It is well known that the Hellenes attached an enormous importance to physical exercise. This was partly, no doubt, due to their intense appreciation of bodily beauty, which it was the endeavour of their gymnastic training to produce. But it must be remembered that to be in “good condition” was essential to them. Any morning an Hellenic citizen might find himself called upon to take the field against an invader, or might be despatched to ravage an enemy’s territory. Only the most cogent excuses were accepted. Plato[332] has left a vivid picture of a rich man, who has lived in idleness and luxury, suddenly called out to serve his country. Unhappy Dives marches along panting and perspiring, he is ill on board ship, and in battle when he has to charge or fight vigorously, he has no wind and is in a state of hopeless misery; while his poorer or wiser companions, who are “lean and wiry, and have lived in the open air,” mock at him and despise him. Sokrates points out to young Epigenes,[333] who has neglected his physical condition, what risks he runs. In battle, when a retreat is sounded, he will be left behind by his companions, and be either killed or taken prisoner by the foe; and the lot of the captive was frequently slavery for life, unless his friends ransomed him. But there were also intellectual and moral risks. “Bodily debility,” says Sokrates, “frequently causes a loss of memory, and low spirits, and a peevish temper, and even madness, to invade a man, so as to make even intellectual pursuits impossible.” To be a good citizen and to be a good thinker a man must always be in good physical condition. It became a duty to oneself and to the State “to live in the open air and accustom oneself to manly toils and sweat, avoiding the shade and unmanly ways of life.”[334] By divine ordinance, “Sweat was the doorstep of manly virtue,” as old Hesiod had sung.[335]