But in the course of the defence one of the generals will, as I am told, mount the platform, with head held high and a self-conscious air, as one who should say, Behold the graduate of the wrestling schools, and the student of philosophy! And he will undertake to throw ridicule upon the whole idea of the prosecution, asserting that this is no legal process that I have devised, but the first step in a dangerous decline in the culture of our youth.1 He will cite first those benefactors of yours, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, describing their fidelity to one another, and telling how in their case this relationship proved the salvation of the state.
1 Probably the hearers would be quick to catch the half-hidden thought suggested by the word ἀπαιδευσία. The Athenian gentlemen did indeed “cultivate” the handsome boys and young men, and for most immoral purposes. The culture that the boys received was too often not εὐπαιδευσία, but παιδεραστία.
Aeschines. Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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