Kitap 11
114
And he calls Cleinias the brother of Alcibiades a madman; and the sons of Pericles he makes out to be fools; and Meidias he calls a man fit for nothing but killing quails; and of the people of the Athenians he says, that it wears a fair mask, but that one ought to strip the mask off, and look at it then; for he says that it will then be seen that it is only clothed with a specious appearance of a beauty which is not genuine.
115
But in the Cimon he does not abstain from accusing Themistocles, and Alcibiades, and Myronides, and even Cimon himself; and his Crito contains an invective against Sopho- 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.
