Kitap 1
2.2
Let us first examine Eratosthenes, reviewing at the same time what Hipparchus has advanced against him. Eratosthenes is much too creditable an historian for us to believe what Polemon endeavours to charge against him, that he had not even seen Athens. At the same time he does not merit that unbounded confidence which some seem to repose in him, although, as he himself tells us, he passed much of his time with first-rate [characters]. Never, says he, at one period, and in one city, were there so many philosophers flourishing together as in my time. In their number was Ariston and Arcesilaus. This, however, it seems is not sufficient, but you must also be able to choose who are the real guides whom it is your interest to follow. He considers Arcesilaus and Ariston to be the coryphaei of the philosophers who flourished in his time, and is ceaseless in his eulogies of Apelles and Bion, the latter of whom, says he, was the first to deck himself in the flowers of philosophy, but concerning whom one is often likewise tempted to exclaim, How great is Bion in spite of his rags!This seems to be a paraphrase of Homer’s verse on Ulysses, Odyssey xviii. 74. οἵην ἐκ ῥακέων ὁ γέοͅων ἐπιγουνίδα φαίνει.Odyssey xviii. 74. What thews And what a haunch the senior’s tatters hide. Cowper. It is in such instances as the following that the mediocrity of his genius shows itself.
