[526d]
“as
applies to the conduct of war1 is obviously suitable. For in dealing with
encampments and the occupation of strong places and the bringing of troops into
column and line and all the other formations of an army in actual battle and on
the march, an officer who had studied geometry would be a very different person
from what he would be if he had not.” “But still,”
I said, “for such purposes a slight modicum2 of
geometry and calculation would suffice. What we have to consider is
1 Cf. Basilicon Doron(Morley, A Miscellany, p. 144): “I grant it is meete yee have some entrance, specially in the Mathematickes, for the knowledge of the art militarie, in situation of Campes, ordering of battels, making fortifications, placing of batteries, or such like.”
2 This was Xenophon's view, Mem. vi. 7. 2. Whether it was Socrates' nobody knows. Cf. pp. 162-163 on 525 C, Epin. 977 E, Aristoph.Clouds 202.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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