A Life of Socrates by Dr. G. Wiggers [pp. 236-265]

.is Military History.
interest. About the age of thirty-seven, at the beginning of the
Peloponnesian war, he went with a portion of his countrymen
into Thrace for the recovery of Potidoea, an Athenian colony
which had revolted. The rebels were supported by the Corin thians and other Peloponnesians. In this expedition, Socrates'
great endeavour was to increase his power of enduring hunger,
thirst, and cold. In this he succeeded to a remarkable degree,
walking barefoot on ice and snow. His courage was not only
undisputed but pre-eminent. Indeed the prize was awarded to
him, but regardless of honour himself, or perhaps feeling that
"the vote was the monument," and wishing to encourage Alci biades, whose life had just been saved in battle by Socrates, and
who was a favourite follower of his, the prize was given to him,
and thus Socrates showed his disciple both how to earn and how
to contemn applause. His next campaign was undertaken when
he was at the age of forty-five. He went with the army to
Delium, where the Boeotians defeated the Athenians. But the
General of the latter, Laches, said, that if all his men had
behaved as well as Socrates, the enemy would have erected no
trophies. His third and last military expedition was undertaken
at the age of forty-seven. The object of the campaign was
the recovery of Amphipolis, in Thrace. This was a colony of
Athens, and of great commercial importance. It had been
seized by the Lacedemonians, and its recovery was deeme4 very
important. But the enterprise was a failure. It is very evident, that in engaging in military service, Socrates was actuated
by no motives of martial renown. Love of country, which seems
to be a universal passion in the minds of men not utterly debased, was that which impelled him.'"I love my countrymen
more than thine," he said to a Cyrenean. There is nothing
even in true piety hostile to sober, well regulated, and ardent
love of the land of our birth or of our adoption. The meanest
man we ever saw was a-New Englander, who ridiculed the place
of his birth, and the peculiarities of his own kindred. Nor did
Socrates love his country because of its favours to him, but
because it was his. He said, "at Athens four measures of
flour are sold for one obolus, the springs yield abundance of
water, and I live contented with what I possess." He loved
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