Letter 54

To my Brother. A great number of people — both private citizens and priests — keep manufacturing dreams, which they call "revelations," insisting that I will come to harm unless I immediately visit sacred Athens. Whenever you happen to meet a ship's captain sailing for the Piraeus, write to me care of that port, since that is where I will receive my letters. I will gather no fruit from Athens except the admiration of the place itself — the city still deserves that. Egypt has stolen the real treasure: the ability to create knowledge. Athens no longer produces anything of value for students. What philosophy there still is has moved to Alexandria.

Letter 54: Athens [1] To his Brother A great number of people, either private individuals or priests, by moulding dreams, which they call revelations, seem likely to do me harm when I am awake, if I do not happen with all speed to visit sacred Athens . Whenever, then, you happen to meet a skipper sailing for the Piraeus , write to me, as it is there I shall receive my letters. [2] I shall gain not only this by my voyage to Athens - an escape from my present evils, but also a relief from doing reverence to the learning of those who come back from Athens. They differ in no wise from us ordinary mortals. They do not understand Aristotle or Plato better than we, and nevertheless they go about among us as demi-gods among mules, because they have seen the Academy, the Lyceum, note [Aristotle's school was the Lyceum; Plato's school was called the Academy.] and the Poikilê where Zeno gave his lectures on philosophy. However, the Poikilê no longer deserves its name, for the proconsul has taken away all the pictures, and has thus humiliated these men's pretensions to learning.