_Socr._ There is no ‘perhaps’ in the case, my good friend, but this is a necessary consequence from what has been admitted, if he really was a good citizen. _Cal._ But what then? _Socr._ Nothing. But tell me this moreover, whether the Athenians are supposed to have become better through Pericles, or quite the contrary, to have been corrupted by him. For so I hear, that Pericles made the Athenians idle, cowardly, talkative and avaricious, having been the first to give them pay. _Cal._ You hear this, Socrates, from those whose ears have been bruised[79]. ----- Footnote 79: The Spartans; see the Protagoras, § 80. ----- 152. _Socr._ However, I no longer hear this, but I know well and so do you, that Pericles at first bore a high character, and that the Athenians passed no ignominious sentence upon him, when they were worse, but when by his means they had become upright and good, towards the close of the life of Pericles, they condemned him for peculation, and were on the point of sentencing him to death, clearly as being a bad citizen. _Cal._ What then? Was Pericles on this account a bad man? _Socr._ Such an one, indeed, would be thought a bad manager of asses, horses, and oxen, if having received them, neither kicking, nor butting, nor biting, he should make them do all these things through vice. Does not every trainer of any animal whatever appear to you to be a bad one, who, having received it gentle, has made it more vicious than he received it? Does he appear so, or not? _Cal._ Certainly, that I may gratify you. _Socr._ Gratify me, then, by answering this too, whether man is of the class of animals, or not? _Cal._ How should he not be? _Socr._ Had not Pericles, then, the care of men? _Cal._ Yes. 153. _Socr._ What then? Ought they not, as we just now admitted, to have become more just, instead of more unjust, under his management, if he who took charge of them was a good politician? _Cal._ Certainly. _Socr._ And are not the just gentle, as Homer[80] says? What say you? Is it not so? ----- Footnote 80: Odyss. vii. 120. ----- _Cal._ Yes. _Socr._ However, he made them more savage than he received them, and this against himself, which he would least of all have wished. _Cal._ Do you wish that I should agree with you? _Socr._ If I seem to you to speak the truth. _Cal._ Be it so, then. _Socr._ If, then, he made them more savage, he must have made them more unjust, and worse? _Cal._ Be it so. _Socr._ According to this reasoning, then, Pericles was not a good politician? _Cal._ Not, as you say.