Theaetetus

EUCLIDES: Terpsion, have you just arrived from the country, or some time ago? TERPSION: Quite some time ago. And I was looking for you in the marketplace, and wondering why I could not find you. EUCLIDES: For I was not in town. TERPSION: Where then? EUCLIDES: Going down to the harbor, I met Theaetetus being carried to Athens from the army camp at Corinth. TERPSION: Alive or dead? EUCLIDES: Alive, but only just. For he is in a bad way from some wounds, but still more he is gripped by the disease that broke out in the army. TERPSION: Was it dysentery? EUCLIDES: Yes. TERPSION: What a man you say is in danger! EUCLIDES: A noble and good man indeed, Terpsion; why, just now I heard some people highly praising his conduct in the battle. TERPSION: And no wonder; indeed, it would have been far more surprising if he had not been such. But how is it he did not stop here in Megara? EUCLIDES: He was in a hurry to get home. Though I begged and advised him to stay, he would not. And so, after seeing him on his way, as I was returning, I remembered and was amazed at how prophetically Socrates spoke on other matters and especially about him. For it seems to me that Socrates met him shortly before his own death, when Theaetetus was a mere youth, and having associated and conversed with him, he was filled with admiration for his nature. And when I went to Athens, he related to me the conversations he had had with him, which were indeed well worth hearing, and he said that this youth would inevitably become famous if he should live to maturity. TERPSION: And he spoke truly, as it seems. But what were those conversations? Could you relate them?

​EUCLIDES: No, by Zeus, certainly not just from memory; but as soon as I got home at that time, I wrote down some notes, and later, at my leisure, I wrote them out as I recalled them, and as often as I went to Athens, I would ask Socrates about whatever I did not remember, and then, returning here, I corrected it; so that practically the whole conversation has been written down by me. TERPSION: True. I heard you say so before, and indeed, though I have always been intending to ask you to show it to me, I have delayed until now. But what prevents us from going through it now? In any case, I need to rest, since I have just come from the country. EUCLIDES: Indeed, I too accompanied Theaetetus as far as Erineum, so I should not be at all sorry to rest. Let us go, then, and while we are resting, the slave boy shall read to us. TERPSION: You are right. EUCLIDES: Well, Terpsion, here is the book. And I wrote down the conversation in this way: not as Socrates relating it to me, as he in fact did, but as conversing with those whom he said he conversed with. And he said he conversed with Theodorus the geometer and with Theaetetus. Now, in order that the narrative explanations between the speeches might not cause trouble in the written text, whenever Socrates spoke of himself, such as “And I said,” or “And I remarked,” or again, concerning the person answering, such as “He agreed,” or “He did not admit it,” for these reasons I wrote it as though Socrates were conversing directly with them, leaving out all such phrases. TERPSION: And that is not at all out of place, Euclides. EUCLIDES: Come then, boy, take the book and read. SOCRATES: If I cared more for the people of Cyrene, Theodorus, I should ask you about affairs there and about their young men, whether there are any there who are paying attention to geometry or any other branch of philosophy. But as it is, I love these youths here more than those, and I am more eager to know which of our own young men are likely to turn out well. I myself look out for this as much as I can, and I ask others whom I see the young men like to associate with. Now, not a few come to you, and rightly so; for you deserve it, both for your other qualities and especially for your geometry. If, then, you have met with any young man worth mentioning, I should be glad to hear of him.