Note 1:2 — INTRODUCTION.[vii:1]

Some commentators suppose this to be the second part of a dialogue, of which the first part is lost. But it is more probable that the reader is, for dramatic effect, introduced into the midst of a prepared scene. This was not an uncommon device in the philosophical dialogues that have come down to us from early time. Plato, Cicero, and Lucian furnish instances of it, and two other of Plutarch’s dialogues begin in a similar way. Cinius is a name that occurs nowhere else. A purely conjectural emendation of a single letter would give us the better known name, Quintus. The scene of this dialogue is the temple of Apollo at Delphi,—the temple in which Plutarch officiated as priest.