We ought first to go back to Greece, and
tell our countrymen that if they remain poor, it is their own fault,
when there are rich settlements in this country awaiting all who
choose to come, and who have courage to seize them. Let us burn our
baggage-waggons and tents, and carry with us nothing but what is of
the strictest necessity. Above all things, let us maintain order,
discipline, and obedience to the commanders, upon which our entire
hope of safety depends. Let every man promise to lend his hand to
the commanders in punishing any disobedient individuals; and let us
thus show the enemy that we have ten thousand persons like Klearchus,
instead of that one whom they have so perfidiously seized. Now is the
time for action. If any man, however obscure, has anything better to
suggest, let him come forward and state it; for we have all but one
object,—the common safety.”
[145] Xen. Anab. iii, 2, 25.
Ἀλλὰ γὰρ δέδοικα μή ἂν ἅπαξ μάθωμεν ἀργοὶ ζῆν καὶ ἐν ἀφθόνοις
βιοτεύειν, καὶ Μήδων δὲ καὶ Περσῶν ~καλαῖς καὶ μεγάλαις γυναιξὶ
καὶ παρθένοις ὁμιλεῖν~, μὴ ὥσπερ οἱ λωτοφάγοι, ἐπιλαθώμεθα τῆς
οἴκαδε ὁδοῦ.
Hippokrates (De Aëre, Locis, et Aquis, c. 12) compares the
physical characteristics of Asiatics and Europeans, noticing the
ample, full-grown, rounded, voluptuous, but inactive forms of
the first,—as contrasted with the more compact, muscular, and
vigorous type of the second, trained for movement, action, and
endurance.
Dio Chrysostom has a curious passage, in reference to the Persian
preference for eunuchs as slaves, remarking that they admired
even in males an approach to the type of feminine beauty,—their
eyes and tastes being under the influence only of aphrodisiac
ideas; whereas the Greeks, accustomed to the constant training
and naked exercises of the palæstra, boys competing with boys and
youths with youths, had their associations of the male beauty
attracted towards active power and graceful motion.
Οὐ γὰρ φανερὸν, ὅτι οἱ Πέρσαι εὐνούχους ἐποίουν τοὺς καλοὺς, ὅπως
αὐτοῖς ὡς κάλλιστοι ὦσι; Τοσοῦτον διαφέρειν ᾤοντο πρὸς κάλλος τὸ
θῆλυ· σχεδὸν καὶ πάντες οἱ βάρβαροι, διὰ τὸ μόνον τὰ ἀφροδίσια
ἐννοεῖν. Κἀκεῖνοι γυναικός εἰδος περιτιθέασι τοῖς ἄῤῥεσιν, ἄλλως
δ᾽ οὐκ ἐπίστανται ἐρᾷν· ἴσως δὲ καὶ ἡ τροφὴ αἰτία τοῖς Πέρσαις,
τῷ μέχρι πολλοῦ τρέφεσθαι ὑπό τε γυναικῶν καὶ εὐνούχων τῶν
πρεσβυτέρων· παῖδας δὲ μετὰ παιδῶν, καὶ μειράκια μετὰ μειρακίων
μὴ πάνυ συνεῖναι, μηδὲ γυμνοῦσθαι ἐν παλαίστραις καὶ γυμνασίοις,
etc. (Orat. xxi, p. 270).
Compare Euripides, Bacchæ, 447 _seq._; and the Epigram of Strato
in the Anthologia, xxxiv, vol. ii, p. 367 Brunck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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