Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 2 — Plato — John Shaqi
Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 2
Plato · en
_Sokr._--But, my friend, we agreed just now, that gain was a
good, and that all men always love good. It follows therefore, that
good men as well as others love all gains, if gains are good things.
_Comp._--Not, certainly, those gains by which they will
afterwards be hurt. _Sokr._--Be hurt: you mean, by which they
will become losers. _Comp._--I mean that and nothing else.
_Sokr._--Do they become losers by gain, or by loss?
_Comp._--By both: by loss, and by evil gain. _Sokr._--Does
it appear to you that any useful and good thing is evil?
_Comp._--No. _Sokr._--Well! we agreed just now that gain
was the opposite of loss, which was evil; and that, being the
opposite of evil, gain was good. _Comp._--That was what we
agreed. _Sokr._--You see how it is: you are trying to deceive
me: you purposely contradict what we just now agreed upon.
_Comp._--Not at all, by Zeus: on the contrary, it is you,
Sokrates, who deceive me, wriggling up and down in your talk, I
cannot tell how.[6] _Sokr._--Be careful what you say: I should
be very culpable, if I disobeyed a good and wise monitor.
_Comp._--Whom do you mean: and what do you mean?
_Sokr._--Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus.
[Footnote 6: Plat. Hipparch. 228 A. _Sokr._--[Greek: O(ra=|s
ou)=n? e)picheirei=s me e)xapata=|n, e)pi/têdes e)nanti/a le/gôn
oi(=s a)/rti ô(mologê/samen.] _Comp._ [Greek: Ou) ma\ Di/', ô)=
Sô/krates; a)lla\ tou)nanti/on su\ e)me\ e)xapata=|s, kai\ ou)k
oi)=da o(pê=| e)n toi=s lo/gois a)/nô kai\ ka/tô stre/pheis.]]
[Side-note: Precept inscribed formerly by Hipparchus the
Peisistratid--"Never deceive a friend". Eulogy of Hipparchus by
Sokrates.]
Sokrates then describes at some length the excellent character of
Hipparchus: his beneficent rule, his wisdom, his anxiety for the
moral improvement of the Athenians: the causes, different from what
was commonly believed, which led to his death; and the wholesome
precepts which he during his life had caused to be inscribed on
various busts of Hermes throughout Attica. One of these busts or
Hermæ bore the words--Do not deceive a friend.[7]
[Footnote 7: Plat. Hipparch. 228 B-229 D.
The picture here given of Hipparchus deserves notice. We are informed
that he was older than his brother Hippias, which was the general
belief at Athens, as Thucydides (i. 20, vi. 58) affirms, though
himself contradicting it, and affirming that Hippias was the elder
brother. Plato however agrees with Thucydides in this point, that the
three years after the assassination of Hipparchus, during which
Hippias ruled alone, were years of oppression and tyranny; and that
the hateful recollection of the Peisistratidæ, which always survived
in the minds of the Athenians, was derived from these three last
years.