Dear Master,
More than a month ago, on Feb. 28, I sent a mail to
Professor William Allen, the Head of the Faculty of classics, entitled ‘An
information and requests’. Concerning the information I wrote: ‘Apology 18a7
- b3 Socrates says: 'First then it is right for me to defend myself against the
first false accusations brought against me, and the first accusers. For many
accusers have risen up against me before you, who have been speaking for a long
time, many years already, and saying nothing true; and I fear them more
than Anytus and his associates, though these also are dangerous.'
This text provides the shortest and most potent proof for
dating the Meno prior to the Apology.
The Meno ends with Socrates' address to
Meno: 'It is now time for me to go my way, but do you persuade our friend
Anytus of that of what you are now yourself persuaded, so as to put him in a
gentler mood; for if you can persuade him, you will do a good turn to the
people of Athens also.'
How could Plato make Socrates say these words about Anytus
after he made him point to him as his accuser in the court? In other words: How
could have been the Meno written after the Apology?’
Concerning the requests I wrote: ‘Let me end with two
requests. The first concerns the Internet. May the wrong information about the
dating of the Meno be removed from the Internet?
The second request: May I present a paper on the Meno at the
Faculty of Classics?’
On March 31 I wrote to Professor Allan: ‘On February 28 I
sent you an email entitled ‘An information and requests’. I have not received
any reply. I have therefore decided to protest again at Balliol with LET US
DISCUSS PLATO.
A few years ago, I read your ‘Euripides Helen’; ever since,
your edition had been engraved in my mind; it is excellent; written to be read
and discussed. Whenever I turned to it in my memory, I just could not
understand your ‘response’ (no response is a powerful response) to my proposal
to present under your auspices a paper on Plato’s Meno. After my
email of February 28, I decided to read your ‘Euripides Helen’ again, and I was
even more impressed than in my first reading. This second reading was the last
straw that compelled me to resort once again to protesting at Balliol.’
Dear Master, may I apply to you with a polite request?
Because of my old age I intend to bring with me a collapsible chair, although
it will be awkward to transport it by bus to railway station in Dursley, by trains
from Dursley to Oxford, and from railway station in Oxford to Balliol; it would
be great if Balliol could lend me a chair.
With best wishes,
Julius Tomin
