Kitap 3
1.25
He was also the first philosopher who controverted the speech of Lysias, the son of Cephalus, which he has set out word for word in the Phaedrus,230 e sqq. and the first to study the significance of grammar. And, as he was the first to attack the views of almost all his predecessors, the question is raised why he makes no mention of Democritus. Neanthes of Cyzicus says that, on his going to Olympia, the eyes of all the Greeks were turned towards him, and there he met Dion, who was about to make his expedition against Dionysius. In the first book of the Memorabilia of Favorinus there is a statement that Mithradates the Persian set up a statue of Plato in the Academy and inscribed upon it these words: Mithradates the Persian, the son of Orontobates, dedicated to the Muses a likeness of Plato made by Silanion.
1.26
Heraclides declares that in his youth he was so modest and orderly that he was never seen to laugh outright. In spite of this he too was ridiculed by the Comic poets. At any rate Theopompus in his Hedychares saysMeineke, C.G.F. ii. 796.: There is not anything that is truly one, even the number two is scarcely one, according to Plato. Moreover, AnaxandridesComic poet; ib. iii. 170. in his Theseus says: He was eating olives exactly like Plato. Then there is Timon who puns on his name thus:Ib. vi. 25. As Plato placed strange platitudes.
1.27
Alexis again in the MeropisIb. iii. 451.: You have come in the nick of time. For I am at my wits’ end and walking up and down, like Plato, and yet have discovered no wise plan but only tired my legs. And in the AncylionIb. iii. 382.: You don’t know what you are talking about: run about with Plato, and you’ll know all about soap and onions. Amphis,A poet of the Middle Comedy; Meineke, loc. cit. iii. 302. too, in the Amphicrates says: A. And as for the good, whatever that be, that you are likely to get on her account, I know no more about it, master, than I do of the good of Plato. B. Just attend.
