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not an Athenian nor a Spartan nor yet a Corinthian; but Aristoxenus and Aristarchus and Theopompus say that Pythagoras was a Tyrrhenian, while Neanthes calls him a Tyrian; and some say Thales was a Milesian, but Leander and Herodotus called him a Phoenician; and indeed Aristotle was a Stagirite, and Diogenes a Sinopean, and Alcmaeon, son of Peirithous, a Crotoniate, who they say was the first to write a treatise on nature; and Empedocles was an Acragantine, and this is a Sicilian city. 1.25 But if you say this, that these men were born and raised outside of Greece, but were trained in the Greek language, first you admit that wise men have been born in other nations as well; for indeed you admire Zalmoxis the Thracian and Anacharsis the Scythian for their wisdom, and among you the renown of the Brahmans is great; but these are Indians, not Greeks. 1.26 Then again, you are also refuted on other grounds for incorrectly preferring elegance of speech to the truth, for you yourselves surely admit that Socrates, son of Sophroniscus, was the best of the Greek philosophers; but he was born of a stonecutter father, and for a very 1.27 long time he pursued his father's craft. And many others have said this, and Porphyry also wrote this in the third book of his History of Philosophy; and he spoke thus: "Let us say about Socrates the things that have been deemed worthy of memory by others also, briefly distinguishing the things that have been variously mythologized by learned men for his praise and blame, but leaving unexamined whether he himself worked at the stonecutter's art with his father, or whether his father did so alone. For this did not at all hinder him toward wisdom, having been worked at for a short time. And if indeed he was a sculptor of Hermae, even more so; for the art is clean and 1.28 not a matter for reproach;" And the following parts hold to the same thought; for he introduces some who say that Socrates practiced the stoneworker's art. But perhaps he spent his early life as a stoneworker, but later, having fallen in love with poetic and rhetorical discourses, 1.29 he partook of education. But it is not possible to say this either; for Porphyry said the very opposite; and he speaks thus: "But that he was untalented at nothing, but uneducated in everything, to put it simply; for he hardly knew his letters at all, but was ridiculous, whenever it was necessary either to write or to read, stammering 1.30 like little children." And Plato in the Apology has put him as saying such things: "Not, by Zeus, men of Athens, beautifully worded speeches, like those of these men, not adorned with phrases and words, but you will hear things spoken at random with the words that come to mind." And a little after this he added again: "And so now I ask this just thing of you, as it seems to me, to disregard the style of my speech—for perhaps it might be worse, and perhaps better—but to consider this very thing and to pay 1.31 attention to this, whether I speak what is just." But nevertheless, though he had an unlearned and uneducated tongue, he was more worthy of respect not only than all the others, but even than Plato, who had surpassed all Greeks in elegance of speech. And this not even the son of Ariston himself would deny. For how could he, who attributed and fitted to him all the discourses which he had brought forth with travail, and caused them to be considered the offspring of that man's thought? But that even he, who utterly 1.32 surpassed all men, and not only the other Greeks, but even the Athenians themselves, in eloquence and beauty of words, advises not to pay attention to the elegance of speeches, but to the harmony of the thoughts, hear him saying distinctly in the Statesman: "And if you guard against being zealous about names, 1.33 you will appear richer in wisdom in your old age." And hear what he says in the fifth book of the Republic: "Shall we then class all these and other students of such things and the practitioners of the minor arts as philosophers? By no means, I said, but as like philosophers. And the true ones, he said, whom do you mean? The lovers of the sight of truth, I said. For not in geometry, postulates and

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Ἀθηναῖος οὐδὲ Σπαρτιάτης οὐδέ γε Κορίνθιος· τὸν δὲ Πυθαγόραν Ἀριστόξενος καὶ Ἀρίσταρχος καὶ Θεόπομπος Τυρρηνὸν εἶναί φασιν, ὁ δὲ Νεάνθης Τύριον ὀνομάζει· τὸν δὲ Θαλῆν οἱ μὲν Μιλήσιον λέγουσι, Λέανδρος δὲ καὶ Ἡρόδοτος Φοίνικα προσηγόρευσαν· καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης Σταγειρίτης ἦν, Σινωπεὺς δὲ ὁ ∆ιογένης, καὶ Ἀλκμὰν ὁ Πειρίθου Κροτωνιάτης, ὃν πρῶτόν φασι περὶ φύσεως ξυγγράψαι λόγον· Ἀκραγαντῖνος δὲ ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς, Σικελικὴ δὲ αὕτη πόλις. 1.25 Εἰ δὲ ἄρα τοῦτό φατε, ὡς ἔξω μὲν τῆς Ἑλλάδος καὶ ἔφυσαν οἵδε οἱ ἄνδρες καὶ ἐτράφησαν, τὴν δέ γε Ἑλληνικὴν ἠσκήθησαν γλῶτταν, πρῶτον μὲν ὁμολογεῖτε καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις ἔθνεσιν ἄνδρας γεγενῆσθαι σοφούς· καὶ γὰρ δὴ καὶ Ζάμολξιν τὸν Θρᾷκα καὶ Ἀνάχαρσιν τὸν Σκύθην ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ θαυμάζετε, καὶ τῶν Βραχμά νων πολὺ παρ' ὑμῖν τὸ κλέος· Ἰνδοὶ δὲ οὗτοι, οὐχ Ἕλληνες. 1.26 Ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ ἑτέρωθεν ἐξελέγχεσθε οὐκ ὀρθῶς προτιθέντες τῆς ἀληθείας τὴν εὐέπειαν, τὸν γάρ τοι Σωφρονίσκου Σωκράτην ὁμολογεῖτε δήπου καὶ ὑμεῖς τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν φιλοσόφων ἄριστον γεγενῆσθαι· ἀλλ' οὗτος ἐκ λιθοκόπου μὲν ἔφυ πατρός, ἐπὶ πλεῖ 1.27 στον δὲ τὴν πατρῴαν μετελήλυθε τέχνην. Καὶ τοῦτο πολλοὶ μὲν εἰρήκασι καὶ ἄλλοι, καὶ ὁ Πορφύριος δὲ ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ τῆς Φιλο σόφου τοῦτο ἱστορίας ξυνέγραψεν· ἔφη δὲ οὕτως· "Λέγωμεν περὶ τοῦ Σωκράτους τὰ καὶ παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις μνήμης κατηξιω μένα, τὰ μὲν πρὸς ἔπαινον αὐτοῦ καὶ ψόγον πολλαχῶς ὑπὸ τῶν λογίων ἀνδρῶν μεμυθευμένα ἐπ' ὀλίγον φυλοκρινοῦντες, καταλι πόντες δὲ ἀνεξέταστον τὸ εἴτε αὐτὸς εἰργάσατο ξὺν τῷ πατρὶ τὴν λιθοκοπικὴν τέχνην, εἴτε ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ μόνος. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐνέ κοπτεν αὐτῷ τοῦτο πρὸς σοφίαν πρὸς ὀλίγον χρόνον ἐργασθέν. Εἰ δὲ δὴ ἑρμογλύφος ἦν, καὶ μᾶλλον· καθάριος γὰρ ἡ τέχνη καὶ 1.28 οὐ πρὸς ὀνείδους·" Καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς δὲ τῆς αὐτῆς ἔχεται διανοίας· εἰσάγει γάρ τινας λέγοντας λιθουργικῇ τέχνῃ τὸν Σωκράτην χρησάμενον. Ἀλλ' ἴσως τὴν μὲν πρώτην ἡλικίαν λιθουργῶν διετέλεσεν, ὕστερον δέ, λόγων ποιητικῶν καὶ ῥητορικῶν ἐρασθείς, 1.29 παιδείας μετέλαχεν. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἔστιν εἰπεῖν· πᾶν γὰρ τοὐναντίον εἶπεν ὁ Πορφύριος· λέγει δὲ οὕτως· "Εἶναι δὲ αὐτὸν πρὸς οὐδὲν μὲν ἀφυῆ, ἀπαίδευτον δὲ περὶ πάντα, ὡς ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν· σχεδὸν γὰρ οὐδὲ γράμματα πάνυ τι ἐπίστασθαι, ἀλλ' εἶναι γελοῖον, ὁπότε τι δέοι ἢ γράψαι ἢ ἀναγνῶναι, βατταρίζοντα 1.30 ὥσπερ τὰ παιδία." Καὶ ὁ Πλάτων δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν Ἀπολογίᾳ τοιάδε τέθεικε λέγοντα· "Οὐ μέντοι νὴ ∆ία, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθη ναῖοι, κεκαλλιεπημένους γε λόγους, ὥσπερ οἱ τούτων ῥήμασί τε καὶ ὀνόμασιν οὐδὲ κεκοσμημένους, ἀλλ' ἀκούσεσθε εἰκῇ λεγόμενα τοῖς ἐπιτυχοῦσιν ὀνόμασιν." Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα δὲ ταῦτα πάλιν προστέθεικεν· "Καὶ δὴ καὶ νῦν ὑμῶν τοῦτο δέομαι δίκαιον, ὥς γέ μοι δοκῶ, τὸν σκοπὸν τῆς λέξεως ἐᾶν-ἴσως μὲν γὰρ χείρων, ἴσως δὲ βελτίων ἂν εἴη-αὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο σκοπεῖν καὶ τούτῳ τὸν 1.31 νοῦν προσέχειν, εἰ δίκαια λέγω." Ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ ἀμαθῆ γε γλῶτταν καὶ ἀπαίδευτον ἐσχηκώς, οὐ μόνον τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων, ἀλλὰ καὶ Πλάτωνος τοῦ ἅπαντας Ἕλληνας εὐεπείᾳ νενικηκότος αἰδοῦς ἀξιώτερος ἦν. Καὶ τοῦτο οὐδ' ἂν αὐτὸς ὁ Ἀρίστωνος ἀρνη θείη. Πῶς γάρ, ὅ γε πάντας ὅσους ὤδινε λόγους ἐκείνῳ προσα ναθείς τε καὶ προσαρμόσας καὶ τῆς ἐκείνου διανοίας ἐκγόνους εἶναι παρασκευάσας νομίζεσθαι; Ὅτι δὲ καὶ οὗτος, ὁ ἅπαντας 1.32 ἀνθρώπους καὶ οὐ τοὺς ἄλλους Ἕλληνας μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὺς Ἀθηναίους εὐγλωττίᾳ καὶ ὀνομάτων κάλλει πάμπαν ἀποκρύψας, μὴ τῇ κομψείᾳ τῶν λόγων, ἀλλὰ τῇ τῶν ἐνθυμημάτων ἁρμονίᾳ προσέχειν παρεγγυᾷ, ἀκούσατε αὐτοῦ διαρρήδην ἐν τῷ Πολιτικῷ λέγοντος· "Κἂν διαφυλάξῃς τὸ μὴ σπουδάζειν ἐπὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασι, 1.33 πλουσιώτερος εἰς τὸ γῆρας ἀναφανήσῃ φρονήσεως." Ἀκούσατε δὲ καὶ ἐν τῷ πέμπτῳ τῆς Πολιτείας οἷά φησιν· "Τούτους οὖν ἅπαντας καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους τοιούτων τινῶν μαθηματικοὺς καὶ τοὺς τῶν τεχνυδρίων φιλοσόφους θήσομεν; Οὐδαμῶς, εἶπον, ἀλλ' ὁμοίους φιλοσόφοις. Τοὺς δ' ἀληθινούς, ἔφη, τίνας λέγεις; Τοὺς τῆς ἀληθείας, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, φιλοθεάμονας. Οὐ γὰρ ἐν γεωμετρίᾳ, αἰτήματα καὶ