e se, and from its flourishing condition at his death.
Among the more notable of the earlier academicians
were Aristotle, who attended the instructions of the
her for twenty years ; Speusippus, the nephew
of PlatO, and his immediate successor; Xenocrates. who
Speusippus in the direction of the school;
Eudox us of Cnidus, the illustrious astronomer: the ora-
sthenes, Hyperides, and Lycurgus; the Syra-
n. and his comrade and murderer, Caliippus.
.May we add " I'mion of Allien-' to the list, on the
of the statement oft llympiodorus, that "with
me did the misanthrope associate." Men and
strong-minded women are said to have flocked to his
lectures, as he rei need the pungent and mortifying
irony of Socrates, abstained from disputations in the markets and workshops, and refrained from hunting up young men to persecute them with logomachies. He differed from the Pythagoreans in the abstinence from oaths, secrecy, and dogmatism; he differed from the Sophists, or those to whom the name in a later day at- tached, in requiring no fee from bis hi arers, il gh he
accepted presents at times ol large amounts. Honor, renown, and influence increased with advani ii
He was consulted, like that strange philosopher, Ben- iham. in recent limes, by communities anxious to im- prove their organizations or jurisprudence. The Mace- donian king Perdiccas sought his advice, and received Philip into his confidence upon his recommendation. The younger Dionysius twice tempted him to s_v racuse, though from i hese \ i-it- he derived little advantage for himself, no improvement of condition for the Sicilians, and only discredit for philosophy. These two expedi- tions to Sicily constitute notable . pisodes in the life of Plato, and are reported and exculpated at length in the
Seventh Epistle. < >n the accession of Dionysius the younger, who entertained b e philosophical aspira- tion-, and was still in the freshness of youth, bis uncle Dion pursuaded Plato to accept an invitation to Syra- cuse, in the hope that his influence over a youthful mind might promote a renovation of good order and prosperity, by inducing the abandonment of the savage policy and cruel practices of the preceding tyranny. Plato yielded with hesitation and reluctance, a- he af- terwards declared, and sailed for Syracuse B.C. 367, twenty years after his tirst supposed \ isit. lie was cor- dially welcomed, hospitably entertained, and for some time handsomely treated. But no conversion was ef- fected, lie found the young cub the whelp ol the old beast. Dion was banished, and Plato discovered him- self to be virtually a captive under surveillance. He was anxious to return to Alliens, but the means of escape were unattainable. Dionysius made promises, and entreaties which were commands, and Plato pro- longed his stay till the season of navigation in the en- suing year. Notwithstanding this unhappy experi- ence, he was again (B.C. 361 I persuaded to \i>il the tyrant of Syracuse, for the purpose of reconciling Dio- nysius to Dion, and securing the re- 1 oral ion of the latter to his country. The attempt failed utterly. Plato's life was imperilled, and he was enabled to return home only through the intervention of Archytas of Tarcnlum. On his return he met Dion at Olympia, and seems to have sanctioned his military expedition against Diony- sius. though refusing any direct participation in the en- terprise, on account of the technical hospitalitj received from the tyrant. Dion's bold adventure was successful, Dionysius was deposed and driven into exile, Dion acquired the control of Syracuse, declined into t_\ ran id- eal procedures himself, was assassinated by hi- comrade Caliippus. who was murdered in turn, and in the con- flict of anarchy Dionysiuswas restored.
The intercourse of Plato with Dionysius, and even with Dion, was open to grave suspicion ; and his visits to Sicily, with their calamitous issues, occasioned bitter reproach. The Seventh Epistle, addressed to the friends of Dion. i> an elaborate exposition of the motives by which he professed to have been guided, and an anxious apology for his conduct. The disorder of the explana- tions; i he subtle casuistry of the reasoning ; the earnest palliation of bis actions; the inconsequences and incon- gruities .if bis statements : the ruggedness and inequal- ity of the expression; the absence of an. alike in the structure and in the details of the letter ate very diver- gent from I he gra< es of Pla Ionic composition, but are ill petf, cl consonance with the situation of Plato, and with the painful solicitudes of a man compelled to justify what he was ashamed of. and. after the disaster of the mortifying events, to put the beat possible interpreta- tions upon unpleasant and damaging memories which could not be suppressed. Tin' real facts may have been
t hese : Plato, w it h the sanguine hope of a poet, the con- fidence of a philosopher, ami the ambition of a reformer, believed thai he could re-establish peace, good order,
and happiness in Syracuse by his proem e : bul Diony- sius and hi- subject- were equally intractable; and the Syracusaus were so unfitted tor civic and social tran- quillity, by selfish and sensual luxury, chronic discord and general demoralization, a- to be restless under any government, ami refractory under any law-. The dis- solution was universal throughout the Hellenic world.
PLATO
275
PLATO
though unrecognised ; the total decay of the constitu- tion was mistaken for an accidental, transitory, and curable disease. It was a time, in some respects, like the present : when the distemperature of society was universally experienced; when theories of all kinds — new constitutions on novel principles; socialistic, com- munist ic, and other dreams— were in vogue, and some- times put into practice, with only an aggravation of misery. This unhappy condition of society explains not merely Plato's failures in Sicily, but his disgust at Athenian politics, and the visionary, extravagant, and often immoral devices of his own political speculations.