36 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Casaubon, in his animadversions upon that learned, but injudicious 

 writer. 



Socrates, partly from a dislike of politics, and partly, perhaps, 

 from the obscurity of his station, did not fill any civil office till he 

 was considerably advanced in years, when he was elected into the 

 His conduct council : and being one of the Prytaneis when the six generals were 

 ^ Court of tried for having neglected to rescue from the waves those who had 

 Justice. been wrecked, and the dead bodies of those who had fallen in the 

 sea-fight at Arginusce, he resisted 'singly the iniquitous attempts of 

 their accusers, and the fury of the people, and refused to put the 

 question to the vote. Afterwards, under the rule of the Thirty, being 

 deputed one of five to arrest Leo of Salamis, ibr the purpose of 

 putting him to death, he resolutely declined the office, at the hazard 

 of his own life, which would probably have been sacrificed to the 

 resentment of the tyrants, had they not shortly afterwards been de- 

 prived of their power. 



Socrates is said to have taken advantage of a law of Solon, which 

 permitted an Athenian citizen to have two wives ; and to have mar- 

 His marriage, ried first Xanthippe, and afterwards Myrto, the daughter of Aristides 

 (not the Just), whom he is related to have taken into his house from 

 motives of pity, when she was a widow and in distress. This story 

 rests upon the authority of Plutarch, Demetrius, Phalereus, Aris- 

 toxenus, and Satyrus the Peripatetic. But there are many reasons 

 for doubting the fact. In the first place, there is no good authority 

 for asserting that there was any law of Solon which permitted bigamy. 

 In the second place, neither Plato nor Xenophon make any allusion 

 to such a circumstance in their master's life; nor Aristophanes, 

 who certainly would not have let slip so fair an opportunity of a 

 joke against Socrates. And lastly, Plutarch, who is the earliest 

 author extant that mentions the story, says that Panaetius, in his 

 book on Socrates, " has abundantly refuted the assertions of those 

 writers who propagated the story." The fact probably was, that 

 Socrates did receive Myrto into his house from motives of charity 

 and kindness, and that hence originated a report of his having married 

 her. The reader may see the question discussed at length in Bentley's 

 * Diss. on the Socratic Epistles ;' Mahne's ' Diatribe de Aristoxeno.' 

 Xanthippe, With regard to the character of Xanthippe, his undoubted wife, 

 her character there is a great diversity of opinion. She is commonly believed to 

 have been a woman of loose manners, and of violent temper. For 

 the first of these charges, however, there seems to be no gocd 

 authority. Neither Plato, Aristotle, nor Aristophanes, make any 

 allusion to it; and it is inconsistent with the account which Plato 

 gives of the kind and affectionate behaviour of Xanthippe towards 

 her husband in his last moments. But it is quite clear that she was 

 of a violent and untractable temper ; for Socrates professed to have 

 married her because he knew that if he could put up with her caprice 

 and passion, he would be able to bear with patience the ill humour of 



