John H. Haaren’s Complete Famous Men Series. John H. Haaren
often threadbare and shabby, and so were those of his wife Xanthippe. He cared nothing for this; but she did and it is said that she often scolded Socrates because he did nothing to make money, but idled away his time in talking. Once, when he was going out of the house to escape from a severe scolding, she threw a pitcher of water upon him. “I have often noticed, Xanthippe, that rain comes after thunder,” said the philosopher.
No man ever had better friends than had Socrates. But no man ever had worse enemies. Some people disliked him because he used to ask them questions which they could not answer without admitting that they were very foolish in their way of living. Others said that he was teaching people not to worship Jupiter and Minerva and the other gods of Athens, and that he was misleading the young men of the city.
One of his enemies was a poet called Aristophanes, who wrote the most humorous plays that were ever acted in Athens. In one of them a wild young man is one of the characters and Socrates is another. Aristophanes made it seem that the teachings of Socrates had caused the young man to become wild. The play did Socrates a great deal of harm, for many people came to believe that he really was advising young men to lead bad lives.
Yet one of the worst young men of Athens once said, “You think that I have no shame in me, but when I am with Socrates I am ashamed. He has only to speak and my tears flow.”
Finally, the enemies of Socrates brought against him in the courts the charge of ruining young men and insulting the gods. He was tried and condemned to drink the deadly juice of a plant called hemlock. In Athens condemned persons were usually put to death by making them drink this poison.
No man ever behaved more grandly when unjustly condemned to die than did Socrates.
Before he left the court he said, “My judges, you go now to your homes—I to prison and to death. But which of the two is the better lot God only knows. It is very likely that death is our greatest blessing.”
Generally a person condemned to death had to drink the poison the very next day after his trial. But a sacred ship had just sailed from Athens to Delos. This ship carried every year the offerings of the Athenians to Apollo, the chief god of the island, and it was a law in Athens that no person condemned to die should be put to death while she was on her voyage to and fro. So for thirty days Socrates was kept in prison.
During that time his friends were allowed to go to see him. In the prison he talked to them just as he had done in the market-place or on the streets.
Some of his friends told him how sorry they were that he should die innocent.
“What!” said Socrates, “would you have me die guilty?”
On the return of the ship from Delos he was told to prepare himself for death. He invited his friends to come and be with him at the end. He took with them his last meal and was as cheerful during it as if it had been a feast.
One of his friends asked where he would like them to “bury him.”
“Bury me?” he said. “You cannot bury Socrates. You can bury my body; you cannot put me into a grave.”
He spoke about death and the future life and said that death was only the end of sorrow and the beginning of a nobler life.
When the jailer came with the cup of poison Socrates drank it as cheerfully as if it had been a glass of wine. He walked about the cell as he was bidden and then, beginning to feel sleepy, lay down. Soon after this he ceased to breathe.
Plato, who was one of his pupils, says, “Thus died the man who was in death the noblest we have ever known—in life, the wisest and the best.”
II
After the death of Socrates (B.C. 399) his work was carried on by his pupil, Plato, who became one of the most famous philosophers of Greece. His lectures were given in the shade of the trees planted by Cimon in the Academy years before.
Besides great philosophers Athens had some famous painters. Two of the most celebrated were Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who lived about 400 B.C. They were rivals. Once they gave an exhibition of their paintings. Zeuxis exhibited a bunch of grapes which had such a natural look that birds came and pecked at them. The people exclaimed, “Astonishing! What can be finer than Zeuxis’ grapes?”
Zeuxis proudly turned to his rival’s picture. A purple curtain hung before it. “Draw aside your curtain, Parrhasius,” he said, “and let us look at your picture.”
The artist smiled, but did not move. Some one else stepped toward the curtain to draw it aside, and it was then discovered that the curtain was part of the painting.
“I yield,” said Zeuxis. “It is easy to see who is the better artist. I have deceived birds. Parrhasius has deceived an artist.”
It is said the Zeuxis died laughing at a funny picture that he had painted of an old woman.
Xenophon
I
One day as Socrates was walking through a narrow street in Athens he met a young man who was remarkably handsome. Socrates stretched out his staff so that the young man had to stop.
“Where can bread be found?” asked the philosopher.
The young man’s manner was modest and pleasing as he told Socrates where to buy bread.
“And where can wine be found?” asked the philosopher.
With the same pleasant manner the young man told Socrates where to get wine.
“And where can the good and the noble be found?” asked the philosopher.
The young man was puzzled and unable to answer.
“Follow me and learn,” said the philosopher. The young man obeyed and from that time forward was the pupil and friend of Socrates. He was called Xenophon, a name that afterward became famous among the Greeks.
The king of Persia at that time was Artaxerxes. He had a younger brother named Cyrus, who was the governor of some provinces of Asia Minor, which belonged to Persia. Cyrus thought that he had a better right to the throne than Artaxerxes and he determined to seize it.
The Persians had helped the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, and Cyrus had found out what splendid fighters the Greeks were. He knew, also, that many of them had become so used to fighting that they did not like a life of peace and were willing to fight for any one who would pay them. He decided, therefore, to get the Greeks to help him to fight for the throne of Persia, and he sent to several Greek states to invite soldiers to join him, promising them great rewards if he succeeded.
Xenophon had a friend who was going with Cyrus and who advised Xenophon to go too. Xenophon talked the matter over with Socrates who told him to ask the oracle at Delphi what to do. So Xenophon went to Delphi, but as he had made up his mind to go on the expedition he did not ask the oracle whether he should go or not. He only asked to what gods he should sacrifice before he set out. After sacrificing as the oracle advised he started for Sardis, in Asia Minor, and reached that city just in time to join the expedition.
Eleven thousand Greeks from different states had entered the service of Cyrus; so that with his Persian forces, 100,000 strong, he had an army of 111,000 men. Xenophon was not a general, or even a soldier, in this army. He seems to have gone with his friend, hoping that some opening would be made for him.
There was a magnificent road from Sardis to Susa, Artaxerxes’ capital. But even upon the best of roads an army of a hundred thousand men, most of whom were on foot, had to move slowly. Cyrus’ troops went about fifteen miles a day, and it took them six months to reach a place called Cunaxa, about seventy miles from Babylon.
Here they found Artaxerxes at the head of an army of nearly a million men. The troops of the Persian king advanced with a great shout, thinking that the noise made by thousands of men shouting would terrify the Greeks. But the Greeks only raised their warcry—“Victory!”—and steadily advanced, overcoming everything that was opposed to them. Unfortunately, Cyrus went into the battle himself at the head of his Persian forces.