c. 335 BC / Athens

Pledge of Allegiance

Tags:: ancient Greece,; education,; rules and regulations,; youth

We will never bring disgrace to this, our city, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks. We will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city’s law and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those above us who are prone to annul and set them at naught. We will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of civic duty, that thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this city not only not less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.

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Published In

The City

About the Text

From the Athenian ephebic oath. The term “ephebes” designated males who had reached the age of puberty. In ancient Athens boys from ages eighteen to twenty were required to undergo two years of military training, receiving a state-sponsored sword and shield after the first year, at which time it is presumed they pledged their oath.

You will confer the greatest benefits on your city, not by raising its roofs, but by exalting its souls. For it is better that great souls should live in small habitations than that abject slaves should burrow in great houses.