[556d]
or, for that matter, in actual battle, and
observe one another, then the poor are not in the least scorned by the rich,
but on the contrary, do you not suppose it often happens that when a lean,
sinewy, sunburnt1 pauper is stationed in
battle beside a rich man bred in the shade, and burdened with superfluous
flesh,2 and sees him panting and helpless3—do you not
suppose he will think that such fellows keep their wealth by the
cowardice4 of the poor, and that when the
latter are together in private,
1 Cf. Tucker on Aesch.Suppl. 726.
2 Cf. Soph.Ajax 758περισσὰ κἀνόνητα σώματα.
3 For a similar picture cf. Aristoph.Frogs 1086-1098. Cf. also Gorg. 518 C, and for the whole passage Xen.Mem. iii. 5. 15, Aristot.Pol. 1310 a 24-25.
4 The poor, though stronger, are too cowardly to use force. For κακίᾳ τῇ σφετέρᾳ cf. Lysias ii. 65κακίᾳ τῇ αὑτῶν, Rhesus 813-814τῇ Φρυγῶν κακανδρίᾳ, Phaedrus 248 B, Symp. 182 D, Crito 45 E, Eurip.Androm. 967, Aristoph.Thesm. 868τῇ κοράκων πονηρίᾳ.
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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