To Antipater, the governor.

Letter CLXXXVI.²⁶⁰⁵

To Antipater, the governor.²⁶⁰⁶

Philosophy is an excellent thing, if only for this, that it even heals its disciples at small cost; for, in philosophy, the same thing is both dainty and healthy fare.  I am told that you have recovered your failing appetite by pickled cabbage.  Formerly I used to dislike it, both on account of the proverb,²⁶⁰⁷ and because it reminded me of the poverty that went with it.  Now, however, I am driven to change my mind.  I laugh at the proverb when I see that cabbage is such a “good nursing mother of men,”²⁶⁰⁸ and has restored our governor to the vigour of youth.  For the future I shall think nothing like cabbage, not even Homer’s lotus,²⁶⁰⁹ not even that ambrosia,²⁶¹⁰ whatever it was, which fed the Olympians.