Letter 715: The law requires of doctors only one public service: the practice of their art.
The law requires of doctors only one public service: the practice of their art. Yet Philon is being dragged toward the council by the people of Rhosos, even though he has long been raising many from their sickbeds.
If they do not know that Philon is a doctor, let them learn and stop. If they know and use force anyway, well -- Philon may be weak, but the law is strong.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Τῷ αὐτῶ. (362)
Ὁ νόμος τοὺς ἰατροὺς μίαν ἀπαιτεῖ λειτουργίαν τὴν ἀπὸ
τῆς τέχνης, Φίλων δὲ πρὸς τὸ βουλεύειν ὑπὸ τῶν Ῥωσὸν
οἰκούντων ἕλκεται πάλαι πολλοὺς ἐκ νοσημάτων ἀναστήσας.
εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀγνοοῦσιν ὡς ἰατρὸς ὁ Φίλων, μαθόντες παυ-
έσθωσαν· εἰ δὲ εἰδότες βιάζονται, Φίλων μὲν ἴσως ἀσθενής,
ἰσχυρὸς δὲ ὁ νόμος.
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