Plato, Socrates, and the Thirty

Plato says in the Seventh Letter: ‘The existing constitution being generally condemned, a revolution (metabolh/) took place, and fifty one men came to the front as rulers of the revolutionary government (prou/sthsan a1rxontej) namely eleven in the city and ten in the Piraeus … while thirty were appointed rulers with full powers over public affairs as a whole (a1rxontej kate/sthsan au0tokra/torej). Some of these were relatives and acquaintances of mine, and they at once invited me to share in their doings, as something to which I had a claim. The effect on me was not surprising in the case of a young man. I considered that they would, of course, so manage the State as to bring men out of bad way of life into a good one. So I watched them very closely to see what they would do.’ (324c2-d6, tr. J. Harward)

Harward’s ‘So I watched them very closely’, in the last sentence, stands for w#ste au0toi=j sfo/dra prosei=xon to\n nou=n, which Bury translates, more accurately, ‘and consequently I gave my mind to them very diligently’. I believe that in those days Plato wrote the Charmides. It was a short time, and the Charmides is a short dialogue.

The occasion that compelled Plato to write the Charmides can be found, in my view, in Xenophon’s Memorabilia:

‘When the Thirty were putting to death many citizens of the highest respectability and were encouraging many in crime, Socrates had remarked: “It seems strange enough to me that a herdsman who lets his cattle decrease and go to the bad should not admit that he is a poor cowherd; but stranger still that a statesman when he causes the citizens to decrease and go to the bad, should feel no shame nor think himself a poor statesman (kako\j ei]nai prosta/thj th=j po/lewj).” This remark was reported to Critias [the leader of the Thirty] and Charicles, who sent for Socrates, showed him the law – which made it illegal to teach ‘the art of words’ (lo/gwn te/xnhn), i.e. the rhetoric – and forbade him to hold conversation with the young. “Well then,” said Socrates, “that there may be no question raised about my obedience, please fix the age limit below which a man is to be accounted young.” “So long,” replied Charicles, “as he is not permitted to sit in the Council, because as yet he lacks wisdom. You shall not converse with anyone who is under thirty.” (I.ii.32-35)

This meant that Socrates was forbidden to have any discussion with Plato. So Plato brought Socrates into a lively discussion with young Critias and a very young Charmides; the Charmides must dramatically precede the incident that caused a rupture between Socrates and Critias. Xenophon writes: ‘When Socrates found that Critias loved Euthydemus and wanted to lead him astray, he tried to restrain him by saying that it was mean and unbecoming in a gentleman to sue like a beggar to the object of his affection, whose good opinion he coveted, stooping to ask a favour that it was wrong to grant. As Critias paid no heed whatever to this protest, Socrates, it is said, exclaimed in the presence of Euthydemus and many others, “Critias seems to have the feelings of a pig: he can no more keep away from Euthydemus than pigs can help rubbing themselves against stones.” Now Critias bore a grudge against Socrates for this and when he was one of the Thirty and was drafting laws with Charicles, he bore it in mind. He inserted a clause which made it illegal “to teach the art of words”. It was a calculated insult to Socrates.’ (I.ii.29-31)

In the Charmides Critias figures as Charmides’ guardian (e0pitro/poj), and in that function he orders Charmides to become an assiduous follower of Socrates: ‘and never desert him at all’ (mh\ a0polei/ph| tou/tou mh/te me/ga mh/te smikro/n, 176b7-8). Socrates protested: ‘Are you going to use violence (Bia/sh| a1ra), without even giving me a preliminary hearing (kai\ ou0d’ a0na/krisin moi dw&seij;)?’ Charmides replied: ‘I will be forcing you (W(j biasome/nou), since Critias here orders me to (e0peidh/per o3de ge e0pita/ttei). With this in mind (pro\j tau=ta), you consider (su\ au] bouleu/ou) what you will do (o3ti poih/seij).’ To this, Socrates replied: ‘But the time for consideration has passed (A)ll ou0demi/a lei/petai boulh/); when you are determined on anything (soi\ ga\r e0pixeirou=nti pra/ttein o9tiou=n), and in the mood of violence (kai\ biazome/nw|), no man will be able to resist you (ou0dei\j oi[o/j t’ e1stai e0nantiou/sqai a0nqrw&pwn).

Charmides: ‘Don’t then (Mh\ toi/nun), don’t you resist me either (mh/de su\ e0nanti/ou).’

Socrates replied ‘I will not resist you’ (Ou0 toi/nun e0nantiw&somai), thus ending the dialogue. (176c7-d5)

Plato must have finished and circulated the Charmides among friends before the incident that he describes in the Seventh Letter: ‘And indeed I saw how these men [i.e. the Thirty] within a short time caused men to look back on the former government as a golden age: and above all how they treated my aged friend Socrates, whom I would hardly scruple to call the most just of men then living, when they tried to send him, along with others, after one of the citizens, to fetch him by force that he might be put to death – their object being that Socrates, whether he wished or no, might be made to share in their political actions; he, however, did not obey them (o9 d’ ou0k e0pei/qeto) and risked the uttermost penalties rather than be a partaker in their unholy deeds.’ (324d6-325a3)

Socrates said about this incident in his Defence speech at his trial: ‘And after the oligarchy was established, the Thirty sent for me with four others to come to the rotunda, and ordered us to bring Leon the Salaminian from Salamis to be put to death. They gave many such orders to others also, because they wished to implicate as many in their crimes as they could. Then I, however, showed again, not in word but by action (ou0 lo/gw| a0ll’ e1rgw|), that I did not care a whit for death, if that be not too rude an expression, but that I did care with all my might not to do anything unjust or unholy. For that government, with all its power, did not frighten me into doing anything unjust, but when we came out of the rotunda, the other four went to Salamis and arrested Leon, but I simply went home.’ (Pl. Apology, 32c4-d7)