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SOLON But you would see it, Anacharsis, if you should stop with us longer, and also arms for every man in great quantity, which we use when it is necessary, and crests and trappings and horses, and cavalrymen amounting to nearly a fourth of our citizens. But to bear arms always and carry a dirk at one’s belt is, we think, superfluous in time of peace; in fact, there is a penalty prescribed for anyone who carries weapons unnecessarily within the city limits or brings armour out into a public place. As for your people, you may be pardoned for always living under arms. Your dwelling in unfortified places makes it easy to attack you, and your wars are very numerous, and nobody knows when someone may come upon him asleep, drag him down from his wagon, and kill him. Besides, your distrust of one another, inasmuch as your relations with each other are adjusted by individual caprice and not by law, makes steel always necessary, so as to be at hand for defence if anyone should use violence.
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ANACHARSIS Then is it possible, Solon, that while you think it superfluous to carry weapons without urgent reason, and are careful of your arms in order that they may not be spoiled by handling, keeping them in store with the intention of using them some day, when need arises; yet when no danger threatens you wear out the bodies of your young men by mauling them and wasting them away in sweat, not husbanding their strength until it is needed but expending it fruitlessly in the mud and dust?
