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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: suspicion which hangs over other writings of Xenophon, and the numerous
minute references to the Phaedrus and Symposium, as well as to some of the
other writings of Plato, throw a doubt on the genuineness of the work. The
Symposium of Xenophon, if written by him at all, would certainly show that
he wrote against Plato, and was acquainted with his works. Of this
hostility there is no trace in the Memorabilia. Such a rivalry is more
characteristic of an imitator than of an original writer. The (so-called)
Symposium of Xenophon may therefore have no more title to be regarded as
genuine than the confessedly spurious Apology.
There are no means of determining the relative order in time of the
Phaedrus, Symposium, Phaedo. The order which has been adopted in this
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