Kitap 18
2
The second question was how it ought to be understood and interpreted that Plato in the State which he planned in his books Rep, p. 457, etc.; 460), 468. said koina\s ta\s gunai=kas, that is, declared that women should be common property, and that the rewards of the bravest men and the greatest warriors should be the kisses of boys and maidens. In the third place this was asked, in what words the fallacy of the following catches consisted and how they could be made out and explained: What you have not lost, that you have. You have not lost horns; therefore you have horns. Also another catch: What I am, that you are not. I am a man; therefore you are not a man. Then it was inquired what was the solution of this sophistry: When I lie and admit that I lie, do I lie or speak the truth? Afterwards this question was put, why the patricians are in the habit of entertaining one another on the Megalensia, The festival of Magna Mater, on April 4, established in 204 B.C. and the plebeians on the Cerealia. The festival of Ceres, on April 19. Next came this question: What one of the early poets used the verb verant, in the sense of 'they speak the truth '? The sixth question was, what kind of plant the asphodel was, which Hesiod mentioned in the following lines: Works and Days, 40. Cf. Horace, Odes, i. 31. 16: me pascunt olivae, Me cichorea levesque malvae. O fools! who know not how much half exceeds the whole, Hesiod means that a simple and frugal life is the best. He had shared his father's property with his brother Perses; but Perses went to law and through the partiality of the judges got possession of the whole inheritance. He soon wasted it, and Hesiod, through his thrift, was able to come to his help. Hence the expression became proverbial. Cicero, on seeing a bust of his brother Quintus, who was of short stature, said: Half of my bother is greater than the whole. (Macrob. Sat. ii. 3. 4.) Or that the asphodel and mallow make fine food. And also what Hesiod meant when he said that the half was more than the whole. The last of all the questions was this: of what tense the verbs scripserim, legerim and venerim are, perfect or future, or both.
