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of lads
learning their letters. The masters spend the chief part of the day in
deciding cases for their pupils: for in this boy-world, as in the
grown-up world without, occasions of indictment are never far to seek.
There will be charges, we know, of picking and stealing, of violence, of
fraud, of calumny, and so forth. The case is heard and the offender, if
shown to be guilty, is punished. [7] Nor does he escape who is found to
have accused one of his fellows unfairly. And there is one charge the
judges do not hesitate to deal with, a charge which is the source of
much hatred among grown men, but which they seldom press in the
courts, the charge of ingratitude. The culprit convicted of refusing to
repay a debt of kindness when it was fully in his power meets with
severe chastisement. They reason that the ungrateful man is the most
likely to forget his duty to the gods, to his parents, to his fatherland,
and his friends. Shamelessness, they hold, treads close on the heels of
ingratitude, and thus ingratitude is the ringleader and chief instigator to
every kind of baseness. [8] Further, the boys are instructed in
temperance and self-restraint, and they find the utmost help towards the
attainment of this virtue in the self-respecting behaviour of their elders,
shown them day by day. Then they are taught to obey their rulers, and
here again nothing is of greater value than the studied obedience to
authority manifested by their elders everywhere. Continence in meat
and drink is another branch of instruction, and they have no better aid
in this than, first, the example of their elders, who never withdraw to
satisfy their carnal cravings until those in authority dismiss them, and
next, the rule that the boys must take their food, not with their mother
but with their master, and not till the governor gives the sign. They
bring from home the staple of their meal, dry bread with nasturtium for
a relish, and to slake their thirst they bring a drinking-cup, to dip in the
running stream. In addition, they are taught to shoot with the bow and
to fling the javelin.

The lads follow their studies till the age of sixteen or seventeen, and
then they take their places as young men.
[9] After that they spend their time as follows. For ten years they are
bound to sleep at night round the public buildings, as we said before,
and this for two reasons, to guard the community and to practise
self-restraint; because that season of life, the Persians conceive, stands
most in need of care. During the day they present themselves before the
governors for service to the state, and, whenever necessary, they remain
in a body round the public buildings. Moreover, when the king goes out
to hunt, which he will do several times a month, he takes half the
company with him, and each man must carry bow and arrows, a
sheathed dagger, or "sagaris," slung beside the quiver, a light shield,
and two javelins, one to hurl and the other to use, if need be, at close
quarters. [10] The reason of this public sanction for the chase is not far
to seek; the king leads just as he does in war, hunting in person at the
head of the field, and making his men follow, because it is felt that the
exercise itself is the best possible training for the needs of war. It
accustoms a man to early rising; it hardens him to endure head and cold;
it teaches him to march and to run at the top of his speed; he must
perforce learn to let fly arrow and javelin the moment the quarry is
across his path; and, above all, the edge of his spirit must needs be
sharpened by encountering any of the mightier beasts: he must deal his
stroke when the creature closes, and stand on guard when it makes its
rush: indeed, it would be hard to find a case in war that has not its
parallel in the chase. [11] But to proceed: the young men set out with
provisions that are ampler, naturally, than the boys' fare, but otherwise
the same. During the chase itself they would not think of breaking their
fast, but if a halt is called, to beat up the game, or for any hunter's
reason, then they will make, as it were, a dinner of their breakfast, and,
hunting again on the morrow till dinner-time, they will count the two
days as one, because they have only eaten one day's food. This they do
in order that, if the like necessity should arise in war, they may be
found equal to it. As relish to their