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Lysimachus, the son of Aristides the Just, and Melesias, the son of the elder Thucydides, two aged men who live together, are desirous of educating their sons in the best manner.Their own education, as often happens with the sons of great men, has been neglected; andthey are resolved that their children shall have more care taken of them, than they receivedthemselves at the hands of their fathers.At their request, Nicias and Laches have accompanied them to see a man named Stesilausfighting in heavy armour. The two fathers ask the two generals what they think of thisexhibition, and whether they would advise that their sons should acquire theaccomplishment. Nicias and Laches are quite willing to give their opinion; but they suggestthat Socrates should be invited to take part in the consultation. He is a stranger toLysimachus, but is afterwards recognised as the son of his old friend Sophroniscus, withwhom he never had a difference to the hour of his death. Socrates is also known to Nicias, to whom he had introduced the excellent Damon, musician and sophist, as a tutor for hisson, and to Laches, who had witnessed his heroic behaviour at the battle of Delium(compare Symp.).Socrates, as he is younger than either Nicias or Laches, prefers to wait until they havedelivered their opinions, which they give in a characteristic manner. Nicias, the tactician, isvery much in favour of the new art, which he describes as the gymnastics of war-usefulwhen the ranks are formed, and still more useful when they are broken; creating a generalinterest in military studies, and greatly adding to the appearance of the soldier in the field.Laches, the blunt warrior, is of opinion that such an art is not knowledge, and cannot be ofany value, because the Lacedaemonians, those great masters of arms, neglect it. His ownexperience in actual service has taught him that these pretenders are useless andridiculous. This man Stesilaus has been seen by him on board ship making a very sorryexhibition of himself. The possession of the art will make the coward rash, and subject thecourageous, if he chance to make a slip, to invidious remarks. And now let Socrates betaken into counsel. As they differ he must decide.Socrates would rather not decide the question by a plurality of votes: in such a seriousmatter as the education of a friend's children, he would consult the one skilled person whohas had masters, and has works to show as evidences of his skill. This is not himself; for hehas never been able to pay the sophists for instructing him, and has never had the wit to door discover anything. But Nicias and Laches are older and richer than he is: they have hadteachers, and perhaps have made discoveries; and he would have trusted them entirely, ifthey had not been diametrically oppose

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