It would take too long to list all the people who waste their lives playing board games, sports, or lying in the sun. These people aren't truly relaxing — their pleasures have become like work. And no one doubts that those scholars who spend their time on pointless literary debates are just busy fools. We already have plenty of them in Rome too. This used to be a uniquely Greek mental disease — endlessly arguing about how many sailors Odysseus had, whether the Iliad or Odyssey was written first, and whether Homer wrote both poems. These questions don't satisfy you when you keep them private, and they don't make you look smarter when you share them — just more annoying.
It would take long to describe the various individuals who have wasted their lives over playing at draughts, playing at ball, or toasting their bodies in the sun: men are not at leisure if their pleasures partake of the character of business, for no one will doubt that those persons are laborious triflers who devote themselves to the study of futile literary questions, of whom there is already a great number in Rome also. It used to be a peculiarly Greek disease of the mind to investigate how many rowers Ulysses had, whether the Iliad or the Odyssey was written first, and furthermore, whether they were written by the same author, with other matters of the same stamp, which neither please your inner consciousness if you keep them to yourself, nor make you seem more learned, but only more troublesome, if you publish them abroad.