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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: the servants and soldiers of Athens, and do not need a general; and you and
Sparta are not likely to have me, for you think that you have enough
generals of your own.
SOCRATES: My good Ion, did you never hear of Apollodorus of Cyzicus?
ION: Who may he be?
SOCRATES: One who, though a foreigner, has often been chosen their general
by the Athenians: and there is Phanosthenes of Andros, and Heraclides of
Clazomenae, whom they have also appointed to the command of their armies
and to other offices, although aliens, after they had shown their merit.
And will they not choose Ion the Ephesian to be their general, and honour
him, if he prove himself worthy? Were not the Ephesians originally
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