How many Roman military dates do you know?

[Ensifer]

Absolutely. Socrates was at Delium, and distinguished himself during the collapse of the Athenian line. As the story goes, while everyone around him was panicking and running, he retreated slowly and deliberately, facing the enemy. He was intimidating enough that he wsa able to collect a small group around him and bring them off the field intact - the enemy steered clear of them.

According to Plutarch, he was assisted in his retreat by Alcibiades, who was serving as a cavalryman and helped keep the pursuing Theban horsemen at bay. In so doing he was repaying the favour Socrates had done him when he lay wounded at the siege of Potidea, when Socrates had stood over him and 'defended him with the most conspicuous bravery and saved his life and his arms from the enemy'. (Plutarch, Alcibiades, 7) Who says philosophers are boring?


Phil Sidnell

In Plato's Symposium, almost certainly one of Plutarch's sources, Alcibiades himself actually discusses these incidents in the speech he gives in praise of Socrates.

On the expedition to Potidaea . . . we messed together, and I had the opportunity of observing his extraordinary power of sustaining fatigue. His endurance was simply marvellous when, being cut off from our supplies, we were compelled to go without food—on such occasions, which often happen in time of war, he was superior not only to me but to everybody; there was no one to be compared to him. . . . His fortitude in enduring cold was also surprising. There was a severe frost, for the winter in that region is really tremendous, and everybody else either remained indoors, or if they went out had on an amazing quantity of clothes, and were well shod, and had their feet swathed in felt and fleeces: in the midst of this, Socrates with his bare feet on the ice and in his ordinary dress marched better than the other soldiers who had shoes, and they looked daggers at him because he seemed to despise them. . . . I will also tell, if you please—and indeed I am bound to tell—of his courage in battle; for who but he saved my life? Now this was the engagement in which I received the prize of valour: for I was wounded and he would not leave me, but he rescued me and my arms; and he ought to have received the prize of valour which the generals wanted to confer on me partly on account of my rank, and I told them so, (this, again, Socrates will not impeach or deny), but he was more eager than the generals that I and not he should have the prize.
There was another occasion on which his behaviour was very remarkable—in the flight of the army after the battle of Delium, where he served among the heavy-armed,—I had a better opportunity of seeing him than at Potidaea, for I was myself on horseback, and therefore comparatively out of danger. He and Laches were retreating, for the troops were in flight, and I met them and told them not to be discouraged, and promised to remain with them; and there you might see him, Aristophanes, as you describe, just as he is in the streets of Athens, stalking like a pelican, and rolling his eyes, calmly contemplating enemies as well as friends, and making very intelligible to anybody, even from a distance, that whoever attacked him would be likely to meet with a stout resistance; and in this way he and his companion escaped—for this is the sort of man who is never touched in war; those only are pursued who are running away headlong. I particularly observed how superior he was to Laches in presence of mind.

Of course, whether or not Alcibiades ever gave such a speech and whether or not any its material about Socrates is true is an open question. Throughout the speech Alcibiades speaks of Socrates as almost super human. Still, it is a fascinating speech to read and a fitting end to the Symposium.

Quotation taken from the complete text of the Symposium on Spark Notes.