Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/429

 NOTORIETY OF SOKKATES. 4Q/ public manner. 1 He talked with any one, young or old, rich ot j>oor, who sought to address him, and in the hearing of all who chose to stand by : not only lie never either asked or received any reward, but he made no distinction of persons, never with- held his conversation from any one, and talked upon the same general topics to all. He conversed with politicians, sophists, military men, artisans, ambitious or studious youths, etc. He visited all persons of interest in the city, male or female. : his friendship with Aspasia is well known, and one of the most in- teresting chapters 2 of Xenophon's Memorabilia recounts his visit to and dialogue with ThcodotG, a beautiful hetasra, or female com panion. Nothing could be more public, perpetual, and indiscrim inate as to persons than his conversation. But as it was engaging, curious, and instructive to hear, certain persons made it their habit to attend him in public as companions and listeners. These men, a fluctuating body, were commonly known as his disciples, or scholars ; though neither he nor his personal friends ever em- ployed the terms teacher and disciple to describe the relation between them. 3 Many of them came, attracted by his reputation, 1 Xenoph. Mem. i, 1, 10 ; Plato, Apol. Sok. 1, p. 17, D ; 18, p. 31, A. olov Jj? ftoi doKEi b T&eof tfie rrj nofai TrpoaredeiKevai TOIOVTOV nva, 6f eye'ipuv KO.I Treiduv, Kal bveidi&v eva tKaaror, oi6ev navo/iai, TTJV 3 Xcnophon in his Memorabilia speaks always of the comjianions of Sok- rates, not of his disciples: ol avvbvrff avrij ol avvovaiaaTai (i, 6, 1) ol avv6iaTpi(3ovrc:c. ol ovyytyroftevot ot eratpoi ot ofidovvref ai>r> ol owf/deif (iv, 8, 2) ol jUei?' avrov (iv, 2, 1) ol iirfdvf^ijra,. (i, 2, CO/. Aristippus also, in speaking to Plato, talked of Sokrates as 6 iraipof Tipuv ; Aristot. Rhetor, ii, 24. His enemies spoke of his disciples, in an invidious sense ; Plato, Ap. Sok. c. 21, p. 33, A. it is not to be believed that any companions can have made frequent vi.-its. cither from Mcgara and Thebes, to Sokrates at Athens, during the Li'-t years of the war, before the capture of Athens in 404 B.C. And in point of fact, the passage of the Platonic Theretetus represents Euklcidea of Megara as alluding to his conversations with Sokrates only a short timo before the death of the latter (Plato. Thcsetetus, c. 2. p. 142, E). The f=tory given by Anlus Gellius that Euklcides came to visit Sokrates by night, in women's clothes, from Mcgara to Athens seems to me an absurdity, though Deycks (De Megaricarum DoctrinA, p. 5) is inclined to telkve it.
 * Xen. Mem. iii, 11.