e will, acquire some learning even at the eleventh hour.
Let him read the works of the philosophers of old, that now at any
rate he may learn that I am not the first ichthyologist, but follow in
the steps of authors, centuries my seniors, such as Aristotle,
Theophrastus, Eudemus, Lycon, and the other successors of Plato, who
have left many books on the generation, life, parts and differences of
animals. It is a good thing, Maximus, that this case is being tried
before a scholar like yourself, who have read Aristotle's numerous
volumes 'on the generation, the anatomy, the history of animals',
together with his numberless 'Problems' and works by others of his
school, treating of various subjects of this kind. If it is an honour
and glory to them that they should have put on record the results of
their careful researches, why should it be disgraceful to me to
attempt the like task, especially since I shall attempt to write on
those subjects both in Greek and Latin and in a more concise and
systematic manner, and shall strive either to make good omissions or
remedy mistakes in all these authors? I beg of you, if you think it
worth while, to permit the reading of extracts from my 'magic' works,
that Aemilianus may learn that my sedulous researches and inquiries
have a wider range than he thinks. Bring a volume of my Greek
works--some of my friends who are interested in questions of natural
history may perhaps have them with them in court--take by preference
one of those dealing with problems of natural philosophy, and from
among those that volume in particular which treats of the race of
fish. While he is looking for the book, I will tell you a story which
has some relevance to this case.

37. The poet Sophocles, the rival and survivor of Euripides--for he
lived to extreme old age--on being accused by his own son of insanity
on the ground that the advance of age had destroyed his wits, is said
to have produced that matchless tragedy, his _Oedipus Coloneus_, on
which he happened to be engaged at the time, and to have read it aloud
to the jury without adding another word in his defence, except that he
bade them without hesitation to condemn him as insane if an old man's
poetry displeased them. At that point--so I have read--the jury rose
to their feet as one man to show their admiration of so great a poet,
and praised him marvellously both for the shrewdness of his argument
and for the eloquence of his tragic verse. And indeed