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leaving them behind full, but finding the vessels empty and being perplexed at what was happening, when he heard that inapprehensibility was the subject of philosophy with Arcesilaus, he thought that this was what was happening to him regarding the storeroom. And beginning from this, he philosophized with Arcesilaus that he could neither see nor hear anything clearly or soundly; and once, having drawn one of his associates into his house, he argued vehemently to him, as it seemed, for the suspension of judgment, and said: “This indeed I can tell you is indisputable, having learned it from my own experience, 14.7.5 not from trying someone else’s.” And then, beginning, he related the whole sad affair that had happened to him with the storeroom. “What then,” he said, “could Zeno still say against an inapprehensibility so universally agreed upon and manifest to me in such matters as these? For I who locked it with my own hands, and sealed it myself, and myself left the ring inside, and then coming again and opening it see the ring inside, but not the other things, how shall I not rightly be distrustful of things? For I will not say,” he said, “that someone came in and stole these things while the ring 14.7.6 was inside.” And the other, listening—for he was an insolent fellow—having managed to hear the whole story, though barely restraining himself even before, burst into laughter, and laughing very heartily and cackling, at the same time exposed his vainglory. So from that time on Lacydes began no longer to throw his ring inside, and no longer employed inapprehensibility for his storeroom, but apprehended what was 14.7.7 left and had been philosophizing in vain. However, the slaves were rascals and not easily taken, the sort of comic characters, both Getae and Dacians, and glib with the chattering Dacian tongue, since they heard the sophisms of the Stoics, or learned them in some other way, they immediately went for the audacious deed and broke his seal, and sometimes they substituted another for it, and sometimes not even another, because they thought that for him 14.7.8 things would be inapprehensible this way and that. But he, going in, would examine it; and seeing the box unsealed, or sealed, but with a different seal, he grew angry; and when they said it was sealed, and that his own seal was visible to them at least, he would argue precisely and demonstrate it; and when they were defeated by his demonstration, they would say that if the seal was not on it, he had perhaps forgotten and not sealed it. And indeed he said that he remembered sealing it and demonstrated it and went over the argument and complained bitterly to them, thinking he was being trifled with, 14.7.9 and swore oaths besides. But they, receiving his attacks, themselves thought they were being trifled with by him, since Lacydes, being a wise man, had determined to be without opinion and so also without memory; for memory is opinion. 14.7.10 At any rate, they said they had recently heard him say these things to his friends. And when he overturned their arguments and said they were not Academic, they, attending some Stoic’s school, learned for themselves what to say, and beginning from there they counter-sophisticated and were rival-artist Academic thieves; and he would accuse them in the Stoic manner; but the slaves would refute his accusations with inapprehensibility, 14.7.11 not without some mockery. So there were pastimes of all sorts there, and arguments and counter-arguments; and not one thing was left in the middle, not a vessel, not any of the things put in the vessel, not any of the other things that contribute to the furnishing of a house. 14.7.12 And Lacydes for a time was at a loss, seeing that the support for his own doctrines was not profitable to him, and thinking that if he did not refute them everything of his would be overturned, falling into helplessness he cried out to his neighbors and the gods, and ‘ioù ioù’ and ‘pheû pheû’ and ‘by the gods’ and ‘by the goddesses’ and all the other artless affirmations that belong to those complaining in disbelief, all these things were said with a shout 14.7.13 and with an air of credibility. And finally, since he had a contested battle in his house, he for his part, I suppose, would have played the Stoic towards his slaves, but the slaves, the Academic things

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μὲν καταλιπών, κενὰ δὲ εὑρισκόμενος τὰ σκεύη ἀπορῶν τῷ γιγνομένῳ, ἐπειδὴ ἤκουσε φιλοσοφεῖσθαι παρὰ τῷ Ἀρκεσιλάῳ τὴν ἀκαταληψίαν, ᾤετο τοῦτο ἐκεῖνο αὑτῷ συμβαίνειν περὶ τὸ ταμεῖον. ἀρξάμενός τε ἔνθεν ἐφιλοσόφει παρὰ τῷ Ἀρκεσιλάῳ μηδὲν μήτε ὁρᾶν μήτε ἀκούειν ἐναργὲς ἢ ὑγιές· καί ποτε ἐπισπασάμενος τῶν προσομιλούντων αὐτῷ τινα εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν ἰσχυρίζετο πρὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερφυῶς, ὡς ἐδόκει, τὴν ἐποχὴν καὶ ἔφη· «Τοῦτο μὲν ἀναμφίλεκτον ἐγώ σοι ἔχω φράσαι, αὐτὸς ἐπ' ἐμαυτοῦ 14.7.5 μαθών, οὐκ ἄλλου πειραθείς.» κἄπειτα ἀρξάμενος περιηγεῖτο τὴν ὅλην τοῦ ταμείου συμβᾶσαν αὐτῷ πάθην. «Τί οὖν ἄν,» εἶπεν, «ἔτι Ζήνων λέγοι πρὸς οὕτως ὁμολογουμένην διὰ πάντων φανεράν μοι ἐν τοῖς τοιοῖσδε ἀκαταληψίαν; ὃς γὰρ ἀπέκλεισα μὲν ταῖς ἐμαυτοῦ χερσίν, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐσημηνάμην, αὐτὸς δὲ ἀφῆκα μὲν εἴσω τὸν δακτύλιον, αὖθις δ' ἐλθὼν ἀνοίξας τὸν μὲν δακτύλιον ὁρῶ ἔνδον, οὐ μέντοι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα, πῶς οὐ δικαίως ἀπιστούντως τοῖς πράγμασιν ἕξω; οὐ γάρ πω φήσω, εἰπεῖν, ἔγωγ' ἐπελθόντα τινὰ κλέψαι ταῦτα ὑπάρχοντος 14.7.6 ἔνδον τοῦ δακτυλίου.» καὶ ὃς ἀκούων, ἦν γὰρ ὑβριστής, ἐκδεξάμενος τὸ πᾶν ὡς ἔσχεν ἀκοῦσαι, μόλις καὶ πρότερον ἑαυτοῦ κρατῶν, ἀπέρρηξε γέλωτα καὶ μάλα πλατὺν γελῶν τε ἔτι καὶ καγχάζων διήλεγχεν ἅμα αὐτοῦ τὴν κενοδοξίαν. ὥστε ἔκτοτε Λακύδης ἀρξάμενος οὐκέτι μὲν τὸν δακτύλιον ἔσω ἐνέβαλλεν, οὐκέτι δὲ τοῦ ταμείου ἐχρῆτο ἀκαταληψίᾳ, ἀλλὰ κατελάμβανε τὰ 14.7.7 ἀφειμένα καὶ μάτην ἐπεφιλοσοφήκει. οὐ μέντοι ἀλλὰ οἵ γε παῖδες φόρτακες ἦσαν καὶ οὐ θατέρᾳ ληπτοί, οἷοι δὲ οὗτοι οἱ κωμῳδικοί τε καὶ Γέται τε καὶ ∆ακοὶ κἀκ τῆς ∆ακικῆς λαλεῖν στωμυλήθρας κατεγλωττισμένοι, ἐπεί γε τοῖς Στωϊκοῖς τὰ σοφίσματα ἤκουσαν, εἴτε καὶ ἄλλως ἐκμαθόντες, εὐθὺς τοῦ τολμήματος ᾔεσαν καὶ παρελύοντο αὐτοῦ τὴν σφραγῖδα καὶ τοτὲ μὲν ἑτέραν ἀντ' ἐκείνης ὑπετίθεσαν, τοτὲ δὲ οὐδὲ ἄλλην, διὰ τὸ οἴεσθαι ἐκείνῳ 14.7.8 γε ἀκατάληπτα ἔσεσθαι καὶ οὕτω καὶ ἄλλως. ὁ δὲ εἰσελθὼν ἐσκοπεῖτο· ἀσήμαντον δὲ τὸ γραμματεῖον θεωρῶν ἢ σεσημασμένον μέν, σφραγῖδι δ' ἄλλῃ, ἠγανάκτει· τῶν δὲ σεσημάνθαι λεγόντων, αὐτοῖς γοῦν τὴν σφραγῖδα ὁρᾶσθαι τὴν αὐτοῦ, ἠκριβολογεῖτο ἂν καὶ ἀπεδείκνυε· τῶν δ' ἡττωμένων τῇ ἀποδείξει φαμένων, εἰ μή τι ἔπεστιν ἡ σφραγὶς αὐτὸν ἴσως ἐπιλελῆσθαι καὶ μὴ σημήνασθαι· καὶ μὴν αὐτός γε ἔφη σημηνάμενος μνημονεύειν καὶ ἀπεδείκνυε καὶ περιῄει τῷ λόγῳ καὶ ἐδεινολογεῖτο πρὸς αὐτούς, οἰόμενος 14.7.9 παίζεσθαι, καὶ προσώμνυεν. οἱ δ' ὑπολαβόντες τὰς προσβολὰς ἐκείνου αὐτοί γε ᾤοντο ὑπ' αὐτοῦ παίζεσθαι, ἐπεὶ σοφῷ γε ὄντι δεδόχθαι τῷ Λακύδῃ εἶναι ἀδοξάστῳ ὥστε καὶ ἀμνημονεύτῳ· μνήμην γὰρ εἶναι δόξαν· ἔναγχος 14.7.10 γοῦν τοῦ χρόνου ἔφασαν ἀκοῦσαι ταῦτα αὐτοῦ πρὸς τοὺς φίλους. τοῦ δ' ἀναστρέφοντος αὐτοῖς τὰς ἐπιχειρήσεις καὶ λέγοντος οὐκ Ἀκαδημαϊκὰ αὐτοὶ φοιτῶντες εἰς Στωϊκῶν τινος τὰ λεκτέα ἑαυτοῖς ἀνεμάνθανον κἀκεῖθεν ἀρξάμενοι ἀντεσοφίστευον καὶ ἦσαν ἀντίτεχνοι κλέπται Ἀκαδημαϊκοί· ὁ δὲ Στωϊκῶς ἐνεκάλει· οἱ παῖδες δὲ τὰ ἐγκλήματα παρέλυον αὐτῷ ὑπὸ ἀκαταληψίας 14.7.11 οὐκ ἄνευ τωθασμῶν τινων. διατριβαὶ οὖν ἦσαν πάντων ἐκεῖ καὶ λόγοι καὶ ἀντιλογίαι· καὶ ἓν οὐδὲν ἐν τῷ μέσῳ κατελείπετο, οὐκ ἀγγεῖον, οὐ τῶν ἐν ἀγγείῳ τιθεμένων, οὐχ ὅσα εἰς οἰκίας κατασκευὴν ἄλλ' ἔστι συντελῆ. 14.7.12 καὶ ὁ Λακύδης τέως μὲν ἠπόρει, μήτε λυσιτελοῦσαν ἑαυτῷ θεωρῶν τὴν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ δόγμασι βοήθειαν εἴ τε μὴ ἐξελέγχοι πάντα ἀνατρέψεσθαι ἑαυτῷ δοκῶν, πεσὼν εἰς τἀμήχανον τοὺς γείτονας ἐκεκράγει καὶ τοὺς θεούς, καὶ ἰοὺ ἰοὺ καὶ φεῦ φεῦ καὶ νὴ τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ νὴ τὰς θεὰς ἄλλαι τε ὅσαι ἐν ἀπιστίαις δεινολογουμένων εἰσὶν ἄτεχνοι πίστεις, ταῦτα πάντα ἐλέγετο βοῇ 14.7.13 ἅμα καὶ ἀξιοπιστίᾳ. τελευτῶν δέ, ἐπεὶ μάχην εἶχεν ἀντιλεγομένην ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας, αὐτὸς μὲν ἂν δήπουθεν ἐστωϊκεύετο πρὸς τοὺς παῖδας, τῶν παίδων δὲ τὰ Ἀκαδημαϊκὰ