And perhaps too there is this difference that you have no excuse for levying tribute on specious pretexts as they do; which they call “alms,” whatever that may mean. But in all other respects your habits and theirs are very much alike. Like them you have abandoned your country, you wander about all over the world, and you gave more trouble than they did at my headquarters, and were more insolent. For they were at any rate invited to come, but you we tried to drive away. And what good have you, or rather, what have the rest of us derived from all this? First arrived Asclepiades, then Serenianus, then Chytron, then a tall boy with yellow hair—I don’t know his name—then you, and with you all twice as many more. And now, my good sirs, what good has come from your journey? What city or individual has had any experience of your alleged freedom of speech? Was it not foolish of you to choose in the first place to make this journey to an Emperor who did not even wish to set eyes on you? And when you had arrived, did you not behave even more foolishly and ignorantly and insanely in flattering and barking at me in the same breath, and offering me your books, and moreover imploring that they should be taken to me? I do not believe that any one of you ever visited a philosopher’s school as diligently as you did my secretary: in fact the entrance to the Palace stood for you in place of the Academy and the Lyceum and the Portico.) Οὐκ ἀπάξετε ταῦτα; οὐ καταβαλεῖτε νῦν γοῦν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πρότερον, ὅτε ὑμῖν οὐδέν ἐστι πλέον ἀπὸ τῆς κόμης καὶ τῆς βακτηρίας; πῶς δὲ καὶ γέγονεν ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν εὐκαταφρόνητος ἡ φιλοσοφία; τῶν ῥητορικῶν [B] οἱ δυσμαθέστατοι καὶ οὐδ᾽ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως Ἑρμοῦ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐκκαθαρθῆναι δυνάμενοι, φρενωθῆναι δὲ οὐδὲ πρὸς αὐτῆς τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς σὺν τῷ Ἑρμῇ, τοῦτο ἐκ τῆς ἀγοραίου καὶ περιτρεχούσης ἁρπάσαντες ἐντρεχείας· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐν παροιμίᾳ περιφερόμενον αὐτὸ γιγνώσκουσι τὸ ὅτι βότρυς πρὸς βότρυν πεπαίνεται· ὁρμῶσιν ἐπὶ τὸν Κυνισμόν· βακτηρία, τρίβων, [C] κόμη, τὸ ἐντεῦθεν ἀμαθία, θράσος, ἰταμότης καὶ πάντα ἁπλῶς τὰ τοιαῦτα. τὴν σύντομον, φασίν, ὁδὸν καὶ σύντονον ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν ἰέναι(216) ὄφελον καὶ ὑμεῖς τὴν μακρὰν ἐπορεύεσθε· ῥᾷον ἂν δι᾽ ἐκείνης ἢ διὰ ταύτης ἤλθετε. οὐκ ἴστε, ὅτι μεγάλας ἔχουσιν αἱ σύντομοι τὰς χαλεπότητας; καὶ ὥσπερ ἐν ταῖς λεωφόροις ὁ μὲν τὴν σύντομον ἐλθεῖν δυνηθεὶς ῥᾷον ἐκπερίεισι τὴν κύκλῳ, οὐκέτι μέντοι τὸ ἀνάπαλιν ὁ κύκλῳ πορευθεὶς ἔλθοι ἂν πάντως [D] καὶ τὴν ἐπίτομον, οὕτω δὴ(217) καὶ ἐν τῇ φιλοσοφίᾳ τέλος τέ ἑστι καὶ ἀρχὴ μία γνῶναί τε ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀφομοιωθῆναι τοῖς θεοῖς· ἀρχὴ μὲν οὖν ἑαυτὸν γνῶναι, τέλος δὲ ἡ πρὸς τοὺς κρείττονας ὁμοιότης.