Anacharsis, or Athletics (31-35)

ANACHARSIS Then if the enemy attack you, Solon, you yourselves will take the field rubbed with oil and covered with dust, shaking your fists at them, and they, of course, will cower at your feet and run away, fearing that while they are agape in stupefaction you may sprinkle sand in their mouths, or that after jumping behind them so as to get on their backs, you may wind your legs about their bellies and strangle them by putting an arm under their helmets. Yes, by Zeus, they will shoot their arrows, naturally, and throw their spears, but the missiles will not affect you any more than as if you were statues, tanned as you are by the sun and supplied in abundance with blood. You are not straw or chaff, so as to give in quickly under their blows; it would be only after Jong and strenuous effort, when you are all cut up with deep wounds, that you would show a few drops of blood. This is the gist of what you say, unless I have completely misunderstood your comparison.

Or else you will then assume those panoplies of the comedians and tragedians, and if a sally is proposed to you, you will put on those wide-mouthed headpieces in order

In your present condition, it seems to me that you are being saved by the grace of some god or other, seeing that you have not yet been wiped out by the onfall ef a handful of light-armed troops. Look here, if I should draw this little dirk at my belt and fall upon all your young men by myself, I should capture the gymnasium with a mere hurrah, for they would run away and not one would dare to face the steel; no, they would gather about the statues and hide behind the pillars, making me laugh while most of them cried and trembled. Then you would see that they were no longer ruddy-bodied as they

SOLON The Thracians who campaigned against us with Eumolpus did not say so, Anacharsis, nor your women who marched against the. city with Hippolyta,[*] nor any others who have tested us under arms. It does not follow, my unsophisticated friend, that because our young men’s bodies are thus naked while we are developing them, they are therefore undefended by armour when we lead them out into dangers. When they become efficient in themselves, they are then trained with arms and can make far better use of them because they are so well conditioned.

ANACHARSIS Where do you do this training under arms? I have not seen anything of the sort in the city, though I have gone all about the whole of it.

SOLON But you would see it, Anacharsis, if you should stop with us longer, and also arms for every man in great quantity, which we use when it is necessary, and crests and trappings and horses, and cavalrymen amounting to nearly a fourth of our citizens. But to bear arms always and carry a dirk at one’s belt is, we think, superfluous in time of peace; in fact, there is a penalty prescribed for anyone who carries

ANACHARSIS Then is it possible, Solon, that while you think it superfluous to carry weapons without urgent reason, and are careful of your arms in order that they may not be spoiled by handling, keeping them in store with the intention of using them some day, when need arises; yet when no danger threatens you wear out the bodies of your young men by mauling them and wasting them away in sweat, not husbanding their strength until it is needed but expending it fruitlessly in the mud and dust?

SOLON Apparently, Anacharsis, you think that strength is like wine or water or some other liquid. Anyhow, you are afraid that during exertions it may leak away unnoticed as if from an earthen jar, and then