The Erotic Essay

But not to spend our time rehearsing ancient examples while others are available closer to our own times,[*](The phrase closer to our own times is defined by the mention of Timotheus, who died in 355 B.C., just after Demosthenes entered public life. The author, whether the orator or a forger, belongs to the second half of the fourth century.) you will discover that Timotheus was deemed worthy of the highest repute and numerous honors, not because of his activities as a younger man, but because of his performances after he had studied with Isocrates.[*](Timotheus, son of Conon, was called by Cornelius Nepos the last Athenian general worthy of mention. Demosthenes regularly spoke of him with admiration.) You will discover also that Archytas of Tarentum became ruler of his city and managed its affairs so admirably and so considerately as to spread the record of that achievement to all mankind; yet at first he was despised and he owed his remarkable progress to studying with Plato.[*](There is a brief life of Archytas which may be consulted in the Loeb translation. It is not known positively that he was a pupil of Plato, but he was his friend: Plat. L. 7.338c,350a; Plat. L. 13.360c. His adherence was to the school of Pythagoras.)

Of these examples not one worked out contrary to reason[*](With a difference of one word this sentence is found in Isoc. 4.150, as Blass notes. It looks, however, like a commonplace.); for it would be much stranger if we were obliged to achieve paltry ends through acquiring knowledge and putting it into practice, but were capable of accomplishing the big things without this effort.

Now I do not know what call there is to say more on these topics, for not even at the outset did I introduce them because I assumed you were absolutely ignorant, but because I thought that such exhortations both arouse those who lack knowledge and spur on those who possess it;.[*](Writings that urged young men to study philosophy formed a distinct literary genre among the ancients under the name protreptics. The Epistle to Menoeceus of Epicurus is an extant example.)

And do not make any such assumption as this, that in speaking these words I am presumably offering to teach you any of these branches myself, for I should feel no shame in saying that there is still much I need myself to learn, and that I have chosen rather to be a contender in political life than a teacher of the other arts.[*](This self-characterization has been thought by some to point to Androtion as the author, but the grounds seem slight to Blass, p. 407 and note 2.) Not that in disavowing these subjects of instruction I am impugning the reputation of those who have chosen the profession of sophist, but my reason is that the truth of the matter happens to be as follows: