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Plato : LAWS
Persons of the dialogue: An Athenian stranger - Cleinias, a Cretan = Note by Elpenor |
This Part: 80 Pages
Part 1 Page 7
Cle. And they have found their way from Lacedaemon to Crete.
Ath. Come now and let us all join in asking this question of Tyrtaeus: O most divine poet, we will say to him, the excellent praise which you have bestowed on those who excel in war sufficiently proves that you are wise and good, and I and Megillus and Cleinias of Cnosus do, as I believe, entirely agree with you. But we should like to be quite sure that we are speaking of the same men; tell us, then, do you agree with us in thinking that there are two kinds of war; or what would you say? A far inferior man to Tyrtaeus would have no difficulty in replying quite truly, that war is of two kinds one which is universally called civil war, and is as we were just now saying, of all wars the worst; the other, as we should all admit, in which we fall out with other nations who are of a different race, is a far milder form of warfare.
Cle. Certainly, far milder.
Ath. Well, now, when you praise and blame war in this high - flown strain, whom are you praising or blaming, and to which kind of war are you referring? I suppose that you must mean foreign war, if I am to judge from expressions of yours in which you say that you abominate those -
Who refuse to look upon fields of blood, and will not draw near and strike at their enemies. - And we shall naturally go on to say to him - You, Tyrtaeus, as it seems, praise those who distinguish themselves in external and foreign war; and he must admit this.
Cle. Evidently.
Laws part 2 of 3, 4, 5. You are at part 1
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