Letter CLXXXVI.869    Placed in 374.

To Antipater, the governor.870    cf. Letter cxxxvii.

Philosophy is an excellent thing, if only for this, that it even heals its disciples at small cost; for, in philosophy, the same thing is both dainty and healthy fare.  I am told that you have recovered your failing appetite by pickled cabbage.  Formerly I used to dislike it, both on account of the proverb,871    The Greek proverb was δὶς κράμβη θάνατος, vide Politian. Miscel. 33.  cf. “Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros.”  Juv. vii. 154. and because it reminded me of the poverty that went with it.  Now, however, I am driven to change my mind.  I laugh at the proverb when I see that cabbage is such a “good nursing mother of men,”872    κουροτρόφος.  Ithaca is ἀγαθὴ κουροτρόφος, because it bore and bred hardy men.  Od. ix. 27. and has restored our governor to the vigour of youth.  For the future I shall think nothing like cabbage, not even Homer’s lotus,873    Od. ix. 93. not even that ambrosia,874    Od. v. 93. whatever it was, which fed the Olympians.

ΑΝΤΙΠΑΤΡῼ ΗΓΕΜΟΝΙ

[1] Ὡς καλὴ ἡ φιλοσοφία τά τε ἄλλα καὶ ὅτι οὐδὲ ἰατρεύεσθαι πολυτελῶς τοῖς τροφίμοις αὐτῆς ἐπιτρέπει, ἀλλὰ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ ὄψον ἐστὶ παρ' αὐτῇ καὶ πρὸς ὑγείαν ἀρκεῖ. Τὰς γάρ τοι ὀρέξεις ἀποκαμούσας, ὡς ἐπυθόμην, κράμβαις ἐν ὄξει ταριχευθείσαις ἀνεκαλέσω, ἃς ἐγὼ πρότερον μὲν ἐδυσχέραινον καὶ διὰ τὴν παροιμίαν καὶ ὅτι ὑπόμνημα ἦσαν τῆς συντρόφου πενίας. Νῦν δέ μοι δοκῶ καὶ ἐμαυτὸν μεταπείσειν καὶ τῆς παροιμίας καταγελάσεσθαι ὁρῶν αὐτὴν οὕτως ἀγαθὴν κουροτρόφον, ἣ τὸν ἄρχοντα ἡμῶν εἰς ἀκμὴν ἐπανήγαγε. Καὶ οὐδὲν εἶναι τοῦ λοιποῦ κατ' αὐτὴν ἡγήσομαι, οὐχ ὅπως τὸν Ὁμηρικὸν λωτόν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὴν ἀμβροσίαν ἐκείνην, ἥτις ποτ' ἄρα ἦν, ἡ τοὺς Ὀλυμπίους χορτάζουσα.