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whether one delights in calling it a ballast or a foundation, the power of our life, which we for our part set as the absolute ruler of the most necessary things, but Democritus, if I am not at all mistaken, and Chrysippus, the one tries to prove the fairest of human things a slave, 6.7.3 the other a half-slave. But of these things, the account is as much as a man would think fitting for men; 6.7.4 but if now the divine also makes war upon us, alas, what things we will suffer. But it is not likely nor just, at least for us who infer from these things: hateful to your neighbors, dear to the immortal gods, holding your shield before you, sit inside on your guard. 6.7.5 For what, says the Argive, if I should wish it, is it possible for me and am I able, if I should decide, to sit and be on guard? It is possible, you would say, and you are able; or how could I command this to you? 6.7.6 Dear child of most-glorious Chiron, Carystus, having left Pelion, to come to the peak of Euboea, where it is ordained for you to found a sacred land. But go, delay no longer. 6.7.7 For is it truly up to a man at all, O Apollo, and am I master of wishing to leave Pelion? And yet I used to hear from many wise men that if it is fated for me to come to the peak of Euboea and found a sacred land, I will both come and found it, whether you say so or not, and whether I wish it or not. But if I must also wish what is necessary for me even if I should not wish to wish it, still you, 6.7.8 O Apollo, are more justly to be believed. I seem likely to pay attention to you rather; announce to the Parians, Telesicles, as I command you, to found a conspicuous city on the island of Aeria. I will announce it, by Zeus, some conceited person will perhaps say, either to refute you, even if you do not command it; for it is fated. And Thasos is the island Aeria; and the Parians will come to it, when my son Archilochus has explained that this island was formerly called Aeria. You, therefore, since you are formidable in pursuing, will not tolerate, I think, his being so ungrateful and bold, who, if you had not wished to reveal it to him, would never have announced it, nor would his son Archilochus have led out the Parians, nor would 6.7.9 the Parians have settled Thasos. I do not know, then, if you say these things, but you do not know 6.7.9 what you are saying. But since we seem to have leisure and to be conversing at length, and the subject 6.7.10 is not a secondary one, tell me this—for perhaps even a few things out of many will suffice: Are we, you and I, anything at all? You would say so. And from where do we know this? By what, then, did we judge that we know this? Or is nothing else so sufficient as our consciousness and perception 6.7.11 of ourselves? And what about the fact that we are living beings, how then did we find that out? And how, that of living beings, as I would say, we are men, and of men, one is a sorcerer, the other an exposer of sorcery; but as you would say, one is a man, the other a god, and one is a seer, 6.7.12 the other a slanderer? And let it be so for you, if I indeed am convicted. And how have we come to know that we are conversing at the present moment? -What do you say? Have we not rightly judged our own perception by the thing itself that is nearest of all? - Evidently. For there was nothing else either higher or older or more 6.7.13 trustworthy than it. Since if it is not so, then let no one named Alcmaeon come to you at Delphi anymore, having killed his mother and being driven from his home and desiring to go home. For he does not know either if he himself is anything at all, or if he is driven from his home, or if he desires to go home; but even if Alcmaeon is mad and suspects things that are not, at least the Pythian is not mad. Do not speak thus: you seek to come to your ancestral land for your return, son of Amphiaraus. For you do not yet know either if a son of Amphiaraus is asking you, nor if you who are being asked 6.7.14 are anything, nor are you able to speak about what someone is asking. Nor then let Chrysippus, the one who introduces half-slavery, whatever that thing itself may be, go to the Stoa, nor let him think that those simpletons will come to hear him, the nobody; nor let him exert himself about anything, having taken a stand against Arcesilaus who is present, 6.7.15 and against Epicurus who is not present. For what Arcesilaus is, or what Epicurus is, or what the Stoa is, or what the young men are, or who the nobody is, he neither knows nor is he able to know; 6.7.16 for long before, he does not even know if he himself is anything. But neither you nor Democritus will tolerate it, if someone should say these things; for there is no more trustworthy measure than what I say; nor if

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τις αὐτὸ εἴτε ἕρμα εἴτε κρηπῖδα ὀνομάζων χαίρει, τῆς ἡμετέρας ζωῆς ἡ ἐξουσία, ἣν ἡμεῖς μὲν αὐτοκράτορα τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων τιθέμεθα, ∆ημόκριτος δέ γε, εἰ μή τι ἠπάτημαι, καὶ Χρύσιππος, ὁ μὲν δοῦ6.7.3 λον, ὁ δὲ ἡμίδουλον ἐπινοεῖ τὸ κάλλιστον τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἀποδεῖξαι. ἀλλὰ τούτων μὲν λόγος τοσοῦτος, ὅσον ἄν τις ἀξιώσειεν ἄνθρωπος ὢν ἀνθρώποις· 6.7.4 εἰ δ' ἤδη καὶ τὸ θεῖον ἡμῶν καταστρατεύεται, παπαῖ, οἷα πεισόμεθα. ἀλλ' οὐκ εἰκὸς οὐδὲ δίκαιον, ἀπὸ γοῦν τούτων τεκμαιρομένοις ἡμῖν· ἐχθρὲ περικτιόνεσσι, φίλ' ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν, εἴσω τὸν προβόλαιον ἔχων πεφυλαγμένος ἧσο. 6.7.5 τί γάρ, φησὶν ὁ Ἀργεῖος, εἰ βουλοίμην, ἔξεστί μοι καὶ δύναμαι, εἴ μοι δόξαι, ἧσθαι καὶ πεφυλάχθαι; ἔξεστιν, εἴποις ἄν, καὶ δύνασαι· ἢ πῶς ἄν σοι τοῦτ' ἐγὼ προσέταττον; 6.7.6 Χείρωνος φίλε τέκνον ἀγακλειτοῖο Κάρυστε, Πήλιον ἐκπρολιπὼν Εὐβοίας ἄκρον ἱκέσθαι, ἔνθ' ἱερὰν χώραν κτίζειν σοι θέσφατόν ἐστιν. ἀλλ' ἴθι, μηκέτι μέλλε. 6.7.7 ἦ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐπ' ἀνθρώπῳ τί ἐστιν, ὦ Ἄπολλον, καὶ βουληθῆναι Πήλιον ἐκπρολιπεῖν κύριός εἰμι ἐγώ; καὶ μὴν ἤκουον παρὰ πολλῶν καὶ σοφῶν ὅτι εἴ μοι πέπρωται Εὐβοίας ἄκρον ἱκέσθαι καὶ ἱερὰν χώραν κτίζειν, καὶ ἵξομαι καὶ κτιῶ, εἴτε λέγοις εἴτε μή, καὶ εἴτε βουλοίμην εἴτε μή. εἰ δέ με δεῖ καὶ βουληθῆναι ὅ τι μοι ἀνάγκη ἐστὶ καὶ εἰ μὴ βουλοίμην βουληθῆναι, ἀλλὰ σύ, 6.7.8 ὦ Ἄπολλον, πιστεύεσθαι δικαιότερος. ἔοικα δή σοι μᾶλλον προσέξειν· ἄγγειλον Παρίοις, Τελεσίκλεες, ὥς σε κελεύω νήσῳ ἐν Ἠερίῃ κτίζειν εὐδείελον ἄστυ. Ἀγγελῶ νὴ ∆ία φήσει τάχα που τις τετυφωμένος ἢ σὲ ἐλέγχων, κἂν μὴ κελεύσῃς· πέπρωται γάρ. καὶ ἔστι Θάσος μὲν ἡ Ἠερία νῆσος· ἥξουσι δ' ἐπ' αὐτὴν Πάριοι, Ἀρχιλόχου τοῦ ἐμοῦ υἱοῦ φράσαντος ὅτι ἡ νῆσος αὕτη πρὶν Ἠερία ἐκαλεῖτο. σὺ οὖν, δεινὸς γὰρ ἐπεξελθεῖν, οὐκ ἀνέξῃ, οἶμαι, αὐτοῦ οὕτως ὄντος ἀχαρίστου καὶ θρασέος, ὅς, εἰ μὴ σὺ μηνῦσαι αὐτῷ ἐβουλήθης, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἤγγειλεν οὐδ' ἂν Ἀρχίλοχος ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ Παρίους ἐξενάγησεν οὐδ' ἂν 6.7.9 οἱ Πάριοι Θάσον ᾤκησαν. οὐκ οἶδ' οὖν εἰ σὺ λέγεις μὲν ταῦτα, οὐκ οἶσθα 6.7.9 δὲ ἃ λέγεις. ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ σχολὴν ἄγειν ἐοίκαμεν καὶ μακρὰ διαλέγεσθαι, ὁ δὲ λόγος 6.7.10 οὐ πάρεργος, ἐκεῖνό μοι λέγε ἴσως γὰρ καὶ ὀλίγα ἐκ πολλῶν ἀρκεῖ· ἆρά γέ τί ἐσμεν ἐγώ τε καὶ σύ; φαίης ἄν. τοῦτο δὲ ὁπόθεν ἴσμεν; τῷ ποτ' ἄρα τοῦτο εἰδέναι ἐκρίναμεν; ἢ οὐκ ἄλλο ἱκανὸν οὕτως ὡς ἡ συναίσθησίς τε καὶ ἀντίληψις 6.7.11 ἡμῶν αὐτῶν; τί δ', ὅτι ζῷά ἐσμεν πῶς ποτ' ἄρα ἐξεύρομεν; πῶς δ' ὅτι καὶ ζῴων, ὡς μὲν ἂν ἐγὼ εἴποιμι, ἄνθρωποι καὶ ἀνθρώπων ὁ μὲν γόης, ὁ δὲ γόητος ἀπελέγκτης· ὡς δ' ἂν σύ, ὁ μὲν ἄνθρωπος, ὁ δὲ θεός, καὶ ὁ μὲν μάν6.7.12 τις, ὁ δὲ συκοφάντης; καὶ ἔστω γέ σοι οὕτως ἔχον, ἐάνπερ ἔγωγε ἁλῶ. πῶς δ' ὅτι διαλεγόμεθα ἐν τῷ παρόντι ἐγνώκαμεν; -Τί φῄς; ἆρ' οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐκρίναμεν τὴν ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἀντίληψιν τῷ πάντων ἐγγυτάτῳ πράγματι αὐτῷ; - ∆ηλονότι. οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἄλλο αὐτοῦ οὔτε ἀνώτερον οὔτε πρεσβύτερον οὔτε 6.7.13 πιστότερον. ἐπεὶ εἰ μὴ οὕτως ἕξει, μήτε ἄρα ὥς σέ τις εἰς ∆ελφοὺς παραγενέσθω λοιπὸν ὄνομα Ἀλκμαίων, ἀπεκτονὼς τὴν μητέρα καὶ οἴκοθεν ἐλαυνόμενος καὶ οἴκαδε ἐπιθυμῶν. οὐ γὰρ οἶδεν οὔτ' εἰ ἔστι τι αὐτὸς τὸ παράπαν οὔτ' εἰ οἴκοθεν ἐλαύνεται οὔτ' εἰ οἴκαδε ἐπιθυμεῖ· ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ μαίνεται ὁ Ἀλκμαίων καὶ ὑπονοεῖ τὰ μὴ ὄντα, ὅ γε Πύθιος οὐ μαίνεται. μηδὲ λέγε οὕτως· νόστον δίζηαι πατρίην ἐς γαῖαν ἱκέσθαι, Ἀμφιαρηιάδη. οὐδὲ γὰρ σὺ οἶσθά πω εἴ σέ τις ἐρωτᾷ Ἀμφιαρηιάδης οὐδ' εἰ σὺ τὶ εἶ ὁ ἐρωτώ6.7.14 μενος καὶ λέγειν ἔχων περὶ ὧν τις ἐρωτᾷ. μηδὲ Χρύσιππος ἄρα ὁ τὴν ἡμιδουλείαν εἰσάγων, ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστιν αὐτὸ τοῦτο, ἀπαντάτω εἰς τὴν Στοὰν μηδ' οἰέσθω ἀπαντήσεσθαι τοὺς βλέννους ἐκείνους ὡς αὐτὸν ἀκουσομένους τὸν οὖτιν· μηδὲ διατεινέσθω περὶ μηδενὸς καταστὰς πρὸς μὲν Ἀρκεσίλαον παρόντα, 6.7.15 πρὸς δὲ Ἐπίκουρον οὐ παρόντα. τί γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Ἀρκεσίλαος, τί δὲ ὁ Ἐπίκουρος ἢ τί ἡ Στοὰ ἢ τί οἱ νέοι ἢ τίς ὁ οὖτις, οὔτ' οἶδεν οὔτε οἷος εἰδέναι· 6.7.16 πολὺ γὰρ πρότερον οὐδ' εἰ αὐτός τί ἐστιν οἶδεν. ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀνέξεσθε οὔτε ὑμεῖς οὔτε ὁ ∆ημόκριτος, εἰ λέγοι τις ταῦτα· οὐ γὰρ εἶναι πιστότερον μέτρον οὗ λέγω· οὐδ' εἰ