And in his own country he did not meddle with state affairs, although he was a politician as far as his writings went. And the reason was that the people were accustomed to a form of government and constitution different from what he approved of. And Pamphile, in the twenty-fifth book of his Commentaries, says that the Arcadians and Thebans, when they were founding a great city, appointed him its lawgiver; but that he, when he had ascertained that they would not consent to an equality of rights, refused to go thither.
It is said also that he defended Chabrias the general, when he was impeached in a capital charge, when no one else of the citizens would undertake the task; and as he was going up towards the Acropolis with his client, Crobylus the sycophant met him and said: “Are you come to plead for another, not knowing that the hemlock of Socrates is waiting also for you?” But he replied: “And also, when I fought for my country I encountered dangers; and now too I encounter them in the cause of justice and for the defense of a friend.”
He was the first author who wrote treatises in the form of dialogues, as Phavorinus tells us in the eighth book of his Universal History. And he was also the first person who introduced the analytical method of investigation, which he taught to Leodamus of Thasos. He was also the first person in philosophy who spoke of antipodes, and elements, and dialectics, and actions (ποιήματα), and oblong numbers, and plane surfaces, and the providence of God. He was likewise the first of the philosophers who contradicted the assertion of Lysias, the son of Cephalus, setting it out word for word in his Phaedrus. And he was also the first person who examined the subject of grammatical knowledge scientifically. And as he argued against almost everyone who had lived before his time, it is often asked why he has never mentioned Democritus.
Neanthes of Cyzicus says that when he came to the Olympic games all the Greeks who were present turned to look at him; and that it was on that occasion that he held a conversation with Dion, who was on the point of attacking Dionysius. Moreover, in the first book of the Commentaries of Phavorinus, it is related that Mithridates, the Persian, erected a statue of Plato in the Academy, and put on it this inscription, “Mithridates, the son of Rhodobates, a Persian, consecrated an image of Plato to the Muses, which was made by Silanion.”
And Heraclides says that even while a young man, he was so modest and well regulated, that he was never once seen to laugh excessively.
But though he was of such a grave character himself, he was nevertheless ridiculed by the comic poets. Accordingly, Theopompus, in his Pleasure-Seeker, says:
For one thing is no longer only one, But two things now are scarcely one; as says The solemn Plato.
And Anaxandrides in his Theseus, says:
When he ate olives like our worthy Plato.
And Timon speaks of him in this way, punning on his name:
As Plato placed strange platitudes on paper.
Alexis says in his Meropis:
You’ve come in time: since I’ve been doubting long, And walking up and down some time, like Plato; And yet have hit upon no crafty plan, But only tir’d my legs.
And in his Ancylion, he says:
You speak of what you do not understand, Running about like Plato: hoping thus, To learn the nature of saltpetre and onions.
Amphis says in his Amphicrates:
A: But what the good is, which you hope to get By means of her, my master, I no more Can form a notion of, than of the good Of Plato.
B: Listen now.
And in his Dexidemides he speaks thus:
O Plato! how your learning is confined To gloomy looks, and wrinkling up your brows, Like any cockle.
Cratinas in his Pseudypobolimaeus, says:
You clearly are a man, endued with sense, And so, as Plato says, I do not know; But I suspect.
Alexis, in his Olympiodorus, speaks thus:
My mortal body became dry and withered: But my immortal part rose to the sky. Is not this Plato’s doctrine?
And in his Parasite he says: