Kitap 3
4.1
Once on seeing Nicomachides returning from the elections, he asked, Who have been chosen generals, Nicomachides?Isn’t it like the Athenians? replied he; they haven’t chosen me after all the hard work I have done, since I was called up, in the command of company or regiment, though I have been so often wounded in action (and here he uncovered and showed his scars); yet they have chosen Antisthenes, who has never served in a marching regiment nor distinguished himself in the cavalry and understands nothing but money-making.
4.2
Isn’t that a recommendation, said Socrates, supposing he proves capable of supplying the men’s needs?Why, retorted Nicomachides, merchants too are capable of making money, but that doesn’t make them fit to command an army.
4.3
But, cried Socrates, Antisthenes also is eager for victory, and that is a good point in a general.Cyropaedia I. vi. 18. Whenever he has been choragus, you know, his choir has always won.No doubt, said Nicomachides, but there is no analogy between the handling of a choir and of an army.
4.4
But, you see, said Socrates, though Antisthenes knows nothing about music or choir training, he showed himself capable of finding the best experts in these.In the army too, then, said Nicomachides, he will find other to command for him, and others to do the fighting.
4.5
And therefore, said Socrates, if he finds out and prefers the best men in warfare as in choir training it is likely that he will be victorious in that too; and probably he will be more ready to spend on winning a battle with the whole state than on winning a choral competition with his tribe.
4.6
Do you mean to say, Socrates, that the man who succeeds with a chorus will also succeed with an army?I mean that, whatever a man controls, if he knows what he wants and can get it he will be a good controller, whether he control a chorus, an estate, a city or an army.
