e to
perform some service to the state instead of them, the fitting out of
a trireme, or the training of a chorus, nobody thinks of asking for the
beautiful and good gentleman, but it is plain Ischomachus, the son
of So-and-so, [5] on whom the summons is served. But to answer your
question, Socrates (he proceeded), I certainly do not spend my days
indoors, if for no other reason, because my wife is quite capable of
managing our domestic affairs without my aid.

[4] On the antidosis or compulsory exchange of property, see Boeckh,
p. 580, Engl. ed.: "In case any man, upon whom a {leitourgia} was
imposed, considered that another was richer than himself, and
therefore most justly chargeable with the burden, he might
challenge the other to assume the burden, or to make with him an
{antidosis} or exchange of property. Such a challenge, if
declined, was converted into a lawsuit, or came before a heliastic
court for trial." Gow, "Companion," xviii. "Athenian Finance." See
Dem. "Against Midias," 565, Kennedy, p. 117, and Appendix II. For
the various liturgies, Trierarchy, Choregy, etc., see "Pol. Ath."
i. 13 foll.

[5] Or, "the son of his father," it being customary at Athens to add
the patronymic, e.g. Xenophon son of Gryllus, Thucydides son of
Olorus, etc. See Herod. vi. 14, viii. 90. In official acts the
name of the deme was added, eg. Demosthenes son of Demosthenes of
Paiane; or of the tribe, at times. Cf. Thuc. viii. 69; Plat.
"Laws," vi. p. 753 B.

Ah! (said I), Ischomachus, that is just what I should like particularly
to learn from you. Did you yourself educate your wife to be all that a
wife should be, or when you received her from her father and mother
was she already a proficient well skilled to discharge the duties
appropriate to a wife?

Well skilled! (he replied). What proficiency was she likely to bring
with her, when she was not quite fifteen [6] at the time she wedded me,
and during the whole prior period of her life had been most carefully
brought up [7] to see and hear as little as possible, and to ask [8]
the fewest questions? or do you not think one should be satisfied, if at
marriage her whole experience consisted in knowing how to take the wool
and make a dress, and seeing how her mother's handmaidens had their
daily spinning-tasks assigned them? For (he added), as regards control
of appetite and self-indulgence, [9] she had received the sou