Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/423

 CONSTITUTION OF SOKRATES. 401 was of genuine Attic breed, belonging to the ancient gens Daedalida?, which took its name from Daedalus, the mythical artist as progenitor. The personal qualities of Sokrates, on the other hand, were marked and distinguishing, not less in body than in mind. His physical constitution was healthy, robust, and enduring, to an extraordinary degree. He was not merely strong and active as an hoplite on military service, but capable of bearing fatigue or hardship, and indifferent to heat or cold, in a measure which astonished all his companions. He went barefoot in all seasons of the year, even during the winter campaign at Potidoea, under the severe frosts of Thrace ; and the same homely clothing suf- ficed to him for winter as well as for summer. Though his diet was habitually simple as well as abstemious, yet there were- occasions, of religious festival or friendly congratulation, 01. which every Greek considered joviality and indulgence to be becoming. On such occasions, Sokrates could drink more wine than any guest present, yet without being overcome or intoxi- cated. 1 He abstained, on principle, from all extreme gymnastic training, which required, as necessary condition, extraordinary abundance of food. 2 It was his professed purpose to limit, as much as possible, the number of his wants, as a distant approach to the perfection of the gods, who wanted nothing, to control such as were natural, and prevent the multiplication of any that were artificial. 3 Nor can there be any doubt that his admirable 1 Sec the Symposion of Plato as well as that of Xenophon, both of which profess to depict Sokrates at one of these jovial moments. Plato, Sympo- sion, c. 31, p. 214, A; c. 35, etc., 39, adjinem; Xcnoph. Symp. ii, 26, where Sokrates requests that the wine may be handed round in small glasses, but that they may succeed each other quickly, like drops of rain in a shower. The view which Plato takes of indulgence in wine, as affording a sort of test of the comparative self-command of individuals, and measuring the facility with which any man may be betrayed into folly and extravagance, and the regulation to which he proposes to submit the practice, may bfl en in his treatise De Lcgihus, i. p. 649 ; ii, pp. 671-674. Compare Xcnoph. Alt-moral), i, 2, 1 ; i, 6, 10. etc. 3 Xenoph. Mem. i, G, 10. Even Antisthenes (disciple of Sokrats, and the originator of what was called the Cynic philosophy), while he pro- VOL. viii. 26oc.
 * Xcnoph. Memorah. i, 2, 4. rb p.lv inrepta-diovTa vjrepirovciv uiredoni(ute,