PLATONIC CANON, AS RECOGNISED BY THRASYLLUS.
As we know little about Plato except from his works, the first
question to be decided is, Which _are_ his real works? Where are we to
find a trustworthy Platonic Canon?
[Side-note: Platonic Canon--Ancient and modern discussions.]
Down to the close of the last century this question was not much
raised or discussed. The catalogue recognised by the rhetor Thrasyllus
(contemporary with the Emperor Tiberius) was generally accepted as
including none but genuine works of Plato; and was followed as such by
editors and critics, who were indeed not very numerous.[1] But the
discussions carried on during the present century have taken a
different turn. While editors, critics, and translators have been
greatly multiplied, some of the most distinguished among them,
Schleiermacher at the head, have either professedly set aside, or in
practice disregarded, the Thrasyllean catalogue, as if it carried no
authority and very faint presumption. They have reasoned upon each
dialogue as if its title to be considered genuine were now to be
proved for the first time; either by external testimony (mentioned in
Aristotle or others), or by internal evidences of style, handling, and
thoughts:[2] as if, in other words, the _onus probandi_ lay upon any
one who believed the printed works of Plato to be genuine--not upon an
opponent who disputes the authenticity of any one or more among them,
and rejects it as spurious. Before I proceed to examine the
conclusions, alike numerous and discordant, which these critics have
proclaimed, I shall enquire how far the method which they have pursued
is warrantable. Is there any presumption at all--and if so, what
amount of presumption--in favour of the catalogue transmitted from
antiquity by Thrasyllus, as a canon containing genuine works of Plato
and no others?
[Footnote 1: The following passage from Wyttenbach, written in 1776,
will give an idea of the state of Platonic criticism down to the last
quarter of the last century. To provide a new Canon for Plato seems
not to have entered his thoughts.
Wyttenbach, Bibliotheca Critica, vol. i. p. 28. Review of Fischer's
edition of Plato's Philêbus and Symposion. "Quæ Ciceroni obtigit
interpretum et editorum felicitas, eâ adeo caruit Plato, ut non solum
paucos nactus sit qui ejus scripta typis ederent--sed qui ejus
orationi nitorem restitueret, eamque a corruptelarum labe purgaret, et
sensus obscuros atque abditos ex interiore doctrinâ patefaceret,
omnino repererit neminem. Et ex ipso hoc editionum parvo numero--nam
sex omnino sunt--nulla est recentior anno superioris seculi secundo:
ut mirandum sit, centum et septuaginta annorum spatio neminem ex tot
viris doctis extitisse, qui ita suam crisin Platoni addiceret, ut
intelligentiam ejus veræ eruditionis amantibus aperiret.
"Qui Platonem legant, pauci sunt: qui intelligant, paucissimi; qui
vero, vel ex versionibus, vel ex jejuno historiæ philosophicæ
compendio, de eo judicent et cum supercilio pronuncient, plurimi
sunt."]
[Footnote 2: To see that this is the general method of proceeding, we
have only to look at the work of Ueberweg, one of the most recent and
certainly one of the ablest among the Platonic critics. Untersuchungen
über die Aechtheit und Zeitfolge der Platonischen Schriften, Wien,
1861, p. 130-131.]
[Side-note: Canon established by Thrasyllus. Presumption in its
favour.]
Upon this question I hold an opinion opposite to that of the Platonic
critics since Schleiermacher. The presumption appears to me
particularly strong, instead of particularly weak: comparing the
Platonic writings with those of other eminent writers, dramatists,
orators, historians, of the same age and country.
[Side-note: Fixed residence and school at Athens--founded by Plato and
transmitted to successors.]
We have seen that Plato passed the last thirty-eight years of his life
(except his two short visits to Syracuse) as a writer and lecturer at
Athens; that he purchased and inhabited a fixed residence at the
Academy, near the city. We know, moreover, that his principal pupils,
especially (his nephew) Speusippus and Xenokrates, were constantly
with him in this residence during his life; that after his death the
residence became permanently appropriated as a philosophical school
for lectures, study, conversation, and friendly meetings of studious
men, in which capacity it served for more than two centuries;[3] that
his nephew Speusippus succeeded him there as teacher, and taught there
for eight years, being succeeded after his death first by Xenokrates
(for twenty-five years), afterwards by Polemon, Krantor, Krates,
Arkesilaus, and others in uninterrupted series; that the school always
continued to be frequented, though enjoying greater or less celebrity
according to the reputation of the Scholarch.
[Footnote 3: The teaching and conversation of the Platonic School
continued fixed in the spot known as the Academy until the siege of
Athens by Sylla in 87 B.C. The teacher was then forced to confine
himself to the interior of the city, where he gave lectures in the
gymnasium called Ptolemæum. In that gymnasium Cicero heard the
lectures of the Scholarch Antiochus, B.C. 79; walking out afterwards
to visit the deserted but memorable site of the Academy (Cic. De Fin.
v. 1; C. G. Zumpt, Ueber den Bestand der Philosophischen Schulen in
Athen, p. 14, Berlin, 1843). The ground of the Academy, when once
deserted, speedily became unhealthy, and continues to be so now, as
Zumpt mentions that he himself experienced in 1835.]
[Side-note: Importance of this foundation. Preservation of Plato's
manuscripts. School library.]
By thus perpetuating the school which his own genius had originated,
and by providing for it permanent support with a fixed domicile, Plato
inaugurated a new epoch in the history of philosophy: this example was
followed a few years afterwards by Aristotle, Zeno, and Epikurus.
Moreover the proceeding was important in another way also, as it
affected the preservation and authentication of his own manuscripts
and compositions. It provided not only safe and lasting custody, such
as no writer had ever enjoyed before, for Plato's original
manuscripts, but also a guarantee of some efficacy against any fraud
or error which might seek to introduce other compositions into the
list. That Plato himself was not indifferent on this head we may
fairly believe, since we learn from Dionysius of Halikarnassus, that
he was indefatigable in the work of correction: and his disciples, who
took the great trouble of noting down themselves what he spoke in his
lectures, would not be neglectful as to the simpler duty of preserving
his manuscripts.[4] Now Speusippus and Xenokrates (also Aristotle,
Hestiæus, the Opuntian Philippus, and the other Platonic pupils) must
have had personal knowledge of all that Plato had written, whether
finished dialogues, unfinished fragments, or preparatory sketches.
They had perfect means of distinguishing his real compositions from
forgeries passed off in his name: and they had every motive to expose
such forgeries (if any were attempted) wherever they could, in order
to uphold the reputation of their master. If any one composed a
dialogue and circulated it under the name of Plato, the school was a
known place, and its occupants were at hand to give information to all
who enquired about the authenticity of the composition. The original
MSS. of Plato (either in his own handwriting or in that of his
secretary, if he employed one[5]) were doubtless treasured up in the
school as sacred memorials of the great founder, and served as
originals from which copies of unquestionable fidelity might be made,
whenever the Scholarch granted permission. How long they continued to
be so preserved we cannot say: nor do we know what was the condition
of the MSS., or how long they were calculated to last. But probably
many of the students frequenting the school would come for the express
purpose of reading various works of Plato (either in the original
MSS., or in faithful copies taken from them) with the exposition of
the Scholarch; just as we know that the Roman M. Crassus (mentioned by
Cicero), during his residence at Athens, studied the Platonic Gorgias
with the aid of the Scholarch Charmadas.[6] The presidency of
Speusippus and Xenokrates (taken jointly) lasted for thirty-three
years; and even when they were replaced by successors who had enjoyed
no personal intimacy with Plato, the motive to preserve the Platonic
MSS. would still be operative, and the means of verifying what was
really Platonic would still be possessed in the school. The original
MSS. would be preserved, along with the treatises or dialogues which
each successive Scholarch himself composed; thus forming a permanent
and increasing school-library, probably enriched more or less by works
acquired or purchased from others.
[Footnote 4: Simplikius, Schol. Aristotel. Physic. f. 32, p. 334, b.
28, Brandis: [Greek: la/boi d' a)/n tis kai\ para\ Speusi/ppou kai\
para\ Xenokra/tous, kai\ tô=n a)/llôn oi(\ parege/nonto e)n tê=| peri\
Ta)gathou= tou= Pla/tônos a)kroa/sei; pa/ntes ga\r sune/grapsan kai\
diesô/santo tê\n do/xan au)tou=]. In another passage of the same
Scholia (p. 362, a. 12) Simplikius mentions Herakleides (of Pontus),
Hestiæus, and even Aristotle himself, as having taken notes of the
same lectures.
Hermodôrus appears to have carried some of Plato's dialogues to
Sicily, and to have made money by selling them. See Cicero ad Atticum,
xiii. 21: Suidas et Zenobius--[Greek: lo/goisin E(rmo/dôros
e)mporeu/etai]. See Zeller, Dissert. De Hermodoro, p. 19. In the
above-mentioned epistle Cicero compares his own relations with
Atticus, to those of Plato with Hermodôrus. Hermodôrus had composed a
treatise respecting Plato, from which some extracts were given by
Derkyllides (the contemporary of Thrasyllus) as well as by Simplikius
(Zeller, De Hermod. p. 20-21).]
[Footnote 5: We read in Cicero, (Academic. Priora, ii. 4, 11) that the
handwriting of the Scholarch Philo, when his manuscript was brought
from Athens to Alexandria, was recognised at once by his friends and
pupils.]
[Footnote 6: Cicero, De Oratore, i. 11, 45-47: "florente Academiâ,
quod eam Charmadas et Clitomachus et Æschines obtinebant. . . Platoni,
cujus tum Athenis cum Charmadâ diligentius legi Gorgiam," &c.]
[Side-note: Security provided by the school for distinguishing what
were Plato's genuine writings.]
It appears to me that the continuance of this school--founded by Plato
himself at his own abode, permanently domiciliated, and including all
the MSS. which he left in it--gives us an amount of assurance for the
authenticity of the so-called Platonic compositions, such as does not
belong to the works of other eminent contemporary authors, Aristippus,
Antisthenes, Isokrates, Lysias, Demosthenes, Euripides, Aristophanes.
After the decease of these last-mentioned authors, who can say what
became of their MSS.? Where was any certain permanent custody provided
for them? Isokrates had many pupils during his life, but left no
school or [Greek: mousei=on] after his death. If any one composed a
discourse, and tried to circulate it as the composition of Isokrates,
among the bundles of judicial orations which were sold by the
booksellers[7] as his (according to the testimony of Aristotle)--where
was the person to be found, notorious and accessible, who could say:
"I possess all the MSS. of Isokrates, and I can depose that this is
not among them!" The chances of success for forgery or mistake were
decidedly greater, in regard to the works of these authors, than they
could be for those of Plato.
[Footnote 7: Dionys. Halik. de Isocrate, p. 576 R. [Greek: desma\s
pa/nu polla\s dikanikô=n lo/gôn I)sokratei/ôn periphe/resthai/ phêsin
u(po\ tô=n bibliopôlô=n A)ristote/lês.]]
[Side-note: Unfinished fragments and preparatory sketches, preserved
and published after Plato's death.]
Again, the existence of this school-library explains more easily how
it is that unfinished, inferior, and fragmentary Platonic compositions
have been preserved. That there must have existed such compositions I
hold to be certain. How is it supposable that any author, even Plato
could have brought to completion such masterpieces as Republic,
Gorgias, Protagoras, Symposion, &c., without tentative and preparatory
sketches, each of course in itself narrow, defective, perhaps of
little value, but serving as material to be worked up or worked in?
Most of these would be destroyed, but probably not all. If (as I
believe) it be the fact, that all the Platonic MSS. were preserved as
their author left them, some would probably be published (and some
indeed are said to have been published) after his death; and among
them would be included more or fewer of these unfinished performances,
and sketches projected but abandoned. We can hardly suppose that Plato
himself would have published fragments never finished, such as
Kleitophon and Kritias[8]--the last ending in the middle of a
sentence.
[Footnote 8: Straton, the Peripatetic Scholarch who succeeded
Theophrastus, B.C. 287, bequeathed to Lykon by his will both the
succession to his school ([Greek: diatribê\n]) and all his books,
except what he had written himself ([Greek: plê\n ô(=n au)toi\
gegra/phamen]). What is to be done with these latter he does not say.
Lykon, in his last will, says:--[Greek: kai\ du/o mna=s au)tô=|]
(Chares, a manumitted slave) [Greek: di/dômi kai\ ta)ma\ bi/blia ta\
a)negnôsme/na; ta\ de\ a)ne/kdota Kalli/nô|, o(/pôs e)pimelô=s au)ta\
e)kdô=|]. See Diog. L. v. 62, 73. Here Lykon directs expressly that
Kallinus shall edit with care his (Lykon's) unpublished works.
Probably Straton may have given similar directions during his life, so
that it was unnecessary to provide in the will. [Greek: Ta\
a)negnôsme/na] is equivalent to [Greek: ta\ e)kdedome/na]. Publication
was constituted by reading the MSS. aloud before a chosen audience of
friends or critics; which readings often led to such remarks as
induced the author to take his work back, and to correct it for a
second recitation. See the curious sentence extracted from the letter
of Theophrastus to Phanias (Diog. L. v. 37). Boeckh and other critics
agree that both the Kleitophon and the Kritias were transmitted from
antiquity in the fragmentary state in which we now read them: that
they were compositions never completed. Boeckh affirms this with
assurance respecting the Kleitophon, though he thinks that it is not a
genuine work of Plato; on which last point I dissent from him. He
thinks that the Kritias is a real work of Plato, though uncompleted
(Boeckh in Platonis Minoem, p. 11).
Compare the remarks of M. Littré respecting the unfinished sketches,
treatises, and notes not intended for publication, included in the
Collectio Hippocratica (Oeuvres d' Hippocrate, vol. x. p. liv. seq.)]
[Side-note: Peripatetic school at the Lykeum--its composition and
arrangement.]
The second philosophical school, begun by Aristotle and perpetuated
(after his death in 322 B.C.) at the Lykeum on the eastern side of
Athens, was established on the model of that of Plato. That which
formed the centre or consecrating point was a Museum or chapel of the
Muses: with statues of those goddesses of place, and also a statue of
the founder. Attached to this Museum were a portico, a hall with seats
(one seat especially for the lecturing professor), a garden, and a
walk, together with a residence, all permanently appropriated to the
teacher and the process of instruction.[9] Theophrastus, the friend
and immediate successor of Aristotle, presided over the school for
thirty-five years; and his course, during part of that time at least,
was prodigiously frequented by students.
[Footnote 9: Respecting the domicile of the Platonic School, and that
of the Aristotelian or Peripatetic school which followed it, the
particulars given by Diogenes are nearly coincident: we know more in
detail about the Peripatetic, from what he cites out of the will of
Theophrastus. See iv. 1-6-19, v. 51-63.
The [Greek: mousei=on] at the Academy was established by Plato
himself. Speusippus placed in it statues of the Charities or Graces.
Theophrastus gives careful directions in his about repairing and
putting in the best condition, the Peripatetic [Greek: mousei=on],
with its altar, its statues of the Goddesses, and its statue of the
founder Aristotle. The [Greek: stoa\, e)xe/dra, kê=pos, peri/patos],
attached to both schools, are mentioned: the most zealous students
provided for themselves lodgings close adjoining. Cicero, when he
walked out from Athens to see the deserted Academy, was particularly
affected by the sight of the _exedra_, in which Charmadas had lectured
(De Fin. v. 2, 4).
There were periodical meetings, convivial and conversational, among
the members both of the Academic and Peripatetic schools; and [Greek:
xumpotikoi\ no/moi] by Xenokrates and Aristotle to regulate them
(Athenæus, v. 184).
Epikurus (in his interesting testament given by Diogen. Laert. x.
16-21) bequeaths to two Athenian citizens his garden and property, in
trust for his principal disciple the Mitylenæan Hermarchus, [Greek:
kai\ toi=s sumphilosophou=sin au)tô=|, kai\ oi(=s a)\n E(/rmarchos
katali/pê| diado/chois tê=s philosophi/as, e)ndiatri/bein kata\
philosophi/an]. He at the same time directs all his books to be given
to Hermarchus: they would form the school-library.]
[Side-note: Peripatetic school library, its removal from Athens to
Skêpsis--its ultimate restitution in a damaged state to Athens, then
to Rome.]
Moreover, the school-library at the Lykeum acquired large development
and importance. It not only included all the MS. compositions,
published or unpublished, of Aristotle and Theophrastus, each of them
a voluminous writer--but also a numerous collection (numerous for that
day) of other works besides; since both of them were opulent and fond
of collecting books. The value of the school-library is shown by what
happened after the decease of Theophrastus, when Straton succeeded him
in the school (B.C. 287). Theophrastus--thinking himself entitled to
treat the library not as belonging to the school but as belonging to
himself--bequeathed it at his death to Neleus, a favourite scholar,
and a native of Skêpsis (in the Troad), by whom it was carried away to
Asia, and permanently separated from the Aristotelian school at
Athens. The manuscripts composing it remained in the possession of
Neleus and his heirs for more than a century and a half, long hidden
in a damp cellar, neglected, and sustaining great damage--until about
the year 100 B.C., when they were purchased by a rich Athenian named
Apellikon, and brought back to Athens. Sylla, after he had captured
Athens (86 B.C.), took for himself the library of Apellikon, and
transported it to Rome, where it became open to learned men
(Tyrannion, Andronikus, and others), but under deplorable
disadvantage--in consequence of the illegible state of the MSS. and
the unskilful conjectures and restitutions which had been applied, in
the new copies made since it passed into the hands of Apellikon.[10]
[Footnote 10: The will of Theophrastus, as given in Diogenes (v. 52),
mentions the bequest of all his books to Neleus. But it is in Strabo
that we read the fullest account of this displacement of the
Peripatetic school-library, and the consequences which ensued from it
(xiii. 608, 609). [Greek: Nêleu\s, a)nê\r kai\ A)ristote/lous
ê)kroame/nos kai\ Theophra/stou, diadedegme/nos de\ tê\n bibliothê/kên
tou= Theophra/stou, e)n ê(=| ê)=n kai\ ê( tou= A)ristote/lous. o(
gou=n A)ristote/lês tê\n e(autou= Theophra/stô| pare/dôken, ô(=|per
kai\ tê\n scholê\n a)pe/lipe, _prô=tos, ô(=n i)/smen, sunagagô\n
bi/blia, kai\ dida/xas tou\s e)n Ai)gu/ptô| basile/as bibliothê/kês
su/ntaxin_].
The kings of Pergamus, a few years after the death of Theophrastus,
acquired possession of the town and territory of Skêpsis; so that the
heirs of Neleus became numbered among their subjects. These kings
(from about the year B.C. 280 downwards) manifested great eagerness to
collect a library at Pergamus, in competition with that of the
Ptolemies at Alexandria. The heirs of Neleus were afraid that these
kings would strip them of their Aristotelian MSS., either for nothing
or for a small price. They therefore concealed the MSS. in a cellar,
until they found an opportunity of selling them to a stranger out of
the country. (Strabo, l. c.)
This narrative of Strabo is one of the most interesting pieces of
information remaining to us about literary antiquity. He had himself
received instruction from Tyrannion (xii. 548): he had gone through a
course of Aristotelian philosophy (xvi. 757), and he had good means of
knowing the facts from the Aristotelian critics, including his master
Tyrannion. Plutarch (Vit. Syllæ, c. 26) and Athenæus (i. 3) allude to
the same story. Athenæus says that Ptolemy Philadelphus purchased the
MSS. from the heirs of Neleus, which cannot be correct.
Some critics have understood the narrative of Strabo, as if he had
meant to affirm, that the works of Aristotle had never got into
circulation until the time of Apellikon. It is against this
supposition that Stahr contends (very successfully) in his work
"Aristotelia". But Strabo does not affirm so much as this. He does not
say anything to contradict the supposition that there were copies of
various books of Aristotle in circulation, during the lives of
Aristotle and Theophrastus.]
[Side-note: Inconvenience to the Peripatetic school from the loss of
its library.]
If we knew the truth, it might probably appear that the transfer of
the Aristotelian library, from the Peripatetic school at Athens to the
distant and obscure town of Skêpsis, was the result of some jealousy
on the part of Theophrastus; that he wished to secure to Neleus the
honourable and lucrative post of becoming his successor in the school,
and conceived that he was furthering that object by bequeathing the
library to Neleus. If he entertained any such wish, it was
disappointed. The succession devolved upon another pupil of the
school, Straton of Lampsakus. But Straton and his successors were
forced to get on as well as they could without their library. The
Peripatetic school at Athens suffered severely by the loss. Its
professors possessed only a few of the manuscripts of Aristotle, and
those too the commonest and best known. If a student came with a view
to read any of the other Aristotelian works (as Crassus went to read
the Gorgias of Plato), the Scholarch was unable to assist him: as far
as Aristotle was concerned, they could only expand and adorn, in the
way of lecture, a few of his familiar doctrines.[11] We hear that the
character of the school was materially altered. Straton deserted the
track of Aristotle, and threw himself into speculations of his own
(seemingly able and ingenious), chiefly on physical topics.[12] The
critical study, arrangement, and exposition of Aristotle was postponed
until the first century before the Christian era--the Ciceronian age,
immediately preceding Strabo.
[Footnote 11: Strabo, xiii. 609. [Greek: sune/bê de\ toi=s e)k tô=n
peripa/tôn toi=s me\n pa/lai, toi=s meta\ Theo/phraston, ou)k
e)/chousin o(/lôs ta\ bi/blia plê\n o)li/gôn, kai\ ma/lista tô=n
e)xôterikô=n, mêde\n e)/chein philosophei=n pragmatikô=s, a)lla\
_the/seis lêkuthi/zein_.]]
[Footnote 12: The change in the Peripatetic school, after the death of
Theophrastus, is pointed out by Cicero, Fin. v. 5, 18. Compare Academ.
Poster. i. 9.]
[Side-note: Advantage to the Platonic school from having preserved its
MSS.]
This history of the Aristotelian library illustrates forcibly, by way
of contrast, the importance to the Platonic school of having preserved
its MSS. from the beginning, without any similar interruption. What
Plato left in manuscript we may presume to have never been removed:
those who came to study his works had the means of doing so: those who
wanted to know whether any composition was written by him, what works
he had written altogether, or what was the correct reading in a case
of obscurity or dispute--had always the means of informing themselves.
Whereas the Peripatetic Scholarch, after the death of Theophrastus,
could give no similar information as to the works of Aristotle.[13]
[Footnote 13: An interesting citation by Simplikius (in his commentary
on the Physica of Aristotle, fol. 216, a. 7, p. 404, b. 11, Schol.
Brandis shows us that Theophrastus, while he was resident at Athens as
Peripatetic Scholarch, had custody of the original MSS. of the works
of Aristotle and that he was applied to by those who wished to procure
correct copies. Eudêmus (of Rhodes) having only a defective copy of
the Physica, wrote to request that Theophrastus would cause to be
written out a certain portion of the fifth book, and send it to him,
[Greek: marturou=ntos peri\ tô=n prô/tôn kai\ Theophra/stou,
gra/psantos Eu)dê/mô|, peri/ tinos au)tou= tô=n diêmartême/nôn
a)ntigra/phôn; u(pe\r ô(=n, phêsin] (_sc._ Theophrastus) [Greek:
e)pe/steilas, keleu/ôn me gra/phein kai\ apostei=lai e)k tô=n
Phusikô=n, ê(/toi e)gô\ ou) suni/êmi, ê)\ mikro/n ti pantelô=s e)/chei
tou= a)na/meson tou= o(/per ê)remei=n kalô= tô=n a)kinê/tôn mo/non],
&c.]
[Side-note: Conditions favourable, for preserving the genuine works of
Plato.]
We thus see that the circumstances, under which Plato left his
compositions, were unusually favourable (speaking by comparison with
ancient authors generally) in regard to the chance of preserving them
all, and of keeping them apart from counterfeits. We have now to
enquire what information exists as to their subsequent diffusion.
[Side-note: Historical facts as to their preservation.]
The earliest event of which notice is preserved, is, the fact stated
by Diogenes, that "Some persons, among whom is the _Grammaticus_
Aristophanes, distribute the dialogues of Plato into Trilogies;
placing as the first Trilogy--Republic, Timæus, Kritias. 2. Sophistes,
Politicus, Kratylus. 3. Leges, Minos, Epinomis. 4.** Theætêtus,
Euthyphron, Apology. 5. Kriton, Phædon, Epistolæ. The other dialogues
they place one by one, without any regular grouping."[14]
[Footnote 14: Diog. L. iii. 61-62: [Greek: E)/nioi de/, ô(=n e)/sti
kai\ A)ristopha/nês o( grammatiko/s, ei)s trilogi/as e(/lkousi tou\s
dialo/gous; kai\ prô/tên me\n tithe/asin ê(=s ê(gei=tai Politei/a,
Ti/maios, Kriti/as; deute/ran, Sophistê/s, Politiko/s, Kra/tulos;
tri/tên, No/moi, Mi/nôs, E)pinomi/s; teta/rtên, Theai/têtos,
Eu)thu/phrôn, A)pologi/a; pe/mptên, Kri/tôn, Phai/dôn, E)pistolai/;
ta\ de\ a)/lla kath' e)\n kai\ a)ta/ktôs].
The word [Greek: grammatiko\s], unfortunately, has no single English
word exactly corresponding to it.
Thrasyllus, when he afterwards applied the classification by
Tetralogies to the works of Demokritus (as he did also to those of
Plato) could only include a certain portion of the works in his
Tetralogies, and was forced to enumerate the remainder as [Greek:
a)su/ntakta] (Diog. L. ix. 46, 47). It appears that he included all
Plato's works in his Platonic Tetralogies.]
[Side-note: Arrangement of them into Trilogies, by Aristophanes.]
The name of Aristophanes lends special interest to this arrangement of
the Platonic compositions, and enables us to understand something of
the date and the place to which it belongs. The literary and critical
students (_Grammatici_) among whom he stood eminent, could scarcely be
said to exist as a class the time when Plato died. Beginning with
Aristotle, Herakleides of Pontus, Theophrastus, Demetrius Phalereus,
&c., at Athens, during the half century immediately succeeding Plato's
decease--these laborious and useful erudites were first called into
full efficiency along with the large collection of books formed by the
Ptolemies at Alexandria during a period beginning rather before 300
B.C.: which collection served both as model and as stimulus to the
libraries subsequently formed by the kings at Pergamus and elsewhere.
In those libraries alone could materials be found for their
indefatigable application.
[Side-note: Aristophanes, librarian at the Alexandrine library.]
Of these learned men, who spent their lives in reading, criticising,
arranging, and correcting, the MSS. accumulated in a great library,
Aristophanes of Byzantium was the most distinguished representative,
in the eyes of men like Varro, Cicero, and Plutarch.[15] His life was
passed at Alexandria, and seems to have been comprised between 260-184
B.C.; as far as can be made out. During the latter portion of it he
became chief librarian--an appointment which he had earned by long
previous studies in the place, as well as by attested experience in
the work of criticism and arrangement. He began his studious career at
Alexandria at an early age: and he received instruction, as a boy from
Zenodotus, as a young man from Kallimachus--both of whom were, in
succession, librarians of the Alexandrine library.[16] We must observe
that Diogenes does not expressly state the distribution of the
Platonic works into trilogies to have been _first proposed_ or
originated by Aristophanes (as he states that the tetralogies were
afterwards proposed by the rhetor Thrasyllus, of which presently): his
language is rather more consistent with the supposition, that it was
first proposed by some one earlier, and adopted or sanctioned by the
eminent authority of Aristophanes. But at any rate, the distribution
was proposed either by Aristophanes himself, or by some one before him
and known to him.
[Footnote 15: Varro, De Linguâ Latinâ, v. 9, ed. Müller. "Non solum ad
Aristophanis lucernam, sed etiam ad Cleanthis, lucubravi." Cicero, De
Fin. v. 19, 50; Vitruvius, Præf. Lib. vii.; Plutarch, "Non posse
suaviter vivi sec. Epicurum," p. 1095 E.
Aristophanes composed Argumenta to many of the Attic tragedies and
comedies: he also arranged in a certain order the songs of Alkæus and
the odes of Pindar. Boeckh (Præfat. ad Scholia Pindari, p. x. xi.)
remarks upon the mistake made by Quintilian as well as by others, in
supposing that Pindar arranged his own odes. Respecting the wide range
of erudition embraced by Aristophanes, see F. A. Wolf, Prolegg. in
Homer, pp. 218-220, and Schneidewin, De Hypothes. Traged. Græc.
Aristophani vindicandis, pp. 26, 27.]
[Footnote 16: Suidas, vv. [Greek: A)ristopha/nês, Kalli/machos].
Compare Clinton, Fast. Hellen. B.C. 256-200.]
[Side-note: Plato's works in the Alexandrine library, before the time
of Aristophanes.]
This fact is of material importance, because it enables us to Plato's
infer with confidence, that the Platonic works were included in the
Alexandrine library, certainly during the lifetime of Aristophanes,
and probably before it. It is there only that Aristophanes could have
known them; his whole life having been passed in Alexandria. The first
formal appointment of a librarian to the Alexandrine Museum was made
by Ptolemy Philadelphus, at some time after the commencement of his
reign in 285 B.C., in the person of Zenodotus; whose successors were
Kallimachus, Eratosthenes, Apollonius, Aristophanes, comprising in all
a period of a century.[17]
[Footnote 17: See Ritschl, Die Alexandrinischen Bibliotheken, pp.
16-17, &c.; Nauck, De Aristophanis Vitâ et Scriptis, cap. i. p. 68
(Halle, 1848). "Aristophanis et Aristarchi opera, cum opibus
Bibliothecæ Alexandrinæ digerendis et ad tabulas revocandis arctè
conjuncta, in eo substitisse censenda est, ut scriptores, in quovis
dicendi genere conspicuos, aut breviori indice comprehenderent, aut
uberiore enarratione describerent," &c.
When Zenodotus was appointed, the library had already attained
considerable magnitude, so that the post and title of librarian was
then conspicuous and dignified. But Demetrius Phalereus, who preceded
Zenodotus, began his operations when there was no library at all, and
gradually accumulated the number of books which Zenodotus found. Heyne
observes justly: "Primo loco Demetrius Phalereus præfuisse dicitur,
_forte re verius quam nomine_, tum Zenodotus Ephesius, hic quidem sub
Ptolemæo Philadelpho," &c. (Heyne, De Genio Sæculi Ptolemæorum in
Opuscul. i. p. 129).]
[Side-note: Kallimachus--predecessor of Aristophanes--his published
Tables of authors whose works were in the library.]
Kallimachus, born at Kyrênê, was a teacher of letters at Alexandria
before he was appointed to the service and superintendence of the
Alexandrine library or museum. His life seems to have terminated about
230 B.C.: he acquired reputation as a poet, by his hymns, epigrams,
elegies, but less celebrity as a _Grammaticus_ than Aristophanes:
nevertheless the titles of his works still remaining indicate very
great literary activity. We read as titles of his works:--
1. The Museum (a general description of the Alexandrine
establishment).
2. Tables of the persons who have distinguished themselves in every
branch of instruction, and of the works which they have composed--in
120 books.
3. Table and specification of the (Didaskalies) recorded dramatic
representations and competitions; with dates assigned, and from the
beginning.
4. Table of the peculiar phrases belonging to Demokritus, and of his
works.
5. Table and specification of the rhetorical authors.[18]
[Footnote 18: See Blomfleld's edition of the Fragm. of Kallimachus, p.
220-221. Suidas, v. [Greek: Kalli/machos], enumerates a large number
of titles of poetical, literary, historical, compositions of
Kallimachus; among them are--
[Greek: Mousei=on. Pi/nakes tô=n e)n pa/sê| paidei/a| dialampsa/ntôn,
kai\ ô(=n sune/grapsan, e)n bibli/ois k' kai\ r'. Pi/nax kai\
a)nagraphê\ tô=n kata\ chro/nous kai\ a)p' a)rchê=s genome/nôn
didaskaliô=n. Pi/nax tô=n Dêmokri/tou glôssô=n kai\ suntagma/tôn.
Pi/nax kai\ a)nagraphê\ tô=n r(êtorikô=n]. See also Athenæus, xv. 669.
It appears from Dionys. Hal. that besides the Tables of Kallimachus,
enumerating and reviewing the authors whose works were contained in
the Alexandrine library or museum, there existed also [Greek:
Pergamênoi\ Pi/nakes], describing the contents of the library at
Pergamus (Dion. H. de Adm. Vi Dic. in Demosthene, p. 994; De Dinarcho,
pp. 630, 653, 661).
Compare Bernhardy, Grundriss der Griech. Litt. sect. 36, pp. 132-133
seq.]
[Side-note: Large and rapid accumulation of the Alexandrine Library.]
These tables of Kallimachus (of which one by itself, No. 2, reached to
120 books) must have been an encyclopædia, far more comprehensive than
any previously compiled, of Greek authors and literature. Such tables
indeed could not have been compiled before the existence of the
Alexandrine Museum. They described what Kallimachus had before him in
that museum, as we may see by the general title [Greek: Mousei=on]
prefixed: moreover we may be sure that nowhere else could he have had
access to the multitude of books required. Lastly, the tables also
show how large a compass the Alexandrine Museum and library had
attained at the time when Kallimachus put together his compilation:
that is, either in the reign of Ptolemy II. Philadelphia (285-247
B.C.), or in the earlier portion of the reign of Ptolemy III., called
Euergetes (247-222 B.C.). Nevertheless, large as the library then was,
it continued to increase. A few years afterwards, Aristophanes
published a work commenting upon the tables of Kallimachus, with
additions and enlargements: of which work the title alone remains.[19]
[Footnote 19: Athenæus, ix. 408. [Greek: A)ristopha/nês o(
grammatiko\s e)n toi=s pro\s tou\s Kallima/chou pi/nakas].
We see by another passage, Athenæ. viii. 336, that this work included
an addition or supplement to the Tables of Kallimachus.
Compare Etymol. Magn. v. [Greek: Pi/nax].]
[Side-note: Plato's works--in the library at the time of Kallimachus.]
Now, I have already observed, that the works of Plato were certainly
in the Alexandrine library, at the time when Aristophanes either
originated or sanctioned the distribution of them into Trilogies. Were
they not also in the library at the time when Kallimachus compiled his
tables? I cannot but conclude that they were in it at that time also.
When we are informed that the catalogue of enumerated authors filled
so many books, we may be sure that it must have descended, and we know
in fact that it did descend, to names far less important and
distinguished than that of Plato.[20] The name of Plato himself can
hardly have been omitted. Demokritus and his works, especially the
peculiar and technical words ([Greek: glô=ssai]) in them, received
special attention from Kallimachus: which proves that the latter was
not disposed to pass over the philosophers. But Demokritus, though an
eminent philosopher, was decidedly less eminent than Plato: moreover
he left behind him no permanent successors, school, or [Greek:
mousei=on], at Athens, to preserve his MSS. or foster his celebrity.
As the library was furnished at that time with a set of the works of
Demokritus, so I infer that it could not have been without a set of
the works of Plato. That Kallimachus was acquainted with Plato's
writings (if indeed such a fact requires proof), we know, not only
from his epigram upon the Ambrakiot Kleombrotus (whom he affirms to
have killed himself after reading the Phædon), but also from a curious
intimation that he formally impugned Plato's competence to judge or
appreciate poets--alluding to the severe criticisms which we read in
the Platonic Republic.[21]
[Footnote 20: Thus the Tables of Kallimachus included a writer named
Lysimachus, a disciple of Theodorus or Theophrastus, and his writings
(Athenæ. vi. 252)--a rhetor and poet named Dionysius with the epithet
of [Greek: chalkou=s] (Athenæ. xv. 669))--and even the treatises of
several authors on cakes and cookery (Athenæ. xiv. 643). The names of
authors absolutely unknown to us were mentioned by him (Athenæ. ii.
70). Compare Dionys. Hal. de Dinarcho, 630, 653, 661.]
[Footnote 21: Kallimachus, Epigram. 23.
Proklus in Timæum, p. 28 C. p. 64. Schneid. [Greek: ma/tên ou)=n
phlênaphou=si Kalli/machos kai\ Dou=ris, ô(s Pla/tônos ou)k o)/ntos
i(kanou= kri/nein poiêta/s].
Eratosthenes, successor of Kallimachus as librarian at Alexandria,
composed a work (now lost) entitled [Greek: Platôniko\n], as well as
various treatises on philosophy and philosophers (Eratosthenica,
Bernhardy, p. 168, 187, 197; Suidas, v. [Greek: E)ratosthe/nês]). He
had passed some time at Athens, had enjoyed the lessons and
conversation of Zeno the Stoic, but expressed still warmer admiration
of Arkesilaus and Ariston. He spoke in animated terms of Athens as the
great centre of congregation for philosophers in his day. He had
composed a treatise, [Greek: Peri\ tô=n a)gathô=n]: but Strabo
describes him as mixing up other subjects with philosophy (Strabo, i.
p. 15).]
It would indeed be most extraordinary if, among the hundreds of
authors whose works must have been specified in the Tables of
Kallimachus as constituting the treasures of the Alexandrine
Museum,[22] the name of Plato had not been included. Moreover, the
distribution of the Platonic compositions into Trilogies, pursuant to
the analogy of the Didaskaliæ or dramatic records, may very probably
have originated with Kallimachus; and may have been simply approved
and continued, perhaps with some modifications, by Aristophanes. At
least this seems more consonant to the language of Diogenes Laertius,
than the supposition that Aristophanes was the first originator of it.
[Footnote 22: About the number of books, or more properly of _rolls_
(_volumina_), in the Alexandrine library, see the enquiries of
Parthey, Das Alexandrinische Museum, p. 76-84. Various statements are
made by ancient authors, some of them with very large numbers; and no
certainty is attainable. Many rolls would go to form one book. Parthey
considers the statement made by Epiphanius not improbable--54,800
rolls in the library under Ptolemy Philadelphus (p. 83).
The magnitude of the library at Alexandria in the time of
Eratosthenes, and the multitude of writings which he consulted in his
valuable geographical works, was admitted by his opponent Hipparchus
(Strabo, ii. 69).]
[Side-note: First formation of the library--intended as a copy of the
Platonic and Aristotelian [Greek: Mousei=a] at Athens.]
If we look back to the first commencement of the Alexandrine Museum
and library, we shall be still farther convinced that the works of
Plato, complete as well as genuine, must have been introduced into it
before the days of Kallimachus. Strabo expressly tells us that the
first stimulus and example impelling the Ptolemies to found this
museum and library, were furnished by the school of Aristotle and
Theophrastus at Athens.[23] I believe this to be perfectly true; and
it is farther confirmed by the fact that the institution at Alexandria
comprised the same constituent parts and arrangements, described by
the same titles, as those which are applied to the Aristotelian and
Platonic schools at Athens.[24] Though the terms library, museum, and
lecture-room, have now become familiar, both terms and meaning were at
that time alike novel. Nowhere, as far as we know, did there exist a
known and fixed domicile, consecrated in perpetuity to these purposes,
and to literary men who took interest therein. A special stimulus was
needed to suggest and enforce the project on Ptolemy Soter. That
stimulus was supplied by the Aristotelian school at Athens, which the
Alexandrine institution was intended to copy: [Greek: Mousei=on] (with
[Greek: e)xe/dra] and [Greek: peri/patos], a covered portico with
recesses and seats, and a walk adjacent), on a far larger scale and
with more extensive attributions.[25] We must not however imagine that
when this new museum was first begun, the founders entertained any
idea of the vast magnitude to which it ultimately attained.
[Footnote 23: Strabo, xiii. 608. [Greek: o( gou=n A)ristote/lês tê\n
e(autou= (bibliothê/kên) Theophra/stô| pare/dôken, ô(=|per kai\ tê\n
scholê\n a)pe/lipe; _prô=tos_, ô(=n i)/smen, _sunagagô\n bi/blia_,
kai\ _dida/xas tou\s e)n Ai)gu/ptô| basile/as bibliothê/kês
su/ntaxin_.]]
[Footnote 24: Strabo (xvii. 793-794) describes the Museum at
Alexandria in the following terms--[Greek: tô=n de\ basilei/ôn me/ros
e)sti\ kai\ _to\ Mousei=on, e)/chon peri/paton kai\ e)xe/dran_, kai\
oi)=kon me/gan e)n ô(=| to\ sussi/tion tô=n metecho/ntôn tou=
Mousei/ou philolo/gôn a)ndrô=n], &c. Vitruvius, v. 11.
If we compare this with the language in Diogenes Laertius respecting
the Academic and Peripatetic school residences at Athens, we shall
find the same phrases employed--[Greek: mousei=on, e)xe/dra], &c. (D.
L. iv. 19, v. 51-54). Respecting Speusippus, Diogenes tells us (iv,
1)--[Greek: Chari/tôn t' a)ga/lmat' a)ne/thêken e)n tô=| mousei/ô|
tô=| u(po\ Pla/tônos e)n A)kadêmi/a| i)druthe/nti.]]
[Footnote 25: We see from hence what there was peculiar in the
Platonic and Aristotelian literary establishments. They included
something consecrated, permanent, and intended more or less for public
use. The collection of books was not like a private library, destined
only for the proprietor and such friends as he might allow--nor was it
like that of a bookseller, intended for sale and profit. I make this
remark in regard to the Excursus of Bekker, in his Charikles, i. 206,
216, a very interesting note on the book-trade and libraries of
ancient Athens. Bekker disputes the accuracy of Strabo's statement
that Aristotle was the first person at Athens who collected a library,
and who taught the kings of Egypt to do the like. In the literal sense
of the words Bekker is right. Other persons before Aristotle had
collected books (though I think Bekker makes more of the passages
which he cites than they strictly deserve); one example is the
youthful Euthydemus in Xenophon, Memorab. iv. 2; and Bekker alludes
justly to the remarkable passage in the Anabasis of Xenophon, about
books exported to the Hellenic cities in the Euxine (Anabas. vii. 5,
14). There clearly existed in Athens regular professional booksellers;
we see that the bookseller read aloud to his visitors a part of the
books which he had to sell, in order to tempt them to buy, a feeble
foreshadowing of the advertisements and reviews of the present day
(Diogen. L. vii. 2). But there existed as yet nothing of the nature of
the Platonic and Aristotelian [Greek: mousei=on], whereof the
collection of books, varied, permanent, and intended for the use of
inmates and special visitors, was one important fraction. In this
sense it served as a model for Demetrius Phalereus and Ptolemy Soter
in regard to Alexandria.
Vitruvius (v. 11) describes the _exhedræ_ as seats placed under a
covered portico--"in quibus philosophi, rhetores, reliquique qui
studiis delectantur, sedentes disputare possint".]
[Side-note: Favour of Ptolemy Soter towards the philosophers at
Athens.]
Ptolemy Soter was himself an author,[26] and himself knew and
respected Aristotle, not only as a philosopher but also as the
preceptor of his friend and commander Alexander. To Theophrastus also,
the philosophical successor of Aristotle, Ptolemy showed peculiar
honour; inviting him by special message to come and establish himself
at Alexandria, which invitation however Theophrastus declined.[27]
Moreover Ptolemy appointed Straton (afterwards Scholarch in succession
to Theophrastus) preceptor to his youthful son Ptolemy Philadelphus,
from whom Straton subsequently received a large present of money:[28]
he welcomed at Alexandria the Megaric philosophers, Diodorus Kronus,
and Stilpon, and found pleasure in their conversation; he not only
befriended, but often confidentially consulted, the Kyrenaic
philosopher Theodôrus.[29] Kolôtes, the friend of Epikurus, dedicated
a work to Ptolemy Soter. Menander, the eminent comic writer, also
received an invitation from him to Egypt.[30]
[Footnote 26: Respecting Ptolemy as an author, and the fragments of
his work on the exploits of Alexander, see R. Geier, Alexandri M.
Histor. Scriptores, p. 4-26.]
[Footnote 27: Diog. L. v. 37. Probably this invitation was sent about
306 B.C., during the year in which Theophrastus was in banishment from
Athens, in consequence of the restrictive law proposed by Sophokles
against the schools of the philosophers, which law was repealed in the
ensuing year.]
[Footnote 28: Diog. L. v. 58. Straton became Scholarch at the death of
Theophrastus in 287 B.C. He must have been preceptor to Ptolemy
Philadelphus before this time, during the youth of the latter; for he
could not have been at the same time Scholarch at Athens, and
preceptor of the king at Alexandria.]
[Footnote 29: Diog. L. ii. 102, 111, 115. Plutarch adv. Kolôten, p.
1107. The Ptolemy here mentioned by Plutarch may indeed be
Philadelphus.]
[Footnote 30: Meineke, Menand. et Philem. Reliq. Præf. p. xxxii.]
[Side-note: Demetrius Phalereus--his history and character.]
These favourable dispositions, on the part of the first Ptolemy,
towards philosophy and the philosophers at Athens, Demetrius appear to
have been mainly instigated and guided by the Phalerean Demetrius: an
Athenian citizen of good station, who enjoyed for ten years at Athens
(while that city was subject to Kassander) full political ascendancy,
but who was expelled about 307 B.C., by the increased force of the
popular party, seconded by the successful invasion of Demetrius
Poliorkêtês. By these political events Demetrius Phalereus was driven
into exile: a portion of which exile was spent at Thebes, but a much
larger portion of it at Alexandria, where he acquired the full
confidence of Ptolemy Soter, and retained it until the death of that
prince in 285 B.C. While active in politics, and possessing rhetorical
talent, elegant without being forcible--Demetrius Phalereus was yet
more active in literature and philosophy. He employed his influence,
during the time of his political power, to befriend and protect both
Xenokrates the chief of the Platonic school, and Theophrastus the
chief of the Aristotelian. In his literary and philosophical views he
followed Theophrastus and the Peripatetic sect, and was himself among
their most voluminous writers. The latter portion of his life was
spent at Alexandria, in the service of Ptolemy Soter; after whose
death, however, he soon incurred the displeasure of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, and died, intentionally or accidentally, from the bite
of an asp.[31]
[Footnote 31: Diog. L. iv. 14, v. 39, 75, 80; Strabo, ix. 398; Plut.,
De Exil. p. 601; Apophth. p. 189; Cic., De Fin. v. 19; Pro Rab. 30.
Diogenes says about Demetrius Phalereus, (v. 80) [Greek: Plê/thei de\
bibli/ôn kai\ a)rithmô=| sti/chôn, schedo\n a(/pantas parelê/lake
tou=s kat' au)to\n Peripatêtikou/s, eu)pai/deutos ô)\n kai\
polu/peiros par' o(ntinou=n.]]
[Side-note: He was chief agent in the first establishment of the
Alexandrine Library.]
The Alexandrine Museum or library first acquired celebrity under the
reign of Ptolemy (II.) Philadelphus, by whom moreover it was greatly
enlarged and its treasures multiplied. Hence that prince is sometimes
entitled the founder. But there can be no doubt that its first
initiation and establishment is due to Ptolemy (I.) Soter.[32]
Demetrius Phalereus was his adviser and auxiliary, the link of
connection between him and the literary or philosophical world of
Greece. We read that Julius Cæsar, when he conceived the scheme (which
he did not live to execute) of establishing a large public library at
Rome, fixed upon the learned Varro to regulate the selection and
arrangement of the books.[33] None but an eminent literary man could
carry such an enterprise into effect, even at Rome, when there existed
the precedent of the Alexandrine library: much more when Ptolemy
commenced his operations at Alexandria, and when there were only the
two [Greek: Mousei=a] at Athens to serve as precedents. Demetrius, who
combined an organising head and political experience, with an
erudition not inferior to Varro, regard being had to the stock of
learning accessible--was eminently qualified for the task. It procured
for him great importance with Ptolemy, and compensated him for that
loss of political ascendancy at Athens, which unfavourable fortune had
brought about.
[Footnote 32: Mr. Clinton says, Fast. Hell. App. 5, p. 380, 381:
"Athenæus distinctly ascribes the institution of the [Greek:
Mousei=on] to Philadelphus in v. 203, where he is describing the acts
of Philadelphus." This is a mistake: the passage in Athenæus does not
specify which of the two first Ptolemies was the founder: it is
perfectly consistent with the supposition that Ptolemy Soter founded
it. The same may be said about the passage cited by Mr. Clinton from
Plutarch; that too does not determine between the two Ptolemies, which
was the founder. Perizonius was in error (as Mr. Clinton points out)
in affirming that the passage in Plutarch determined the foundation to
the first Ptolemy: Mr. Clinton is in error by affirming that the
passage in Athenæus determines it to the second. Mr. Clinton has also
been misled by Vitruvius and Scaliger (p. 389), when he affirms that
the library at Alexandria was not formed until after the library at
Pergamus. Bernhardy (Grundriss der Griech. Litt., Part i. p. 359, 367,
369) has followed Mr. Clinton too implicitly in recognising
Philadelphus as the founder: nevertheless he too admits (p. 366) that
the foundations were laid by Ptolemy Soter, under the advice and
assistance of Demetrius Phalereus.
The earliest declared king of the Attalid family at Pergamus acquired
the throne in 241 B.C. The library at Pergamus could hardly have been
commenced before his time: and it is his successor, Eumenes II. (whose
reign began in 197 B.C.), who is mentioned as the great collector and
adorner of the library at Pergamus. See Strabo, xiii. 624; Clinton,
Fast. Hellen. App. 6, p. 401-403. It is plain that the library at
Pergamus could hardly have been begun before the close of the reign of
Ptolemy Philadelphus in Egypt, by which time the library of Alexandria
had already acquired great extension and renown.]
[Footnote 33: Sueton. Jul. Cæs. c. 44. Melissus, one of the Illustres
Grammatici of Rome, undertook by order of Augustus, "curam
ordinandarum bibliothecarum in Octaviæ porticu". (Sueton. De Illustr.
Grammat. c. 21.)
Cicero replies in the following terms to his brother Quintus, who had
written to him, requesting advice and aid in getting together for his
own use a collection of Greek and Latin books. "De bibliothecâ tuâ
Græcâ supplendâ, libris commutandis, Latinis comparandis--valdé velim
ista confici, præsertim cum ad meum quoque usum spectent. Sed ego,
mihi ipsi ista per quem agam, non habeo. _Neque enim venalia sunt, quæ
quidem placeant: et confici nisi per hominem et peritum et diligentem
non possunt._ Chrysippo tamen imperabo, et cum Tyrannione loquar."
(Cic., Epist. ad Q. Fratr. iii. 4, 5.)
Now the circulation of books was greatly increased, and the book trade
far more developed, at Rome when this letter was written (about three
centuries after Plato's decease) than it was at Athens during the
time of Demetrius Phalereus (320-300 B.C.). Yet we see the difficulty
which the two brothers Cicero had in collecting a mere private library
for use of the owner simply. _Good books, in a correct and
satisfactory condition, were not to be had for money_: it was
necessary to get access to the best MSS., and to have special copies
made, neatly and correctly: and this could not be done, except under
the superintendence of a laborious literary man like Tyrannion, by
well taught slaves subordinate to him.
We may understand, from this analogy, the far greater obstacles which
the collectors of the Alexandrine museum and library must have had to
overcome, when _they_ began their work. No one could do it, except a
practised literary man such as Demetrius Phalereus: nor even he,
except by finding out the best MSS., and causing special copies to be
made for the use of the library. Respecting the extent and facility of
book-diffusion in the Roman world, information will be found in the
late Sir George Cornewall Lewis's _Enquiry into the Credibility of
Early Roman History_, vol. i. p. 196, seqq.; also, in the fifth
chapter of the work of Adolf Schmidt, _Geschichte der Denk-und
Glaubens-Freiheit im ersten Jahrhunderte der Kaiser-herrschaft_,
Berlin, 1847; lastly in a valuable review of Adolf Schmidt's work by
Sir George Lewis himself, in Fraser's Magazine for April, 1862, pp.
432-439. Adolf Schmidt represents the multiplication and cheapness of
books in that day as something hardly inferior to what it is
now--citing many authorities for this opinion. Sir G. Lewis has shown,
in my judgment most satisfactorily, that these authorities are
insufficient, and that the opinion is incorrect: this might have been
shown even more fully, if the review had been lengthened. I perfectly
agree with Sir G. Lewis on the main question: yet I think he narrows
the case on his own side too much, and that the number of copies of
such authors as Virgil and Horace, in circulation at one time, cannot
have been so small as he imagines.]
[Side-note: Proceedings of Demetrius in beginning to collect the
library.]
We learn that the ardour of Demetrius Phalereus was unremitting, and
that his researches were extended everywhere, to obtain for the new
museum literary monuments from all countries within contemporary
knowledge.[34] This is highly probable: such universality of literary
interest was adapted to the mixed and cosmopolitan character of the
Alexandrine population. But Demetrius was a Greek, born about the time
of Plato's death (347 B.C.), and identified with the political,
rhetorical, dramatic, literary, and philosophical, activity of Athens,
in which he had himself taken a prominent part. To collect the
memorials of Greek literature would be his first object, more
especially such as Aristotle and Theophrastus possessed in their
libraries. Without doubt he would procure the works of Homer and the
other distinguished poets, epic, lyric, and dramatic, as well as the
rhetors, orators, &c. He probably would not leave out the works of the
_viri Sokratici_ (Antisthenes, Aristippus, Æschines, &c.) and the
other philosophers (Demokritus, Anaxagoras, Parmenides, &c.). But
there are two authors, whose compositions he would most certainly take
pains to obtain--Plato and Aristotle. These were the two commanding
names of Grecian philosophy in that day: the founders of the two
schools existing in Athens, upon the model of which the Alexandrine
Museum was to be constituted.
[Footnote 34: Josephus, Antiquit. xii. 2, 1. [Greek: Dêmê/trios o(
Phalêreu/s, o(\s ê)=n e)pi\ tô=n bibliothêkô=n tou= basile/ôs,
spouda/zôn ei) dunato\n ei)/ê pa/nta ta\ kata\ tê\n oi)koume/nên
suna/gein bi/blia, kai\ sunônou/menos ei)/ ti/ pou mo/non a)kou/seie
spoudê=s a)/xion ê)\ ê(du/, tê=| tou= basile/ôs proaire/sei (ma/lista
ga\r peri\ tê\n sullogê\n tô=n bibli/ôn ei)=che philoka/lôs)
sunêgôni/zeto].
What Josephus affirms here, I apprehend to be perfectly true; though
he goes on to state much that is fabulous and apocryphal, respecting
the incidents which preceded and accompanied the translation of the
Hebrew Scriptures. Josephus is also mistaken in connecting Demetrius
Phalereus with Ptolemy Philadelphus. Demetrius Phalereus was
disgraced, and died shortly after that prince's accession. His time of
influence was under Ptolemy Soter.
Respecting the part taken by Demetrius Phalereus in the first getting
up of the Alexandrine Museum, see Valckenaer, Dissertat. De Aristobulo
Judaico, p. 52-57; Ritschl, Die Alexandrin. Biblioth. p. 17, 18;
Parthey, Das Alexandrinische Museum, p. 70, 71 seq.]
[Side-note: Certainty that the works of Plato and Aristotle were among
the earliest acquisitions made by him for the library.]
Among all the books which would pass over to Alexandria as the
earliest stock of the new library, I know nothing upon which we can
reckon more certainly than upon the works of Plato.[35] For they were
acquisitions not only desirable, but also easily accessible. The
writings of Aristippus or Demokritus--of Lysias or Isokrates--might
require to be procured (or good MSS. thereof, fit to be specially
copied) at different places and from different persons, without any
security that the collection, when purchased, would be either complete
or altogether genuine. But the manuscripts of Plato and of Aristotle
were preserved in their respective schools at Athens, the Academic and
Peripatetic:[36] a collection complete as well as verifiable.
Demetrius could obtain permission, from Theophrastus in the
Peripatetic school, from Polemon or Krantor in the Academic school, to
have these MSS. copied for him by careful and expert hands. The cost
of such copying must doubtless have been considerable; amounting to a
sum which few private individuals would have been either able or
willing to disburse. But the treasures of Ptolemy were amply
sufficient for the purpose:[37] and when he once conceived the project
of founding a museum in his new capital, a large outlay, incurred for
transcribing from the best MSS. a complete and authentic collection of
the works of illustrious authors, was not likely to deter him. We know
from other anecdotes,[38] what vast sums the third Ptolemy spent, for
the mere purpose of securing better and more authoritative MSS. of
works which the Alexandrine library already possessed.
[Footnote 35: Stahr, in the second part of his work "Aristotelia,"
combats and refutes with much pains the erroneous supposition, that
there was no sufficient publication of the works of Aristotle, until
after the time when Apellikon purchased the MSS. from the heirs of
Neleus--_i.e._ B.C. 100. Stahr shows evidence to prove, that the
works, at least many of the works, of Aristotle were known and studied
before the year 100 B.C.: that they were in the library at Alexandria,
and that they were procured for that library by Demetrius Phalereus.
Stahr says (Thl. ii. p. 59): "Is it indeed credible--is it even
conceivable--that Demetrius, who recommended especially to his regal
friend Ptolemy the study of the political works of the
philosophers--that Demetrius, the friend both of the Aristotelian
philosophy and of Theophrastus, should have left the works of the two
greatest Peripatetic philosophers out of his consideration? May we not
rather be sure that he would take care to secure their works, before all
others, for his nascent library--if indeed he did not bring them with
him when he came to Alexandria?" The question here put by Stahr (and
farther insisted on by Ravaisson, Essai sur la Métaphysique
d'Aristote, Introd. p. 14) is very pertinent: and I put the like
question, with slight change of circumstances, respecting the works of
Plato. Demetrius Phalereus was the friend and patron of Xenokrates, as
well as of Theophrastus.]
[Footnote 36: In respect to the Peripatetic school, this is true only
during the lifetime of Theophrastus, who died 287 B.C. I have already
mentioned that after the death of Theophrastus, the MSS. were
withdrawn from Athens. But all the operations of Demetrius Phalereus
were carried on during the lifetime of Theophrastus; much of them,
probably, in concert with Theophrastus, whose friend and pupil he was.
The death of Theophrastus, the death of Ptolemy Soter, and the
discredit and subsequent death of Demetrius are separated only by an
interval of two or three years.]
[Footnote 37: We find interesting information, in the letters of
Cicero, respecting the _librarii_ or copyists whom he had in his
service; and the still more numerous and effective band of _librarii_
and _anagnostæ_: (slaves, mostly home-born) whom his friend Atticus
possessed and trained (Corn. Nep., Vit. Attici, c. 13). See Epist. ad
Attic. xii. 6; xiii. 21-44; v. 12 seq.
It appears that many of the compositions of Cicero were copied,
prepared for publication, and published, by the _librarii_ of Atticus:
who, in the case of the _Academica_, incurred a loss, because
Cicero--after having given out the work to be copied and published, and
after progress had been made in doing this--thought fit to alter
materially both the form and the speakers introduced (xiii. 13). In
regard to the Oration pro Ligario, Atticus sold it well, and brought
himself home ("Ligarianam præclaré vendidisti: posthac, quicquid
scripsero, tibi præconium deferam," xiii. 12). Cicero (xiii. 21)
compares the relation of Atticus towards himself, with that of
Hermodôrus towards Plato, as expressed in the Greek verse,
[Greek: lo/goisin E(rmo/dôros [e)mporeu/etai]]. (Suidas, s, v.
[Greek: lo/goisin E(rm. e)mp].)
Private friends, such as Balbus and Cærellia (xiii. 21), considered it
a privilege to be allowed to take copies of his compositions at their
own cost, through _librarii_ employed for the purpose. And we find
Galen enumerating this among the noble and dignified ways for an
opulent man to expend money, in a remarkable passage, [Greek: ble/pô
ga\r se ou)de\ pro\s ta\ kala\ tô=n e)/rgôn dapanê=sai tolmô=nta, mêd'
ei)s bibli/ôn ô)nê\n kai\ kataskeuê\n kai\ tô=n grapho/ntôn a)/skêsin,
ê)/toi ge ei)s ta/chos dia\ sêmei/ôn, ê)\ ei)s kalô=n a)kri/beian,
ô(/sper ou)de\ tô=n a)naginôsko/ntôn o)rthô=s]. (De Cognoscendis
Curandisque Animi Morbis, t. v. p. 48, Kühn.)]
[Footnote 38: Galen, Comm. ad Hippokrat. [Greek: E)pidêmi/as], vol.
xvii. p. 606, 607, ed. Kühn.
Lykurgus, the contemporary of Demosthenes as an orator, conspicuous
for many years in the civil and financial administration of Athens,
caused a law to be passed, enacting that an official MS. should be
made of the plays of Æschylus, Sophokles, and Euripides. No permission
was granted to represent any of these dramas at the Dionysiac
festival, except upon condition that the applicant and the actors whom
he employed, should compare the MS. on which they intended to proceed,
with the official MS. in the hands of the authorised secretary. The
purpose was to prevent arbitrary amendments or omissions in these
plays, at the pleasure of [Greek: u(pokri/tai].
Ptolemy Euergetes borrowed from the Athenians these public and
official MSS. of Æschylus, Sophokles, and Euripides on the plea that
he wished to have exact copies of them taken at Alexandria, and under
engagement to restore them as soon as this was done. He deposited with
them the prodigious sum of fifteen talents, as a guarantee for the
faithful restitution. When he got the MSS. at Alexandria, he caused
copies of them to be taken on the finest paper. He then sent these
copies to Athens, keeping the originals for the Alexandrine library;
desiring the Athenians to retain the deposit of fifteen talents for
themselves. Ptolemy Euergetes here pays, not merely the cost of the
finest copying, but fifteen talents besides, for the possession of
official MSS. of the three great Athenian tragedians; whose works in
other manuscripts must have been in the library long before.
Respecting these official MSS. of the three great tragedians, prepared
during the administration and under the auspices of the rhetor
Lykurgus, see Plutarch, Vit. X. Orator, p. 841, also Boeckh, Græcæ
Tragoed. Principia, pp. 13-15. The time when Lykurgus caused this to
be done, must have been nearly coincident with the decease of Plato,
347 B.C. See Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung der Athener, vol. i. p. 468,
ii. p. 244; Welcker, Griech. Trag. iii. p. 908; Korn, De Publico
Æschyli, &c., Exemplari, Lykurgo Auctore Confecto, p. 6-9, Bonn, 1863.
In the passage cited above from Galen, we are farther informed, that
Ptolemy Euergetes caused inquiries to be made, from the masters of all
vessels which came to Alexandria, whether there were any MSS. on
board; if there were, the MSS. were brought to the library, carefully
copied out, and the copies given to the owners; the original MSS.
being retained in the library, and registered in a
separate compartment, under the general head of [Greek: Ta\ e)k
ploi/ôn], and with the name of the person from whom the acquisition
had been made, annexed. Compare Wolf, Prolegg. ad Homerum, p. clxxv.
These statements tend to show the care taken by the Alexandrine
librarians, not only to acquire the best MSS., but also to keep good
MSS. apart from bad, and to record the person and the quarter from
which each acquisition had been made.]
[Side-note: Large expenses incurred by the Ptolemies for procuring
good MSS.]
We cannot doubt that Demetrius could obtain permission, if he asked
it, from the Scholarchs, to have such copies made. To them the
operation was at once complimentary and lucrative; while among the
Athenian philosophers generally, the name of Demetrius was acceptable,
from the favour which he had shown to them during his season of
political power--and that of Ptolemy popular from his liberalities. Or
if we even suppose that Demetrius, instead of obtaining copies of the
Platonic MSS. from the school, purchased copies from private persons
or book-sellers (as he must have purchased the works of Demokritus and
others)--he could, at any rate, assure himself of the authenticity of
what he purchased, by information from the Scholarch.
[Side-note: Catalogue of Platonic works, prepared by Aristophanes, is
trustworthy.]
My purpose, in thus calling attention to the Platonic school and the
Alexandrine Museum, is to show that the chance for preservation of
Plato's works complete and genuine after his decease, was unusually
favourable. I think that they existed complete and genuine in the
Alexandrine Museum before the time of Kallimachus, and, of course,
during that of Aristophanes. If there were in the Museum any other
works obtained from private vendors and professing to be Platonic,
Kallimachus and Aristophanes had the means of distinguishing these
from such as the Platonic school had furnished and could authenticate,
and motive enough for keeping them apart from the certified Platonic
catalogue. Whether there existed any spurious works of this sort in
the Museum, Diogenes Laertius does not tell us; nor, unfortunately,
does he set forth the full list of those which Aristophanes,
recognising as Platonic, distributed either in triplets or in units.
Diogenes mentions only the principle of distribution adopted, and a
select portion of the compositions distributed. But as far as his
positive information goes, I hold it to be perfectly worthy of trust.
I consider that all the compositions recognised by Aristophanes as
works of Plato are unquestionably such; and that his testimony greatly
strengthens our assurance for the received catalogue, in many of those
items which have been most contested by critics, upon supposed
internal grounds. Aristophanes authenticates, among others, not merely
the Leges, but also the Epinomis, the Minos, and the Epistolæ.
[Side-note: No canonical or exclusive order of the Platonic dialogues,
when arranged by Aristophanes.]
There is another point also which I conceive to be proved by what we
hear about Aristophanes. He (or Kallimachus before him) introduced a
new order or distribution of his own--the Trilogies--founded on the
analogy of the dramatic Didaskalies. This shows that the Platonic
dialogues were not received into the library in any canonical or
_exclusive order_ of their own, or in any interdependence as first,
second, third, &c., essential to render them intelligible as a system.
Had there been any such order, Kallimachus and Aristophanes would no
more have altered it, than they would have transposed the order of the
books in the Republic and Leges. The importance of what is here
observed will appear presently, when we touch upon the theory of
Schleiermacher.
[Side-note: Other libraries and literary centres, besides Alexandria,
in which spurious Platonic works might get footing.]
The distributive arrangement, proposed or sanctioned by Aristophanes,
applied (as I have already remarked) to the materials in the
Alexandrine library only. But this library, though it was the most
conspicuous portion, was not the whole, of the Grecian literary
aggregate. There were other great regal libraries (such as those of
the kings of Pergamus and the Seleukid kings[39]) commenced after the
Alexandrine library had already attained importance, and intended to
rival it: there was also an active literary and philosophising class,
in various Grecian cities, of which Athens was the foremost, but in
which Rhodes, Kyrênê, and several cities in Asia Minor, Kilikia, and
Syria, were included: ultimately the cultivated classes at Rome, and
the Western Hellenic city of Massalia, became comprised in the number.
Among this widespread literary public, there were persons who neither
knew nor examined the Platonic school or the Alexandrine library, nor
investigated what title either of them had to furnish a certificate
authenticating the genuine works of Plato. It is not certain that even
the great library at Pergamus, begun nearly half a century after that
of Alexandria, had any such initiatory agent as Demetrius Phalereus,
able as well as willing to go to the fountain-head of Platonism at
Athens: nor could the kings of Pergamus claim aid from Alexandria,
with which they were in hostile rivalry, and from which they were even
forbidden (so we hear) to purchase papyrus. Under these circumstances,
it is quite possible that spurious Platonic writings, though they
obtained no recognition in the Alexandrine library, might obtain more
or less recognition elsewhere, and pass under the name of Plato. To a
certain extent, such was the case. There existed some spurious
dialogues at the time when Thrasyllus afterwards formed his
arrangement.
[Footnote 39: The library of Antiochus the Great or of his
predecessor, is mentioned by Suidas, [Greek: Eu)phori/ôn]. Euphorion
was librarian of it, seemingly about 230-220 B.C. See Clinton, Fast.
Hell. B.C. 221.
Galen states (Comm. in Hippok. De Nat. Hom. vol. xv. p. 105, Kühn)
that the forgeries of books, and the practice of tendering books for
sale under the false names of celebrated authors, did not commence
until the time when the competition between the kings of Egypt and the
kings of Pergamus for their respective libraries became vehement. If
this be admitted, there could have been no forgeries tendered at
Alexandria until after the commencement of the reign of Euergetes
(B.C. 247-222): for the competition from Pergamus could hardly have
commenced earlier than 230 B.C. In the times of Soter and
Philadelphus, there would be no such forgeries tendered. I do not
doubt that such forgeries were sometimes successfully passed off:** but
I think Galen does not take sufficient account of the practice
(mentioned by himself) at the Alexandrine library, to keep faithful
record of the person and quarter from whence each book had been
acquired.]
[Side-note: Other critics, besides Aristophanes, proposed different
arrangements of the Platonic dialogues.]
Moreover the distribution made by Aristophanes of the Platonic
dialogues into Trilogies, and the order of priority which he
established among them was by no means universally accepted. Some
rejected altogether the dramatic analogy of Trilogies as a principle
of distribution. They arranged the dialogues into three classes:[40]
1. The Direct, or purely dramatic. 2. The Indirect, or narrative
(diegematic). 3. The Mixed--partly one, partly the other. Respecting
the order of priority, we read that while Aristophanes placed the
Republic first, there were eight other arrangements, each recognising
a different dialogue as first in order; these eight were, Alkibiades
I., Theagês, Euthyphron, Kleitophon, Timæus, Phædrus, Theætêtus,
Apology. More than one arrangement began with the Apology. Some even
selected the Epistolæ as the proper commencement for studying Plato's
works.[41]
[Footnote 40: Diog. L. iii. 49. Schöne, in his commentary on the
Protagoras (pp. 8-12), lays particular stress on this division into
the direct or dramatic, and indirect or diegematic. He thinks it
probable, that Plato preferred one method to the other at different
periods of life: that all of one sort, and all of the other sort, come
near together in time.]
[Footnote 41: Diog. L. iii. 62. Albinus, [Greek: Ei)sagôgê\], c. 4, in
K. F. Hermann's Appendix Platonica, p. 149.]
[Side-note: Panætius, the Stoic--considered the Phædon to be
spurious--earliest known example of a Platonic dialogue disallowed upon
internal grounds.]
We hear with surprise that the distinguished Stoic philosopher at
Athens, Panætius, rejected the Phædon as not being the work of
Plato.[42] It appears that he did not believe in the immortality of
the soul, and that he profoundly admired Plato; accordingly, he
thought it unworthy of so great a philosopher to waste so much logical
subtlety, poetical metaphor, and fable, in support of such a
conclusion. Probably he was also guided, in part, by one singularity
in the Phædon: it is the only dialogue wherein Plato mentions himself
in the third person.[43] If Panætius was predisposed, on other
grounds, to consider the dialogue as unworthy of Plato, he might be
induced to lay stress upon such a singularity, as showing that the
author of the dialogue must be some person other than Plato. Panætius
evidently took no pains to examine the external attestations of the
dialogue, which he would have found to be attested both by Aristotle
and by Kallimachus as the work of Plato. Moreover, whatever any one
may think of the cogency of the reasoning--the beauty of Platonic
handling and expression is manifest throughout the dialogue. This
verdict of Panætius is the earliest example handed down to us of a
Platonic dialogue disallowed on internal grounds that is, because it
appeared to the critic unworthy of Plato: and it is certainly among
the most unfortunate examples.
[Footnote 42: See the Epigram out of the Anthology, and the extract
from the Scholia on the Categories of Aristotle, cited by Wyttenbach
in his note on the beginning of the Phædon. A more important passage
(which he has not cited) from the Scholia on Aristotle, is, that of
Asklepius on the Metaphysica, p. 991; Scholia, ed. Brandis, p. 576, a.
38. [Greek: O(/ti tou= Pla/tônos e)stin o( Phai/dôn, saphô=s o(
A)ristote/lês dêloi=--Panai/tios ga\r tis e)to/lmêse notheu=sai to\n
dia/logon. e)peidê\ ga\r e)/legen ei)=nai thnêtê\n tê\n psuchê/n,
e)bou/leto sugkataspa/sai to\n Pla/tôna; e)pei\ ou)=n e)n tô=|
Phai/dôni saphô=s a)pathanati/zei] (Plato) [Greek: tê\n logikê\n
psuchê/n, tou/tou cha/rin e)no/theuse to\n dia/logon]. Wyttenbach
vainly endeavours to elude the force of the passages cited by himself,
and to make out that the witnesses did not mean to assert that
Panætius had declared the Phædon to be spurious. One of the reasons
urged by Wyttenbach is--"Nec illud negligendum, quod dicitur [Greek:
u(po\ Panaiti/ou tino\s], à _Panætio quodam_ neque per contemptum dici
potuisse neque a Syriano neque ab hoc anonymo; quorum neuter eâ fuit
doctrinæ inopia, ut Panætii laudes et præstantiam ignoraret." But in
the Scholion of Asklepius on the Metaphysica (which passage was not
before Wyttenbach), we find the very same expression [Greek:
Panai/tio/s tis], and plainly used _per contemptum_: for Asklepius
probably considered it a manifestation of virtuous feeling to
describe, in contemptuous language, a philosopher who did not believe
in the immortality of the soul. We have only to read the still harsher
and more contemptuous language which he employs towards the
Manicheans, in another Scholion, p. 666, b. 5, Brandis.
Favorinus said (Diog. iii. 37) that when Plato read aloud the Phædon,
Aristotle was the only person present who remained to the end: all the
other hearers went away in the middle. I have no faith in this
anecdote: I consider it, like so many others in Diogenes, as a myth:
but the invention of it indicates, that there were many persons who
had no sympathy with the Phædon, taking at the bottom the same view as
Panætius.]
[Footnote 43: Plato, Phædon, p. 59. Plato is named also in the
Apology: but this is a report, more or less exact, of the real defence
of Sokrates.]
[Side-note: Classification of Platonic works by the rhetor
Thrasyllus--dramatic--philosophical.]
But the most elaborate classification of the Platonic works was that
made by Thrasyllus, in the days of Augustus or Tiberius, near to, or
shortly after, the Christian era: a rhetor of much reputation,
consulted and selected as travelling companion by the Emperor
Augustus.[44]
[Footnote 44: Diog. L. iii. 56; Themistius, Orat. viii. ([Greek:
Pentetêriko\s]) p. 108 B.
It appears that this classification by Thrasyllus was approved, or
jointly constructed, by his contemporary Derkyllides. (Albinus,
[Greek: Ei)sagôgê\], c. 4, p. 149, in K. F. Hermann's Appendix
Platonica.)]
Thrasyllus adopted two different distributions of the Platonic works:
one was dramatic, the other philosophical. The two were founded on
perfectly distinct principles, and had no inherent connection with
each other; but Thrasyllus combined them together, and noted, in
regard to each dialogue, its place in the one classification as well
as in the other.
[Side-note: Dramatic principle--Tetralogies.]
One of these distributions was into Tetralogies, or groups of four
each. This was in substitution for the Trilogies introduced by
Aristophanes or by Kallimachus, and was founded upon the same
dramatic analogy: the dramas, which contended for the prize at the
Dionysiac festivals, having been sometimes exhibited in batches of
three, or Trilogies, sometimes in batches of four, or
Tetralogies--three tragedies, along with a satirical piece as
accompaniment. Because the dramatic writer brought forth four pieces at
a birth, it was assumed as likely that Plato would publish four dialogues
all at once. Without departing from this dramatic analogy, which seems to
have been consecrated by the authority of the Alexandrine Grammatici,
Thrasyllus gained two advantages. First, he included ALL the Platonic
compositions, whereas Aristophanes, in his Trilogies, had included
only a part, and had left the rest not grouped. Thrasyllus included
all the Platonic compositions, thirty-six in number, reckoning the
Republic, the Leges, and the Epistolæ in bulk, each as one--in nine
Tetralogies or groups of four each. Secondly, he constituted his first
tetralogy in an impressive and appropriate manner--Euthyphron,
Apology, Kriton, Phædon--four compositions really resembling a
dramatic tetralogy, and bound together by their common bearing, on the
last scenes of the life of a philosopher.[45] In Euthyphron, Sokrates
appears as having been just indicted and as thinking on his defence;
in the Apology, he makes his defence; in the Kriton, he appears as
sentenced by the legal tribunal, yet refusing to evade the sentence by
escaping from his prison; in the Phædon, we have the last dying scene
and conversation. None of the other tetralogies present an equal bond
of connection between their constituent items; but the first tetralogy
was probably intended to recommend the rest, and to justify the
system.
[Footnote 45: Diog. L. iii. 57. [Greek: prô/tên me\n ou)=n
tetralogi/an ti/thêsi tê\n koinê\n u(po/thesin e)/chousan; paradei=xai
ga\r bou/letai o(/poiois a)\n ei)/ê o( tou= philoso/phou bi/os].
Albinus, Introduct. ad Plat. c. 4, p. 149, in K. F. Hermann's Append.
Platon.
Thrasyllus appears to have considered the Republic as ten dialogues
and the Leges as twelve, each book (of Republic and of Leges)
constituting a separate dialogue, so that he made the Platonic works
fifty-six in all. But for the purpose of his tetralogies he reckoned
them only as thirty-six--nine groups.
The author of the Prolegomena [Greek: tê=s Pla/tônos Philosophi/as] in
Hermann's Append. Platon. pp. 218-219, gives the same account of the
tetralogies, and of the connecting bond which united the four** members
of the first tetralogical group: but he condemns altogether the
principle of the tetralogical division. He does not mention the name
of Thrasyllus. He lived after Proklus (p. 218), that is, after 480
A.D.
The argument urged by Wyttenbach and others--that Varro must have
considered the Phædon as _fourth_ in the order of the Platonic
compositions--an argument founded on a passage in Varro. L. L. vii.
37, which refers to the Phædon under the words _Plato in quarto_--this
argument becomes inapplicable in the text as given by O. Müller--not
_Varro in quarto_ but _Varro in quattuor fluminibus_, &c. Mullach
(Democriti Frag. p. 98) has tried unsuccessfully to impugn Müller's
text, and to uphold the word _quarto_ with the inference resting upon
it.]
[Side-note: Philosophical principle--Dialogues of Search--Dialogues of
Exposition.]
In the other distribution made by Thrasyllus,[46] Plato was regarded
not as a quasi-dramatist, but as a philosopher. The dialogues were
classified with reference partly to their method and spirit, partly to
their subject. His highest generic distinction was into:--1. Dialogues
of Investigation or Search. 2. Dialogues of Exposition or
Construction. The Dialogues of Investigation he subdivided into two
classes:--1. Gymnastic. 2. Agonistic. These were again subdivided,
each into two sub-classes; the Gymnastic, into 1. Obstetric. 2.
Peirastic. The Agonistic, into 1. Probative. 2. Refutative. Again, the
Dialogues of Exposition were divided into two classes: 1. Theoretical.
2. Practical. Each of these classes was divided into two sub-classes:
the Theoretical into 1. Physical. 2. Logical. The Practical into 1.
Ethical. 2. Political.
[Footnote 46: The statement in Diogenes Laertius, in his life of
Plato, is somewhat obscure and equivocal; but I think it certain that
the classification which he gives in iii. 49, 50, 51, of the Platonic
dialogues, was made by Thrasyllus. It is a portion of the same
systematic arrangement as that given somewhat farther on (iii. 56-61),
which is ascribed by name to Thrasyllus, enumerating the Tetralogies.
Diogenes expressly states that Thrasyllus was the person who annexed
to each dialogue its double denomination, which it has since borne in
the published editions--[Greek: Eu)thu/phrôn--peri\
o(si/ou--peirastiko/s]. In the Dialogues of examination or Search, one of
these names is derived from the subject, the other from the method, as in
the instance of Euthyphron just cited: in the Dialogues of Exposition
both names are derived from the subject, first the special, next the
general. [Greek: Phai/dôn, ê)\ peri\ psuchê=s, ê)thiko/s. Parmeni/dês,
ê)\ peri\ i)deô=n, logiko/s].
Schleiermacher (in the Einleitung prefixed to his translation of
Plato, p. 24) speaks somewhat loosely about "the well-known
dialectical distributions of the Platonic dialogues, which Diogenes
has preserved without giving the name of the author". Diogenes gives
only _one_ such dialectical (or logical) distribution; and though he
does not mention the name of Thrasyllus in direct or immediate
connection with it, we may clearly see that he is copying Thrasyllus.
This is well pointed out in an acute commentary on Schleiermacher, by
Yxem, Logos Protreptikos, Berlin, 1841, p. 12-13.
Diogenes remarks (iii. 50) that the distribution of the dialogues into
narrative, dramatic, and mixed, is made [Greek: tragikô=s ma=llon ê)\
philoso/phôs]. This remark would seem to apply more precisely to the
arrangement of the dialogues into trilogies and tetralogies. His word
[Greek: philoso/phôs] belongs very justly to the logical distribution
of Thrasyllus, apart from the tetralogies.
Porphyry tells us that Plotinus did not bestow any titles upon his own
discourses. The titles were bestowed by his disciples; who did not
always agree, but gave different titles to the same discourse
(Porphyry, Vit. Plotin. 4).]
The following table exhibits this philosophical classification of
Thrasyllus:--
Table I.
PHILOSOPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORKS OF PLATO BY THRASYLLUS.
I. Dialogues of Investigation. II. Dialogues of Exposition.
_Searching Dialogues_. _Guiding Dilogues_
[Greek: Zêtêtikoi/]. [Greek: U(phêgêtikoi/].
I. Dialogues of investigation.
Gymnastic. Agonistic.
[Greek:
Maieutikoi/. Peirastikoi/. E)ndeiktikoi/. A)natreptikpoi/.]
Obstetric. Peirastic. Probative. Refutative.
---- ---- ---- ----
Alkibiades I. Charmidês. Protagoras. Euthydêmus.
Alkibiades II. Menon. Gorgias.
Theagês. Ion. Hippias I.
Lachês. Euthyphron. Hippias II.
Lysis.
II. Dialogues of Exposition.
Theoretical. Practical
[Greek:
Phusikoi/. Logikoi/. Ê)thikoi/. Politikoi/.]
Physical Logical. Ethical. Political.
---- ---- ---- ----
Timæus. Kratylus. Apology. Republic.
Sophistês. Kriton. Kritias.
Politikus. Phædon. Minos.
Parmenidês. Phædrus. Leges.
Theætêtus. Symposion. Epinomis.
Menexenus.
Kleitophon.
Epistolæ.
Philêbus.
Hipparchus.
Rivales.
I now subjoin a second Table, containing the Dramatic Distribution of
the Platonic Dialogues, with the Philosophical Distribution combined
or attached to it.
Table II.
DRAMATIC DISTRIBUTION. PLATONIC DIALOGUES, AS ARRANGED IN TETRALOGIES
BY THRASYLLUS.
Tetralogy 1.
1. Euthyphron On Holiness Peirastic or Testing.
2. Apology of Sokrates Ethical Ethical.
3. Kriton On Duty in Action Ethical.
4. Phædon On the Soul Ethical.
2.
1. Kratylus On Rectitude in Naming Logical.
2. Theætêtus On Knowledge Logical.
3. Sophistês On Ens or the Existent Logical.
4. Politikus On the Art of Governing Logical.
3.
1. Parmenidês On Ideas Logical.
2. Philêbus On Pleasure Ethical.
3. Symposion On Good Ethical.
4. Phædrus On Love Ethical.
4.
1. Alkibiadês I On the Nature of Man Obstetric or Evolving.
2. Alkibiadês II On Prayer Obstetric.
3. Hipparchus On the Love of Gain. Ethical.
4. Erastæ On Philosophy Ethical.
5.
1. Theagês On Philosophy Obstetric.
2. Charmidês On Temperance Peirastic.
3. Lachês On Courage Obstetric.
4. Lysis On Friendship Obstetric.
6.
1. Euthydêmus The Disputatious Man Refutative.
2. Protagoras The Sophists Probative.
3. Gorgias On Rhetoric Refutative.
4. Menon On Virtue Peirastic.
7.
1. Hippias I On the Beautiful Refutative.
2. Hippias II On Falsehood Refutative.
3. Ion On the Iliad Peirastic.
4. Menexenus The Funeral Oration Ethical.
8.
1. Kleitophon The Impulsive Ethical.
2. Republic On Justice Political.
3. Timæus On Nature Physical.
4. Kritias The Atlantid Ethical.
9.
1. Minos On Law Political.
2. Leges On Legislation Political.
3. Epinomis The Night-Assembly, Political
or the Philosopher
4. Epistolæ XIII Ethical.
The second Table, as it here stands, is given by Diogenes Laertius,
and is extracted by him probably from the work of Thrasyllus, or from
the edition of Plato as published by Thrasyllus. The reader will see
that each Platonic composition has a place assigned to it in two
classifications--1. The dramatic--2. The philosophical--each in itself
distinct and independent of the other, but here blended together.
[Side-note: Incongruity and repugnance of the two classifications.]
We may indeed say more. The two classifications are not only
independent, but incongruous and even repugnant. The better of the two
is only obscurely and imperfectly apprehended, because it is presented
as an appendage to the worse. The dramatic classification, which
stands in the foreground, rests upon a purely fanciful analogy,
determining preference for the number _four_. If indeed this objection
were urged against Thrasyllus, he might probably have replied that the
group of four volumes together was in itself convenient, neither too
large nor too small, for an elementary subdivision; and that the
fanciful analogy was an artifice for recommending it to the feelings,
better (after all) than selection of another number by haphazard. Be
that as it may, however, the fiction was one which Thrasyllus
inherited from Aristophanes: and it does some honour to his ability,
that he has built, upon so inconvenient a fiction, one tetralogy (the
first), really plausible and impressive.[47] But it does more honour
to his ability that he should have originated the philosophical
classification; distinguishing the dialogues by important attributes
truly belonging to each, and conducting the Platonic student to points
of view which ought to be made known to him. This classification forms
a marked improvement upon every thing (so far as we know) which
preceded it.
[Footnote 47: It is probable that Aristophanes, in distributing Plato
into trilogies, was really influenced by the dramatic form of the
compositions to put them in a class with real dramas. But Thrasyllus
does not seem to have been influenced by such a consideration. He took
the number _four_ on its own merits, and adopted, as a way of
recommending it, the traditional analogy sanctioned by the Alexandrine
librarians.
That such was the case, we may infer pretty clearly when we learn,
that Thrasyllus applied the same distribution (into tetralogies) to
the works of Demokritus, which were _not_ dramatic in form. (Diog. L.
ix. 45; Mullach, Democ. Frag. p. 100-107, who attempts to restore the
Thrasyllean tetralogies.)
The compositions of Demokritus were not merely numerous, but related
to the greatest diversity of subjects. To them Thrasyllus could not
apply the same logical or philosophical distribution which he applied
to Plato. He published, along with the works of Demokritus, a preface,
which he entitled [Greek: Ta\ pro\ tê=s a)nagnô/seôs tô=n Dêmokri/tou
bibli/ôn] (Diog. L. ix. 41).
Porphyry tells us, that when he undertook, as literary executor, the
arrangement and publication of the works of his deceased master
Plotinus, he found fifty-four discourses: which he arranged into six
Enneads or groups of nine each. He was induced to prefer this
distribution, by regard to the perfection of the number six ([Greek:
teleio/têti]). He placed in each Ennead discourses akin to each other,
or on analogous subjects (Porphyry, Vit. Plotin. 24).]
[Side-note: Dramatic principle of classification--was inherited by
Thrasyllus from Aristophanes.]
[Side-note: Authority of the Alexandrine library--editions of Plato
published, with the Alexandrine critical marks.]
That Thrasyllus followed Aristophanes in the principle of his
classification, is manifest: that he adopted the dramatic ground and
principle of classification (while amending its details), not because
he was himself guided by it, but because he found it already in use
and sanctioned by the high authority of the Alexandrines--is also
manifest, because he himself constructed and tacked to it a better
classification, founded upon principles new and incongruous with the
dramatic. In all this we trace the established ascendancy of the
Alexandrine library and its eminent literati. Of which ascendancy a
farther illustration appears, when we read in Diogenes Laertius that
editions of Plato were published, carrying along with the text the
special marks of annotation applied by the Alexandrines to Homer and
other poets: the obelus to indicate a spurious passage, the obelus
with two dots to denote a passage which had been improperly declared
spurious, the X to signify peculiar locutions, the double line or
Diplê to mark important or characteristic opinions of Plato--and
others in like manner. A special price was paid for manuscripts of
Plato with these illustrative appendages:[48] which must have been
applied either by Alexandrines themselves, or by others trained in
their school. When Thrasyllus set himself to edit and re-distribute
the Platonic works, we may be sure that he must have consulted one or
more public libraries, either at Alexandria, Athens, Rome, Tarsus, or
elsewhere. Nowhere else could he find all the works together. Now the
proceedings ascribed to him show that he attached himself to the
Alexandrine library, and to the authority of its most eminent critics.
[Footnote 48: Diog. L. iii. 65, 66. [Greek: E)pei\ de\ kai\ sêmei=a/
tina toi=s bibli/ois au)tou= parati/thetai, phe/re kai\ peri\ tou/tôn
ti ei)/pômen], &c. He then proceeds to enumerate the [Greek: sêmei=a].
It is important to note that Diogenes cites this statement (respecting
the peculiar critical marks appended to manuscripts of the Platonic
works) from Antigonus of Karystus in his Life of Zeno the Stoic. Now
the date of Antigonus is placed by Mr. Fynes Clinton in B.C. 225,
before the death of Ptolemy III. Euergetes (see Fasti Hellen. B.C.
225, also Appendix, 12, 80). Antigonus must thus have been
contemporary both with Kallimachus and with Aristophanes of Byzantium:
he notices the marked manuscripts of Plato as something newly
edited--[Greek: neôsti\ e)kdothe/nta]): and we may thus see that the work
of critical marking must have been performed either by Kallimachus and
Aristophanes themselves (one or both) or by some of their
contemporaries. Among the titles of the lost treatises of Kallimachus,
one is--about the [Greek: glô=ssai] or peculiar phrases of Demokritus.
It is therefore noway improbable that Kallimachus should have bestowed
attention upon the peculiarities of the Platonic text, and the
inaccuracies of manuscripts. The library had probably acquired several
different manuscripts of the Platonic compositions, as it had of the
Iliad and Odyssey, and of the Attic tragedies.]
[Side-note: Thrasyllus followed the Alexandrine library and
Aristophanes, as to genuine Platonic works.]
Probably it was this same authority that Thrasyllus followed in
determining which were the real works of Plato, and in setting aside
pretended works. He accepted the collection of Platonic compositions
sanctioned by Aristophanes and recognised as such in the Alexandrine
library. As far as our positive knowledge goes, it fully bears out
what is here stated: all the compositions recognised by Aristophanes
(unfortunately Diogenes does not give a complete enumeration of those
which he recognised) are to be found in the catalogue of Thrasyllus.
And the evidentiary value of this fact is so much the greater, because
the most questionable compositions (I mean, those which modern critics
reject or even despise) are expressly included in the recognition of
Aristophanes, and passed from him to Thrasyllus--Leges, Epinomis,
Minos, Epistolæ, Sophistês, Politikus. Exactly on those points on
which the authority of Thrasyllus requires to be fortified against
modern objectors, it receives all the support which coincidence with
Aristophanes can impart. When we know that Thrasyllus adhered to
Aristophanes on so many disputable points of the catalogue, we may
infer pretty certainly that he adhered to him in the remainder. In
regard to the question, Which were Plato's genuine works? it was
perfectly natural that Thrasyllus should accept the recognition of the
greatest library then existing: a library, the written records of
which could be traced back to Demetrius Phalereus. He followed this
external authority: he did not take each dialogue to pieces, to try
whether it conformed to a certain internal standard--a "platonisches
Gefühl"--of his own.
[Side-note: Ten spurious dialogues, rejected by all other critics as
well as by Thrasyllus--evidence that these critics followed the common
authority of the Alexandrine library.]
That the question between genuine and spurious Platonic dialogues was
tried in the days of Thrasyllus, by external authority and not by
internal feeling--we may see farther by the way in which Diogenes
Laertius speaks of the spurious dialogues. "The following dialogues
(he says) are declared to be spurious _by common consent_: 1. Eryxias
or Erasistratus. 2. Akephali or Sisyphus. 3. Demodokus. 4. Axiochus.
5. Halkyon. 6. Midon or Hippotrophus. 7. Phæakes. 8. Chelidon. 9.
Hebdomê. 10. Epimenides."[49] There was, then, unanimity, so far as
the knowledge of Diogenes Laertius reached, as to genuine and
spurious. All the critics whom he valued, Thrasyllus among them,
pronounced the above ten dialogues to be spurious: all of them agreed
also in accepting the dialogues in the list of Thrasyllus as
genuine.[50] Of course the ten spurious dialogues must have been
talked of by some persons, or must have got footing in some editions
or libraries, as real works of Plato: otherwise there could have been
no trial had or sentence passed upon them. But what Diogenes affirms
is, that Thrasyllus and all the critics whose opinion he esteemed,
concurred in rejecting them. We may surely presume that this unanimity
among the critics, both as to all that they accepted and all that they
rejected, arose from common acquiescence in the authority of the
Alexandrine library.[51] The ten rejected dialogues were not in the
Alexandrine library--or at least not among the rolls therein
recognised as Platonic.
[Footnote 49: Diog. L. iii. 62: [Greek: notheu/ontai de\ tô=n
dialo/gôn o(mologoume/nôs].
Compare Prolegomena [Greek: tê=s Pla/tônos Philosophi/as], in
Hermann's Appendix Platonica, p. 219.]
[Footnote 50: It has been contended by some modern critics, that
Thrasyllus himself doubted whether the Hipparchus was Plato's work.
When I consider that dialogue, I shall show that there is no adequate
ground for believing that Thrasyllus doubted its genuineness.]
[Footnote 51: Diogenes (ix. 49) uses the same phrase in regard to the
spurious works ascribed to Demokritus, [Greek: ta\ d' o(mologoume/nôs
e)sti\n a)llo/tria]. And I believe that he means the same thing by it:
that the works alluded to were not recognised in the Alexandrine
library as belonging to Demokritus, and were accordingly excluded from
the tetralogies (of Demokritus) prepared by Thrasyllus.]
[Side-note: Thrasyllus did not follow an internal sentiment of his own
in rejecting dialogues as spurious.]
If Thrasyllus and the others did not proceed upon this evidence in
rejecting the ten dialogues, and did not find in them any marks of
time such as to exclude the supposition of Platonic authorship--they
decided upon what is called internal evidence: a critical sentiment,
which satisfied them that these dialogues did not possess the Platonic
character, style, manner, doctrines, merits, &c. Now I think it highly
improbable that Thrasyllus could have proceeded upon any such
sentiment. For when we survey the catalogue of works which he
recognised as genuine, we see that it includes the widest diversity of
style, manner, doctrine, purpose, and merits: that the disparate
epithets, which he justly applies to discriminate the various
dialogues, cannot be generalised so as to leave any intelligible
"Platonic character" common to all. Now since Thrasyllus reckoned
among the genuine works of Plato, compositions so unlike, and so
unequal in merit, as the Republic, Protagoras, Gorgias, Lysis,
Parmenidês, Symposion, Philêbus, Menexenus, Leges, Epinomis,
Hipparchus, Minos, Theagês, Epistolæ, &c., not to mention a
composition obviously unfinished, such as the Kritias--he could have
little scruple in believing that Plato also composed the Eryxias,
Sisyphus, Demodokus, and Halkyon. These last-mentioned dialogues still
exist, and can be appreciated.[52] Allowing, for the sake of argument,
that we are entitled to assume our own sense of worth as a test of
what is really Plato's composition, it is impossible to deny, that if
these dialogues are not worthy of the author of Republic and
Protagoras, they are at least worthy of the author of the Leges,
Epinomis, Hipparchus, Minos, &c. Accordingly, if the internal
sentiment of Thrasyllus did not lead him to reject these last four,
neither would it lead him to reject the Eryxias, Sisyphus, and
Halkyon. I conclude therefore that if he, and all the other critics
whom Diogenes esteemed, agreed in rejecting the ten dialogues as
spurious--their verdict depended not upon any internal sentiment, but
upon the authority of the Alexandrine library.[53]
[Footnote 52: The Axiochus, Eryxias, Sisyphus, and Demodokus, are
printed as Apocrypha annexed to most editions of Plato, together with
two other dialogues entitled De Justo and De Virtute. The Halkyon has
generally appeared among the works of Lucian, but K. F. Hermann has
recently printed it in his edition of Plato among the Platonic
Apocrypha.
The Axiochus contains a mark of time (the mention of [Greek:
A)kadêmi/a] and [Greek: Lukei=on], p. 367), as F. A. Wolf has
observed, proving that it was not composed until the Platonic and
Peripatetic schools were both of them in full establishment at
Athens--that is, certainly after the death of Plato, and probably after
the death of Aristotle. It is possible that Thrasyllus may have proceeded
upon this evidence of time, at least as collateral proof, in
pronouncing the dialogue not to be the work of Plato. The other four
dialogues contain no similar evidence of date.
Favorinus affirmed that Halkyon was the work of an author named Leon.
Some said (Diog. L. iii. 37) that Philippus of Opus, one of the
disciples of Plato, transcribed the Leges, which were on waxen tablets
([Greek: e)n kêrô=|]), and that the Epinomis was his work ([Greek:
tou/tou de\ kai\ tê\n E)pinomi/da phasi\n ei)=nai]). It was probably
the work of Philippus only in the sense in which the Leges were his
work--that he made a fair and durable copy of parts of it from the
wax. Thrasyllus admitted it with the rest as Platonic.]
[Footnote 53: Mullach (Democr. Fragm. p. 100) accuses Thrasyllus of an
entire want of critical sentiment, and pronounces his catalogue to be
altogether without value as an evidence of genuine Platonic
works--because Thrasyllus admits many dialogues, "quos doctorum nostri
sæculi virorum acumen è librorum Platonicorum numero exemit".
This observation exactly illustrates the conclusion which I desire to
bring out. I admit that Thrasyllus had a critical sentiment different
from that of the modern Platonic commentators; but I believe that in
the present case he proceeded upon other evidence--recognition by the
Alexandrine library. My difference with Mullach is, that I consider
this recognition (in a question of genuine or spurious) as more
trustworthy evidence than the critical sentiment of modern literati.]
[Side-note: Results as to the trustworthiness of the Thrasyllean
Canon.]
On this question, then, of the Canon of Plato's works (as compared
with the works of other contemporary authors) recognised by
Thrasyllus--I consider that its claim to trustworthiness is very high,
as including all the genuine works, and none but the genuine works, of
Plato: the following facts being either proved, or fairly presumable.
1. The Canon rests on the authority of the Alexandrine library and its
erudite librarians;[54] whose written records went back to the days of
Ptolemy Soter, and Demetrius Phalereus, within a generation after the
death of Plato.
2. The manuscripts of Plato at his death were preserved in the school
which he founded; where they continued for more than thirty years
under the care of Speusippus and Xenokrates, who possessed personal
knowledge of all that Plato had really written. After Xenokrates, they
came under the care of Polemon and the succeeding Scholarchs, from
whom Demetrius Phalereus probably obtained permission to take copies
of them for the nascent museum or library at Alexandria or through
whom at least (if he purchased from booksellers) he could easily
ascertain which were Plato's works, and which, if any, were spurious.
3. They were received into that library without any known canonical
order, prescribed system, or interdependence essential to their being
properly understood. Kallimachus or Aristophanes devised an order of
arrangement for themselves, such as they thought suitable.
[Footnote 54: Suckow adopts and defends the opinion here stated--that
Thrasyllus, in determining which were the genuine works of Plato and
which were not genuine, was guided mainly by the authority of the
Alexandrine library and librarians (G. F. W. Suckow, Form der
Platonischen Schriften, pp. 170-175). Ueberweg admits this opinion as
just (Untersuchungen, p. 195).
Suckow farther considers (p. 175) that the catalogue of works of
esteemed authors, deposited in the Alexandrine library, may be
regarded as dating from the [Greek: Pi/nakes] of Kallimachus.
This goes far to make out the presumption which I have endeavoured to
establish in favour of the Canon recognised by Thrasyllus, which,
however, these two authors do not fully admit.
K. F. Hermann, too (see Gesch. und Syst. der Platon. Philos. p. 44),
argues sometimes strongly in favour of this presumption, though
elsewhere he entirely departs from it.]