocent sufferers have compelled the guilty few to give satisfaction ?
I agree, he said, that our citizens should thus deal with their Hellenic enemies ; and with barbarians as the Hellenes now deal with one another.
Then let us enact this law also for our guardians : that they are neither to devastate the lands of Hellenes nor to burn their houses.