In Ionia and other
places, and generally in countries which are subject to the barbarians, the
custom is held to be dishonourable; loves of youths share the evil repute
in which philosophy and gymnastics are held, because they are inimical to
tyranny; for the interests of rulers require that their subjects should be
poor in spirit (compare Arist. Politics), and that there should be no
strong bond of friendship or society among them, which love, above all
other motives, is likely to inspire, as our Athenian tyrants learned by
experience; for the love of Aristogeiton and the constancy of Harmodius had
a strength which undid their power. And, therefore, the ill-repute into
which these attachments have fallen is to be ascribed to the evil condition
of those who make them to be ill-reputed; that is to say, to the self-
seeking of the governors and the cowardice of the governed; on the other
hand, the indiscriminate honour which is given to them in some countries is
attributable to the laziness of those who hold this opinion of them.
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