Consequently a man like that cannot help keeping
well and holding out protractedly under exhausting
labours; it would be long before he would begin

 

to sweat, and he would rarely be found ill. It
is as if you should take firebrands and throw them
simultaneously into the wheat itself and into its
straw and chaff—for I am going back again to the
winnower. The straw, I take it, would blaze up
far more quickly, while the wheat would burn
slowly, not with a great blaze springing up nor
at a single burst, but smouldering gradually, until in
course of time it too was totally consumed.
Neither illness nor fatigue, then, could easily
invade and rack such a body, or readily overmaster
it; for it has been well stocked within and very
strongly fortified against them without, so as not
to admit them, nor yet to receive either sun itself
or frost to the detriment of the body. To prevent
giving way under hardships, abundant energy that
gushes up from within, since it has been made
ready long beforehand and stored away for the
emergency, fills them at once, watering them with
vigour, and makes them unwearying for a very long
period, for their great preliminary hardships and
fatigues do not squander their strength but increase
it; the more you fan its flame, the greater it
becomes.
 
Furthermore, we train them to be good runners,
habituating them to hold out for a long distance,
and also making them light-footed for extreme
speed in a short distance. And the running is not
done on hard, resisting ground but in deep sand,
where it is not easy to plant one’s foot solidly
or to get a purchase with it, since it slips from under
one as the sand gives way beneath it. We also
train them to jump a ditch, if need be, or any other
obstacle, even carrying lead weights as large as they

 

can grasp. Then too they compete in throwing
the javelin for distance. And you saw another
implement in the gymnasium, made of bronze, circular, resembling a little shield without handle or
straps; in fact, you tested it as it lay there, and
thought it heavy and hard to hold on account of
its smoothness. Well, they throw that high into the
air and also to a distance, vying to see who can
go the farthest and throw beyond the rest. This
exercise strengthens their shoulders and puts muscle
into their arms and legs.
 
As for the mud and the dust, which you thought
rather ludicrous in the beginning, you amazing
person, let me tell you why it is put down. In
the first place, so that instead of taking their
tumbles on a hard surface they may fall with impunity on a soft one; secondly, their slipperiness
is necessarily greater when they are sweaty and
muddy. This feature, in which you compared them
to eels, is not useless or ludicrous; it contributes not a little to strength and muscle when
both are in this condition and each has to grip
the other firmly and hold him fast while he
tries to slip away. And as for picking up a.
man who is muddy, sweaty, and oily while he
does his best to break away and squirm out of
your hands, do not think it a trifle! All this,
as I said before, is of use in war, in case one
should need to pick up a wounded friend and carry
him out of the fight with ease, or to snatch up
an enemy and come back with him in one’s arms,
So we train them beyond measure, setting them
hard tasks that: they may manage smaller ones with
far greater ease.

 
 
The dust we think to be of use for the opposite
purpose, to prevent them from slipping away when
they are grasped. After they have been trained
in the mud to hold fast what eludes them because
of its oiliness, they are given practice in escaping
out of their opponent’s hands when they themselves
are caught, even though they are held in a sure grip.
Moreover, the dust, sprinkled on when the sweat is
pouring out in profusion, is thought to check it; it
makes their strength endure long, and hinders them
from being harmed by the wind blowing upon their
bodies, which are then unresisting and have the
pores open. Besides, it rubs off the dirt and makes
the man cleaner. I should like to put side by side
one of those white-skinned fellows who have lived
in the shade and any one you might select of the
athletes in the Lyceum, after I had washed off the
mud and the dust, and to ask you which of the two
you would pray to be like. I know that even
without testing each to see what he could do, you
would immediately choose on first sight to be firm
and hard rather than delicate and mushy and white
because your blood is scanty and withdraws to the
interior of the body.
 
That, Anacharsis, is the training we give our
young men, expecting them to become stout
guardians of our city, and that we shall live in
freedom through them, conquering our foes if they
attack us and keeping our neighbours in dread of us,
so that most of them will cower at our feet and pay
tribute. In peace, too, we find them far better,
for nothing that is base appeals to their ambitions


 

and idleness does not incline them to arrogance,
but exercises such as these give them diversion and
keep them occupied. The chief good of the public
and the supreme felicity of the state, which I
mentioned before, are attained when our young men,
striving at our behest for the fairest objects, have been
most efficiently prepared both for peace and for
war.