may be supposed to
argue the question in his own mind: Who are my citizens for whom I have
set in order the city? Are they not competitors in the greatest of all
contests, and have they not innumerable rivals? To be sure, will be the
natural reply. Well, but if we were training boxers, or pancratiasts,
or any other sort of athletes, would they never meet until the hour
of contest arrived; and should we do nothing to prepare ourselves
previously by daily practice? Surely, if we were boxers, we should have
been learning to fight for many days before, and exercising ourselves
in imitating all those blows and wards which we were intending to use in
the hour of conflict; and in order that we might come as near to reality
as possible, instead of cestuses we should put on boxing-gloves, that
the blows and the wards might be practised by us to the utmost of our
power. And if there were a lack of competitors, the ridicule of fools
would not deter us from hanging up a lifeless image and practising at
that. Or if we had no adversary at all, animate or inanimate, should we
not venture in the dearth of antagonists to spar by ourselves? In what
other manner could we ever study the art of self-defence?

CLEINIAS: The way which you mention, Stranger, would be the only way.

ATHENIAN: And shall the warriors of our city, who are destined when
occasion calls to enter the greatest of all contests, and to fight for
their lives, and their children, and their property, and the whole city,
be worse prepared than boxers? And will the legislator, because he
is afraid that their practising with one another may appear to some
ridiculous, abstain from commanding them to go out and fight; will he
not ordain that soldiers shall perform lesser exercises without arms
every day, making dancing and all gymnastic tend to this end; and also
will he not require that they shall practise some gymnastic exercises,
greater as well as lesser, as often as every month; and that they shall
have contests one with another in every part of the country, seizing
upon posts and lying in ambush, and imitating in every respect the
reality of war; fighting with boxing-gloves and hurling javelins, and
using weapons somewhat dangerous, and as nearly as possible like the
true ones, in order that the sport may not be altogether without fear,
but may have terrors and to a certain degree show the man who has
and who has not courage; and that the honour and dishonour which are
as