Asclepiades, and Calchedon the instructor in the catapults, and the attendants, and to award a crown of leaves to each; and to have the decree engraved by the Secretary for the time being on two pillars of stone, to be placed one in the Market-place, and the second wherever may seem best.'

A Decree of the Athenian Assembly from the Same Period1

'Whereas the People always has a hearty interest in the training and discipline of the Ephebi, hoping that the rising generation may grow up to be men able to take good care of their fatherland, and has passed laws to require them to gain a knowledge of the country, of the guardposts and of the frontiers, and to train themselves as soldiers in the use of arms, thanks to which discipline the City has been decked with many glories and imposing trophies; and whereas on this account the People has always chosen a Rector of unblemished character, and accordingly last year Dionysius the son of Socrates, the Phylasian, had the care of the Ephebi entrusted to him by the People, and duly sacrificed with them at their matriculation, . . . and has trained them worthily, keeping them constantly engaged at the gymnasia, and making them all efficient in their drill, and insisting on decorum, that they should not fail throughout the year in obedience to the Generals, the Tutors and himself; and whereas he has watched over their habits of order and of self-control, taking them with him to the Professor's Lectures, and being present always at their courses of instruction . and whereas he has also roused their public spirit by teaching them to be good marksmen with the catapult, and accompanied them in their rounds to the guardposts and the frontiers . . . and has arranged the boat-races in the processions at Munychia . . . and also the footraces in the gymnasia, and the escorts of honour for our Roman friends and allies .. and reviewed them on parade at the Theseia and Epitaphia. . . and has been vigilant in all cases to maintain their pride, being constant in attendance on

1 Same sources.

them through the year, and has watched over their studies, and ruled them with impartial justice, keeping them in sound health and friendly intercourse, treating them with a father's care-in return for all of which the Ephebi have presented him with a golden crown and a bronze statue, to show their sense of his character and loving care; and whereas he has passed his accounts as the law requires, the Senate and the People wishing to show due honour to such Rectors as serve with merit and impartiality, Resolve to praise Dionysius, late Rector of the Ephebi of last year and to present him with a golden crown, and have proclamation made thereof in the great festival of Dionysus, and also at the athletic contests of the Panathanaic and Eleusinian feasts.'

Selection from the Panegyric on Saint Basil, by Gregory Nazienzen

15. We were contained by Athens, like two branches of some river-stream, for after leaving the common fountain of our fatherland, we had been separated on our varying pursuits of culture, and were now again united by the impulsion of God no less than by our own agreement. I preceded him by a little, but he soon followed me, to be welcomed with great and brilliant hopes. For he was versed in many languages, before his arrival, and it was a great thing for either of us to outstrip the other in the attainment of some object of our study. And I may well add as a seasoning to my speech, a short narrative, which will be a reminder to those who know it, a source of information to those who do not. Most of the young men at Athens in their folly are mad after rhetorical skill - not only those who are ignobly born and unknown, but even the noble and illustrious, in the general mass of young men difficult to keep under control. They are just like men devoted to horses and exhibitions, as we see, at the horse races; they leap,1 they shout, raise clouds of dust,

1 This passage refers to the speculators who unite in sympathy with, and in their excitement, imitate, as far as possible, the actions of those who drive the chariots in the races.

they drive in their seats, they beat the air (instead of the horses) with their fingers as whips, they yoke and unyoke the horses, though they are none of theirs; they readily exchange with one another drivers, horses, positions, leaders; and who are they who do this? Often poor and needy fellows, without the means of support for a single day. This is just how the students feel in regard to their own tutors, and their rivals, in their eagerness to increase their own numbers and thereby enrich them. The matter is absolutely absurd and silly. Cities, roads, harbours, mountain tops, coast lines are seized upon-in short, every part of Attica, or of the rest of Greece, with most of the inhabitants; for even these they have divided between the rival parties.

16. Whenever any newcomer arrives and falls into the hands of those who seize upon him, either by force or willingly, they observe this Attic law, of combined jest and earnest. He is first conducted to the house of one of those who were the first to receive him, or of his friends, or kinsmen, or countrymen, or of those who are eminent in debating power and purveyors of arguments and therefore especially honoured among them; and their reward consists in the gain of adherents. He is next subjected to the raillery of any one who will, with the intention, I suppose, of checking the conceit of the newcomers, and reducing them to subjection at once. The raillery is of a more argumentative or insolent kind, according to the refinement or boorishness of the railer: and the performance which seems very fearful and brutal to those who do not know it, is to those who have experienced it, very pleasant and humane: for its threats are feigned rather than real. Next he is conducted, in procession, from the market place to the bath. The procession is formed by those who are charged with it in the young man's honour, who arrange themselves in two ranks separated by an interval, and precede him to the bath. But when they have approached it, they shout and leap wildly, as if possessed, shouting that they must not advance, but stay, since the bath will not admit them; and at the same time frighten the youth by furiously knocking at the doors; then allowing him to enter, they present him with his

freedom, and receive him after the bath as an equal and one of themselves. This they considered the most pleasant part of the ceremony, as being a speedy change and release from annoyances. On this occasion I not only refused to put to shame my friend, the great Basil, out of respect for the gravity of his character, and the ripeness of his reasoning powers, but also persuaded all the rest of the students to treat him likewise, who happened not to know him. For he was from the first, respected by most of them, his reputation having preceded him. The result was that he was the only one to escape the general rule, and be accorded a greater honour than belongs to a freshman's position.

Selections from the Discourse touching the Training of
Children, by Plutarch1

I. The course which ought to be taken for the training of free-born children, and the means whereby their manners may be rendered virtuous, will, with the reader's leave, be the subject of our present disquisition.

Three things requisite for

virtue :

nature,

reason, and

4. What we are wont to say of arts and sciences may be said also concerning virtue: that there is a concurrence of three things requisite to the completing thereof in practice, - which are nature, reason, and use. Now by reason here I would be understood to mean learning; and by use, ex- use. ercise. Now the principles come from instruction, the practice comes from exercise, and perfection from all three combined. And accordingly as either of the three is deficient, virtue must needs be defective. For if nature be not improved by instruction, it is blind; if instruction be not assisted by nature, it is maimed; and if exercise fail of the assistance of both, it is imperfect as to the attainment of its end. And as in husbandry it is first requisite that the soil be fertile, next that the husbandman be skil

1 Translation by Simon Ford, D.D., in Professor W. W. Goodwin's edition of Plutarch's Morals.

ful, and lastly that the seed he sows be good; so here nature resembles the soil, the instructor of youth the husbandman, and the rational principles and precepts which are taught, the seed. And I would peremptorily affirm that all these met and jointly conspired to the completing of the souls of those universally celebrated men, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, together with all others whose eminent worth hath gotten them immortal glory. And happy is that man certainly, and well-beloved of the Gods, on whom by the bounty of any of them all these are conferred.

And yet if any one thinks that those in whom Nature hath not thoroughly done her part may not in some measure make up her defects, if they be so happy as to light upon good teaching, and withal apply their own industry towards the attainment of virtue, he is to know that he is very much, nay, altogether, mistaken. For as a good natural capacity may be impaired by slothfulness, so dull and heavy natural parts may be improved by instruction; and whereas negligent students arrive not at the capacity of understanding the most easy things, those who are industrious conquer the greatest difficulties. And many instances we may observe, that give us a clear demonstration of the mighty force and successful efficacy of labor and industry. For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow; yea, iron and brass are worn out with constant handling. Nor can we, if we would, reduce the felloes of a cart-wheel to their former straightness, when once they have been bent by force; yea, it is above the power of force to straighten the bended staves sometimes The care of used by actors upon the stage. So far is that which labor effects, though against nature, more potent than what is produced according to it.

children.

5. The next thing that falls under our consideration is the nursing of children, which, in my judgment, the mothers should do themselves. For childhood is a tender thing, and easily wrought into any shape. Yea, and the very souls of children readily receive the impressions of those things that are dropped into them while they are yet but soft; but when they grow older, they will, as all hard things are, be more difficult to be wrought upon. And as soft