43
Now our forefathers exercised care over all the citizens, but most of all over the young. They saw that at this age men are most unruly of temper and filled with a multitude of desires,Cf. Plat. Laws 808d. and that their spirits are most in need of being curbed by devotion to noble pursuits and by congenial labor; for only such occupations can attract and hold men who have been educated liberally and trained in high-minded ways.
44
However, since it was not possible to direct all into the same occupations, because of differences in their circumstances, they assigned to each one a vocation which was in keeping with his means; for they turned the needier towards farming and trade, knowing that poverty comes about through idleness, and evil-doing through poverty.
45
Accordingly, they believed that by removing the root of evil they would deliver the young from the sins which spring from it. On the other hand, they compelled those who possessed sufficient means to devote themselves to horsemanship,That is, in training for the races at the festivals. athletics,There were three gymnasiums in Athens: the Lyceum, the Academy, and the Cynosarges. hunting,In Aristoph. Kn. 1382 ff., the reformed Demos declares that it will henceforth make all these demagogues take to hunting and give up concocting “decrees” for the Assembly. and philosophy,The cultivated life. See Isoc. 4.47 ff. observing that by these pursuits some are enabled to achieve excellence, others to abstain from many vices.
