|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: others, he proceeded to question the sufferer.
[1] Antisthenes, "cynicorum et stoicorum parens." Cic. "de Or." iii.
17; "ad Att." xii. 38. See below, III. iii. 17; "Symp." passim;
Diog. Laert. II. v.; VI. i.
Soc. What say you, Antisthenes?--have friends their values like
domestic slaves? One of these latter may be worth perhaps two
minae,[2] another only half a mina, a third five, and a fourth as much
as ten; while they do say that Nicias,[3] the son of Niceratus, paid a
whole talent for a superintendent of his silver mines. And so I
propound the question to myself as follows: "Have friends, like
slaves, their market values?"
 The Memorabilia |