Be

to multiply 384, the first assumed term, by 27. But why by 27? cause that number is the sum of the first numbers, which represent lines, surfaces, solids, squares, and cubes, added to unity. Thus, 1 is unity; 2 and 3, the first numbers representing lines; 4 and 9, the first surfaces, and both squares, the former of an even number (2), and the latter of an odd number (3); and lastly, 8 and 27, both representing solids and cubes, the former of an even number (2), and the latter of an odd number (3). Taking then the number 27 as the symbol of the world, and the numbers which it contains as the symbols of the elements and their combinations, it was only reasonable for the Soul of the world, which is the very basis of order and of the combinations, which constitute the world, to be composed of the same elements (of order) as the number 27 is itself."

THE

LIFE OF PLATO,

ACCORDING TO

DIOGENES LAERTIUS.

[1] PLATO, an Athenian, was the son of Ariston and Perictioné, or Potoné,1 who carried up her family to Solon. For Solon's brother was Dropides; whose son was Critias, the father of Calæschrus, whose children were Critias, one of the thirty, and Glaucon, from whom were sprung Charmides and Perictioné, of whom and of Ariston Plato was the son, the sixth in descent from Solon, who carried up his genealogy to Neleus and Poseidon. They say that his father likewise carried his family up to Codrus, the son of Melanthus, who, according to Thrasyllus, were historically descended from Poseidon. [2.] But Speusippus, in his work entitled "Plato's Funeral Supper," and Clearchus, in his "Praise of Plato," and Anaxilides, in the second book "About Philosophers,"

Since the mother of Plato is not called elsewhere Potoné, it would seem, that the name of the daughter (in § 4) has been by some mistake attributed to the parent, contrary to the usual custom of Greece, where girls were never, I believe, called after their mothers, although they were, perhaps, after their grandmothers, just as boys were after their grandfathers. Hence for ἣ Ποτώνης one might read ἐκ or ἀπὸ Ποτώνης By" the thirty" are meant the thirty tyrants," as they were called, appointed by Lysander to be the Board of Directors at Athens, after the city had fallen into the power of the Lacedæmonians.

2

who were

66

* In lieu of περὶ δείπνου, I have adopted περιδείπνῳ, as recommended by Menage. For Epideπvov, as we learn from Suidas, was a supper in honour of the dead, and one at which it was customary to speak an eulogy on the deceased. Now as Plato died at a marriage feast, according to the account given just afterwards, and alluded to in § 45, it is not difficult to probably the subject of the IIɛpideπvov written by Speusippus, the nephew of Plato.

see what was

state that there was a story at Athens, how that Ariston attempted to violate Perictioné, then in her prime, and not succeeding, beheld, on ceasing from his violence, a vision of Apollo, from which time he kept her undefiled by the rights of marriage until her delivery; when Plato, says Apollodorus, in his "Chronicles," was born in Ol. 88, on the seventh of Thargelion, (i. e. April,) the day on which the Delians say Apollo was born; and he died, as Hermippus states, while supping at a marriage feast,2 in the first year of Ol. 108, having lived 81 years.3 [3.] But Neanthes says he died in his 84th year. He was therefore younger than Isocrates by 6 years; who was born in the archonship of Lysimachus; but Plato in that of Ameinias,5 during which Pericles died. He was of the ward of Colyttus, as Antileon states in the second book "On Chronology;" but according to some he was born at Ægina, in the house of Phidiades, the son of Thales, as Phavorinus says in his "Various History," through his father having been sent (thither), together with some others, as an allotment-holder, but who returned to Athens, when those parties were driven out by the Lacedæmonians, who assisted the people of Ægina. He acted moreover as a Choregus, the means being furnished by Dion," as Athenodorus

6

The story, told here rather indistinctly by Diogenes, is given more clearly by Plutarch in Sympos. viii. 1, and the other authors quoted by Casaubon and Menage; from whom it appears, that Plato was said to have been the son of Apollo, and not of Aristo, who married Perictioné, not knowing that she was already pregnant by the god.

=

2 But Cicero, de Senect. § 5, says that Plato died while in the act of writing. Here, instead of yaμois, Clinton in Fast. Hellenic. p. 139, — 149, ed. Krueger, would read yɛvelλioig, “his birthday."

3 But Athenæus, in v. c. 18, says that Plato died in his 82nd year. The discrepancy in the account of Neanthes is owing, perhaps, to the error of A (4) for A (1) found in the MS. of that author, which Diogenes made use of.

♦ Meursius, De Archont. Athen. iii. 2, would read Y (7) for 5 (6), on the authority of Pseudo-Plutarch's Life of Isocrates.

5 Instead of "Ameinias," Salmasius proposed to read "Ameinon." The word in Diodorus is Epameinondas. But no Athenian, eligible for the Archonship, would have been called by a name with the Doric_termination in "das," instead of the Attic in des." Athenæus has Epameinon. In such a variety of readings, who, asks Menage, can detect

the true one?

6 On the allotment-holders sent to Egina, see Thucyd. ii. 27.

7 The same fact is mentioned by Plutarch likewise, in Dion. p. 964, F., quoted by Casaubon.

states in the eighth book of his "Peripatetics." [4.] He had two brothers, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a sister, Potoné, of whom Speusippus was the son. 1 He received his boyhood's education under Dionysius, of whom he makes mention in "The Rivals;" but became a gymnast under the wrestler Ariston of Argos; by whom he was called Plato on account of his fine habit of body, having borne previously the name of Aristocles after his grandfather,2 as Alexander states in his "Successions; "3 but some (say) he was called so from 4the breadth of his interpretation,4 5 or because he was of a broad face, as Neanthes asserts.5 There are also those who state that he wrestled at the Isthmus,6 as Dicæarchus does in his first book "On Lives;"" [5.] and that he paid some attention to painting; and wrote poetry, at first dithyrambs,8 and subsequently songs and tragedies; and they say he had a thin voice, 10 as Timotheus of Athens states in his work "On Lives." It is said moreover that Socrates saw in a dream

ι Such is the proper translation of ἐπαιδεύθη γράμματα. For by ypáμuara, literally "letters," was meant every thing that a boy was taught in his earliest years.

2 As the name of Aristocles does not appear in the genealogy on the mother's side, the person alluded to was of course the father of Ariston. By the word "Successions are to be understood those that occurred in the different schools of philosophy.

• Such is the literal version of τὴν πλατύτητα τῆς ἑρμηνείας, which Menage renders" orationis ubertatem." But such neither is, nor could be, the meaning of ἑρμηνείας. Diogenes probably wrote ειρωνείας. For “irony is the figure of speech constantly adopted by Socrates. Compare Sympos. p. 218, D. μaλa ɛiowvikus. Rep. i. p. 337, A., ǹ ɛiwOvĩa εἰρωνεία Σωκράτους. And thus the expression ή πλατύτης τῆς εἰρωνείας may be compared with λarus yéλws, which Herodian, at the end of Phrynichus, p. 471, ed. Lobeck, says is more elegant than yέλws roλús. 55 The words between the numerals ought to be placed after μɛTwvopároŋ a little above-for thus the three different reasons, why Plato's name was changed from Aristocles, will be properly assigned to three different authorities.

Where the Isthmian games were celebrated.

Of these Lives by Dicæarchus, a fragment of one has come down to us, under the title of Βίος Ελλάδος

Elian, in V. H. ii. 30, says that Plato first wrote Heroic verses, not Dithyrambs.

Instead of pάow, "they say," one would prefer púow, “by nature." The two words are constantly confounded.

10 So Menage rightly understands ioxvóqwvoc: although he did not see that in Hesych. Ισχνόφωνος· λεπτόφωνος, ἀπεχόμενος τὴν φώνην, the correct reading is κατισχόμενος—the explanation of ἰσχόφωνος.