Athenian Stranger.And now,what will this city be?I do not mean to ask what is or will hereafter be the name of the place;that may be determined by the accident of locality or of the original settlement-a river or fountain,or some local deity may give the sanction of a name to the newly-founded city;but I do want to know what the situation is,whether maritime or inland.
Cleinias.I should imagine,Stranger,that the city of which we are speaking is about eighty stadia distant from the sea.
Ath.And are there harbours on the seaboard?
Cle.Excellent harbours,Stranger;there could not be better.
Ath.Alas!what a prospect!And is the surrounding country productive,or in need of importations?
Cle.Hardly in need of anything.
Ath.And is there any neighbouring State?
Cle.None whatever,and that is the reason for selecting the place;in days of old,there was a migration of the inhabitants,and the region has been deserted from time immemorial.
Ath.And has the place a fair proportion of hill,and plain,and wood?
Cle.Like the rest of Crete in that.
Ath.You mean to say that there is more rock than plain?
Cle.Exactly.
Ath.Then there is some hope that your citizens may be virtuous:had you been on the sea,and well provided with harbours,and an importing rather than a producing country,some mighty saviour would have been needed,and lawgivers more than mortal,if you were ever to have a chance of preserving your state from degeneracy and discordance of manners.But there is comfort in the eighty stadia;although the sea is too near,especially if,as you say,the harbours are so good.
Still we may be content.The sea is pleasant enough as a daily companion,but has indeed also a bitter and brackish quality;filling the streets with merchants and shopkeepers,and begetting in the souls of men uncertain and unfaithful ways-making the state unfriendly and unfaithful both to her own citizens,and also to other nations.There is a consolation,therefore,in the country producing all things at home;and yet,owing to the ruggedness of the soil,not providing anything in great abundance.Had there been abundance,there might have been a great export trade,and a great return of gold and silver;which,as we may safely affirm,has the most fatal results on a State whose aim is the attainment of just and noble sentiments:this was said by us,if you remember,in the previous discussion.
Cle.I remember,and am of opinion that we both were and are in the right.
Ath.Well,but let me ask,how is the country supplied with timber for ship-building?
Cle.There is no fir of any consequence,nor pine,and not much cypress;and you will find very little stone-pine or plane-wood,which shipwrights always require for the interior of ships.
Ath.These are also natural advantages.
Cle.Why so?
Ath.Because no city ought to be easily able to imitate its enemies in what is mischievous.
Cle.How does that bear upon any of the matters of which we have been speaking?
Ath.Remember,my good friend,what I said at first about the Cretan laws,that they look to one thing only,and this,as you both agreed,was war;and I replied that such laws,in so far as they tended to promote virtue,were good;but in that they regarded a part only,and not the whole of virtue,I disapproved of them.And now I hope that you in your turn will follow and watch me if I legislate with a view to anything but virtue,or with a view to a part of virtue only.For I consider that the true lawgiver,like an archer,aims only at that on which some eternal beauty is always attending,and dismisses everything else,whether wealth or any other benefit,when separated from virtue.I was saying that the imitation of enemies was a bad thing;and I was thinking of a case in which a maritime people are harassed by enemies,as the Athenians were by Minos (I do not speak from any desire to recall past grievances);but he,as we know,was a great naval potentate,who compelled the inhabitants of Attica to pay him a cruel tribute;and in those days they had no ships of war as they now have,nor was the country filled with ship-timber,and therefore they could not readily build them.Hence they could not learn how to imitate their enemy at sea,and in this way,becoming sailors themselves,directly repel their enemies.Better for them to have lost many times over the seven youths,than that heavy-armed and stationary troops should have been turned into sailors,and accustomed to be often leaping on shore,and again to come running back to their ships;or should have fancied that there was no disgrace in not awaiting the attack of an enemy and dying boldly;and that there were good reasons,and plenty of them,for a man throwing away his arms,and betaking himself to flight-which is not dishonourable,as people say,at certain times.This is the language of naval warfare,and is anything but worthy of extraordinary praise.For we should not teach bad habits,least of all to the best part of the citizens.You may learn the evil of such a practice from Homer,by whom Odysseus is introduced,rebuking Agamemnon because he desires to draw down the ships to the sea at a time when the Achaeans are hard pressed by the Trojans-he gets angry with him,and says:
Who,at a time when the battle is in full cry,biddest to drag the well-benched ships into the sea,that the prayers of the Trojans may be accomplished yet more,and high ruin falls upon us.For the Achaeans will not maintain the battle,when the ships are drawn into the sea,but they will look behind and will cease from strife;in that the counsel which you give will prove injurious.