[498c]
the bodily strength declines and they are past the age
of political and military service, then at last they should be given free
range of the pasture1 and do nothing but
philosophize,2 except incidentally, if they are to live
happily, and, when the end has come, crown the life they have lived with a
consonant destiny in that other world.”“You really seem to be very much in earnest,
Socrates,” he said; yet I think most of your hearers are even more
earnest in their opposition and will not be in the least convinced,
beginning with Thrasymachus.” “Do not try to breed a
quarrel between me and Thrasymachus,
1 Like cattle destined for the sacrifice. A favorite figure with Plato. Cf. Laws 635 A, Protag. 320 A. It is used literally in Critias 119 D.
2 Cf. 540 A-B, Newman, Aristot.Pol. i. pp. 329-330. Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. 207-208, fancies that 498 C to 502 A is a digression expressing Plato's personal desire to be the philosopher in Athenian politics.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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