y?"

"Not I," replied the complainer; "only my cloak."

Soc. Were you travelling alone, or was your man-servant with you?

He. Yes, I had my man.

Soc. Empty-handed, or had he something to carry?

He. Of course; carrying my rugs and other baggage.

Soc. And how did he come off on the journey?

He. Better than I did myself, I take it.

Soc. Well, but now suppose you had had to carry his baggage, what would
your condition have been like?

He. Sorry enough, I can tell you; or rather, I could not have carried it
at all.

Soc. What a confession! Fancy being capable of so much less toil than
a poor slave boy! Does that sound like the perfection of athletic
training?

XIV

On the occasion of a common dinner-party (1) where some of the company
would present themselves with a small, and others with a large supply
of viands, Socrates would bid the servants (2) throw the small supplies
into the general stock, or else to help each of the party to a share all
round. Thus the grand victuallers were ashamed in the one case not
to share in the common stock, and in the other not to throw in their
supplies also. (3) Accordingly in went the grand supplies into the
common stock. And now, being no better off than the small contributors,
they soon ceased to cater for expensive delicacies.

(1) For the type of entertainment see Becker, "Charicles," p. 315
(Eng. tr.)

(2) "The boy."

(3) Or, "were ashamed not to follow suit by sharing in the common
stock and contributing their own portion."

At a supper-party one member of the company, as Socrates chanced to
note, had put aside the plain fare and was devoting himself to certain
dainties. (4) A discussion was going on about names and definitions,
and the proper applications of terms to things. (5) Whereupon Socrates,
appealing to the company: "Can we explain why we call a man a 'dainty
fellow'? What is the particular action to which the term applies?
(6)--since every one adds some dainty to his food when he can get it.
(7) But we have not quite hit the definition yet, I think. Are we to be
called dainty eaters because we like our bread buttered?" (8)

(4) For the distinction between {sitos} and {opson} see Plat. "Rep."
372 C.

(5) Or, "The conversation had fallen upon names: what is the precise
thing denoted under such and such a term? Define the meaning of so
and so."

(6) {opsophagos} = {opson} (or relish) eater, and so a "gourmand" or