Laches | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher

LACHES
by PLATO

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

INTRODUCTION.
Lysimachus, the son of Aristides the Just, and Melesias, the son of the

elder Thucydides, two aged men who live together, are desirous of
educating their sons in the best manner. Their own education, as often
happens with the sons of great men, has been neglected; and they are
resolved that their children shall have more care taken of them, than
they received themselves at the hands of their fathers.
At their request, Nicias and Laches have accompanied them to see a
man named Stesilaus fighting in heavy armour. The two fathers ask the
two generals what they think of this exhibition, and whether they would
advise that their sons should acquire the accomplishment. Nicias and
Laches are quite willing to give their opinion; but they suggest that
Socrates should be invited to take part in the consultation. He is a
stranger to Lysimachus, but is afterwards recognised as the son of his
old friend Sophroniscus, with whom he never had a difference to the
hour of his death. Socrates is also known to Nicias, to whom he had
introduced the excellent Damon, musician and sophist, as a tutor for his
son, and to Laches, who had witnessed his heroic behaviour at the
battle of Delium (compare Symp.).
Socrates, as he is younger than either Nicias or Laches, prefers to wait
until they have delivered their opinions, which they give in a
characteristic manner. Nicias, the tactician, is very much in favour of
the new art, which he describes as the gymnastics of war--useful when
the ranks are formed, and still more useful when they are broken;
creating a general interest in military studies, and greatly adding to the
appearance of the soldier in the field. Laches, the blunt warrior, is of
opinion that such an art is not knowledge, and cannot be of any value,
because the Lacedaemonians, those great masters of arms, neglect it.
His own experience in actual service has taught him that these
pretenders are useless and ridiculous. This man Stesilaus has been seen
by him on board ship making a very sorry exhibition of himself. The
possession of the art will make the coward rash, and subject the
courageous, if he chance to make a slip, to invidious remarks. And now
let Socrates be taken into counsel. As they differ he must decide.
Socrates would rather not decide the question by a plurality of votes: in
such a serious matter as the education of a friend's children, he would
consult the one skilled person who has had masters, and has works to
show as evidences of his skill. This is not himself; for he has never
been able to pay the sophists for instructing him, and has never had the

wit to do or discover anything. But Nicias and Laches are older and
richer than he is: they have had teachers, and perhaps have made
discoveries; and he would have trusted them entirely, if they had not
been diametrically opposed.
Lysimachus here proposes to resign the argument into the hands of the
younger part of the company, as he is old, and has a bad memory. He
earnestly requests Socrates to remain;--in this showing, as Nicias says,
how little he knows the man, who will certainly not go away until he
has cross-examined the company about their past lives. Nicias has often
submitted to this process; and Laches is quite willing to learn from
Socrates, because his actions, in the true Dorian mode, correspond to
his words.
Socrates proceeds: We might ask who are our teachers? But a better
and more thorough way of examining the question will be to ask, 'What
is Virtue?'--or rather, to