The qualities Archidamus favours in his ideal Spartans is identical to the qualities described by Socrates in the ideal guardians of his city. Good rationality, a sense of justice, and living in a way that is moderate with attention to self-control is imperative to becoming an ideal Spartan or Guardian of Socrates’ city. This paper will serve to discuss the similarity in idealized qualities in both the Spartans and the Guardians. The first quality that will be discussed is the quality of rationality. Rationality is a desired quality is both the ideal Spartans spoken of by Archidamus in his speech and the ideal Guardians of the city that Socrates describes to Adeimantus in books 2 and 3 of Plato’s Republic. The first to be discussed
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Archidamus speaks about how important it is for the Spartans not to commit themselves to a war too hastily and to exercise self-control and moderation in anger so as not to make any unwise decisions that may be costly in numbers of lives lost (27). He continues on discussing how self-control and moderation must be present in a good Spartan so they do not allow themselves to become so wound up in compliments and arrogance because they can lead to rash decisions with superficial goals (27) – the superficial goal in this sense being more praise. He explains that arrogance can lead to bad military decisions because being too arrogant will cause a soldier to focus on the idea that success will come from an enemies’ mistakes, when they should instead be focusing on perfecting their own strategy to win from their own strength (28). The idea of self-control and moderation being desired is present in the ideal image of Socrates’ Guardians of the city as well. Socrates says that ideal guardians of the city should not become used to having grand feasts or special treatment because they will become committed to the rewards of being a guardian, rather than the purpose – which is to protect (Rep. 3. 404b). Guardians should be abstained from being controlled by their desires for sex, food, and other worldly desires (Rep. 3. 389e) so as not to become arrogant and unable to truly commit to their just purpose as an ideal Guardian (Rep. 3.
Archidamus speaks about how important it is for the Spartans not to commit themselves to a war too hastily and to exercise self-control and moderation in anger so as not to make any unwise decisions that may be costly in numbers of lives lost (27). He continues on discussing how self-control and moderation must be present in a good Spartan so they do not allow themselves to become so wound up in compliments and arrogance because they can lead to rash decisions with superficial goals (27) – the superficial goal in this sense being more praise. He explains that arrogance can lead to bad military decisions because being too arrogant will cause a soldier to focus on the idea that success will come from an enemies’ mistakes, when they should instead be focusing on perfecting their own strategy to win from their own strength (28). The idea of self-control and moderation being desired is present in the ideal image of Socrates’ Guardians of the city as well. Socrates says that ideal guardians of the city should not become used to having grand feasts or special treatment because they will become committed to the rewards of being a guardian, rather than the purpose – which is to protect (Rep. 3. 404b). Guardians should be abstained from being controlled by their desires for sex, food, and other worldly desires (Rep. 3. 389e) so as not to become arrogant and unable to truly commit to their just purpose as an ideal Guardian (Rep. 3.