¹ For the little that is known about Polus see further Nestle, W. in RE Band XXI. 2Google Scholar, coll. 1424–1425, s.v. Polos 3 and Dodds, E. R. in his edition of the Gorgias (Oxford, 1959), pp. 11–12Google Scholar. The scant testimonia, true and false, that have survived can be found in Radermacher, Ludwig, Artium Scriptores (Reste des voraristotelischen Rhetorik) = Sitzb. Akad. Wien 227 (1951)Google Scholar, Abh. 3, 112–114.

² ‘Contemporary Evidence on the Text of the First Chapters of Aristotle's Metaphysics’, SIFC 27–8 (1956), 152Google Scholar= Scripta Minora II (Rome, 1960), p. 485Google Scholar.

³ Dodds interprets this sentence differently, contrary to most scholars and, in my view, wrongly. See the Additional Note at the end of this paper.

⁴ Whether Polus expressed or omitted the definite article and whether μέν γρ ~ δ are original must remain not quite certain. Gorg. 448C and Met. 981^a4–5, taken together, support the genuineness of μέν γρ ~ δ. Aristotle could have added the articles himself because of the preceding context (the so-called anaphoric use of the article). Whether Polus wrote μν γρ μπειρία… δ’ πειρία or μπειρία μν γρ…πειρία δ matters little.

⁵ It is of course just possible, though unlikely, that at 448C the words μπειρία μν γρ – κατ τύχην are a second verbatim quotation from Polus completely distinct from the one preserved by Aristotle and Gorg. 462 B–C. No one, so far as I can discover, has advocated this position.

⁶ The words ρθς λέγων at Met. 981⁸4 are omitted in the Ab recension; for their genuineness here see W. Jaeger, loc. cit. (above, n. 2).

⁷ Jaeger remarks that ‘Aristotle is quoting Plato's Gorgias 448C but this time sides with Polus, who is mostly wrong’ (above, n. 2, emphasis mine). As Jaeger means that Polus is ‘mostly wrong’ specifically in the Gorgias, this would entail a very forced interpretation of ρθς λέγων here.

⁸ The usage is discussed in detail by Ross, W. D., Aristotle's Metaphysics. A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary, vol. I (Oxford, 1924), pp. xxxix–xliGoogle Scholar. Compare also LSJ s.v., τό B.I.i.c.

⁹ op. cit. (above, n. 8), p. xli.

¹⁰ ‘ Τίμαιος = Plato's Timaeus. In accordance with Fitzgerald's canon T. is A.'s way of distinguishing a character in a book from an historical character.’ W. D. Ross ad loc. R. D. Hicks, for example, renders Τίμαιος here by ‘the Platonic Timaeus’ and W. S. Hett by ‘Plato's Timaeus.’

¹¹ I note in passing Pol. 1260^a27—8: πολὺ γρ ἄμεινον λέγουσιν οἱ ξαριθμοντες τς ρετάς, σπερ Γοργίας, τν οὔτως ριζομένων. Scholars tend to see an allusion to Plato's Meno here, despite the fact that Gorgias does not appear in that dialogue. In addition to commentators on the Politics see Hicks, R. D. on Arist. De. An. 406^b26Google Scholar and Bluck, R. S. on P1. Meno 71E3Google Scholar. The absence of the article with Γοργίας ought to have given one pause. (Diels-Kranz, , Vorsokr.¹⁰ II (Berlin, 1960), p. 305Google Scholar correctly print this sentence from the Politics as a fragment [18] of Gorgias.)

¹² See Dodds, on Gorg. 448C 4–9Google Scholar for some evidence and references.

¹³ See on this Capelle, W., ‘Zur Hippokratischen Frage’, Hermes 57 (1922), 263–5Google Scholar.

¹⁴ See, e.g. Edelstein, Ludwig, ‘Empiricism and Skepticism in the Teaching of the Greek Empirical School’, in his Ancient Medicine. Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein (Baltimore, 1967), pp. 195–203Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Gal. 14.683 Kühn; Plin, . HN 29. 5Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Galen. Three Treatises on the Nature of Science. Translated by Walzer, Richard and Frede, Michael with an Introduction by Frede, Michael (Indianapolis, 1985), pp. xxiii–xxivGoogle Scholar.