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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.
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SOCLARUS. Well then, my young friends, have you reached any agreement on procedure ?
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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.
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SOCLARUS. The time has come, then, Aristotimus, for you to speak and us to hear.
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ARISTOTIMUS. The court is open for the litigantsHere follows a long lacuna not indicated in the mss., the contents of which cannot even be conjectured. And there are some fish that waste their milt by pursuing the female while she is laying her eggs.The milt is, of course, for the fertilization of the eggs, as Aristotimus should have learned from Aristotle (e.g., Historia Animal. vi. 13, 567 b 3 ff.)
