Potidaea and the campaign

Use in the book

The dialogue begins on the day after Socrates' homecoming from the army at Potidaea. The people at home have recently heard of a severe battle and the deaths of many acquaintances. Chaerephon's immediate question is how Socrates survived, answered with a dry appeal to his visible presence. Socrates narrates that he supplied military news but does not reproduce it; the recorded conversation turns instead to philosophy and young Athenians.

The campaign subsequently furnishes a claimed provenance for the charm. Socrates says that he learned it from a Thracian doctor while on military service. This is part of the medical story he constructs after agreeing to Critias' pretext. The narrative does not independently establish that a historical Thracian physician taught Socrates this doctrine. It does explain how an encounter with foreign healing can be introduced naturally by a man just returned from the northern campaign.

Externally, Thucydides reports the fighting associated with Potidaea's revolt, the ensuing siege, and its eventual surrender. The major battle preceding the siege belongs to 432 BCE, while surrender falls in the winter of 430/29. The Charmides itself supplies no calendar date, and its combination of prolonged absence, recent fighting, and homecoming has generated competing chronological reconstructions. It is safer to record that ambiguity than to print “429” or “432” as an explicit Platonic date.

The martial frame also has a local verbal afterlife. Critias calls the young men preceding Charmides prodromoi, “forerunners,” a word available for an advance guard. The attractive youth becomes “invincible,” and the lover imagines himself captured. Later the hypothetical organization of expertise promises safety at sea and in war. These associations permit a reading in which survival, mastery, and vulnerability run through the dialogue; none proves a hidden military allegory governing every example.

Places to read

1. 153a–d2Homecoming, severe battle, deaths, and transition from war news to philosophy
2. 154aThe admirers entering first are called forerunners
3. 156dThe claimed Thracian teacher was encountered on campaign
4. 173bReliable expertise would improve bodily health and survival in war and at sea
5. 174cGeneralship and navigation continue to preserve life even when knowledge of good and bad is removed

Translation in this edition

The introductory chronology in the supplied edition is explicitly disputed. “Army at Potidaea” is appropriately less specific than a translation that inserts the date of the siege's conclusion. Burnet's apparatus at 156d4 records strateias in Stobaeus beside stratias in the principal witnesses.

ἀγγέλλω

Attested: ἤγγελταί (ēngeltai). News has been reported; Chaerephon distinguishes what Athens has heard from an eyewitness account. References: 153b. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀγγέλλω. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἅδην

Attested: ἅδην (hadēn). To satiety, to their fill; they have had enough of hearing the campaign news. References: 153d. Lexical identification: lemma: ἅδην. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἀπροσδόκητος

Attested: ἐξ ἀπροσδοκήτου (ex aprosdokētou). Unexpectedly; marks the surprise of Socrates' return. References: 153b. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀπροσδόκητος. See Potidaea and the campaign.

θνῄσκω

Attested: τεθνάναι (tethnanai). To have died; the infinitive reports acquaintances killed in the battle from which Socrates has returned. References: 153c. Lexical identification: lemma: θνῄσκω. See Potidaea and the campaign.

μάχη

Attested: μάχης / μάχη (machēs / machē). Battle or fighting; the recent engagement at Potidaea prompts Chaerephon’s anxious greeting and request for an eyewitness account. References: 153b. Lexical identification: lemma: μάχη. See Potidaea and the campaign.

Ποτείδαια

Attested: Ποτειδαίας (poteidaias). Potidaea, the place from whose military camp Socrates has returned; the name establishes the campaign background of his homecoming. References: 153a. Lexical identification: lemma: Ποτείδαια. See Potidaea and the campaign.

στρατόπεδον

Attested: στρατοπέδου (stratopedou). The military camp or army encampment; Socrates returns from it at Potidaea before resuming his accustomed Athenian haunts. References: 153a. Lexical identification: lemma: στρατόπεδον. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἀπήγγελται (apēngeltai)

Has been reported; Socrates confirms the news brought back from the battle. References: 153c. Lemma: ἀπαγγέλλω. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἀπιέναι (apienai)

Go away or depart; fixes the battle shortly before Socrates’ return. References: 153b. Lemma: ἄπειμι (go away). See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἑσπέρας (hesperas)

In the evening; specifies the time of Socrates’ return on the previous day. References: 153a. Lemma: ἑσπέρα. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἐσώθης (esōthēs)

You were saved or survived; Chaerephon asks how Socrates came through the battle alive. References: 153b. Lemma: σῴζω. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἥκομεν (hēkomen)

We had arrived or returned; the opening verb establishes Socrates’ return from Potidaea. References: 153a. Lemma: ἥκω. See Potidaea and the campaign.

ἰσχυρὰ (ischyra)

Fierce or severe; qualifies the reported battle. References: 153b. Lemma: ἰσχυρός. See Potidaea and the campaign.

παρεγενόμην (paregenomēn)

I was present or arrived on the scene; Socrates confirms firsthand participation in the battle. References: 153c. Lemma: παραγίγνομαι. See Potidaea and the campaign.

τεθνάναι (tethnanai)

To have died; the reported deaths of acquaintances in battle. References: 153c. Lemma: θνῄσκω. See Potidaea and the campaign.

χρόνου (chronou)

Time; διὰ χρόνου marks the interval since Socrates was last among his usual associates. References: 153a. Lemma: χρόνος. See Potidaea and the campaign.