Reader

Eucleides: Just in from the country, Terpsion, or did you come some time ago? Terpsion: Quite a while ago; and I was looking for you in the market- place and wondering that I could not find you. Eucleides: Well, you see, I was not in the city. Terpsion: Where then? Eucleides: As I was going down to the harbor I met Theaetetus being carried to Athens from the camp at Corinth. Terpsion: Alive or dead?

Eucleides: Just barely alive; for he is suffering severely from wounds, and, worse than that, he has been taken with the sickness that has broken out in the army. Terpsion: You mean the dysentery? Eucleides: Yes. Terpsion: What a man he is who you say is in danger! Eucleides: A noble man, Terpsion, and indeed just now I heard some people praising him highly for his conduct in the battle. Terpsion: That is not at all strange; it would have been much more remarkable if he had not so conducted himself. But why did he not

stop here in Megara? Eucleides: He was in a hurry to get home; for I begged and advised him to stop, but he would not. So I went along with him, and as I was coming back I thought of Socrates and wondered at his prophetic gift, especially in what he said about him. For I think he met him a little before his own death, when Theaetetus was a mere boy, and as a result of acquaintance and conversation with him, he greatly admired his qualities. When I went to Athens he related to me the conversation

he had with him, which was well worth hearing, and he said he would surely become a notable man if he lived. Terpsion: And he was right, apparently. But what was the talk? Could you relate it? Eucleides: No, by Zeus, at least not offhand.