8
Optatus
OPTATUS. It is just as you suppose, Autobulus. Solon’s Life of Solon, xx. 1 (89 a-b); Mor. 550 c, 823 f; Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, viii. 5. A fairly well attested law, but the name of Solon is used as the collective term for the legislative activity of the past (Linforth, Solon the Athenian, p. 283). The penalty was disfranchisement. Lysias, xxxi. shows that this law was unknown in his time. law, which used to punish those who adhered to neither side in a factious outbreak, has long since fallen into disuse.
Autobulus
AUTOBULUS. Come over here, then, and take your place beside us so that, if we need evidence, we shall not have to disturb the tomes of Aristotle,The zoological works, such as the Natural History and the Generation of Animals, which once extended to fifty volumes (Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 44). but may follow you as expert and return a true verdict on the arguments.
Soclarus
SOCLARUS. Well then, my young friends, have you reached any agreement on procedure ?
5
Phaedimus
PHAEDIMUS. We have, Soclarus, though it occasioned considerable controversy; but at length, as EuripidesNauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 678, frag. 989; cf. Mor. 644 d. has it, The lot, the child of chance, made arbiter, admits into court the case of the land animals before that of creatures from the sea.
Soclarus
SOCLARUS. The time has come, then, Aristotimus, for you to speak and us to hear.
