That was what the judges dwelt upon, and the point
thenceforward at issue was whether the seal of approval
should be set upon a eunuch who was proposing himself for a career in philosophy and requesting that
the governance of boys be committed to him. One





 

said that presence and a fine physical endowment
should be among the attributes of a philosopher, and
that above all else he should have a long beard that
would inspire confidence in those who visited him
and sought to become his pupils, one that would
befit the ten thousand drachmas which he was to
receive from the Emperor, whereas a eunuch was in
worse case than a cut priest, for the latter had at
least known manhood once, but the former had been
marred from the very first and was an ambiguous sort
of creature like a crow, which cannot be reckoned
either with doves or with ravens.