Note 54 — Chapter VIII · PLATONIC COMPOSITIONS GENERALLY.

The habit of supposing a general question to be undecided, and of having it argued by competent advocates before auditors who have not made up their minds — is now so disused (everywhere except in a court of law), that one reads with surprise Galen’s declaration that the different competing medical theories were so discussed in his day. His master Pelops maintained a disputation of two days with a rival; — ἡνίκα Πέλοψ μετὰ Φιλίππου τοῦ ἐμπειρικοῦ διελέχθη δυοῖν ἡμερῶν· τοῦ μὲν Πέλοπος, ὡς μὴ δυναμένης τῆς ἰατρικῆς δι’ ἐμπειρίας μόνης συστῆναι, τοῦ Φιλίππου δὲ ἐπιδεικνύντος δύνασθαι. (Galen, De Propriis Libris, c. 2, p. 16, Kühn.)

Galen notes (ib. 2, p. 21) the habit of literary men at Rome to assemble in the temple of Pax, for the purpose of discussing logical questions, prior to the conflagration which destroyed that temple.