§14ὅτι δʼ οὐκ αἰσχύνονται πενίαν ὁμολογοῦντες, ἐμέμνητο πρός με φωνῆς τινος, ἣν ἀκοῦσαι πάντων ἔφη κοινῇ προεμένων ἐν τῷ ἀγῶνι τῶν Παναθηναίων· ληφθέντα μὲν γάρ τινα τῶν πολιτῶν ἄγεσθαι παρὰ τὸν ἀγωνοθέτην, ὅτι βαπτὸν ἔχων ἱμάτιον ἐθεώρει, τοὺς δὲ ἰδόντας ἐλεῆσαί τε καὶ παραιτεῖσθαι καὶ τοῦ κήρυκος ἀνειπόντος, ὅτι παρὰ τὸν νόμον ἐποίησεν ἐν τοιαύτῃ ἐσθῆτι θεώμενος, ἀναβοῆσαι μιᾷ φωνῇ πάντας ὥσπερ ἐσκεμμένους, συγγνώμην ἀπονέμειν αὐτῷ τοιαῦτά γε ἀμπεχομένῳ· μὴ γὰρ ἔχειν αὐτὸν ἕτερα.
As proof that they are not ashamed to confess poverty, he recalled to me a certain utterance, which he said he himself had heard everyone in common utter at the Panathenaic contest: namely, that a certain one of the citizens, having been caught, was led to the director of the games because he was watching the spectacle wearing a dyed cloak, but those who saw it pitied him and interceded for him, and when the herald proclaimed that he had acted against the law by watching in such clothing, all shouted out with one voice as if by prearrangement, asking to grant pardon to him dressed in such things; for he did not have other clothes.
Ταῦτά τε οὖν ἐπῄνει καὶ προσέτι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τὴν ἐκεῖ καὶ τῆς διαίτης τὸ ἀνεπίφθονον, ἡσυχίαν τε καὶ ἀπραγμοσύνην, ἃ δὴ ἄφθονα παρʼ αὐτοῖς ἐστιν.
He praised these things, then, and furthermore the freedom there and the ungrudging nature of their lifestyle, and peace and freedom from business, which indeed are abundant among them.
ἀπέφαινε γοῦν φιλοσοφίᾳ συνῳδὸν τὴν παρὰ τοῖς τοιούτοις διατριβὴν καὶ καθαρὸν ἦθος φυλάξαι δυναμένην, σπουδαίῳ τε ἀνδρὶ καὶ πλούτου καταφρονεῖν πεπαιδευμένῳ καὶ τῷ πρὸς τὰ φύσει καλὰ ζῆν προαιρουμένῳ τὸν ἐκεῖ βίον ὡς μάλιστα ἡρμοσμένον.
At any rate, he showed that the stay among such people is in harmony with philosophy and able to preserve a pure character, and that the life there is most of all suited to an earnest man who has been educated to despise wealth and who chooses to live in accordance with what is naturally beautiful.
§15ὅστις δὲ πλούτου ἐρᾷ καὶ χρυσῷ κεκήληται καὶ πορφύρᾳ καὶ δυναστείᾳ μετρεῖ τὸ εὔδαιμον, ἄγευστος μὲν ἐλευθερίας, ἀπείρατος δὲ παρρησίας, ἀθέατος δὲ ἀληθείας, κολακείᾳ τὰ πάντα καὶ δουλείᾳ σύντροφος, ἢ ὅστις ἡδονῇ πᾶσαν τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπιτρέψας ταύτῃ μόνῃ λατρεύειν διέγνωκε, φίλος μὲν περιέργων τραπεζῶν, φίλος δὲ πότων καὶ ἀφροδισίων, ἀνάπλεως γοητείας καὶ ἀπάτης καὶ ψευδολογίας, ἢ ὅστις ἀκούων τέρπεται κρουμάτων τε καὶ τερετισμάτων καὶ διεφθορότων ᾀσμάτων, τοῖς δὴ τοιούτοις πρέπειν τὴν ἐνταῦθα διατριβήν·
But whoever loves wealth and has been charmed by gold and purple, and measures happiness by power, having no taste of freedom, no experience of frankness of speech, and having never beheld the truth, a companion of flattery and slavery in all things, or whoever, having entrusted his whole soul to pleasure, has resolved to serve her alone, a companion of elaborate tables, a companion of drinking-bouts and sexual pleasures, full of sorcery and deceit and falsehood, or whoever takes delight in hearing instrumental playings and twitterings and corrupt songs, for such indeed, he said, the stay here is fitting.
§16μεσταὶ γὰρ αὐτοῖς τῶν φιλτάτων πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγυιαί, πᾶσαι δὲ ἀγοραί· πάρεστι δὲ πάσαις πύλαις τὴν ἡδονὴν καταδέχεσθαι, τοῦτο μὲν διʼ ὀφθαλμῶν, τοῦτο δὲ διʼ ὤτων τε καὶ ῥινῶν, τοῦτο δὲ καὶ διὰ λαιμοῦ καὶ διʼ ἀφροδισίων· ὑφʼ ἧς δὴ ῥεούσης ἀενάῳ τε καὶ θολερῷ ῥεύματι πᾶσαι μὲν ἀνευρύνονται ὁδοί· συνεισέρχεται γὰρ μοιχεία καὶ φιλαργυρία καὶ ἐπιορκία καὶ τὸ τοιοῦτο φῦλον τῶν ἡδονῶν, παρασύρεται δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς ὑποκλυζομένης πάντοθεν αἰδὼς καὶ ἀρετὴ καὶ δικαιοσύνη· τῶν δὲ ἔρημος ὁ χῶρος γενόμενος δίψης ἀεὶ πιμπράμενος ἀνθεῖ πολλαῖς τε καὶ ἀγρίαις ἐπιθυμίαις.
For full for them of their dearest things are all the streets and all the marketplaces; and it is possible at all gates to receive pleasure, on the one hand through the eyes, on the other through the ears and noses, and also through the throat and through sexual pleasures; by which indeed, flowing with an everlasting and turbid stream, all roads are widened; for there enter along with it adultery and love of money and perjury and such a tribe of pleasures, and from the soul, washed over from all sides, shame and virtue and justice are swept away; and the place, having become empty of these, and always burning with thirst, blooms with many wild desires.
τοιαύτην ἀπέφαινε τὴν πόλιν καὶ τοσούτων διδάσκαλον ἀγαθῶν.
Such did he show the city to be, and a teacher of so many "good" things.
§17ἐγὼ γοῦν, ἔφη, ὅτε τὸ πρῶτον ἐπανῄειν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἑλλάδος, πλησίον που γενόμενος ἐπιστήσας ἐμαυτὸν λόγον ἀπῄτουν τῆς δεῦρο ἀφίξεως, ἐκεῖνα δὴ τὰ τοῦ Ὁμήρου λέγων· "τίπτʼ αὖτʼ, ὦ δύστηνε, λιπὼν φάος ἠελίοιο,"
τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὴν εὐτυχίαν ἐκείνην καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, ἤλυθες, ὄφρα ἴδῃς τὸν ἐνταῦθα θόρυβον, συκοφάντας καὶ προσαγορεύσεις ὑπερηφάνους καὶ δεῖπνα καὶ κόλακας καὶ μιαιφονίας καὶ διαθηκῶν προσδοκίας καὶ φιλίας ἐπιπλάστους;
"At any rate, I," he said, "when I first was returning from Greece, having come somewhere near, stopped myself and demanded an account of my arrival here, saying those famous words of Homer: 'Why again, O wretched one, leaving the light of the sun,' —meaning by 'light of the sun' Greece and that happiness and freedom—'have you come, so that you might see the tumult here, sycophants and haughty greetings and banquets and flatterers and murders and expectations of wills and feigned friendships?
ἢ τί καὶ πράξειν διέγνωκας μήτʼ ἀπαλλάττεσθαι μήτε χρῆσθαι τοῖς καθεστῶσι δυνάμενος; §18οὕτω δὴ βουλευσάμενος καὶ καθάπερ ὁ Ζεὺς τὸν Ἕκτορα ὑπεξαγαγὼν ἐμαυτὸν ἐκ βελέων, φασίν, ἔκ τʼ ἀνδροκτασίης ἔκ θʼ αἵματος ἔκ τε κυδοιμοῦ τὸ λοιπὸν οἰκουρεῖν εἱλόμην καὶ βίον τινὰ τοῦτον γυναικώδη καὶ ἄτολμον τοῖς πολλοῖς δοκοῦντα προτιθέμενος αὐτῇ φιλοσοφίᾳ καὶ Πλάτωνι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ προσλαλῶ, καὶ καθίσας ἐμαυτὸν ὥσπερ ἐν θεάτρῳ μυριάνδρῳ σφόδρα που μετέωρος ἐπισκοπῶ τὰ γιγνόμενα, τοῦτο μὲν πολλὴν ψυχαγωγίαν καὶ γέλωτα παρέχειν δυνάμενα, τοῦτο δὲ καὶ πεῖραν ἀνδρὸς ὡς ἀληθῶς βεβαίου λαβεῖν.
Or what have you resolved to do, being able neither to get rid of nor to live with the established things?' Thus deliberating, and just as Zeus withdrew Hector, withdrawing myself 'out of range,' as they say, 'and from the slaughter and from blood and from the din,' I chose for the future to stay at home, and preferring this sort of life which seems to the crowd womanish and cowardly, I converse with philosophy herself and Plato and truth, and having seated myself as if in a theater of ten thousand men, from somewhere very high up I look upon what is happening, which, on the one hand, are able to afford much entertainment and laughter, and on the other, to provide a test of a truly steadfast man.
§19εἰ γὰρ χρὴ καὶ κακῶν ἔπαινον εἰπεῖν, μὴ ὑπολάβῃς μεῖζόν τι γυμνάσιον ἀρετῆς ἢ τῆς ψυχῆς δοκιμασίαν ἀληθεστέραν τῆσδε τῆς πόλεως καὶ τῆς ἐνταῦθα διατριβῆς· οὐ γὰρ μικρὸν ἀντισχεῖν τοσαύταις μὲν ἐπιθυμίαις, τοσούτοις δὲ θεάμασί τε καὶ ἀκούσμασι πάντοθεν ἕλκουσι καὶ ἀντιλαμβανομένοις, ἀλλὰ ἀτεχνῶς δεῖ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα μιμησάμενον παραπλεῖν αὐτὰ μὴ δεδεμένον τὼ χεῖρε — δειλὸν γάρ — μηδὲ τὰ ὦτα κηρῷ φραξάμενον, ἀλλʼ ἀκούοντα καὶ λελυμένον καὶ ἀληθῶς ὑπερήφανον.
For if it is necessary to speak even praise of evils, do not suppose there is any greater training-ground of virtue or truer test of the soul than this city and the life here; for it is no small thing to hold out against so many desires, and against so many sights and sounds dragging and seizing you from all sides, but one must simply, imitating Odysseus, sail past them, not with hands bound—for that is cowardly—nor with ears stopped with wax, but hearing and unbound and truly high-minded."