evidence: (Plato, Protagoras 1996b, 343). [...] Plato famously proposes that one’s social status within the city should be determined by one’s innate talents: some people are simply predisposed from birth to be trained as guardians. Moreover, certain ethnic groups, according to the philosopher, have a greater propensity for developing one of the three elements of the soul. Thus, for example, Thracians and Scythians have a more pronounced spirited element which predisposes them for extraordinary martial courage (435e4–436a2). [...] Two centuries earlier, Heraclitus bore witness to the extraordinary power of human θυμός when he observed: "It is hard to fight with one’s θυμός; whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of soul (life)" (Burnet 1969, 140) = (Diels and Kranz 1948, fr. 85).