(The speakers in the dialogue are Autobulus,
1 Soclarus,
2
Optatus, Aristotimus, Phaedimus, and Heracleon.
3）
Autobulus. When Leonidas was asked what sort
of a person he considered Tyrtaeus to be, he replied,
‘A good poet to whet the souls of young men,’
4 on
the ground that by means of verses the poet inspired
in young men keenness, accompanied by ardour and
ambition whereby they sacrificed themselves freely
in battle. And I am very much afraid, my friends,
that the
Praise of Hunting
5 which was read aloud to
us yesterday may so immoderately inflame our young
men who like the sport that they will come to consider all other occupations as of minor, or of no,
importance and concentrate on this.
6 As a matter
of fact, I myself caught the old fever all over again
[p. 321]
in spite of my years and longed, like Euripides'
7
Phaedra,
To halloo the hounds and chase the dappled deer;
so moved was I by the discourse as it brought its
solid and convincing arguments to bear.
Soclarus. Exactly so, Autobulus. That reader
yesterday seems to have roused his rhetoric from its
long disuse
8 to gratify the young men and share
their vernal mood.
9 I was particularly pleased with his
introduction of gladiators and his argument that it is
as good a reason as any to applaud hunting that after
diverting to itself most of our natural or acquired
pleasure in armed combats between human beings
it affords an innocent spectacle of skill and intelligent
courage pitted against witless force and violence. It
agrees with that passage of Euripides
10:
Slight is the strength of men ;
But through his mind's resource
He subdues the dread
Tribes of the deep and races
Bred on earth and in the air.
