illustrate by the story of Minos, if our Cretan friend will allow me to
mention it. Minos, who was a great sea-king, imposed upon the Athenians a
cruel tribute, for in those days they were not a maritime power; they had
no timber for ship-building, and therefore they could not 'imitate their
enemies'; and better far, as I maintain, would it have been for them to
have lost many times over the lives which they devoted to the tribute than
to have turned soldiers into sailors. Naval warfare is not a very
praiseworthy art; men should not be taught to leap on shore, and then
again to hurry back to their ships, or to find specious excuses for
throwing away their arms; bad customs ought not to be gilded with fine
words. And retreat is always bad, as we are taught in Homer, when he
introduces Odysseus, setting forth to Agamemnon the danger of ships being
at hand when soldiers are disposed to fly. An army of lions trained in
such ways would fly before a herd of deer. Further, a city which owes its
preservation to a crowd of pilots and oarsmen and other undeserving
persons, cannot bestow rewards of honour properly; and this is the ruin of
states. 'Still, in Crete we say that the battle of Salamis was the
salvation of Hellas.' Such is the prevailing opinion. But I and Megillus
say that the battle of Marathon began the deliverance, and that the battle
of Plataea completed it; for these battles made men better, whereas the
battles of Salamis and Artemisium made them no better. And we further
affirm that mere existence is not the great political good of individuals
or states, but the continuance of the best existence. 'Certainly.' Let us
then endeavour to follow this principle in colonization and legislation.

And first, let me ask you who are to be the colonists? May any one come
from any city of Crete? For you would surely not send a general invitation
to all Hellas. Yet I observe that in Crete there are people who have come
from Argos and Aegina and other places. 'Our recruits will be drawn from
all Crete, and of other Hellenes we should prefer Peloponnesians. As you