Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 640
Because even if a person is outstanding, they are prone to impulsiveness, recklessness and temptation when young due to their lack of knowledge and experience. And the children conceived during that time would inherit those shortcomings, while children born once those outstanding persons are mature would be prudent and thoughtful…”
Hearing this, some students looked happy as they had gained something while some were still pondering.
Speusippus continued asking, “Teacher, you once said that of the current Greek city-state, Sparta has the best aristocracy you have ever seen. Creating such positions as dual kings, the Gerousia and the Ephors…made Sparta a mixed aristocracy, where no party held absolute arbitrary power, which resulted in restraining those who greed for power…
Yet Sparta violated the Greek tradition and forcibly occupied Thebes. What’s your opinion of that?”
“Speusippus.” Plato faced Speusippus with affection in his eyes. After all, Speusippus was the son of his sister Potone. “When I said that Sparta has the best aristocracy, it does not mean that they should follow the rules and become a city-state that adheres to Greek traditions completely. On the contrary, it is precisely this system of governance that allowed Sparta to dominate the Peloponnese for a long time without major internal problems. Is it not because of Sparta’s regimes that they could still hold onto their dominance over the Greek city-states in today’s chaotic situation?
However, Thebes isn’t just some weak city-state, so Sparta couldn’t easily enslave them completely. On the contrary, their prolonged occupation of Thebes’ citadel would only increase the antipathy of the Thebans toward Sparta. And one day, this antipathy will spark a fire that would burn down the Spartan army, just like when Thrasybulos led the Athenian population to overthrow the tyrant’s rule…”
“Teacher Plato, since Sparta is the best aristocracy among the Greek city-state, what do you think of Theonia’s aristocracy?” asked Ariphron of Corinth.
‘Theonia!’ Hearing that city’s name, Plato’s heart rippled. He once yearned to visit this city-state union in the western Mediterranean, but he failed to do so for various reasons, which became one of his regrets.
While Plato was distracted, Aurelius retorted, “Theonia isn’t a Greek city-state.”
Ariphron retorted, “You watch the play 《the Theonians》 too much! The main race in the kingdom of Theonia is Greek, and the centre of the kingdom is the city of Thurii, a city built by Pericles by calling all the Greeks. There are also Crotone, Taranto, and Locri as part of the kingdom…and those are all famous Greek cities in the western Mediterranean. So how come Theonia is not Greek?!”
“The Delphic hasn’t recognised Theonia! They can’t even participate in the four major games, so how can Theonia be recognised as Greek?” Aurelius retorted again.
“I heard Elis, at the behest of Sparta, invited Theonia several times, but Theonia said that they would only send a representative team if they agreed to allow their citizens of different races to participate. But since Elis didn’t agree, so Theonia never participated in the Olympics.” Speusippus reminded.
“Doesn’t this just mean the Greek city-states doubt Theonia’s identity?”
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Instead of stopping his students from debating, Plato just listened to their opinions as he was also thinking about how to better answer Ariphron’s question.
At this time, the guard of the Akademia came over and said to Plato, “Someone outside asked to meet you, and he said he was from Theonia.”
As soon as the guard said that, everyone stopped talking.
‘We are just talking about Theonia, yet a Theonian unexpectedly came here?! This is too coincidental!’
“Let him enter.” Plato was also curious as he had no friends in Theonia, and the only one he knew was Lysias, who he heard was enjoying a good life in Thurii.
After a while, the guard led a young man to them.
The curious eyes of everyone focused on the young man. However, the young man felt no pressure at all as he greeted Plato graciously and said respectfully, “I am Phaestokiadas, from Theonia’s Akademia. I was ordered by teacher Gorgias to deliver a letter from him to you and to await your reply.”
‘Gorgias!’ Plato was so surprised that he asked, “I remember that Gorgias should be in Leontinoi. I visited him when I was in Sicily a few years ago, so when did he go to Theonia?”
Phaestokiadas replied after thinking for a while, “Around the sixth year of Theonia. King Davos personally invited him to work as a teacher in Theonia’s Akademia, and he accepted the invitation.”
Plato had studied Theonia, so he was still quite familiar with the unique calendar of Theonia. So he said with slight surprise, “That should have happened soon after I met Gorgias. But at that time, Gorgias told me that he was too old and ill to visit Athens, yet he unexpectedly went to Thurii in Theonia…”
Phaestokiadas proudly said, “That’s because the physicians of Theonia have excellent medical skills and could treat teacher Gorgias’ illness. Afterwards, he became impressed at the excellent environment of Theonia’s Akademia, which was helpful to his research and teaching students.”
Plato nodded and asked, “Are you a student of Gorgias?”
Phaestokiadas hesitated for a moment and said, “Gorgias is my teacher, who I learned philosophy. However, I also learned history from Ansitanos, mathematics and geometry from teacher Marticoris, and rhetoric and debate from teacher Lysias…”
Hearing that, Plato sighed: The Akademia was the educational place for him to cultivate excellent students and realise his political ideal, so he did not want every student to receive a diverse education. But unlike Theonia’s Akademia, which a whole kingdom funded and has extremely abundant teaching resources, the Akademia was his and his friends’ private property. Up to now, besides himself and occasional friends, he hasn’t invited famous scholars to teach students advanced mathematics and geometry. And even though he has also dabbled in this field, he cannot fully satisfy the desire of some of his students who want further study, so he just lets them read the books themselves. For this reason, Plato spent a lot of effort collecting books of various knowledge through different means.
Without any further questions, Plato opened Gorgias’ letter.
While Plato read the letter, the curious student began talking with Phaestokiadas.
“We had long heard that Theonia’s Akademia is the largest place of education and knowledge in the western Mediterranean, but is it better than our Akademia?” As the most economically and culturally prosperous city among the Greek city-states, Pericles once called Athens, the best school in all of Greece. Therefore, the youths of Athens were confident about it and always arrogant toward those from the colonies, which even included these youths who were currently receiving higher education.
Phaestokiadas glanced at their expression. But he didn’t answer directly; instead, he asked, “How big is your Akademia?”
“About 1.6 acres.”
“How many teachers do you have here?” Phaestokiadas asked again.
“Besides teacher Plato, we also have….teacher Theaetetus, who often teaches us mathematics.” For fear of being looked down, Aurelius specially said the Athenian mathematician Theaetetus, who only came here occasionally.
“How many students are there?”
“There are twenty-three, and several of them are reading in the library of the Akademia…”
After hearing that, Phaestokiadas raised his head and said loudly, “Theonia’s Akademia covers 16.5 acres of land, so its area is like a small town. Moreover, we have more than 20 large and small buildings in the Akademia, more than 300 students, and 15 well-known scholars, which include, among others, teacher Lysias who wrote 《Rhetorical Debate》, teacher Ansitanos who wrote the 《History of Magna Graecia》, teacher Martikoris who invented the principle of pulley mechanics, lever mechanics, pitch fluctuation, and buoyancy, teacher Herpus who wrote the 《Human Anatomy》 and the 《First Exploration of Diseases》, teacher Gorgias who wrote 《On Nature or the Non-Existent》, teacher Philoxenus, who invented the new music poet… In addition to these famous scholars, we have more than 20 teachers and more than a hundred people serving students and teachers…
Our students have a wide range of courses, including philosophy, rhetoric, law, mathematics, astronomy, history, poetry, biology, and music… What’s more, we have sports and even competitions to ensure our physical and mental balance, as well as to exercise our will to victory.
And for us to focus on learning, we all have our own accommodations in the Akademia… Oh yes! There is also a massive library in Theonia’s Akademia, which currently has more than 5,000 books, including not only Greek works but also Persian, Egyptian, Carthaginian… For example, the Carthaginian agricultural books and Persian laws where we even have specialised personnel to translate these books…”
Phaestokiadas’ narrative left the youths dumbfounded, with envy and jealousy on their faces. After a while, someone couldn’t resist saying, “What you said sounds good. However, who knows if it’s true?”
Phaestokiadas sneered, “Theonia’s Akademia is just more than 500 kilometres to the west of Athens. Feel free to send someone to confirm it, and you will find that what I said is not enough to describe the real worth of Theonia’s Akademia.”
“It doesn’t matter how many or fewer things we have; just having teacher Plato who can teach us real knowledge is enough for us.” Speusippus reminded everyone aloud.
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