Persons and situation of the dialogue 401 Funeral harangue at Athens--Choice of a public orator--Sokrates declares the task of the public orator to be easy--Comic exaggeration of the effects of the harangue 401 Sokrates professes to have learnt a funeral harangue from Aspasia, and to be competent to recite it himself. Menexenus entreats him to do so 402 Harangue recited by Sokrates 403 Compliments of Menexenus after Sokrates has finished, both to the harangue itself and to Aspasia _ib._ Supposed period--shortly after the peace of Antalkidas _ib._ Custom of Athens about funeral harangues. Many such harangues existed at Athens, composed by distinguished orators or logographers--Established type of the harangue 404 Plato in this harangue conforms to the established type--Topics on which he insists 405 Consolation and exhortation to surviving relatives 407 Admiration felt for this harangue, both at the time and afterwards 407 Probable motives of Plato in composing it, shortly after he established himself at Athens as a teacher--His competition with Lysias--Desire for celebrity both as rhetor and as dialectician _ib._ Menexenus compared with the view of rhetoric presented in the Gorgias--Necessity for an orator to conform to established sentiments 409 Colloquial portion of the Menexenus is probably intended as ridicule and sneer at Rhetoric--The harangue itself is serious, and intended as an evidence of Plato's ability 410 Anachronism of the Menexenus--Plato careless on this point 411 CHAPTER XXXIV. KLEITOPHON. Persons and circumstances of Kleitophon 413 Conversation of Sokrates with Kleitophon alone: he alludes to observations of an unfavourable character recently made by Kleitophon, who asks permission to explain _ib._ Explanation given. Kleitophon expresses gratitude and admiration for the benefit which he has derived from long companionship with Sokrates 414 The observations made by Sokrates have been most salutary and stimulating in awakening ardour for virtue. Arguments and analogies commonly used by Sokrates _ib._ But Sokrates does not explain what virtue is, nor how it is to be attained. Kleitophon has had enough of stimulus, and now wants information how he is to act 415 Questions addressed by Kleitophon with this view, both to the companions of Sokrates and to Sokrates himself 416 Replies made by the friends of Sokrates unsatisfactory _ib._ None of them could explain what the special work of justice or virtue was 417 Kleitophon at length asked the question from Sokrates himself. But Sokrates did not answer clearly. Kleitophon believes that Sokrates knows, but will not tell 417 Kleitophon is on the point of leaving Sokrates and going to Thrasymachus. But before leaving he addresses one last entreaty, that Sokrates will speak out clearly and explicitly 418