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Section 124

SOCRATES. Are there not sick men in the city?

THEAGES. Yes, but I do not mean just governing the sick, I mean governing all the citizens.

SOCRATES. Let me see if I understand the art you mean. Do you mean the art by which a man knows how to manage those who harvest the crops, those who weave, those who build houses, and all the rest? The art that manages everyone?

THEAGES. Not exactly all those arts individually, Socrates.

SOCRATES. Then do you mean the art by which a man governs everyone simultaneously—men and women, both free people and slaves?

THEAGES. Yes, that is the wisdom I mean.

SOCRATES. Like the art by which Aegisthus governed Argos, or Agamemnon governed the Greeks?

THEAGES. Yes.

SOCRATES. This is the art of a king, is it not?

THEAGES. It is.

SOCRATES. Are you saying, then, that you desire to become a tyrant over us, and you are blaming your father because he is not willing to send you to some tyrant-maker to be instructed?

THEAGES. I would certainly be glad to become a tyrant over all mankind, Socrates, and if not over all, then over as many as possible. And I imagine you would be glad as well, as would everyone else. But I did not say I desired that right now.

SOCRATES. Then what do you desire?

THEAGES. To govern willing subjects, just as the honorable men in the city do.

SOCRATES. You mean like Pericles, Cimon, and Themistocles?

THEAGES. Yes, men like that.

SOCRATES. Well, if you wanted to become wise in horsemanship, you would not go to those who manage chariots, but to those who are masters of horsemanship. If you want to become wise in the sort of wisdom those statesmen possessed, to whom should your father send you?