LIFE OF PLATO.
[Side-note: Scanty information about Plato's life.]
Of Plato's biography we can furnish nothing better than a faint
outline. We are not fortunate enough to possess the work on Plato's
life,[1] composed by his companion and disciple Xenokrates, like the
life of Plotinus by Porphyry, or that of Proklus by Marinus. Though
Plato lived eighty years, enjoying extensive celebrity--and though
Diogenes Laertius employed peculiar care in collecting information
about him--yet the number of facts recounted is very small, and of
those facts a considerable proportion is poorly attested.[2]
[Footnote 1: This is cited by Simplikius, Schol. ad Aristot. De Coelo,
470, a. 27; 474, a. 12, ed. Brandis.]
[Footnote 2: Diogen. Laert. iv. 1. The person to whom Diogenes
addressed his biography of Plato was a female: possibly the wife of
the emperor Septimius Severus (see Philostr. Vit. Apoll. i. 3), who
greatly loved and valued the Platonic philosophy (Diog. Laert. iii.
47). Ménage (in his commentary on the Prooemium) supposes the person
signified to be Arria: this also is a mere conjecture, and in my
judgment less probable. We know that the empress gave positive
encouragement to writers on philosophy. The article devoted by
Diogenes to Plato is of considerable length, including both biography
and exposition of doctrine. He makes reference to numerous
witnesses--Speusippus, Aristotle, Hermodôrus, Aristippus, Dikæarchus,
Aristoxenus, Klearchus, Herakleides, Theopompus, Timon in his Silli or
satirical poem, Pamphila, Hermippus, Neanthes, Antileon, Favorinus,
Athenodôrus. Timotheus, Idomeneus, Alexander [Greek: e)n diadochai=s
kath' Ê(ra/kleiton], Satyrus, Onêtor, Alkimus, Euphorion, Panætius,
Myronianus, Polemon, Aristophanes of Byzantium, the Alexandrine
critic, Antigonus of Karystus, Thrasyllus, &c.
Of the other biographers of Plato, Olympiodorus and the Auctor
Anonymus cite no authorities. Apuleius, in his survey of the doctrine
of Plato (De Habitudine doctrinarum Platonis, init. p. 567, ed.
Paris), mentions only Speusippus, as having attested the early
diligence and quick apprehension of Plato. "Speusippus, domesticis
instructus documentis, et pueri ejus acre in percipiendo ingenium, et
admirandæ verecundiæ indolem laudat, et pubescentis primitias labore
atque amore studendi imbutas refert," &c.
Speusippus had composed a funeral Discourse or Encomium on Plato
(Diogen. iii. 1, 2; iv. 1, 11). Unfortunately Diogenes refers to it
only once in reference to Plato. We can hardly make out whether any of
the authors, whom he cites, had made the life of Plato a subject of
attentive study. Hermodôrus is cited by Simplikius as having written a
treatise [Greek: peri\ Pla/tônos]. Aristoxenus, Dikæarchus, and
Theopompus--perhaps also Hermippus, and Klearchus--had good means of
information.
See K. F. Hermann, Geschichte und System der Platonischen Philosophie,
p. 97, not. 45.]
[Side-note: His birth, parentage, and early education.]
Plato was born in Ægina (in which island his father enjoyed an estate
as kleruch or out-settled citizen) in the month Thargelion (May) of
the year B.C. 427.[3] His family, belonging to the Dême Kollytus, was
both ancient and noble, in the sense attached to that word at Athens.
He was son of Ariston (or, according to some admirers, of the God
Apollo) and Periktionê: his maternal ancestors had been intimate
friends or relatives of the law-giver Solon, while his father belonged
to a Gens tracing its descent from Kodrus, and even from the God
Poseidon. He was also nearly related to Charmides and to Kritias--this
last the well-known and violent leader among the oligarchy called the
Thirty Tyrants.[4] Plato was first called Aristoklês, after his
grandfather; but received when he grew up the name of Plato--on
account of the breadth (we are told) either of his forehead or of his
shoulders. Endowed with a robust physical frame, and exercised in
gymnastics, not merely in one of the palæstræ of Athens (which he
describes graphically in the Charmides) but also under an Argeian
trainer, he attained such force and skill as to contend (if we may
credit Dikæarchus) for the prize of wrestling among boys at the
Isthmian festival.[5] His literary training was commenced under a
schoolmaster named Dionysius, and pursued under Drakon, a celebrated
teacher of music in the large sense then attached to that word. He is
said to have displayed both diligence and remarkable quickness of
apprehension, combined too with the utmost gravity and modesty.[6] He
not only acquired great familiarity with the poets, but composed
poetry of his own--dithyrambic, lyric, and tragic: and he is even
reported to have prepared a tragic tetralogy, with the view of
competing for victory at the Dionysian festival. We are told that he
burned these poems, when he attached himself to the society of
Sokrates. No compositions in verse remain under his name, except a few
epigrams--amatory, affectionate, and of great poetical beauty. But
there is ample proof in his dialogues that the cast of his mind was
essentially poetical. Many of his philosophical speculations are
nearly allied to poetry, and acquire their hold upon the mind rather
through imagination and sentiment than through reason or evidence.
[Footnote 3: It was affirmed distinctly by Hermodôrus (according to
the statement of Diogenes Laertius, iii. 6) that Plato was
twenty-eight years old at the time of the death of Sokrates: that is,
in May, 399 B.C. (Zeller, Phil. der Griech. vol. ii. p. 39, ed. 2nd.)
This would place the birth of Plato in 427 B.C. Other critics refer
his birth to 428 or 429: but I agree with Zeller in thinking that the
deposition of Hermodôrus is more trustworthy than any other evidence
before us.
Hermodôrus was a friend and disciple of Plato, and is even said to
have made money by publishing Plato's dialogues without permission
(Cic., Epist. ad Attic. xiii. 21). Suidas, [Greek: E(rmo/dôros]. He
was also an author: he published a treatise [Greek: Peri\ Mathêma/tôn]
(Diog. L., Prooem. 2).
See the more recent Dissertation of Zeller, De Hermodoro Ephesio et
Hermodoro Platonico, Marburg, 1859, p. 19 seq. He cites two important
passages (out of the commentary of Simplikius on Aristot. Physic.)
referring to the work of Hermodôrus [Greek: o( Pla/tônos e(/tairos]--a
work [Greek: Peri\ Pla/tônos], on Plato.]
[Footnote 4: The statements respecting Plato's relatives are obscure
and perplexing: unfortunately the _domestica documenta_, which were
within the knowledge of his nephew Speusippus, are no longer
accessible to us. It is certain that he had two brothers, Glaukon and
Adeimantus: besides which, it would appear from the Parmenides (126 B)
that he had a younger half-brother by the mother's side, named
Antiphon, and son of Pyrilampes (compare Charmides, p. 158 A, and
Plut., De Frat. Amore, 12, p. 484 E). But the age, which this would
assign to Antiphon, does not harmonise well with the chronological
postulates assumed in the exordium of the Parmenides. Accordingly, K.
F. Hermann and Stallbaum are led to believe, that besides the brothers
of Plato named Glaukon and Adeimantus, there must also have been two
uncles of Plato bearing these same names, and having Antiphon for
their younger brother. (See Stallbaum's Prolegg. ad Charm. pp. 84, 85,
and Prolegg. ad Parmen., Part iii. pp. 304-307.) This is not unlikely:
but we cannot certainly determine the point--more especially as we do
not know what amount of chronological inaccuracy Plato might hold to
be admissible in the _personnel_ of his dialogues.
It is worth mentioning, that in the discourse of Andokides de
Mysteriis, persons named Plato, Charmides, Antiphon, are named among
those accused of concern in the sacrileges of 415 B.C.--the mutilation
of the Hermæ and the mock celebration of the mysteries. Speusippus is
also named as among the Senators of the year (Andokides de Myst. p.
13-27, seq.). Whether these persons belonged to the same family as the
philosopher Plato, we cannot say. He himself was then only twelve
years old.]
[Footnote 5: Diog. L. iii. 4; Epiktêtus, i. 8-13, [Greek: ei) de\
kalo\s ê)=n Pla/tôn kai\ i)schuro/s], &c.
The statement of Sextus Empiricus--that Plato in his boyhood had his
ears bored and wore ear-rings--indicates the opulent family to which
he belonged. (Sex. Emp. adv. Gramm. s. 258.) Probably some of the old
habits of the great Athenian families, as to ornaments worn on the
head or hair, were preserved with the children after they had been
discontinued with adults. See Thuc. i. 6.]
[Footnote 6: Diog. L. iii. 26.]
[Side-note: Early relations of Plato with Sokrates.]
According to Diogenes[7] (who on this point does not cite his
authority), it was about the twentieth year of Plato's age (407 B.C.)
that his acquaintance with Sokrates began. It may possibly have begun
earlier, but certainly not later--since at the time of the
conversation (related by Xenophon) between Sokrates and Plato's
younger brother Glaukon, there was already a friendship established
between Sokrates and Plato: and that time can hardly be later than 406
B.C., or the beginning of 405 B.C.[8] From 406 B.C. down to 399 B.C.,
when Sokrates was tried and condemned, Plato seems to have remained in
friendly relation and society with him: a relation perhaps interrupted
during the severe political struggles between 405 B.C. and 403 B.C.,
but revived and strengthened after the restoration of the democracy in
the last-mentioned year.
[Footnote 7: Ibid. 6.]
[Footnote 8: Xen. Mem. iii. 6, 1. Sokrates was induced by his
friendship for Plato and for Charmides the cousin of Plato, to
admonish the forward youth Glaukon (Plato's younger brother), who
thrust himself forward obtrusively to speak in the public assembly
before he was twenty years of age. The two discourses of Sokrates--one
with the presumptuous Glaukon, the other with the diffident
Charmides--are both reported by Xenophon.
These discourses must have taken place before the battle of
Ægospotami: for Charmides was killed during the Anarchy, and Glaukon
certainly would never have attempted such acts of presumption
after the restoration of the democracy, at a time when the tide of
public feeling had become vehemently hostile to Kritias, Charmides,
and all the names and families connected with the oligarchical rule
just overthrown.
I presume the conversation of Sokrates with Glaukon to have taken
place in 406 B.C. or 405 B.C.: it was in 405 B.C. that the disastrous
battle of Ægospotami occurred.]
[Side-note: Plato's youth--service as a citizen and soldier.]
But though Plato may have commenced at the age of twenty his
acquaintance with Sokrates, he cannot have been exclusively occupied
in philosophical pursuits between the nineteenth and the twenty-fifth
year of his age--that is, between 409-403 B.C. He was carried, partly
by his own dispositions, to other matters besides philosophy; and even
if such dispositions had not existed, the exigencies of the time
pressed upon him imperatively as an Athenian citizen. Even under
ordinary circumstances, a young Athenian of eighteen years of age, as
soon as he was enrolled on the public register of citizens, was
required to take the memorable military oath in the chapel of
Aglaurus, and to serve on active duty, constant or nearly constant,
for two years, in various posts throughout Attica, for the defence of
the country.[9] But the six years from 409-403 B.C. were years of an
extraordinary character. They included the most strenuous public
efforts, the severest suffering, and the gravest political revolution,
that had ever occurred at Athens. Every Athenian citizen was of
necessity put upon constant (almost daily) military service; either
abroad, or in Attica against the Lacedæmonian garrison established in
the permanent fortified post of Dekeleia, within sight of the Athenian
Akropolis. So habitually were the citizens obliged to be on guard,
that Athens, according to Thucydides,[10] became a military post
rather than a city. It is probable that Plato, by his family and its
place on the census, belonged to the Athenian Hippeis or Horsemen, who
were in constant employment for the defence of the territory. But at
any rate, either on horseback, or on foot, or on shipboard, a robust
young citizen like Plato, whose military age commenced in 409, must
have borne his fair share in this hard but indispensable duty. In the
desperate emergency, which preceded the battle of Arginusæ (406 B.C.),
the Athenians put to sea in thirty days a fleet of 110 triremes for
the relief of Mitylenê; all the men of military age, freemen, and
slaves, embarking.[11] We can hardly imagine that at such a season
Plato can have wished to decline service: even if he had wished it,
the Strategi would not have permitted him. Assuming that he remained
at home, the garrison-duty at Athens must have been doubled on account
of the number of departures. After the crushing defeat of the
Athenians at Ægospotami, came the terrible apprehension at Athens,
then the long blockade and famine of the city (wherein many died of
hunger); next the tyranny of the Thirty, who among their other
oppressions made war upon all free speech, and silenced even the voice
of Sokrates: then the gallant combat of Thrasybulus followed by the
intervention of the Lacedæmonians--contingencies full of uncertainty
and terror, but ending in the restoration of the democracy. After such
restoration, there followed all the anxieties, perils, of reaction,
new enactments and provisions, required for the revived democracy,
during the four years between the expulsion of the Thirty and the
death of Sokrates.
[Footnote 9: Read the oath sworn by the Ephêbi in Pollux viii. 105.
Æschines tells us that he served his two ephebic years as [Greek:
peri/polos tê=s chô/ras], when there no was remarkable danger or foreign
pressure. See Æsch. De Fals. Legat. s. 178. See the facts about the
Athenian Ephêbi brought together in a Dissertation by W. Dittenberger,
p. 9-12.]
[Footnote 10: Thuc. vii. 27: [Greek: o(sême/rai e)xelauno/ntôn tô=n
i(ppe/ôn], &c. Cf., viii. 69. Antiphon, who is described in the
beginning of the Parmenides, as devoted to [Greek: i(ppikê\], must
have been either brother or uncle of Plato.]
[Footnote 11: Xen. Hell. i. 6, 24. [Greek: Oi( de\ A)thênai=oi, ta\
gegenême/na kai\ tê\n poliorki/an e)pei\ ê)/kousan, e)psêphi/santo
boêthei=n nausi\n e(kato\n kai\ de/ka, ei)sbiba/zontes tou\s e)n
ê(liki/a| o)/ntas a(/pantas, kai\ dou/lous kai\ e)leuthe/rous; kai\
plêrô/santes ta\s de/ka kai\ e(kato\n e)n tria/konta ê(me/rais,
a)pê=ran; ei)se/bêsan de\ kai\ tô=n i(ppe/ôn polloi/]. In one of the
anecdotes given by Diogenes (iii. 24) Plato alludes to his own
military service. Aristoxenus (Diog. L. iii. 8) said that Plato had
been engaged thrice in military expeditions out of Attica: once to
Tanagra, a second time to Corinth, a third time to Delium, where he
distinguished himself. Aristoxenus must have had fair means of
information, yet I do not know what to make of this statement. All the
three places named are notorious for battles fought by Athens;
nevertheless chronology utterly forbids the supposition that Plato
could have been present either at _the_ battle of Tanagra or at _the_
battle of Delium. At the battle of Delium Sokrates was present, and is
said to have distinguished himself: hence there is ground for
suspecting some confusion between his name and that of Plato. It is
however possible that there may have been, during the interval between
410-405 B.C., partial invasions of the frontiers of Boeotia by
Athenian detachments: both Tanagra and Delium were on the Boeotian
frontier. The great battle of Corinth took place in 394 B.C. Plato
left Athens immediately after the death of Sokrates in 399 B.C., and
visited several foreign countries during the years immediately
following; but he may have been at Athens in 394 B.C., and may have
served in the Athenian force at Corinth. See Mr. Clinton, Fast. Hell.
ad ann. 395 B.C. I do not see how Plato could have been engaged in any
battle of Delium _after_ the battle of Corinth, for Athens was not
then at war with the Boeotians.
At the same time I confess that the account given by or ascribed to
Aristoxenus appears to me to have been founded on little positive
information, when we compare it with the military duty which Plato
must have done between 410-405 B.C.
It is curious that Antisthenes also is mentioned as having
distinguished himself at the battle of Tanagra (Diog. vi. 1). The same
remarks are applicable to him as have just been made upon Plato.]
[Side-note: Period of political ambition.]
From the dangers, fatigues, and sufferings of such an historical
decad, no Athenian citizen could escape, whatever might be his feeling
towards the existing democracy, or however averse he might be to
public employment by natural temper. But Plato was not thus averse,
during the earlier years of his adult life. We know, from his own
letters, that he then felt strongly the impulse of political ambition
usual with young Athenians of good family;[12] though probably not
with any such premature vehemence as his younger brother Glaukon,
whose impatience Sokrates is reported to have so judiciously
moderated.[13] Whether Plato ever spoke with success in the public
assembly, we do not know: he is said to have been shy by nature, and
his voice was thin and feeble, ill adapted for the Pnyx.[14] However,
when the oligarchy of Thirty was established, after the capture and
subjugation of Athens, Plato was not only relieved from the necessity
of addressing the assembled people, but also obtained additional
facilities for rising into political influence, through Kritias (his
near relative) and Charmides, leading men among the new oligarchy.
Plato affirms that he had always disapproved the antecedent democracy,
and that he entered on the new scheme of government with full hope of
seeing justice and wisdom predominant. He was soon undeceived. The
government of the Thirty proved a sanguinary and rapacious
tyranny,[15] filling him with disappointment and disgust. He was
especially revolted by their treatment of Sokrates, whom they not only
interdicted from continuing his habitual colloquy with young men,[16]
but even tried to implicate in nefarious murders, by ordering him
along with others to arrest Leon the Salaminian, one of their intended
victims: an order which Sokrates, at the peril of his life, disobeyed.
[Footnote 12: Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 324-325.]
[Footnote 13: Xen., Mem. iii. 6.]
[Footnote 14: Diogen. Laert. iii. 5: [Greek: I)schno/phôno/s te ê)=n],
&c. iii. 26: [Greek: ai)dê/môn kai\ ko/smios].]
[Footnote 15: History of Greece, vol. viii. ch. 65.]
[Footnote 16: Xen. Mem. i. 2, 36; Plato, Apol. Sokrat. c. 20, p. 32.]
[Side-note: He becomes disgusted with politics.]
Thus mortified and disappointed, Plato withdrew from public functions.
What part he took in the struggle between the oligarchy and its
democratical assailants under Thrasybulus, we are not informed. But
when the democracy was re-established, his political ambition revived,
and he again sought to acquire some active influence on public
affairs. Now however the circumstances had become highly unfavourable
to him. The name of his deceased relative Kritias was generally
abhorred, and he had no powerful partisans among the popular leaders.
With such disadvantages, with anti-democratical sentiments, and with a
thin voice, we cannot wonder that Plato soon found public life
repulsive;[17] though he admits the remarkable moderation displayed by
the restored Demos. His repugnance was aggravated to the highest pitch
of grief and indignation by the trial and condemnation of Sokrates
(399 B.C.), four years after the renewal of the democracy. At that
moment doubtless the Sokratic men or companions were unpopular in a
body. Plato, after having yielded his best sympathy and aid at the
trial of Sokrates, retired along with several others of them to
Megara. He made up his mind that for a man of his views and opinions,
it was not only unprofitable, but also unsafe, to embark in active
public life, either at Athens or in any other Grecian city. He
resolved to devote himself to philosophical speculation, and to
abstain from practical politics; unless fortune should present to him
some exceptional case, of a city prepared to welcome and obey a
renovator upon exalted principles.[18]
[Footnote 17: Ælian (V. H. iii. 27) had read a story to the effect,
that Plato, in consequence of poverty, was about to seek military
service abroad, and was buying arms for the purpose, when he was
induced to stay by the exhortation of Sokrates, who prevailed upon him
to devote himself to philosophy at home.
If there be any truth in this story, it must refer to some time in the
interval between the restoration of the democracy (403 B.C.) and the
death of Sokrates (399 B.C.). The military service of Plato, prior to
the battle of Ægospotami (405 B.C.), must have been obligatory, in
defence of his country, not depending on his own free choice. It is
possible also that Plato may have been for the time impoverished, like
many other citizens, by the intestine troubles in Attica, and may have
contemplated military service abroad, like Xenophon.
But I am inclined to think that the story is unfounded, and that it
arises from some confusion between Plato and Xenophon.]
[Footnote 18: The above account of Plato's proceedings, perfectly
natural and interesting, but unfortunately brief, is to be found in
his seventh Epistle, p. 325-326.]
[Side-note: He retires from Athens after the death of Sokrates--his
travels.]
At Megara Plato passed some time with the Megarian Eukleides, his
fellow-disciple in the society of Sokrates, and the founder of what is
termed the Megaric school of philosophers. He next visited Kyrênê,
where he is said to have become acquainted with the geometrician
Theodôrus, and to have studied geometry under him. From Kyrênê he
proceeded to Egypt, interesting himself much in the antiquities of the
country as well as in the conversation of the priests. In or about 394
B.C.--if we may trust the statement of Aristoxenus about the military
service of Plato at Corinth, he was again at Athens. He afterwards
went to Italy and Sicily, seeking the society of the Pythagorean
philosophers, Archytas, Echekrates, Timæus, &c., at Tarentum and
Lokri, and visiting the volcanic manifestations of Ætna. It appears
that his first visit to Sicily was made when he was about forty years
of age, which would be 387 B.C. Here he made acquaintance with the
youthful Dion, over whom he acquired great intellectual ascendancy. By
Dion Plato was prevailed upon to visit the elder Dionysius at
Syracuse:[19] but that despot, offended by the free spirit of his
conversation and admonitions, dismissed him with displeasure, and even
caused him to be sold into slavery at Ægina in his voyage home. Though
really sold, however, Plato was speedily ransomed by friends. After
farther incurring some risk of his life as an Athenian citizen, in
consequence of the hostile feelings of the Æginetans, he was conveyed
away safely to Athens, about 386 B.C.[20]
[Footnote 19: Plato. Epistol. vii. p. 324 A, 327 A.]
[Footnote 20: Plut. Dion. c. 5: Corn. Nep., Dion, ii. 3; Diog. Laert.
iii. 19-20; Aristides, Or. xlvi., [Greek: U(pe\r tô=n Tetta/rôn], p.
305-306, ed. Dindorf.
Cicero (De Fin. v. 29; Tusc. Disp. i. 17), and others, had contracted a
lofty idea of Plato's Travels, more than the reality seems to warrant.
Val. Max. viii. 7, 3; Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 2.
The Sophist Himerius repeats the same general statements about Plato's
early education, and extensive subsequent travels, but without adding
any new particulars (Orat. xiv. 21-25).
If we can trust a passage of Tzetzes, cited by Mr. Clinton (F. H. ad
B.C. 366) and by Welcker (Trag. Gr. p. 1236), Dionysius the elder of
Syracuse had composed (among his various dramas) a tragi-comedy
directed against Plato.]
[Side-note: His permanent establishment at Athens--386 B.C.]
It was at this period, about 386 B.C., that the continuous and formal
public teaching of Plato, constituting as it does so great an epoch in
philosophy, commenced. But I see no ground for believing, as many
authors assume, that he was absent from Athens during the entire
interval between 399-386 B.C. I regard such long-continued absence as
extremely improbable. Plato had not been sentenced to banishment, nor
was he under any compulsion to stay away from his native city. He was
not born "of an oak-tree or a rock" (to use an Homeric phrase,
strikingly applied by Sokrates in his Apology to the Dikasts[21]), but
of a noble family at Athens, where he had brothers and other
connections. A temporary retirement, immediately after the death of
Sokrates, might be congenial to his feelings and interesting in many
ways; but an absence of moderate length would suffice for such
exigencies, and there were surely reasonable motives to induce him to
revisit his friends at home. I conceive Plato as having visited
Kyrênê, Egypt, and Italy during these thirteen years, yet as having
also spent part of this long time at Athens. Had he been continuously
absent from that city he would have been almost forgotten, and would
scarcely have acquired reputation enough to set up with success as a
teacher.[22]
[Footnote 21: Plato, Apol. p. 34 D.]
[Footnote 22: Stallbaum insists upon it as "certum et indubium" that
Plato was absent from Athens continuously, without ever returning to
it, for the thirteen years immediately succeeding the death of
Sokrates. But I see no good evidence of this, and I think it highly
improbable. See Stallbaum, Prolegg. ad Platon. Politicum, p. 38, 39.
The statement of Strabo (xvii. 806), that Plato and Eudoxus passed
thirteen years in Egypt, is not admissible.
Ueberweg examines and criticises the statements about Plato's travels.
He considers it probable that Plato passed some part of these thirteen
years at Athens (Ueber die Aechtheit und Zeitfolge der Platon.
Schrift. p. 126, 127). Mr Fynes Clinton thinks the same. F. H. B.C.
394; Append. c. 21, p. 366.]
[Side-note: He commences his teaching at the Academy.]
The spot selected by Plato for his lectures or teaching was a garden
adjoining the precinct sacred to the Hero Hekadêmus or Akadêmus,
distant from the gate of Athens called Dipylon somewhat less than a
mile, on the road to Eleusis, towards the north. In this precinct
there were both walks, shaded by trees, and a gymnasium for bodily
exercise; close adjoining, Plato either inherited or acquired a small
dwelling-house and garden, his own private property.[23] Here, under
the name of the Academy, was founded the earliest of those schools of
philosophy, which continued for centuries forward to guide and
stimulate the speculative minds of Greece and Rome.
[Footnote 23: Diog. Laert. iii. 7, 8; Cic. De Fin. v. 1; C. G. Zumpt,
Ueber den Bestand der philosophischen Schulen in Athen, p. 8 (Berlin,
1843). The Academy was consecrated to Athênê; there was, however, a
statue of Eros there, to whom sacrifice was offered, in conjunction
with Athênê. Athenæus, xiii. 561.
At the time when Aristophanes assailed Sokrates in the comedy of the
Nubes (423 B.C.), the Academy was known and familiar as a place for
gymnastic exercise; and Aristophanes (Nub. 995) singles it out as the
proper scene of action for the honest and muscular youth, who despises
rhetoric and philosophy. Aristophanes did not anticipate that within a
short time after the representation of his last comedy, the most
illustrious disciple of Sokrates would select the Academy as the spot
for his residence and philosophical lectures, and would confer upon
the name a permanent intellectual meaning, as designating the earliest
and most memorable of the Hellenic schools.
In 369 B.C., when the school of Plato was in existence, the Athenian
hoplites, marching to aid the Lacedæmonians in Peloponnesus, were
ordered by Iphikrates to make their evening meal in the Academy (Xen.
Hell. vi. 5, 49).
The garden, afterwards established by Epikurus, was situated between
the gate of Athens and the Academy: so that a person passed by it,
when he walked forth from Athens to the Academy (Cic. De Fin. i. 1).]
[Side-note: Plato as a teacher--pupils numerous and wealthy, from
different cities.]
We have scarce any particulars respecting the growth of the Academy
from this time to the death of Plato, in 347 B.C. We only know
generally that his fame as a lecturer became eminent and widely
diffused: that among his numerous pupils were included Speusippus,
Xenokrates, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Hyperides, Lykurgus, &c.: that he
was admired and consulted by Perdikkas in Macedonia and Dionysius at
Syracuse: that he was also visited by listeners and pupils from all
parts of Greece. Among them was Eudoxus of Knidus, who afterwards
became illustrious both in geometry and astronomy. At the age of
twenty-three, and in poor circumstances, Eudoxus was tempted by the
reputation of the Sokratic men, and enabled by the aid of friends, to
visit Athens: where, however, he was coldly received by Plato. Besides
preparing an octennial period or octaetêris, and a descriptive map of
the Heavens, Eudoxus also devised the astronomical hypothesis of
Concentric Spheres--the earliest theory proposed to show that the
apparent irregularity in the motion of the Sun and the Planets might
be explained, and proved to result from a multiplicity of co-operating
spheres or agencies, each in itself regular.[24] This theory of
Eudoxus is said to have originated in a challenge of Plato, who
propounded to astronomers, in his oral discourse, the problem which
they ought to try to solve.[25]
[Footnote 24: For an account of Eudoxus himself, of his theory of
concentric spheres, and the subsequent extensions of it, see the
instructive volume of the late lamented Sir George Cornewall
Lewis,--Historical Survey of the Ancient Astronomy, ch. iii. sect. 3,
p. 146 seq.
M. Boeckh also (in his recent publication, Ueber die vierjährigen
Sonnenkreise der Alten, vorzüglich den Eudoxischen, Berlin, 1863) has
given an account of the life and career of Eudoxus, not with reference
to his theory of concentric spheres, but to his Calendar and Lunisolar
Cycles or Periods, quadrennial and octennial. I think Boeckh is right
in placing the voyage of Eudoxus to Egypt at an _earlier_ period of
the life of Eudoxus; that is, about 378 B.C.; and not in 362 B.C.,
where it is placed by Letronne and others. Boeckh shows that the
letters of recommendation from Agesilaus to Nektanebos, which Eudoxus
took with him, do not necessarily coincide in time with the military
expedition of Agesilaus to Egypt, but were more probably of earlier
date. (Boeckh, p. 140-148.)
Eudoxus lived 53 years (406-353 B.C., about); being born when Plato
was 21, and dying when Plato was 75. He was one of the most
illustrious men of the age. He was born in poor circumstances; but so
marked was his early promise, that some of the medical school at
Knidus assisted him to prosecute his studies--to visit Athens and hear
the Sophists, Plato among them--to visit Egypt, Tarentum (where he
studied geometry with Archytas), and Sicily (where he studied [Greek:
ta\ i)atrika\] with Philistion). These facts depend upon the [Greek:
Pi/nakes] of Kallimachus, which are good authority. (Diog. L. viii.
86.)
After thus preparing himself by travelling and varied study, Eudoxus
took up the profession of a Sophist, at Kyzikus and the neighbouring
cities in the Propontis. He obtained great celebrity, and a large
number of pupils. M. Boeckh says, "Dort lebte er als Sophist, sagt
Sotion: das heisst, er lehrte, und hielt Vortrage. Dasselbe bezeugt
Philostratos."
I wish to call particular attention to the way in which M. Boeckh here
describes** a Sophist of the fourth century B.C. Nothing can be more
correct. Every man who taught and gave lectures to audiences more or
less numerous, was so called. The Platonic critics altogether darken
the history of philosophy, by using the word _Sophist_ with its modern
associations (and the unmeaning abstract _Sophistic_ which they derive
from it), to represent a supposed school of speculative and deceptive
corruptors.
Eudoxus, having been coldly received when young and poor by Plato, had
satisfaction in revisiting Athens at the height of his reputation,
accompanied by numerous pupils--and in showing himself again to Plato.
The two then became friends. Menæchmus and Helikon, geometrical pupils
of Eudoxus, received instruction from Plato also; and Helikon
accompanied Plato on his third voyage to Sicily (Plato, Epist. xiii.
p. 360 D; Plut. Dion, c. 19). Whether Eudoxus accompanied him there
also, as Boeckh supposes, is doubtful: I think it improbable.
Eudoxus ultimately returned to his native city of Knidus, where he was
received with every demonstration of honour: a public vote of esteem
and recognition being passed to welcome him. He is said to have been
solicited to give laws to the city, and to have actually done so: how
far this may be true, we cannot say. He also visited the neighbouring
prince Mausôlus of Karia, by whom he was much honoured.
We know from Aristotle, that Eudoxus was not only illustrious as an
astronomer and geometer, but that he also proposed a theory of Ethics,
similar in its general formula to that which was afterwards laid down
by Epikurus. Aristotle dissents from the theory, but he bears express
testimony, in a manner very unusual with him, to the distinguished
personal merit and virtue of Eudoxus (Ethic. Nikom. x. 3, p. 1172, b.
16).]
[Footnote 25: Respecting Eudoxus, see Diog. L. viii. 86-91. As the
life of Eudoxus probably extended from about 406-353 B.C., his first
visit to Athens would be about 383 B.C., some three years after Plato
commenced his school. Strabo (xvii. 806), when he visited Heliopolis
in Egypt, was shown by the guides certain cells or chambers which were
said to have been occupied by Plato and Eudoxus, and was assured that
the two had passed thirteen years together in Egypt. This account
deserves no credit. Plato and Eudoxus visited Egypt, but not together,
and neither of them for so long as thirteen years. Eudoxus stayed
there sixteen months (Diog. L. viii. 87). Simplikius, Schol. ad
Aristot. De Coelo, p. 497, 498, ed. Brandis, 498, a. 45. [Greek: Kai\
prô=tos tô=n E(llê/nôn Eu)/doxos o( Kni/dios. ô(s Eu)/dêmo/s te e)n
tô=| deute/rô| tê=s A)strologikê=s I)stori/as a)pemnêmo/neuse kai\
Sôsige/nês para\ _Eu)dê/mou tou=to labô\n_, a(/psasthai le/getai tô=n
toiou/tôn u(pothe/seôn; Pla/tônos, _ô(s phêsi Sôsige/nês_, pro/blêma
tou=to poiêsame/nou toi=s peri\ tau=ta e)spoudako/si--ti/nôn
u(potethei/sôn o(malô=n kai\ tetagme/nôn kinê/seôn diasôthê=| ta\
peri\ ta\s kinê/seis tô=n planôme/nôn phaino/mena]. The Scholion of
Simplikius, which follows at great length, is exceedingly interesting
and valuable, in regard to the astronomical theory of Eudoxus, with
the modifications introduced into it by Kallippus, Aristotle, and
others. All the share in it which is claimed for Plato, is, that he
described in clear language the problem to be solved: and even _that_
share depends simply upon the statement of the Alexandrine Sosigenes
(contemporary of Julius Cæsar), not upon the statement of Eudemus. At
least the language of Simplikius affirms, that Sosigenes copied from
Eudemus the fact, that Eudoxus was the first Greek who proposed a
systematic astronomical hypothesis to explain the motions of the
planets--([Greek: par' Eu)dê/mou _tou=to_ labô/n]) not the
circumstance, that Plato propounded the problem afterwards mentioned.
From whom Sosigenes derived this last information, is not indicated.
About his time, various fictions had gained credit in Egypt respecting
the connection of Plato with Eudoxus, as we may see by the story of
Strabo above cited. If Plato impressed upon others that which is here
ascribed to him, he must have done so in _conversation or oral
discourse_--for there is nothing in his written dialogues to that
effect. Moreover, there is nothing in the dialogues to make us suppose
that Plato adopted or approved the theory of Eudoxus. When Plato
speaks of astronomy, either in the Republic, or in Leges, or in
Epinomis, it is in a totally different spirit--not manifesting any
care to save the astronomical phenomena. Both Aristotle himself
(Metaphys. A. p. 1073 b.) and Simplikius, make it clear that Aristotle
warmly espoused and enlarged the theory of Eudoxus. Theophrastus,
successor of Aristotle, did the same. But we do not hear that either
Speusippus or Xenokrates (successor of Plato) took any interest in the
theory. This is one remarkable point of divergence between Plato and
the Platonists on one side--Aristotle and the Aristotelians on the
other--and much to the honour of the latter: for the theory of
Eudoxus, though erroneous, was a great step towards improved
scientific conceptions on astronomy, and a great provocative to
farther observation of astronomical facts.]
Though Plato demanded no money as a fee for admission of pupils, yet
neither did he scruple to receive presents from rich men such as
Dionysius, Dion, and others.[26] In the jests of Ephippus, Antiphanes,
and other poets of the middle comedy, the pupils of Plato in the
Academy are described as finely and delicately clad, nice in their
persons even to affectation, with elegant caps and canes; which is the
more to be noticed because the preceding comic poets derided Sokrates
and his companions for qualities the very opposite--as prosing
beggars, in mean attire and dirt.[27] Such students must have belonged
to opulent families; and we may be sure that they requited their
master by some valuable present, though no fee may have been formally
demanded from them. Some conditions (though we do not know what) were
doubtless required for admission. Moreover the example of Eudoxus
shows that in some cases even ardent and promising pupils were
practically repelled. At any rate, the teaching of Plato formed a
marked contrast with that extreme and indiscriminate publicity which
characterised the conversation of Sokrates, who passed his days in the
market-place or in the public porticoes or palæstræ; while Plato both
dwelt and discoursed in a quiet residence and garden a little way out
of Athens. The title of Athens to be considered the training-city of
Hellas (as Perikles had called her fifty years before), was fully
sustained by the Athenian writers and teachers between 390-347;
especially by Plato and Isokrates, the most celebrated and largely
frequented. So many foreign pupils came to Isokrates that he affirms
most of his pecuniary gains to have been derived from non-Athenians.
Several of his pupils stayed with him three or four years. The like is
doubtless true about the pupils of Plato.[28]
[Footnote 26: Plato, Epistol. xiii. p. 361, 362. We learn from this
epistle that Plato received pecuniary remittances not merely from
Dionysius, but also from other friends ([Greek: a)/llôn
e)pitêdei/ôn]--361 C); that he employed these not only for choregies and
other costly functions of his own, but also to provide dowry for female
relatives, and presents to friends (363 A).]
[Footnote 27: See Meineke, Hist. Crit. Comic. Græc. p. 288, 289--and
the extracts there given from Ephippus and Antiphanes--apud Athenæum,
xi. 509, xii. 544. About the poverty and dirt which was reproached to
Sokrates and his disciples, see the fragment of Ameipsias in Meineke,
ibid. p. 203. Also Aristoph. Aves, 1555; Nubes, 827; and the Fragm. of
Eupolis in Meineke, p. 552--[Greek: Misô= d' e)gô\ kai\ Sôkra/tên,
to\n ptôcho\n a)dole/schên].
Meineke thinks that Aristophanes, in the Ekklesiazusæ, 646, and in the
Plutus, 313, intends to ridicule Plato under the name of Aristyllus:
Plato's name having been originally Aristokles. But I see no
sufficient ground for this opinion.]
[Footnote 28: Perikles in the Funeral Oration (Thuc. ii. 41) calls
Athens [Greek: tê=s E(lla/dos pai/deusin]: the same eulogium is
repeated, with greater abundance of words, by Isokrates in his
Panegyrical Oration (Or. iv. sect. 56, p. 51).
The declaration of Isokrates, that most of his money was acquired from
foreign (non-Athenian) pupils, and the interesting fact that many of
them not only stayed with him three or four years but were even then
loth to depart, will be found in Orat. xv. De Permutatione, sect.
93-175. Plutarch (Vit. x. Orat. 838 E) goes so far as to say that
Isokrates never required any pay from an Athenian pupil.
Nearly three centuries after Plato's decease, Cicero sent his son
Marcus to Athens, where the son spent a considerable time, frequenting
the lectures of the Peripatetic philosopher Kratippus. Young Cicero,
in an interesting letter addressed to Tiro (Cic. Epist. Fam. xvi. 23),
describes in animated terms both his admiration for the person and
abilities, and his delight in the private society, of Kratippus.
Several of Plato's pupils probably felt as much or more towards him.]
[Side-note: Visit of Plato to the younger Dionysius at Syracuse, 367
B.C. Second visit to the same--mortifying failure.]
It was in the year 367-366 that Plato was induced, by the earnest
entreaties of Dion, to go from Athens to Syracuse, on a visit to the
younger Dionysius, who had just become despot, succeeding to his
father of the same name. Dionysius II., then very young, had
manifested some dispositions towards philosophy, and prodigious
admiration for Plato: who was encouraged by Dion to hope that he would
have influence enough to bring about an amendment or thorough reform
of the government at Syracuse. This ill-starred visit, with its
momentous sequel, has been described in my 'History of Greece'. It not
only failed completely, but made matters worse rather than better:
Dionysius became violently alienated from Dion, and sent him into
exile. Though turning a deaf ear to Plato's recommendations, he
nevertheless liked his conversation, treated him with great respect,
detained him for some time at Syracuse, and was prevailed upon, only
by the philosopher's earnest entreaties, to send him home. Yet in
spite of such uncomfortable experience Plato was induced, after a
certain interval, again to leave Athens and pay a second visit to
Dionysius, mainly in hopes of procuring the restoration of Dion. In
this hope too he was disappointed, and was glad to return, after a
longer stay than he wished, to Athens.
[Side-note: Expedition of Dion against Dionysius--sympathies of Plato
and the Academy.]
[Side-note: Success, misconduct, and death of Dion.]
It was in 359 B.C. that Dion, aided by friends in Peloponnesus, and
encouraged by warm sympathy and co-operation from many of Plato's
pupils in the Academy,[29] equipped an armament against Dionysius.
Notwithstanding the inadequacy of his force he had the good fortune to
make himself master of Syracuse, being greatly favoured by the popular
discontent of Syracusans against the reigning despot: but he did not
know how to deal with the people, nor did he either satisfy their
aspirations towards liberty, or realise his own engagements. Retaining
in his hands a despotic power, similar in the main to that of
Dionysius, he speedily became odious, and was assassinated by the
treachery of Kallippus, his companion in arms as well as fellow-pupil
of the Platonic Academy. The state of Syracuse, torn by the joint
evils of anarchy and despotism, and partially recovered by Dionysius,
became more unhappy than ever.
[Footnote 29: Plutarch, Dion, c. 22.
Xenokrates as well as Speusippus accompanied Plato to Sicily (Diog. L.
iv. 6).
To show the warm interest taken, not only by Plato himself but also by
the Platonic pupils in the Academy in the conduct of Dion after he had
become master of Syracuse, Plutarch quotes both from the letter of
Plato to Dion (which now stands fourth among the Epistolæ Platonicæ,
p. 320) and also from a letter which he had read, written by
Speusippus to Dion; in which Speusippus exhorts Dion emphatically to
bless Sicily with good laws and government, "in _order that he may
glorify the Academy_"--[Greek: o(/pôs . . . eu)klea= thê/sei tê\n
A)kadêmi/an] (Plutarch, De Adulator. et Amic. c. 29, p. 70 A).]
[Side-note: Death of Plato, aged 80, 347 B.C.]
The visits of Plato to Dionysius were much censured, and his
motives[30] misrepresented by unfriendly critics; and these reproaches
were still further embittered by the entire failure of his hopes. The
closing years of his long life were saddened by the disastrous turn of
events at Syracuse, aggravated by the discreditable abuse of power and
violent death of his intimate friend Dion, which brought dishonour
both upon himself and upon the Academy. Nevertheless he lived to the
age of eighty, and died in 348-347 B.C., leaving a competent property,
which he bequeathed by a will still extant.[31] But his foundation,
the Academy, did not die with him. It passed to his nephew Speusippus,
who succeeded him as teacher, conductor of the school, or Scholarch:
and was himself succeeded after eight years by Xenokrates of
Chalkêdon: while another pupil of the Academy, Aristotle, after an
absence of some years from Athens, returned thither and established a
school of his own at the Lykeum, at another extremity of the city.
[Footnote 30: Themistius, Orat. xxiii. (Sophistes) p. 285 C;
Aristeides, Orat. xlvi., [Greek: U(pe\r tô=n Tetta/rôn], p. 234-235;
Apuleius, De Habit. Philos. Platon. p. 571.]
[Footnote 31: Diog. Laert. iii. 41-42. Seneca (Epist. 58) says that
Plato died on the anniversary of his birth, in the month Thargelion.]
[Side-note: Scholars of Plato--Aristotle.]
The latter half of Plato's life in his native city must have been one
of dignity and consideration, though not of any of political activity.
He is said to have addressed the Dikastery as an advocate for the
accused general Chabrias: and we are told that he discharged the
expensive and showy functions of Chorêgus, with funds supplied by
Dion.[32] Out of Athens also his reputation was very great. When he
went to the Olympic festival of B.C. 360, he was an object of
conspicuous attention and respect: he was visited by hearers, young
men of rank and ambition, from the most distant Hellenic cities; and
his advice was respectfully invoked both by Perdikkas in Macedonia and
by Dionysius II. at Syracuse. During his last visit to Syracuse, it is
said that some of the students in the Academy, among whom Aristotle is
mentioned, became dissatisfied with his absence, and tried to set up a
new school; but were prevented by Iphikrates and Chabrias, the
powerful friends of Plato at Athens. This story is connected with
alleged ingratitude on the part of Aristotle towards Plato, and with
alleged repugnance on the part of Plato towards Aristotle.[33] The
fact itself--that during Plato's absence in Sicily his students sought
to provide for themselves instruction and discussion elsewhere--is
neither surprising nor blameable. And as to Aristotle, there is ground
for believing that he passed for an intimate friend and disciple of
Plato, even during the last ten years of Plato's life. For we read
that Aristotle, following speculations and principles of teaching of
his own, on the subject of rhetoric, found himself at variance with
Isokrates and the Isokratean school. Aristotle attacked Isokrates and
his mode of dealing with the subject: upon which Kephisodôrus (one of
the disciples of Isokrates) retaliated by attacking Plato and the
Platonic Ideas, considering Aristotle as one of Plato's scholars and
adherents.[34]
[Footnote 32: Plut. Aristeides, c. 1; Diog. Laert. iii. 23-24.
Diogenes says that no other Athenian except Plato dared to speak
publicly in defence of Chabrias; but this can hardly be correct, since
Aristotle mentions another [Greek: sunê/goraos] named Lykoleon (Rhet.
iii. 10, p. 1411, b. 6). We may fairly presume that the trial of
Chabrias alluded to by Aristotle is the same as that alluded to by
Diogenes, that which arose out of the wrongful occupation of Orôpus by
the Thebans. If Plato appeared at the trial, I doubt whether it could
have occurred in 366 B.C., as Clinton supposes; Plato must have been
absent during that year in Sicily.
The anecdote given by Diogenes, in relation to Plato's appearance at
this trial, deserves notice. Krobylus, one of the accusers, said to
him, "Are _you_ come to plead on behalf of another? Are not you aware
that the hemlock of Sokrates is in store for _you_ also?" Plato
replied: "I affronted dangers formerly, when I went on military
expedition, for my country, and I am prepared to affront them now in
discharge of my duty to a friend" (iii. 24).
This anecdote is instructive, as it exhibits the continuance of the
anti-philosophical antipathies at Athens among a considerable portion
of the citizens, and as it goes to attest the military service
rendered personally by Plato.
Diogenes (iii. 46) gives a long list of hearers; and Athenæus (xi.
506-509) enumerates several from different cities in Greece: Euphræus
of Oreus (in Euboea), who acquired through Plato's recommendation
great influence with Perdikkas, king of Macedonia, and who is said to
have excluded from the society of that king every one ignorant of
philosophy and geometry; Euagon of Lampsakus, Timæus of Kyzikus,
Chæron of Pellênê, all of whom tried, and the last with success, to
usurp the sceptre in their respective cities; Eudêmus of Cyprus;
Kallippus the Athenian, fellow-learner with Dion in the Academy,
afterwards his companion in his expedition to Sicily, ultimately his
murderer; Herakleides and Python from Ænus in Thrace, Chion and
Leonides, also Klearchus the despot from the Pontic Herakleia (Justin,
xvi. 5).
Several of these examples seem to have been cited by the orator
Democharês (nephew of Demosthenes) in his speech at Athens vindicating
the law proposed by Sophokles for the expulsion of the philosophers
from Athens (Athenæ. xi. 508 F), a speech delivered about 306 B.C.
Plutarch compliments Plato for the active political liberators and
tyrannicides who came forth from the Academy: he considers Plato as
the real author and planner of the expedition of Dion against
Dionysius, and expatiates on the delight which Plato must have derived
from it--a supposition very incorrect (Plutarch, Non Posse Suav. p.
1097 B; adv. Kolôten, p. 1126 B-C).]
[Footnote 33: Aristokles, ap. Eusebium, Præp. Evang. xv. 2: Ælian, V.
H. iii. 19: Aristeides, Or. 46, [Greek: U(pe\r tô=n Tetta/rôn] vol.
ii. p. 324-325. Dindorf.
The friendship and reciprocity of service between Plato and Chabrias
is an interesting fact. Compare Stahr, Aristotelia, vol. i. p. 50
seqq.
Cicero affirms, on the authority of the Epistles of Demosthenes, that
Demosthenes describes himself as an assiduous hearer as well as reader
of Plato (Cic. Brut. 31 121; Orat. 4, 15). I think this fact highly
probable, but the epistles which Cicero read no longer exist. Among
the five Epistles remaining, Plato is once mentioned with respect in
the fifth (p. 1490), but this epistle is considered by most critics
spurious.]
[Footnote 34: Numenius, ap. Euseb. Præp. Ev. xiv. 6, 9. [Greek:
oi)êthei\s] (Kephisodôrus) [Greek: kata\ Pla/tôna to\n A)ristote/lên
philosophei=n, e)pole/mei me\n A)ristote/lei, e)/balle de\ Pla/tôna],
&c. This must have happened in the latter years of Plato's life, for
Aristotle must have been at least twenty-five or twenty-six years of
age when he engaged in such polemics. He was born in 384 B.C.]
[Side-note: Little known about Plato's personal history.]
Such is the sum of our information respecting Plato. Scanty as it is,
we have not even the advantage of contemporary authority for any
portion of it. We have no description of Plato from any contemporary
author, friendly or adverse. It will be seen that after the death of
Sokrates we know nothing about Plato as a man and a citizen, except
the little which can be learnt from his few Epistles, all written when
he was very old, and relating almost entirely to his peculiar
relations with Dion and Dionysius. His dialogues, when we try to
interpret them collectively, and gather from them general results as
to the character and purposes of the author, suggest valuable
arguments and perplexing doubts, but yield few solutions. In no one of
the dialogues does Plato address us in his own person. In the Apology
alone (which is not a dialogue) is he alluded to even as present: in
the Phædon he is mentioned as absent from illness. Each of the
dialogues, direct or indirect, is conducted from beginning to end by
the persons whom he introduces.[35] Not one of the dialogues affords
any positive internal evidence showing the date of its composition. In
a few there are allusions to prove that they must have been composed
at a period later than others, or later than some given event of known
date; but nothing more can be positively established. Nor is there any
good extraneous testimony to determine the date of any one among them.
For the remark ascribed to Sokrates about the dialogue called Lysis
(which remark, if authentic, would prove the dialogue to have been
composed during the life-time of Sokrates) appears altogether
untrustworthy. And the statement of some critics, that the Phædrus was
Plato's earliest composition, is clearly nothing more than an
inference (doubtful at best, and, in my judgment, erroneous) from its
dithyrambic style and erotic subject.[36]
[Footnote 35: On this point Aristotle, in the dialogues which he
composed, did not follow Plato's example. Aristotle introduced two or
more persons debating a question, but he appeared in his own person to
give the solution, or at least to wind up the debate. He sometimes
also opened the debate by a prooem or prefatory address in his own
person (Cic. ad Attic. iv. 16, 2, xiii. 19, 4). Cicero followed the
manner of Aristotle, not that of Plato. His dialogues are rhetorical
rather than dramatic.
All the dialogues of Aristotle are lost.]
[Footnote 36: Diog. L. iii. 38. Compare the Prolegomena [Greek: tê=s
Pla/tônos Philosophi/as], c. 24, in the Appendix Platonica of K. F.
Hermann's edition, p. 217.]