ANACHARSIS 
I do not understand this at all, Solon; what you
have said is too subtle for me, requiring keen intellect
and penetrating discernment. But do by all means
tell me why it is that in the Olympic and Isthmian
and Pythian and the other games, where many, you
say, come together to see the young men competing,
you never match them under arms but bring them
out naked and show them receiving kicks and blows,
and when they have won you give them apples and
parsley. It is worth while to know why you do so

 

 SOLON 
We think, Anacharsis, that their zeal for the
athletic exercises will be increased if they see those
who excel in them receiving honours and having
their names proclaimed before the assembled Greeks.
For this reason, expecting to appear unclothed
before so many people, they try to attain good
physical condition so that they may not be ashamed
of themselves when they are stripped, and each
makes himself as fit to win as he can. Furthermore,
the prizes, as I said before, are not trivial—to be
praised by the spectators, to become a man of mark,
and to be pointed at with the finger as the best of
one’s class. Therefore many of the spectators, who
are still young enough for training, go away immoderately in love with manfulness and hard work
as a result of all this. Really, Anacharsis, if the
love of fame should be banished out of the world,
what new blessing should we ever acquire, or who
would want to do any glorious deed? But as things
are, even from these contests they give you an opportunity to infer what they would be in war, defending
country, children, wives, and fanes with weapons
and armour, when contending naked for parsley and
apples they bring into it so much zeal for victory.

 

What would your feelings be if you should see
quail-fights and cock-fights here among us, and no
little interest taken in them? You would laugh, of
course, particularly if you discovered that we do it in
compliance with law, and that all those of military age
are required to present themselves and watch the
birds spar to the uttermost limit of exhaustion. Yet
this is not laughable, either: their souls are gradually
penetrated by an appetite for dangers, in order that

 

they may not seem baser and more cowardly than
the cocks, and may not show the white feather early
on account of wounds or weariness or any other
hardship.

 

As for testing them under arms, and watching
them get wounded—no! It is bestial and terribly
cruel and, more than that, unprofitable to kill off
the most efficient men who can be used to better
advantage against the enemy.
As you say that you intend to visit the rest of
Greece, Anacharsis, bear it in mind if ever you go to
Sparta not to laugh at them, either, and not to suppose that they are exerting themselves for nothing
when they rush together and strike one another in
the theatre over a ball, or when they go into a place
surrounded by water, divide into companies and treat
one another like enemies, naked as with us, until one
company drives the other out of the enclosure,
crowding them into the water—the Heraclids driving
out the Lycurgids, or the reverse—after which there
is peace in future and nobody would think of striking
a blow. Above all, do not laugh if you see them
getting flogged at the altar and dripping blood while
their fathers and mothers stand by and are so far
from being distressed by what is going on that they
actually threaten to punish them if they should not
bear up under the stripes, and beseech them to
endure the pain as long as possible and be staunch
under the torture. Asa matter of fact, many have
died in the competition, not deigning to give in before
the eyes of their kinsmen while they still had life in
them, or even to move a muscle of their bodies; you
will see honours paid to their statues, which have
been set up at public cost by the state of Sparta.

 

When you see all that, do not suppose them crazy,
and do not say that they are undergoing misery without any stringent reason, since it is due neither to a
tyrant’s violence nor to an enemy’s maltreatment.
Lycurgus, their law-giver, could defend it by telling
you many good reasons which he has discerned for
punishing them; he is not unfriendly to them,
and does not do it out of hatred, nor is he
wantonly wasting the young blood of the city, but
he desires that those who are destined to preserve
their country should be tremendously staunch and
superior to every fear. Yet, even if Lycurgus does
not say so, you see for yourself, I suppose, that such
aman, on being captured in war, would never betray
any Spartan secret under torture inflicted by the
enemy, but would laugh at them and take his
whipping, matching himself against his flogger to see
which would give in.
 ANACHARSIS 
But how about Lycurgus himself, Solon? Did he
get flogged in his youth, or was he then over the agelimit for the competition, so that he could introduce
such an innovation with impunity?
 SOLON 
He was an old man when he made the laws for
them on his return from Crete. He had gone to
visit the Cretans because he was told that they
enjoyed the best laws, since Minos, a son of Zeus,
had been their law-giver.

 

 ANACHARSIS 
Then why is it, Solon, that you have not imitated
Lycurgus and do not flog your young men? It isa
splendid practice, and worthy of you Athenians!
 SOLON 
Because we are content, Anacharsis, with these
exercises, which are our own; we do not much care
to copy foreign fashions.
 ANACHARSIS 
No: you understand, I think, what it is like to be
flogged naked, holding up one’s arms, for no advantage either to the individual himself or to the city in
general. Oh, if ever I am at Sparta at the time
when they are doing this, I expect I shall very soon
be stoned to death by them publicly for laughing at
them every time I see them getting beaten like
robbers or sneak-thieves or similar malefactors.
Really, it seems to me that the city stands in need
of hellebore The specific for insanity. if it mishandles itself so ridiculously.
 SOLON 
Do not think, my worthy friend, that you are winning your case by default, or in the absence of your
adversaries, as the only speaker. There will be
someone or other in Sparta who will reply to you
properly in defence of this.
However, as I have told you about our ways and
you do not seem to be much pleased with them, I do
not think it will be unfair to ask you to tell me in


 

your turn how you Scythians discipline your young
men, what exercises you use in bringing them up,
and how you make them good men.
 ANACHARSIS 
It is entirely fair, to be sure, Solon, and I shall tell
you the Scythian customs, which are not imposing,
perhaps, or on the same plane as yours, since we
should not dare to receive a single blow in the face;
we are cowards! They shall be told, however, no
matter what they are. But let us put off the
discussion, if you will, till to-morrow, so that I may
quietly ponder a little longer over what you have
said, and get together what I must say, going over
it in my memory. At present, let us go away
with this understanding, for it is now evening.