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they became lax, and in part they say that at one time the universe is one and friendly under Aphrodite, and at another time it is many and hostile to itself through some strife. But whether any of these men has spoken all these things truly or not, it is difficult and improper so greatly to censure famous and ancient men.” 14.4.9 And after a little he adds: “We have not, then, gone through all those who speak precisely about being and not being, but nevertheless let this be sufficient; but we must in turn consider those who speak otherwise, so that from all we may see that it is no easier to say what being is than what not-being is. Therefore we must proceed to these men also. And indeed there seems to be among them a sort of battle of the giants because of their dispute with one another concerning existence. 14.4.10 How? Some drag everything down from heaven and the unseen to earth, literally grasping rocks and oak trees in their hands. For grasping all such things they maintain that this alone is which offers some impact and contact, defining body and substance as the same, and if anyone says that anything else exists which has no body, they despise it utterly and are unwilling to hear anything else. Truly you have described terrible men; for I myself have already encountered very many of them. 14.4.11 Therefore those who dispute with them defend themselves very cautiously from somewhere above, insisting that certain intelligible and bodiless forms are the true reality; and the bodies of the others and their so-called truth they break into small pieces in their arguments, calling it a kind of flux of becoming instead of being. And between them concerning these things an endless battle of both sides, O Theaetetus, is always going on. True.” 14.4.12 Through so many words, then, Plato has disparaged the natural philosophers before him. But what sort of opinion he himself advanced concerning the subjects of inquiry we have explained in the preceding parts, when we were showing that he agrees with the doctrines of the Hebrews and concurs with the teaching of Moses concerning that which is. 14.4.13 And let us now in our discourse consider the successors of Plato himself. They say that Plato, having established his school in the Academy, was first called an Academic and established the philosophy named Academic. And after Plato, Speusippus, the son of Plato's sister, Potone, then Xenocrates, then Polemon received the school. 14.4.14 But they say that these men, beginning from their own hearth, immediately began to undermine the Platonic doctrines, distorting what had seemed right to their teacher with the introduction of foreign doctrines, so that you might not expect for long the strength of those admirable dialogues to be extinguished along with the death of the man and the succession of his doctrines to end with him, a battle and a dissension having begun from these men, never ceasing even to this day, those who zealously embrace what was dear to him being no one at all, except perhaps for one or a second in a whole lifetime, or some others very few in number, nor were they themselves entirely free from counterfeit sophistry; since even those who previously succeeded Plato 14.4.15 are disparaged as being of such a sort. For they say that Arcesilaus succeeded Polemon, of whom the story is told that having abandoned the doctrines of Plato he established a certain new and, as they say, a second Academy. For he said that one ought to suspend judgement about everything; for all things are incomprehensible and the arguments on either side have equal weight with one another, and that the senses are untrustworthy, as is every argument. At any rate, he used to praise this saying of Hesiod: "For the gods have hidden the mind of men from them." 14.4.16 And he also attempted to revive certain paradoxes. And after Arcesilaus, Carneades and Clitomachus and their followers, having turned away from the opinion of their predecessors, are said to have been the founders of a third Academy. “Some add a fourth, that of Philo and Charmides. And some count a fifth, that of Antiochus.” Such, then, was the succession of Plato himself. But what sort of men these became in character, taking

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ἐχάλασαν, ἐν μέρει δὲ τοτὲ μὲν ἓν εἶναί φασι τὸ πᾶν καὶ φίλον ὑπ' Ἀφροδίτης, τοτὲ δὲ πολλὰ καὶ πολέμιον αὐτὸ αὑτῷ διὰ νεῖκός τι. ταῦτα δὲ πάντα εἰ μὲν ἀληθῶς τις ἢ μὴ τούτων εἴρηκε, χαλεπὸν καὶ πλημμελὲς οὕτω μεγάλα κλεινοῖς καὶ παλαιοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἐπιτιμᾶν.» 14.4.9 Καὶ μετὰ βραχέα ἐπιλέγει· «Τοὺς μὲν τοίνυν διακριβολογουμένους ὄντος τε πέρι καὶ μὴ πάντας μὲν οὐ διεληλύθαμεν, ὅμως δ' ἱκανῶς ἐχέτω· τοὺς δὲ ἄλλως λέγοντας αὖ θεατέον, ἵν' ἐκ πάντων ἴδωμεν ὅτι τὸ ὂν τοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὐδὲν εὐπορώτερον εἰπεῖν ὅ τι ποτ' ἔστιν. Οὐκοῦν πορεύεσθαι χρὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτους. Καὶ μὴν ἔοικέ γε ἐν αὐτοῖς οἷον γιγαντομαχία τις εἶναι διὰ τὴν ἀμφισβήτησιν περὶ τῆς οὐσίας πρὸς ἀλλήλους. 14.4.10 Πῶς; Οἱ μὲν εἰς γῆν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀοράτου πάντα ἕλκουσι, ταῖς χερσὶν ἀτεχνῶς πέτρας καὶ δρῦς περιλαμβάνοντες. τῶν γὰρ τοιούτων ἐφαπτόμενοι πάντων διισχυρίζονται τοῦτο εἶναι μόνον ὃ παρέχει προσβολὴν καὶ ἐπαφήν τινι, ταὐτὸν σῶμα καὶ οὐσίαν ὁριζόμενοι, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων εἴ τις φήσει μὴ σῶμα ἔχον εἶναι, καταφρονοῦντες τὸ παράπαν καὶ οὐδὲν ἐθέλοντες ἄλλο ἀκούειν. Ἦ δεινοὺς εἴρηκας ἄνδρας· ἤδη γὰρ καὶ ἐγὼ τούτων πάνυ πολλοῖς προσέτυχον. 14.4.11 Τοιγαροῦν οἱ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀμφισβητοῦντες μάλα εὐλαβῶς ἄνωθέν ποθεν ἀμύνονται, νοητὰ ἄττα καὶ ἀσώματα εἴδη βιαζόμενοι τὴν ἀληθινὴν οὐσίαν εἶναι· τὰ δὲ ἐκείνων σώματα καὶ τὴν λεγομένην ὑπὸ τούτων ἀλήθειαν κατὰ σμικρὰ διαθραύοντες ἐν τοῖς λόγοις γένεσιν ἀντὶ οὐσίας φερομένην τινὰ προσαγορεύουσιν. ἐν μέσῳ δὲ περὶ ταῦτα ἄπλετος ἀμφοτέρων μάχη τις, ὦ Θεαίτητε, ἀεὶ ξυνέστηκεν. Ἀληθῆ.» 14.4.12 ∆ιὰ δὴ τοσούτων τοὺς πρὸ αὐτοῦ φυσικοὺς φιλοσόφους διαβέβληκεν ὁ Πλάτων. ὁποίαν δὲ αὐτὸς περὶ τῶν ἐζητημένων ἐπήγετο δόξαν ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτου διειλήφαμεν, ὅτε συμφωνεῖν αὐτὸν τοῖς Ἑβραίων δόγμασι καὶ τῇ Μωσέως συντρέχειν περὶ τοῦ ὄντος διδασκαλίᾳ παριστῶμεν. 14.4.13 Καὶ τοὺς αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ Πλάτωνος διαδόχους φέρε τῷ λόγῳ θεωρήσωμεν. Πλάτωνά φασιν ἐν Ἀκαδημίᾳ συστησάμενον τὴν διατριβὴν πρῶτον Ἀκαδημαϊκὸν κληθῆναι καὶ τὴν ὀνομασθεῖσαν Ἀκαδημαϊκὴν φιλοσοφίαν συστήσασθαι. μετὰ δὲ Πλάτωνα Σπεύσιππον τὸν ἐξ ἀδελφῆς Πλάτωνος, τῆς Ποτώνης, εἶτα Ξενοκράτην, ἔπειτα Πολέμωνα τὴν διατριβὴν ὑποδέ14.4.14 ξασθαι. τούτους δὲ ἀφ' ἑστίας ἀρξαμένους εὐθὺς τὰ Πλατωνικά φασι παραλύειν, στρεβλοῦντας τὰ τῷ διδασκάλῳ φανέντα ξένων εἰσαγωγαῖς δογμάτων, ὥστε σοι μὴ εἰς μακρὸν ἐλπίζειν τὴν τῶν θαυμαστῶν ἐκείνων διαλόγων ἰσχὺν ἀποσβῆναι ἅμα τε τῇ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τελευτῇ καὶ τὴν τῶν δογμάτων διαδοχὴν συναποτελευτῆσαι, μάχης ἐντεῦθεν καὶ στάσεως ἀπὸ τῶνδε ἀρξαμένης, οὔποτε καὶ εἰς δεῦρο διαλειπούσης, τοὺς τὰ αὐτῷ φίλα ζηλοῦν ἀσπαζομένους οὐδένας μὲν οὐδὲ ὄντας, πλὴν εἰ μὴ εἷς που ἢ δεύτερος ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ βίῳ ἢ καί τινες ἄλλοι κομιδῇ βραχεῖς τὸν ἀριθμόν, οὐδ' αὐτοὶ πάμπαν ἀλλότριοι τῆς ἐπιπλάστου σοφιστείας· ἐπεὶ καὶ οἱ πρόσθεν τὸν Πλάτωνα 14.4.15 διαδεξάμενοι τοιοίδε τίνες διαβέβληνται. Πολέμωνα γάρ φασι διαδέξασθαι Ἀρκεσίλαον, ὃν δὴ κατέχει λόγος ἀφέμενον τῶν Πλάτωνος δογμάτων ξένην τινὰ καί, ὥς φασι, δευτέραν συστήσασθαι Ἀκαδημίαν. φάναι γὰρ περὶ ἁπάντων ἐπέχειν δεῖν· εἶναι γὰρ πάντα ἀκατάληπτα καὶ τοὺς εἰς ἑκάτερα λόγους ἰσοκρατεῖς ἀλλήλοις, καὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις δὲ ἀπίστους εἶναι καὶ πάντα λόγον. ἐπῄνει γοῦν Ἡσιόδου τουτὶ τὸ ἀπόφθεγμα· κρύψαντες γὰρ ἔχουσι θεοὶ νόον ἀνθρώποισιν. 14.4.16 ἐπειρᾶτο δὲ καὶ παράδοξά τινα ἀνακαινίζειν. μετὰ δὲ τὸν Ἀρκεσίλαον τοὺς ἀμφὶ Καρνεάδην καὶ Κλειτόμαχον, τῆς τῶν προτέρων δόξης ἀποτραπέντας, τρίτης Ἀκαδημίας αἰτίους γενέσθαι φασίν. «Ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ τετάρτην προστιθέασι τὴν τῶν περὶ Φίλωνα καὶ Χαρμίδαν. τινὲς δὲ καὶ πέμπτην καταλέγουσι τὴν τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀντίοχον.» Τοιαύτη μέν τις ἡ αὐτοῦ Πλάτωνος ὑπῆρξε διαδοχή. ὁποῖοι δὲ γεγόνασιν οἵδε τὸν τρόπον, λαβὼν