Tacitus expresses himself in the same manner about the purpose with which Helvidius Priscus applied himself to philosophy (Hist. iv. 6): "non, ut plerique, ut nomine magnifico segne otium velaret, sed quo constantior adversus fortuita rempublicam capesseret". Compare also the memorable passage in the Funeral Oration pronounced by Periklês (Thuc. ii. 40)--[Greek: philosophou=men a)/neu malaki/as], &c., which exhibits the like views. Aulus Gellius (x. 22), who cites the doctrine which Plato ascribes to Kalliklês in the Gorgias (about the propriety of confining philosophy to the function of training and preparation for active pursuits), tries to make out that this was Plato's own opinion.] CHAPTER XXII. MENON. [Side-note: Persons of the Dialogue.] This dialogue is carried on between Sokrates and Menon, a man of noble family, wealth, and political influence, in the Thessalian city of Larissa. He is supposed to have previously frequented, in his native city, the lectures and society of the rhetor Gorgias.[1] The name and general features of Menon are probably borrowed from the Thessalian military officer, who commanded a division of the Ten Thousand Greeks, and whose character Xenophon depicts in the Anabasis: but there is nothing in the Platonic dialogue to mark that meanness and perfidy which the Xenophontic picture indicates. The conversation between Sokrates and Menon is interrupted by two episodes: in the first of these, Sokrates questions an unlettered youth, the slave of Menon: in the second, he is brought into conflict with Anytus, the historical accuser of the historical Sokrates. [Footnote 1: Cicero notices Isokrates as having heard Gorgias in Thessaly (Orator. 53, 176).] The dialogue is begun by Menon, in a manner quite as abrupt as the Hipparchus and Minos: [Side-note: Question put by Menon--Is virtue teachable? Sokrates confesses that he does not know what virtue is. Surprise of Menon.]