Toil iff "AiroXXcov tpva, 'AoicAtiJrioi itii tWarava' Tov 1111 'iva v'.cx./i, toi i' iva <ri7.,.ut, ctc.oi.
Soon after his birth he w a- carried to Mount Ilymettus by his lather and mother, that they might perform on his account the due sacrifices to the enchorial d< iii. - l'an. the Nymphs, and the Xoinian Apollo. As tie- in- fant lay sleeping on the (lowers, the bees -tiled upon Ids lips, and tilled his mouth with honey and the honey- comb, that Homer's verse might be accomplished, says 1 H\ mpiodorus:
Tov Ka't .'. tt . . -,. v;-,t,t„. ui r\iTO! -Vi-.o.m ptei utviri (II. ii, 249).
ding to Creek usage, the child was called Aris-
foc/.s-. after his paternal grandfather. The name of Plato
was imposed on him by Ariston of Argos, his instructor
in gymnastics, on ac< nt of the breadth of his shoul-
dt i- or of his forehead, or in consequence of the com- pass and fluency of bis speech. He excelled bo far in athletic sports as to gain the reputation of having con- tended in the Isthmian and oth.-r games. He began iiis education at an early age by studying grammar under Dionysius, and continued it by prosecuting the
w ide circle of knowledge then called music under I >raCO,
a distinguished pupil of the more distinguished Damon.
At some period of his youth he also gained an acquaint- ance with the philosophy of Heraclitus, under the guid- ance of CratyluS, after whom be has named one of his
Dialogues, As a boy, he is said to have been quick in
PLATO
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PLATO
apprehension, eager, diligent, grave, and modest. His first ambition, as with most young men of lively genius, seems to have been for literary renown. He wrote lyr- ics, dithyrambs, epigrams, and tragedies; and is even said to have composed a tetralogy for competition in the Dionysiac festival. In the estimation of antiquity he was universally accomplished, and his writings attest a wide range of acquirement. After he entered into intimate relations with Socrates, he burned up his ju- venile poems ; but throughout his career he was attend- ed by the poetic afflatus. The acquaintance with Soc- rates seems to have begun about his twentieth year (B.C. 407), and was probably incited by the same causes which induced other wealthy, elegant, and ambitious Athenians to frequent the company of the ceaseless dis- putant— the desire of skill in debate, and dexterity in public harangues. Plato, or the author of the Seventh Epistle attributed to Plato, acknowledges that in youth "he was animated, like other young men, to devote himself, as soon as he was his own master, to the affairs of the commonwealth.'' Other attractions arose, and the association with Socrates became closer and closer with the passing years, till his venerable master was removed from him by the fatal cup of hemlock, after tight years of communion.
The twentieth year of Plato, according to Grote's chronology, coincides with the return of Alcibiades to Athens, the commission of Lysander as commander of the Peloponnesian fleet, and the appointment of Cyrus to the satrapy of Asia. Two years later came the de- cisive overthrow of the Athenians at iEgospotami — the siege — the starvation — the surrender — the dismantling and the humiliation of Athens. During these disastrous and sorrowing years the age of Plato would keep him employed, during the season of military operations, in the fleet, the infantry, or, more probably from his social station, in the cavalry. He is said to have participated in three engagements — at Tanagra, at Delium, and at Corinth. These exploits are wild imaginations, spring- ing from the acknowledgment of Plato's service in the field, which an active, healthy youth could not have avoided, in such days of agony, without incurring the degradation of Ati7rora£/a. Plato might have been present at Corinth, but I >elium was fought when he was only three years old ; Tanagra, when he was only one, or. if the principal action of that name be regarded, thirty years before his birth. There is no reason to doubt Plato's military service, but the scenes of that service are wholly conjectural. His intimate connec- tion with Chabrias, in whose defence he once spoke, perhaps arose from old camaraderie.
The subjugation of Athens and the usurpation of the Thirty opened to Plato the public career which ap- peared barred against him during the reckless rule of the Dermis. Critias, the leader of the Thirty, a man of splendid and various talent, of high culture, of daring energy, and of unscrupulous ambition, was a cousin; Charmides, one of the Ten at Piraeus, who fell in the battle with Thrasybulus, was an uncle. The gates of the political stadium were thrown wide open to him, and the prospect of rapid advancement invited his eager activity. Accepting the Seventh Epistle as genuine, we have his own declaration that he promptly seized the opportunity afforded. His relatives, his friends, his party, so long excluded from office, were at length in power; and he entered as an aspirant along with those to whom he was united by blood, by traditional associ- ation, by hereditary interest, and by personal procliv- ities. He was a born aristocrat. These things should be remembered in the appreciation of Plato's political reveries, in the estimation of his censures of Pericles and the democracy, and even in the interpretation of his sarcasms on the rhetoricians and sophists. lie was himself an exclusive, an oligarch, and he hated popular liberty even more than he hated a tyrant. His polit- ical prospects were, however, soon overclouded. The recent democracy had. doubtless, been lawless, savage, VIII.— S