Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4

Note 413 — Chapter XXXIX · LEGES AND EPINOMIS. (continued 3)

Reading edition

In Xenophon’s ideal legislation, or rather education of the Persian youth, in the Cyropædia, he introduces legal trial and punishment for ingratitude generally (Cyropæd. i. 2, 7). The Attic judicature took cognizance of neglect or bad conduct towards parents, which Xenophon ranks as a sort of ingratitude — but not of ingratitude towards any one else (Xenoph. Memor. ii. 2, 13). There is an interesting discussion in Seneca (De Beneficiis, iii. 6-18) about the propriety of treating ingratitude as a legal offence.

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