صفحة 153 من 734

In the same rank one would be inclined to place those also who

act under compulsion from their commanders; yet are they really

lower, because not a sense of honour but fear is the motive from

which they act, and what they seek to avoid is not that which is

base but that which is simply painful: commanders do in fact

compel their men sometimes, as Hector says (to quote Homer

again),

"But whomsoever I shall find cowering afar from the fight, The

teeth of dogs he shall by no means escape."

Those commanders who station staunch troops by doubtful ones,[19]

or who beat their men if they flinch, or who draw their troops up

in line with the trenches, or other similar obstacles, in their

rear, do in effect the same as Hector, for they all use

compulsion.

But a man is to be Brave, not on compulsion, but from a sense of

honour.

In the next place, Experience and Skill in the various

particulars is thought to be a species of Courage: whence

Socrates also thought that Courage was knowledge.[20]