9
Not at all. Please tell me who he was.
9
This very teacher of yours—in general he deserves respect and is now quite old.
9
What was he doing?
9
You know the stranger from Heraclea who has studied philosophy under him a long time, the one with yellow hair, a quarrelsome fellow?
9
I know the man you mean. He’s called Dion.
9
That is the man. Well! it seems he didn’t pay his fee on time, and the other day your teacher in a temper pulled the man’s cloak round his neck and shouted and dragged him off to the magistrate. If some friends of the young fellow had not come between them and pulled him from his grasp, the old man would certainly have taken hold of him and bitten his nose off, he was so angry.
10
That fellow has always been a senseless rogue when it comes to paying his debts, Lycinus. My master has never yet treated any of the others to whom he lends money like that and there are many of them. But they pay the interest on time.
10
And if they don’t, my dear Hermotimus? Does it matter, when he is now already purified by philosophy and no longer needs what he has left behind on Oeta?
10
Do you think it is for himself that he has made this fuss? No, he has young children and he is concerned lest they spend their lives in want.
10
He ought, Hermotimus, to lead them too up the path to Virtue, so that they can despise wealth and be happy with him.
11
I haven’t time, Lycinus, to talk with you about this; I’m in a hurry to hear his lecture, or I may be left completely behind before I know it.
11
Cheer up, old man! A truce has been proclaimed today. I can save you what still remains of your journey.
11
What do you mean?
