2.6
Moreover, I observe that already the state is exacting heavy contributions from you: you must needs keep horses, pay for choruses and gymnastic competitions, and accept presidencies;It is unlikely that προστατείας is used here for προστασίας, the charge of resident aliens, since there is no proof that this duty involved expense to the patron. and if war breaks out, I know they will require you to maintain a ship and pay taxes that will nearly crush you. Whenever you seem to fall short of what is expected of you, the Athenians will certainly punish you as though they had caught you robbing them.
2.7
Besides all this, I notice that you imagine yourself to be a rich man; you are indifferent to money, and yet go courting minions, as though the cost were nothing to you. And that is why I pity you, and fear that you may come to grief and find yourself reduced to penury.
2.8
Now, if I ran short of money, no doubt you know as well as I do that I should not lack helpers who would need to contribute very little to fill my cup to overflowing. But your friends, though far better supplied with means to support their establishment than you, yet look to receive help from you.
2.9
I cannot dispute this, Socrates, said Critobulus, but it is time for you to take me in hand, and see that I don’t become a real object of pity. At this Socrates exclaimed, What, don’t you think it strange, Critobulus, that a little while ago, when I said I was rich, you laughed at me, as though I did not even know the meaning of riches, and would not cease until you had proved me wrong and made me own that my possessions were less than one-hundredth part of yours, and yet now you bid me take you in hand and see that you don’t become in literal truth a poor man?
2.10
Well, Socrates, I see that you understand one process by which wealth is created—how to create a balance. So a man who saves on a small income can, I suppose, very easily show a large surplus with a large one.
