PLATO.
- cles; and his Gorgias contains an invective not only against
the man from whom it is named, but also against Archelaus, king of Macedon, whom he reproaches not only with his ignoble birth, but also with having killed his master. And this is the very same Plato whom Speusippus represents as having, while he professed to be a great friend of Archelaus, assisted Philip to get possession of the kingdom. At all events, Carystius of Pergamus, in his Historical Commentaries, writes as follows:—"Speusippus, hearing that Philip used calumnious language respecting Plato, wrote something of this sort in his letter to him: 'Just as if men did not know that Philip originally obtained the kingdom by the assistance of Plato.' For Plato sent Euphræus of Oreum to Perdiccas, who persuaded him to apportion a certain district to Philip; and so he, maintaining a force in that country, when Perdiccas died, having all his forces in a state of preparation, seized the supreme power." But whether all this is true or not, God knows.
But his fine Protagoras, besides that it contains attacks on many poets and wise men, also shows up the life of Callias with much greater severity than Eupolis does in his Flatterers. And in his Menexenus, not only is Hippias the Elean turned into ridicule, but also Antipho the Rhamnusian, and Lamprus the musician. And the day would fail me, if I were inclined to go through the names of all those who have been abused by that wise man. Nor indeed do I praise Antisthenes; for he, having abused many men, did not abstain even from Plato himself, but, having given him the odious name of Sathon, he then published a dialogue under this name.
116. But Hegesander the Delphian, in his Commentaries; speaking about the universal ill-nature of Plato towards everybody, writes as follows:—"After the death of Socrates, when a great many of his friends, being present at a banquet, were very much out of spirits, Plato, being present, taking the cup, exhorted them not to despond, as he himself was well able to lead the school; and, so saying, he pledged Apollodorus: and he said, 'I would rather have taken the cup of poison from Socrates than that pledge of wine from you.' For Plato was considered to be an envious man, and to have a disposition which was far from praiseworthy; for he
