Laches.拉凯斯篇.pdf

: .
Plato’s “Laches, or Courage,”translated bs a stranger to Lysimachus, but is
Translated by Benjamin Jowett afterwards recognised as the son of his old friend
Sophroniscus, with whom he never had a difference
INTRODUCTION to the hour of his death. Socrates is also known to
Nicias, to whom he had introduced the excellent
Lysimachus, the son of Aristides the Just, and Damon, musician and sophist, as a tutor for his
Melesias, the son of the elder Thucydides, two aged son, and to Laches, who had witnessed his heroic
men who live together, are desirous of educating their behaviour at the battle of Delium (compare Symp.).
sons in the best manner. Their own education, as Socrates, as he is younger than either Nicias or
often happens with the sons of great men, has been Laches, prefers to wait until they have delivered their
neglected; and they are resolved that their children opinions, which they give in a characteristic man-
shall have more care taken of them, than they re- ner. Nicias, the tactician, is very much in favour of
ceived themselves at the hands of their fathers. the new art, which he describes as the gymnastics
3“Laches” - Plato
of war—useful when the ranks are formed, and still not himself; for he has never been able to pay the
more useful when they are broken; creating a gen- sophists for instructing him, and has never had the
eral interest in military studies, and greatly adding wit to do or discover anything. But Nicias and
to the appearance of the soldier in the field. Laches, Laches are older and richer than he is: they have
the blunt warrior, is of opinion that such an art is had teachers, and perhaps have made discoveries;
not knowledge, and cannot