4. This cake seems to form a ridiculous anti-climax. But it appears to have been a vexed question in antiquity whether an ascetic philosopher might indulge in this particular luxury (πλακοῦς). Upton quotes Lucian and Diogenes Laertius for instances of this question being propounded, and an affirmative answer given (in one instance by the Cynic, Diogenes). The youth in the text is being addressed as a novice who must not use the freedom of an adept. 5. Upton quotes from Cymbeline:— “Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night, Art they not, but in Britain? Prythee, think, There’s living out of Britain!” But Epictetus means more than this in his allusion to sun and stars.—See Preface, xxiv. This passage would lead us to suppose that Epictetus believed in a personal existence continued for some time after death. In the end, however, even sun and stars shall vanish.—See ii. 13, 4. 6. Being arrested by Philip’s people, and asked if he were a spy, Diogenes replied, “Certainly I am, O Philip; a spy of thine ill-counsel and folly, who for no necessity canst set thy life and kingdom on the chances of an hour.” 7. According to Upton’s conjecture, these were gladiators famous for bodily strength; and also, one would suspect, for some remarkable calamity. 8. This highly crude view of the Trojan war might have been refuted out of the mouth of Epictetus himself. Evil-doers are not to be allowed their way because they are unable to hurt our souls, but the hurt may be in the cowardice or sloth that will not punish them. 9. By wearing his cloak half falling off, in negligent fashion. Nothing is finer or more characteristic in Epictetus than his angry scorn of the pseudo-Stoics of his day. 10. ἀνάκρινον τὸ δαιμόνιον. The allusion evidently is to the genius or divine spirit by which Socrates felt himself guided. 11. Crates was a disciple of Diogenes. His wife was named Hipparchia. Upton quotes Menander (_apud Diog. L._), “Thou wilt walk about with me in a cloak as once did his wife with Crates the Cynic.” 12. Danaus, father of the fifty Danaidæ. Æolus is mentioned in _Od._ x. as having six sons and six daughters. 13. τραπεζῆας πυλαωρούς. _Il._ xxi. 69. 14. That is, he capped the quotation by quoting the following line (_Il._ ii. 24, 25). Not a very striking intellectual effort; but Epictetus evidently considered it a meritorious thing to know Homer well enough to quote him in one’s sleep, and he was right. 15. From a poem of Cleanthes. BOOK II. CHAPTER I.