[1]: The Greek phrase εὖ πράττειν is purposely ambiguous, meaning either act well or fare well (i.e. prosper); cf. Plat. Gorg. 495e, Plat. Rep. 353e. It is the form of address regularly used in these Epistles, cf. Plat. L. 3 ad init.
[2]: Apparently a tag from some tragedy. Note that you in this second paragraph refers to Dionysius alone, whereas in the first paragraph you, in the plural, includes Dionysius’s associates.
[3]: Eur. Fr. 956 (Nauck)
[4]: Trag. Gr. Frag. Adesp. 347 (Nauck).
[5]: Lyr. Gr. Frag. Adesp. 138 (Bergk).
[6]: A disciple of Archytas af Tarentum, the Pythagorean scientist; cf. Plat. L. 3.319a; Plat. L. 7.339a, Plat. L. 7.349d.
[7]: cf. Plat. L. 7.347c.
[8]: This closely resemblesPlat. Laws 835c (with μόνος for μέγας).
[9]: Polyxenus was a Sophist and a disciple of Bryson of Megara, cf. Plat. L. 2.314dand Plat. L. 13.360c. Of Cratistolus nothing further is known.
[10]: Probably the Olympic Festival of 364 B.C. (not 360 B.C. as in Plat. L. 7.350b); see the Prefatory Note.
[11]: Hiero, the elder, was tyrant of Gela and Syracuse 485-467 B.C. Pausanias defeated the Persians at Plataea 479 B.C. Simonides of Ceos was a famous lyric poet.
[12]: Periander was tyrant of Corinth; Thales the first of the Ionian philosophers; Pericles the famous Athenian statesman; Anaxagoras, of Clazomenae, the philosopher; Croesus, king of Lydia, famed for his wealth; Solon, the Athenian legislator; Cyrus, the Persian king, who overthrew Croesus.
[13]: Creon and Tiresias are characters in Sophocles’ Oed. Tyr. andAntig.; Polyeidus and Minos in Eurip.Polyeidus; the rest in Homer; Aeschylus, inProm. Vinct., tells us about Zeus and Prometheus.
[14]: This question is also alluded to in Plat. Menex. 248c, Plat. Apol. 40c ff.
[15]: On the subject of posthumous fame cf. Plat. Sym. 208c ff.
[16]: A most un-Platonic sentiment: contrastPlat. Rep. 493e ff., and Plat. L. 2.314a below.
[17]: For Dionysius as a philosopher cf. Plat. L. 7.345b; and for the discussion of honor and dishonor as between Dionysius and Plato cf. Plat. L. 7.345c, Plat. L. 7.350c.
[18]: Apparently some form of orrery, devised to illustrate the motions of the heavenly bodies; cf. Cicero,De Rep. i. 14;De nat. deor. ii. 34.
[19]: For this phrase cf. Plat. Laws 886c. The explanation of the Three (principles) which follows is a piece of wanton mystification, of which it is impossible to suppose that Plato could ever have been guilty. For attempts to solve the riddle see Prefatory Note.
[20]: This phrase echoes Plat. Theaet. 188c.
[21]: There are echoes here of Plat. Meno 97e ff., Plat. Meno 100a, and Plat. Theaet. 151a ff. Cf. also Plat. L. 7.340b, Plat. L. 7.343c, Plat. L. 7.344b.
[22]: A Pythagorean touch, cf. Horace’s odi profanum volgus et arceo.
[23]: This would make Plato’s teaching go back to 393 B.C., i.e. five or six years before he founded the Academy—which seems improbable.
[24]: This curious statement seems based onPlat. L. 7.341c, combined perhaps with an allusion to the Parmenides.
[25]: A contemporary Sophist.
[26]: A physician at the court of Dionysius.
[27]: Plato’s nephew, who succeeded him as head of the Academy. If, as seems probable, Speusippus was unknown to Dionysius until he went to Sicily with Plato in 361 B.C., this request seems strange.
[28]: Nothing further is known of any of the persons here mentioned.
[29]: This discussion of the proper form of address is suspiciously like Plat. Charm. 164d.
[30]: To be identified, possibly, with the Sicilian historian Philistus, exiled by Dionysius I. and subsequently restored to favor (cf. Plutarch,Dion, c. 19).
[31]: cf. Plat. Laws 722d ff.
[32]: Probably the war against the Lucanians.
[33]: For the events of Plato’s first visit cf. Plat. L. 7.327c ff., Plat. L. 7.338a, Plat. L. 7.338b; for those of the second visit, Plat. L. 7.338b ff., Plat. L. 7.345c ff.
[34]: In 361 B.C. Plato was about 67.
[35]: A leading Syracusan noble, supporter of Dion; cf. Plat. L. 4.320e, Plat. L. 7.348b; Theodotes was a connection of H.
[36]: i.e. quarelling. cf. Plat. Rep. 566a; Plat. Phaedrus 241c, Plat. Phaedrus 241d; Plat. Laws 906d.
[37]: cf. Plat. L. 2.310b.
[38]: cf. Plat. L. 13.363d. For in the garden cf. Plat. L. 2.313a.
[39]: This seems to mean that Plato’s scheme of education, scoffed at by Dionysius, was the secret of Dion’s success—the dream of the philosopher-king being realized in his person.
[40]: A lyric poet, circa 600 B.C., said to have been struck blind for his attacks on the reputation of Helen of Troy, which he subsequently withdrew in his recantation (palinode); cf. Plat. Phaedrus 243a, Plat. Phaedrus 243b.
[41]: This refers to Dion’s military operations in Sicily in 357 B.C., and perhaps later.
[42]: The reference is to Dion’s plans for the political reformation of Sicily
[43]: The persons meant are Plato’s own pupils and Dion’s political supporters.
[44]: For this (perhaps proverbial) phrase (cf. no better than a child) cf. Plat. Phaedrus 279a.
[45]: For Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, cf. Plat. L. 8.354b; for Cyrus cf. Plat. L. 2.311a, Plat. Laws 693d ff.
[46]: see Plat. L. 3.318c note.
[47]: Cf. Isoc. Evag. 32.3.
[48]: Perdiccas was king of Macedon 365-360 B.C.
[49]: A native of Euboea and pupil of Plato.
[50]: cf. Plat. Rep. 493a-c.
[51]: cf. Plat. L. 7.325a, Plat. L. 7.325c ff.; and, for a theory of counsel, Plat. L. 7.330c ff.
[52]: Hermeias was tyrant of Atarneus, circa 351 B.C. Erastus and Coriscus were pupils of Plato who lived at Scepsis, near Atarneus.
[53]: Plato would be about 77 in 351-350 B.C. The point of this allusion to his age may be that old men ought rather to cultivate other-worldliness.
[54]: For the language here cf. Plat. Sym. 192e, Plat. Sym. 215c.
[55]: For similar expressions cf. Plat. Laws 761d, Plat. Laws 803c.
[56]: The divine Ruler and his Father may perhaps be identified with the World-Soul and Demiurge of the Timaeus; or else with the Sun and the Idea of Good in the Republic (Plat. Rep. 508a, Plat. Rep. 516b, Plat. Rep. 517c) . Cf. also Plat. L. 2.312e ff.
[57]: εὐδαίμων, in Platonic usage, implies nobility of spirit as well as felicity cf. Plat. L. 8.354c, Plat. L. 8.355c.
[58]: Dion was about twenty in 388-387 B.C., the date of Plato’s first visit to Syracuse; so if this letter was written in 353 B.C. the birth of Hipparinus (probably Dion’s son, not his nephew) should be put at about 373 B.C. cf. Plat. L. 8. Prefatory Note and Plat. L. 8.355e.
[59]: Plato’s uncle Charmides and his cousin Critias were among the leaders of the Thirty.
[60]: For this episode see Plat. Apol. 32c.
[61]: Possibly an illusion to the execution of Theramenes by Critias.
[62]: i.e. the democrats under Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus.
[63]: Meletus and Anytus, the accusers of Socrates; see the Apology.
[64]: An obvious reference to Plat. Rep. 473d, Plat. Rep. 501e.
[65]: This echoes the famous passage in Plat. Rep. 5.473d; cf. Plat. L. 7.328a infra.
[66]: cf. Plat. Rep. 404d.
[67]: These are the three defective forms of government, contrasting with the three correct forms, monarchy, aristocracy, and constitutional republic; see Plat. Stat. 291d ff., Plat. Stat. 302b ff.
[68]: The first occasion being at Olympia in 360 B.C.; cf. Plat. L. 7.350b ff.
[69]: Dionysius the Elder died in 367 B.C.
[70]: Among the philosophers and sophists who are said to have been entertained by Dionysius were Aristippus the Cyreniac, Aeschines the Socratic, Polyxenus (cf. Plat. L. 2.310c), and Philistus (cf. Plat. L. 3.315e).
[71]: Probably sisters’ sons of Dion, and not including Hipparinus (who would be too young at this date).
[72]: The second danger was of proving false to Philosophy, see Plat. L. 7.328e below.
[73]: A town close to Athens, to which the disciples of Socrates retreated after his death.
[74]: Zeus the Guardian of guests is mentioned because Plato was a guest-friend of Dion.
[75]: The citadel of Syracuse, where Plato was housed during both his visits, the tyrant thus having him under his eye.
[76]: Philistus and the anti-reform party alleged that Dion was plotting against the tyrant, aided and abetted by Plato, cf. Plat. L. 7.333e infra.
[77]: i.e. first place must be given to what is (ostensibly) the main object of the letter, viz. the advising of Dion’s friends; see further the Prefatory Note.
[78]: For the comparison of the political adviser to a physician cf. Plat. Rep. 425e ff., Plat. Laws 720a ff.
[79]: On the subject of filial piety cf. Plat. Crito 51c, Plat. Laws 717b ff.
[80]: cf. Plat. L. 5.322b .
[81]: The reference is to the two brothers of Dionysius the Elder, Leptines and Thearidas.
[82]: Darius wrested the kingdom of Persia from the usurper Pseudo-Smerdis by the aid of six other Persian nobles, cf. Plat. Laws 695b ff. For the numerical computation of comparative happiness cf. Plat. Rep. 587b ff.
[83]: The maritime empire of the Athenians lasted for some seventy years after Salamis (480 B.C.)
[84]: Gelon succeeded Hippocrates as tyrant of Gela about 490 B.C., and then captured Syracuse and made it his capital. His defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera, 480 B.C., was celebrated by the poet Simonides.
[85]: i.e. by a military campaign (deed as opposed to word) in 357 B.C.
[86]: Callipus and Philostratus; cf. Plutarch,Dion, cc. 54 ff.
[87]: After the Little Mysteries of Eleusis the initiated became a μυστής, after the Great Mysteries an ἐπόπτης.
[88]: Cf. Plat. L. 7.336d, Plat. Laws 961a ff.
[89]: An allusion to the custom of offering the third (and last) cup at banquets as a libation to Zeus Soter; cf. Plat. Rep. 583b, Plat. Charm. 167b.
[90]: This theme is to be found also in the Gorgias andRepublic; cf. also Plat. Lysis 217b.
[91]: cf. Plat. Gorg. 493e, Plat. Phaedo 81b, Plat. Phileb. 12b.
[92]: Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse (478-466) , waged succesful war against the Carthaginians.
[93]: For the calamitous effects of ignorance (or folly) cf. Plat. Laws 688c ff., Plat. Laws 863c ff.
[94]: cf. Plat. Laws 646e ff., Plat. Laws 671d.
[95]: cf. Plat. Laws 715a ff.
[96]: For this scheme cf. Plat. Laws 752d ff; and for the qualifications of the law-givers cf. Plat. Laws 765d.
[97]: For the Law-governed State as the second-best, after the Ideal Republic, cf. Plat. Stat. 297d ff.
[98]: Alluding to the attempt then being made by Dion’s party at Leontini, under Hipparinus (his nephew) , to overthrow Callipus.
[99]: This refers back to Plat. L. 7.330c, Plat. L. 7.330d, just before he begins his counsel to Dion’s friends.
[100]: cf. Plat. L. 3.317a.
[101]: A famous scientist and statesman of Tarentum; cf. Plat. L. 7.350a infra,Plat. L. 13.360c.
[102]: Cf. Plat. L. 7.330b.
[103]: Plato had refused a second time; see Plat. L. 7.338e.
[104]: cf. Plat. L. 3.317.
[105]: Cf. Plat. L. 7.334d.
[106]: cf. Plat. Rep. 531d.
[107]: Probably an allusion to the proverbial maxim Know thyself.
[108]: cf. Plat. Sym. 210e for the suddenness of the mystic vision of the Idea.
[109]: On the danger of writing such doctrines cf. Plat. L. 2.314c ff.; and for philosophy as possible only for the few cf. Plat. Rep. 494a.
[110]: Cf. Plat. L. 7.341c.
[111]: cf. Plat. Laws 895d, where Essence, Definition, and Name are enumerated; also Plat. Parm. 142a.
[112]: For the definition of circle cf. Plat. Tim. 33b, Plat. Parm. 137e.
[113]: This echoes the language of Plat. Rep. 490b.
[114]: cf. Plat. Crat. 438d, Plat. Crat. 438e.
[115]: i.e. any number of straight tangents to a circle may be drawn; or, a circle, like a straight line, is composed of points, therefore the circular is full of the elements of the straight.
[116]: f. Plat. Crat. 384d, Plat. Crat. 384e for the view that names are not natural but conventional fixities.
[117]: cf. Plat. Theaet. 208b ff. for the instability of Definitions.
[118]: An Argonaut, noted for his keeness of sight; here, by a playful hyperbole, he is supposed to be also a producer of sight in others; cf. Aristoph.Plut. 210.
[119]: cf. Plat. Laws 816d.
[120]: Cf. Plat. L. 7.341c.
[121]: For legislation as not a serious subject but playful see Plat. Laws 769a; cf. Plat. Stat. 294a.
[122]: i.e. in his head, the abode of unexpressed thoughts; cf. Plat. Tim. 44d.
[123]: Hom. Il. 7.360, Hom. Il. 11.234.
[124]: cf. Plat. Phaedrus 275d,, Plat. Phaedrus 278a.
[125]: cf. Plat. Phaedo 62a, Plat. Phaedo 62b; the allusion is to the Theban dialect (ἴττω for ἴστω) used by Cebes.
[126]: Cf. Plat. L. 7.341a.
[127]: cf. Plat. L. 2.314a ff.
[128]: i.e. Plato himself.
[129]: Hom. Od. 12.428
[130]: Amongst Plato’s companions on this visit were Speusippus and Xenocrates
[131]: For this use of the word ναύτης cf. Soph. Phil. 901.
[132]: For this part of the biographical details cf. Plat. L. 3.318a ff.
[133]: cf. Plat. Phaedrus 249d.
[134]: The mercenaries lived in the island of Ortygia, but beyond the walls of the Acropolis; so when Plato had to quit the Acropolis he was surrounded by them in his new lodgings.
[135]: cf. Plat. L. 3.318c for Heracleides, Theodotes, and Eurybius.
[136]: i.e. light-armed soldiers, so called from the kind of light shield they carried.
[137]: i.e. for the festival of 360 B.C.
[138]: Perhaps an allusion to the wanderings of Ulysses; cf. Plat. L. 7.345e.
[139]: According to the Socratic dictum, No one sins voluntarily.
[140]: For suffering wrong as a bar to complete happiness cf. Plat. Laws 829a.
[141]: i.e. Plato’s third Sicilian visit (as he does not count the first), cf. Plat. L. 7.330c, Plat. L. 7.337e.
[142]: For this reference to the phrasing of the opening salutation cf. Plat. L. 3 ad init.
[143]: Alluding to Callippus, the murderer of Dion.
[144]: cf. Plat. Gorg. 525c.
[145]: Prayer in the sense of a pious wish unlikely to be fulfilled, or a last resort.
[146]: The struggle against the Carthaginians, which had lasted, with hardly a break, since 409 B.C.
[147]: Alluding to the expulsion of Dionysius from Sicily; he retired to Locri in Italy.
[148]: Probably some tribes of central Italy, Samnites or Campanians.
[149]: cf. Plat. L. 4.320d.
[150]: cf. Plat. Laws 692a.
[151]: Plato is here in error, apparently: the stoning took place at an earlier date at Agrigentum.
[152]: Law is divine as the dispensation of Reason (νόμος being derived from νοῦς), cf. Plat. Laws 762e. For evils of excessive freedom cf. Plat. Rep. 564a.
[153]: For this artifice of putting words into the mouth of an absent speaker cf. Plat. Menex. 246c ff., Plat. L. 7.328d.
[154]: For this classification of goods cf. Plat. Gorg. 477c; Plat. Laws 697b, Plat. Laws 726a ff.
[155]: cf. Plat. Laws 631b; also Plat. L. 355c infra, Plat. L. 6.323d.
[156]: cf. Plat. Rep. 408e ff., Plat. Rep. 452d ff.
[157]: i.e. Hipparinus, who was about twenty years old at this time; cf. Prefatory Note, and Plat. L. 7.324a.
[158]: cf. Plat. L. 7.333b.
[159]: i.e. Dionysius the Elder: cf. Plat. L. 8.357c. This Hipparinus, Dion’s nephew, was now assisting Dion’s party in their attacks on Callippus from their base at Leontini.
[160]: That power was little more than nominal, dealing chiefly with matters of religion.
[161]: cf. Plat. L. 7.337b ff.
[162]: For the scheme here proposed cf. Plat. L. 7.337b ff., Plat. Laws 752d ff., Plat. Laws 762c ff., Plat. Laws 767c ff., Plat. Laws 855c.
[163]: Alluding to Dion’s murderers, Callippus and Philostratus; cf. Plat. L. 7.333e ff.
[164]: cf. Plat. Soph. 266c, Plat. Rep. 533c.
[165]: cf. Plat. L. 7.338c, Plat. L. 7.350a. Archippus and Philonides were also members of the Pythagorean School, as was Echecrates (in 358 B) .
[166]: cf. Plat. Rep. 347, Plat. Rep. 521, Plat. Rep. 540.
[167]: cf. Plat. Gorg. 486c, Plat. Gorg. 521d.
[168]: Probably an allusion to the prevalence of pirates (such as Alexander of Pherae) in the Aegean Sea.
[169]: A fragment (229) of Hesiod, otherwise unknown: cf. Hes. WD 483-484.
[170]: f. Plat. Laws 962b, Plat. L. 7.326c, Plat. L. 7.326d.
[171]: For prayer in cases where with men it is impossible cf. Plat. L. 8.352e, Plat. Rep. 540d.
[172]: Father of Priam, king of Troy. Nothing is told us elsewhere of this Trojan colony in Italy; so we may regard it as an invention of the writer.
[173]: Cf. Plat. L. 2.314a, Plat. L. 13.363e.
[174]: For the significance of the greeting well-doing see Plat. L. 3 ad init.; cf. Plat. L. 13.363b below.
[175]: A famous astronomer.
[176]: cf. Plat. L. 2.310c. Bryson the Sophist was a mathematician who claimed, it is said, to have squared the circle (cf. Aristot.An. Post. i. 9,Rhet. iii. 2).
[177]: cf. Plat. L. 6.323b, Plat. L. 7.335e.
[178]: A Pythagorean of this name is said to have murdered Callippus at Rhegium.
[179]: A sculptor of some eminence, pupil of Scopas.
[180]: Sophrosyne (Prudence), daughter of Dionysus the Elder and niece of Dion.
[181]: cf. Plat. L. 2.314e.
[182]: cf. Plat. L. 6.322d (if this is the same person).
[183]: This may be a reference to Dionysius’s plan for giving Dion’s wife Arete to a favorite of his own (cf. Plutarch,Dion 21).
[184]: i.e. the Phaedo.
[185]: Cf. Plat. L. 13.360a below.
[186]: The Greek word fellow-spherists suggests a play on the double meaning of sphere as ball and globe (cf. Plat. L. 2.312d); so that the real meaning may be fellow-astronomers.