“Socrates was put to death because he made no preparation for his defence. I shall do so. Farewell!”
However, Musonius, the Stoic, was sent to penal servitude by Nero.
Here is a note to the Cynic Demetrius, another of our philosopher’s most devoted friends.
“Apollonius, the philosopher, to Demetrius, the Dog,[120] greeting!
“I give thee to Titus, the emperor, to teach him the way of kingship, and do you in turn give me to speak him true; and be to him all things but anger. Farewell!”
In addition to the notes quoted in the text of Philostratus, there is a collection of ninety-five letters, mostly brief notes, the text of which is printed in most editions.[121] Nearly all the critics are of opinion that they are not genuine, but Jowett[122] and others think that some of them may very well be genuine.
Here is a specimen or two of these letters. Writing to Euphrates, his great enemy, that is to say the champion of pure rationalistic ethic against the science of sacred things, he says:
17. “The Persians call those who have the divine faculty (or are god-like) Magi. A Magus, then, is one who is a minister of the Gods, or one who has by nature the god-like faculty. You are no Magus but reject the Gods (i.e., are an atheist).”
Again, in a letter addressed to Criton, we read:
23. “Pythagoras said that the most divine art was that of healing. And if the healing art is most divine, it must occupy itself with the soul as well as with the body; for no creature can be sound so long as the higher part in it is sickly.”