Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/403

PLANUDES. and Epigrams in the works of ancient authors and inscriptions ; the third volume contains the notes, which are only critical and not explanatory, the indices, and the corrections of Paulssen, under the following title: — Apograpld Gothani, qtiemadmo- <lum id expressum habemus in Editionis hujus tarn Tcdtu quam Comm. usque ad sectionem decimam quurtam cum ipso Codice Palatino diligenter nunc iterum collati accurata correctio. Edidit^ adjedis pas- sim observationibus suis palaeographice criticis. Ant. Jac. Paulssen, D. This appendix is preceded by a Frooemium, containing a more exact account of the Palatine Codex than had previously appeared. The series of Greek and Latin authors, printed by Tauchnitz, contains a very inaccurate reprint of the work of Jacobs ; Lips. 1829. 3 vols. 18mo. d. T/ie Anthology since the Wo7-Tcs of Jacobs. Immense as were Jacobs's services for the Greek Anthology, much has still been left for his succes- sors to accomplish, in the further correction of the text, the investigation of the sources and forms of the earlier Anthologies, the more accurate assign- ment of many epigrams to their right authors, and the collection of additional epigrams, especially from recently-discovered inscriptions. The great scho- lars of the day, such as Hermann, Welcker, Mei- neke, and others, have not neglected this duty. The most important contributions are the follow- ing: — Welcker, Sylloge Epigrammatum Graeco- rum, ex Marmoribus et Libris collectorum, et illus- iraiorum, studio F. T. Welckeri, Bonn. 1828, 8vo. with G. Hermann's review in the Ephem. Lit. Lips. 1829, Nos. 148 — 151, and Welcker's reply, Abweisung der verungluchlen Conjecturen des Herrn Prof. Her7na7i7i, Bonn, 1829, 8vo. : Cramer, Anec- dota, vol. iv. pp. 366—388, Oxon. 1838, with Meineke's Epim. XII l. to his Analecta Alescan- drina, Berol. 1843, de Anthologiae Graecae Supple- mcnto nuper edito : Meineke, Delectus Poetarum Anthologiae Graeccu', cum Adnotatione Critica. Acceduni Conjectanea Critica de Anthologiae Graecae Locis controversis, Berol. 1843, 8vo. (comp. Zeit- schiifl fur Alterfhumsvrissenschaft, 1845, No. 51): A. Hecker, Comment. Crit. de Anih. Grace. Lugd. Bat. 1843: R. Unger, Deilr'dye zur Kritik der GricchiscJien Anthologie, Neubrandenburg, 1844, 4to. ; besides several other monographs ; and an extremely important article by G. Weigand, de Fotitibus atque Ordine Anthologiae Cephalanae, in the P/iei?iiscIies Museum, vol. iii, pp. 161, seq. 541, seq. 1846, with an appendix in vol. v. pp. 276, seq. 1847. There is also an article in the Revue de Philologie for 1 847, vol. ii. No. 4. pp. 305— 335, entitled Observations sur VAntlkologie Grecqm, par M. le docteur N. Piccolos. Lastly, a passage in the preface to Meineke's Z>e/eeiMs intimates that ho has contemplated an entirely new edition of the Anthology^ a work for which he is perhaps better qualitied than any other living scholar. Of the innumerable chrestomathies and delec- tuses, the most useful for students is that of Jacobs, in the Bibliotheca Graeca, Delectus Epi- grammatum Grace, quern, novo ordine concinnavit et comment, in us. scholar, instruxit F.Jacobs, Gothae, 1826, 8vo. Of the numerous translations into the modern European languages, those best worth mentioning are the Gorman translations of Herder, in his Zcrstr. Blditcr, and of Jacobs, in his Tempe and Lcbcn und Kunst der Alten (Jacobs, Prolcgom. ad PLATO. 391 Animadv. in Epigrammata Anth. Grace. ; Id. Praef, ad Anth. Pal. ; Id. ixvi. Anthologie in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclop'ddie ; Fabricius, Bibl. Grace. vol. iv. cap. 32 ; Hoffmann, Lexicon BibliograpJi, Script. Grace; Schoell, Geschichte der Griechischen Litteratur, vol. iii. p. 37 ; Berahardy, Grundriss der Griechischen Litteratur, vol. ii. pp. 1054 — 1066.) ^ [P.S.] PLATAEA {UXdraia), a daughter of Asopus, who had a sanctuary at Plataeae (Pans. ix. 1. § 2, 2. § 5), which according to some derived its name from her, but according to others from the ttAotij Twv Kwndv. (Strab. ix. p. 406 ; comp. p. 409, &c.) [L. S.] PLATO (ITAaTwj/), one of the chief Athenian comic poets of the Old Comedy, was contemporary with Aristophanes, Phrynichus, Eupolis, and Phe- recrates. (Suid. s. u.) He is erroneously placed by Eusebius {Chron.) and Syncellus (p. 247, d.) as contemporary with Cratinus, at 01. 81. 3, B. c. 454 ; whereas, his first exhibition was in 01. 88, B.C. 427, as we learn from Cyril (adv. Julian, i. p. 13, b.), whose testimony is confirmed by the above state- ment of Suidas, and by the fact that the comedies of Plato evidentlj'^ partook somewhat of the charac- ter of the Middle Comedy, to which, in fact, some of the grammarians assign him. He is mentioned by Marcellinus ( Vit. Thuc. p. xi. Bekker) as con- temporary with Thucydides, who died in 01. 97. 2, B.C. 391 ; but Plato must have lived a few years longer, as Plutarch quotes from him a passage which evidently refers to the appointment of the demagogue Agyrrhius as general of the array of Lesbos in 01. 97. 3. (Pint, de liepub. gerend. p. 801, b.) The period, therefore, during which Plato flourished was from b. c. 428 to at least B. c. 389. Of the personal history of Plato nothing more is known, except that Suidas tells a story of his being so poor that he was obliged to write comedies for other persons (s.v. 'ApKaSas iJ.iixoviJ.evoi). Suidas founds this statement on a passage of the Peisander of Plato, in which the poet alludes to his labouring for others : but the story of his poverty is plainly nothing more than an arbitrary conjecture, made to explain the passage, the true meaning of which, no doubt, is that Plato, like Aristophanes, ex- hibited some of his plays in the names of other persons, but was naturally anxious to claim the merit of them for himself when they had suc- ceeded, and that he did so in the Parabasis of the Peisander, as Aristophanes does in the Parabasis of the Clouds. (See the full discussion of this subject under Philonides.) The form in which the article 'ApKaSas fiiixovixevos is given by Arsenius ( Violet. ed. Walz, p. 76), completely confirms this inter- pretation. Plato ranked among the very best poets of the Old Comedy. From the expressions of the gram- marians, and from the large number of fragments which are preserved, it is evident that his plays were only second in popularity to those of Aristophanes. Suidas and other gFamma- rians speak of him as Ka/xirpos tou xapa/cT^a. Purity of language, refined sharpness of wit,, and a combination of the vigour of the Old Comtdy witii the greater elegance of the Middle and the New, were his chief charaeteristics. Though many of his plays had no political reference at all, yet it is evident that he kept up to the spirit of the bid Comedy in his attiic&s. on the corruptions and c c 4