“[p. 391]
Aimless we drift, we live but more or less.” And the grammarian, in a profuse sweat and blushing deeply, since many of the company were laughing long and loud at this, got up, saying as he left: “I will tell you at a later time, when we are alone, Fronto, in order that ignorant folk may not hear and learn.” And so we all rose, leaving the consideration of the word at that point.
XI
[11arg] He gives some amatory verses of Plato, with which the philosopher amused himself when he was a very young man and was contending for the tragic prize.HERE are two Greek verses that are famous and deemed worthy of remembrance by many learned men because of their charm and graceful terseness. There are in fact not a few ancient writers who declare that they are the work of the philosopher Plato, with which he amused himself in his youth, while at the same time he was beginning his literary career by writing tragedies. 1 My soul, when I kissed Agathon, did pass My lips; as though, poor soul, 'would leap across. This distich a friend of mine, a young man no stranger to the Muses, has paraphrased somewhat boldly and freely in a number of lines. And since they seemed to me not undeserving of remembrance, I have added them here: 2
