[475a]
you
do not allege and there is nothing you shrink from saying to justify you in
not rejecting any who are in the bloom of their prime.”
“If it is your pleasure,” he said, “to take me
as your example of this trait in lovers, I admit it for the sake of the
argument.” “Again,” said I, “do you
not observe the same thing in the lovers of wine?1 They welcome
every wine on any pretext.” “They do, indeed.”
And so I take it you have observed that men who are covetous of honor,2 if they can't get themselves elected generals, are captains of
a company.3 And if they
can't be honored
1 Cf. Aristotle Eth. i. 8. 10ἑκάστῳ δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἡδὺ πρὸς ὃ λέγεται φιλοτοιοῦτος. Cf. the old Latin hexameters—“si bene quid memini causae suant quinque bibendi:/ Hospitis adventus, praesens sitis atque futura,/ Aut vini bonitas, aut quaelibet altera causa.”
2 Cf. Theophrastus, Char. 21 (Loeb)μικροφιλοτιμίας, petty pride.
3 τριττυαρχοῦσι, “command the soldiers of a trittys” or third of one of the ten tribes.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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