PLATO
272
PLATO
Kitchen (Bologna, 1498, 8vo), which provoked the fol- lowing epigram by Sannazarius:
Iogenin et mo
p Ificnm, argntxe lex fuit historise. Tu tamen liic lantse trnctas pulmenta (-turns, Bo l • flcea
- - rockh, Kirchengesch. vol. xxxii : Nice'ron, Mi- moires, vol. iii : Tiraboschi, Sloria d< Ua I tU r. U<'l s. v. ;
Plato, "i"' of the mosl eminent of the Greek i »1 * i— losoptaers. lit- was by far the mosl illustrious of the pupils "i' Socrates, < pletely eclipsing all his fellow- students, so thai st. Augustine justly remarks, - [nter discipulos Socrates, non quidem immerito, excellentis- ria claruit, qui omnes csteros obscuraret, Pla- I ip. Dei, \ iii. I I. He v. as the earliesi of the systematic scholarchs, or founders of permanent schools, in which the doctrines of the original master, with more or Less of developmenl and change, continued to be ex- pounded through successive generations. His fame and influence on antiquity transcended the renown and au- thority of any other teacher, and may have suggested, tion with the character of his doctrine and the mode of its exposition, the declaration of Labeo, thai he was to be accounted a god rather than a man. •■lime' Platonem Labeo inter semideos commemoran- dum putavit, sicul Herculem, sicut Romulum; semideos autem heroibus anteponit, sed utrosque inter numina collocat" (Augustine, ibid, ii. 14). His influence was Increased, rather than diminished, during the long and ardent struggle between rising Christianity and expir- i ism both combatants receiving his impulse, claiming Ins alliance, and submitting to Ids philosoph- ical ascendency. Though the oblivion of the Creek lan- guage and the dogmatic character of mediaeval specu- lation turned intellectual activity into widely divergenl channels, yel the revival of letters was attended by the resurrection of Plato; and the Mediceau Academy of Florence, under the direction of Marsilius Ficinus (q. v.), renewed the prominence of his name and of his philos- ophy. Since thai period, the beginning of the 16th century. Plato has enjoyed an augmented authority in tain of metaphysical inquiry; has animated successive schools of brilliant reputation and of ex- tensive rule; and has been the late progenitor of the ni"-t famous systems which have given to modern Germany its marvellous predominance in transcenden- tal metaphysics.
I. Lift and Times. The notices of Plato's life which ae down to us are few and scanty, and for the mosl part unauthenticated. Legendearly fastened upon his name, and incrusted it over with myths as striking and a-~ unreal as any employed by himself for the ex- emplification of his tenets. lie transformed the rugged honesty of his teacher, Socrates : he was himself trans- i by the wild fantasy of his own followers, .'11111 was translated in equal degree with Bully Bottom, though in dissimilar im«le. But, if little is known of the real circumstances and Incidents of the life of the philosopher, there is abundant information in regard to motli 3 times in which he lived. The ii - for the life of Plato which have been tram-mitt, d to us are few, late, and untrustworthy. His hy by his pupil, companion, and successor, Xe- nocrates, was 1 arl) lost. < »f the numerous writers con- t. mporaneous with him. or living in the next centuries, u ho tri an d hi- life, professedly or incidentally, scarcely any available memorials survive. < >ur fullest author- ities are Diogenes Lai rtius, Apuleius, • llympiodorus, in the life prefixed lo mosl editions of the Opera Platoms, and an anonymous biographi r. These writers, 1 liogenes Laertius especially, may have had trustworthy materials at command, but they have commingled, or rather in- undated them, with the legendan growth which sprang up after Plato's death a growth which should nol be entirely neglected, as it exhibits the manner in which Plato was regard* d bj his admiring disciples, arising out
of his own imaginative expositions, and anticipating the fantastic reveries ol the Neo- Platonic Tbaumaturgista. Plato was horn a lull Athenian citizen, of Athenian parents, but, apparently, not within the limits of At- tica. His birthplace seems to have been the island of .l'.-ina. where his father owned a cleruchy, or colonial estate. There are dissonances in regard to the year of his birth, but it fell within the lirst half of the Decen- nial War. or earlier portion of the Peloponuesian War,
ie assigns his nativity to May. B.C. 427, jusl before
the surrender of Platsa; Clinton 10 May. B.C. 129, four or five months before the death of Pericles; and Diog- enes Laertius to B.C. 128, the year in which Anaxag- oras died. Taking Grote's date for convenience, as this ia no place for the investigation of such chronological prob- lem-, the philosopher's birth was synchronous with the first exhibitions of the comedian Aristophanes, whom, throughout life he so greatly admired, ami whose works he kept habitually under his pillow. Both the parents of Plato were of noble blood; a circumstance which af- fected equally his political inclinations anil his specu- lative views. His lather was Arist.m. the son of Aris- tocles, and traced his descent from Codrus and the god Posi idon. Ilis mother's name was Perictione. she was descended from a collateral branch of the family of Solon the Lawgiver; was nearly related to Critias, the chief of the Thirty Tyrants, and" was the si-ter ofChar- mides, who was at the same time one of the ten govern- ors of the Piraeus. The genealogical table is given by Qeberweg. Legend, which is traced back to Speusip- j .ii-. 1 he nephew of Plato, ascribed the paternity of Plato to the god Ap..llo: and. in the form in which the story- is told by Olympiodorus, closely imitates the record in regard to the nativity of Christ. A similar origin was as-igmd to Senilis TuHius. to Pythagoras, to Alexander the Great, to Scipio Africanus, to Apollonius of Cyana, to the seventh ancestor of Genghiz-Kahn, to Buddha, and to man] other notable personages. The story of Hercules is well known, and furnished occasion for the apt sarcasm of Tertullian : ■•Herculem de fabula facia Christum" (Adv. Marc. iv. 2). It was an old-world tale, often repeated in many ages and in many lands. As it was trace. I back to Speusippus, the translation of Plato into a supernatural being must have commenced immediately alter his death. The transcendentalism of his doctrine may have suggested the fiction of his original divinity. The latter was recognised in the in- scription on the tomb erected to his memory by the Athenians: