intro
From 937 C it appears that Sulla had promised to tell his myth in return for an account of what had been said in an earlier discussion about the nature of the face which appears in the moon. Such a compact may have been expressly made in the beginning of the dialogue which is lost, where Sulla may have come upon the company already engaged in reviewing that earlier discussion (see note a, p. 3). So much is no more than conjecture. It is certain, however, that most of what Lamprias narrates from chapter 2 through chapter 23 is a conversation which is itself represented as containing a resume or report of what was said at an earlier conversation. This the beginning of chapter 24 (937 C) states explicitly: ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν, ἔφην, ὅσα μὴ διαπέφευγε τὴν μνήμην τῶν ἐκεῖ λεχθέντων ἀπηγγέλκαμεν, and the ἐδόκει λέγεσθαι at the end of chapter 2 (920 F) implies that what Lamprias has hitherto said in that chapter had been used as an argument in the earlier discussion. The leader of that discussion, which is referred to as a διατριβή,By Lucius at 929 B: ὁ μὲν οὖν ἑταῖρος ἐν τῷ διατριβῇ τοῦτο ἀποδεικνὺς ἠυδοκίμησεν. was not Lamprias or Lucius, who here recapitulate it, cf. besides 937 C, 920 F, and 929 B, which have already been cited, especially 921 F, 930 A, 932 D, 933 C. but someone to whom Lamprias, Lucius, and Sulla refer as our comrade and who probably is meant to be Plutarch himself. cf. 921 F, 929 B, 929 F, and see note a on p. 48 s.v.. Lamprias and Lucius are, of course, presumed to have been present at that discussion with their comrade and Sulla to have been absent from it.The logic of the situation demands this; but it is also implied by Sulla’s question at 929 F. Of the others, Apollonides certainly was not present,This is implied by his question in 920 F and confirmed by that in 921 B: ἀλλὰ πῇ τὸν ἔλεγχον αὐτῷ προσῆγες; (in this latter passage Pohlenz [B. P. W. xxxii, 1912, p. 649] argued for retention of the MSS, reading, προσῆγε, understanding as subject ὁ ἑταῖρος, who he assumes was mentioned in the lost beginning of the dialogue; but surely this sentence is too far from even such a hypothetical antecedent, and Adler’s προσῆγες is an obvious and highly probable correction). nor was TheonThis is certainly implied by his interchange with Lucius in 932 D - E.; Pharnaces probably was notThis is the most reasonable inference to be drawn from 921 F, where Lucius requests that Pharnaces be given some consideration, and from Pharnaces’ comment in 922 F upon the attack of Lamprias. Nevertheless, Pharnaces’ words in the latter passage, ἐμὲ δ’ οὖν οὐκ ἐξλαξεσθε τήμερον κτλ., are open to the interpretation that he had been present at the earlier discussion and had there been drawn out by the Academic gambit.; and concerning Aristotle and Menelaus the text as we have it allows no clear inference to be drawn.Lucius’s one remark to Menelaus (930 A), αἰσχύνομαι σοῦ παρόντος κτλ., seems to imply that the latter had not been present at the earlier discussion; but this is not decisive, especially in view of the fact that Menelaus makes no reply. Aristotle’s silence when Lamprias addresses him in 920 F might be taken to mean that he had heard this before; and πρὸς Κλέαρχον, ὦ Ἀριστότελες, ἐδόκει λέθεσθαι τὸν ὑμέρτον could be interpreted as a reminder, although what follows, ὑμέτερος γὰρ ἁνὴρ κτλ., sounds as if this were something new. In 929 B Lucius in a speech addressed especially to Aristotle refers to what our comrade said ἐν τῇ διατριβῇ and adds that he will not repeat what he learned παρ ὑμῶν μεθ ὑμῶν, which might be taken to imply that Aristotle too had attended the διατριβή in question, although it might have a more general meaning. What these men other than Lamprias and Lucius say in chapters 2-23 is not, then, part of the report of that earlier discussion; but neither is all that Lucius says, for in several places his remarks or arguments are expressly declared to be his own contribution. cf. Lamprias’s comment, οὐχ οὕτως δ’ ὁ ἑταῖρος ἡμῶν, in 921 F and his καλῷ λόγῳ καλὴν ἀναλογίαν προσλεθηκας: οὐ γὰρ ἀποστερητόν σε τῶν ἰδίων (931 D). The latter marks the last sentence of Lucius’s preceding speech (δότε δή μοι γεωμετρικῶς εἰρεῖν κτλ.) as his own, while Lucius’s own subsequent statement (οὐκοῦν καὶ δεύτερον ἀναλογίᾳ προσχρητέον) makes the same claim for what follows. In 933 C (παρίημι δ’ ὅσα ἐλέχθη) and possibly in 929 B (ἐγὼ δὲ ταῦτα μὲν οὐκ ἐρῶ κτλ. [see note b supra]) Lucius indicates that he is not giving a full account of the earlier discussion. That earlier discussion cannot, however, be identified with any that Plutarch may have had with his friends or with any lecture that he may have given; it is primarily a literary fiction, part of the structure of the dialogue for which it provides a specious motivation.
