This son of Phocion, 1 we are told, turned out to be a man of no worth in general, and once, being enamoured of a girl who was kept in a brothel, chanced to hear Theodorus the Atheist discourse in the Lyceium as follows: If there is no disgrace in ransoming a man beloved, the same is true of a woman loved; what is true of a comrade, is true also of a mistress. Accordingly, his passion leading him to think the argument sound, he ransomed his mistress.
But Phocion’s fate reminded the Greeks anew of that of Socrates; 2 they felt that the sin and misfortune of Athens were alike in both cases.
Phocion. Plutarch. Bernadotte Perrin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1919.
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