the soul, being the cause of life to the body, can never itself be susceptible of death; and that, there will be a state of rewards and punishments, the scene of which he takes pains in describing, though he concludes, that no man can tell exactly where or what it shall be.

Dacier's superstition and folly are so great in his notes on the Phædo, that they are not worth dwelling upon.

ERASTE.

ΕΡΑΣΤΑΙ SEU ΑΝΤΕΡΑΣΤΑΙ 8

ΠΕΡΙ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑΣ.

THE scene lies in the school of Dionysius the grammarian,1 who was Plato's own master. The design is to shew, that philosophy consists not in ostentation, nor in that insight (which the sophists affected) into a variety of the inferior parts of science, but in the knowledge of one's self, and in a sagacity in discovering the characters and dispositions of mankind, and of correcting and of modelling their minds to their own advantage.

The dialogue is excellent, but too short for such a subject. The interlocutors are not named, nor is there any mark of the time when it happened.

1 грaμμatioтns, of whom children learned to read and write. Vid. Charmidem. p. 161.

NOTE ON THE GREEK TEXT.

Platon. Op. Serrani, Vol. 1. p. 132.

P. 135. The price of a slave skilled in carpenter's work, was five or six minæ, about £19. 7s. 6d. ; of an architect, 10,000 drachmæ, i.e. above £322. 17s. Od.

LACHES.

Η, ΠΕΡΙ ΑΝΔΡΕΙΑΣ.

THE persons in this dialogue are men of distinguished rank and figure in the state of Athens.

1. Lysimachus,1 son to the famous Aristides, surnamed, The Just.

2. Melesias, son to that Thucydides who was the great rival of Pericles in the administration.

1 Vid. Menonem. p. 93. 94. Both he and Melesias were persons little esteemed, except on their father's account.

NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT.

Platon. Op. Serrani, Vol. 2. p. 178.

P. 178. Tov Avdpa.] Stesilaus, as it afterwards appears, an Athenian.

179. Παππω οντε.] Perhaps we should read, Παππου και ουτος ονομ' εχων, τοῦμου πατρος.

180. Ovта dпμoтny.] Both Socrates and Lysimachus were of Alopecæ.

Ib. Aauwva.] Damon the sophist and musician, scholar to Agathocles (see the Protagoras, p. 316.) who excelled in the same professions, had been banished by the faction opposite to Pericles, on account of his intimacy with that great man, in whose education Plutarch (in Vit. Pericl.) would make one imagine he had a principal share; but, in reality, their intimacy did not begin till Pericles was an old man, as Plato (in Alcib. I. p. 118.) expressly tells us; and accordingly we find here, that Laches had as yet never seen Damon, who probably, after the ten years of his ostracism were expired, was returned to Athens, while Laches commanded in Sicily.

3. Nicias,1 so often the general in the Peloponnesian war, celebrated for his goodness, for his conduct, and for his success, till the fatal expedition to Syracuse in which he perished.

4. Laches, son of Melanopus of the district Exone, and tribe Cecropis,2 commander of the fleet sent to the assistance of the Leontines in Sicily, Ol. 88. 2, in which expedition he defeated the Locrians, reduced Messene, Mylæ, and other places, and after his recall, seems to have been prosecuted by Cleon for corruption in this very year; whence it appears, that he was in the battle of Delium.4

3

1 Thucydides passim. — Plutarch: in Vitâ Niciæ — Lysias contra Poliuchum, p. 318.

2 Thucydides in multis locis. Laches was also among the commanders of the troops sent into Peloponnesus to assist the Argives. Ol. 90. 3. (See Diodorus, L. 12. p. 126. edit. Rhodomanni, 1604.

3 Aristophanes in Vespis, et Scholia; which drama was played Ŏl. 89. 2; see verse 890, where he is called Aaßns i Αιξωνευς, as Cleon is called, Κνων ὁ Κυδαθηναιους.

4 He was one of the generals of the Athenians in the battle near Mantinea, Ol. 90. 3, and was slain in that action. See Thucydides, L. 5. p. 334, and Androtion in Schol. ad Aves Aristophanis, v. 13.

NOTES.

P. 180. Пaтρikos pilos.] Sophroniscus, therefore, though in low circumstances, was a man of good character, and known to the principal citizens.

It is plain,

182. Ov yap ayŵvos.] The war with Sparta. that this was not one among the usual exercises of their gymnasia, and the teachers of it were but lately introduced in Athens. 183. Τραγωδίας ποιητης.] Α satire on the Athenians who were devoted to these entertainments. See de Republ. L. 2.

p. 376, L. 3. p. 390, and L. 8. p. 568.

5. Thucydides, son to Melesias.1

Two youths under twenty years of

6. Aristides, son to Lysimachus.

age.

7. Socrates, then in his forty-seventh year. The two first of these persons, being then very ancient, and probably about seventy years of age, and sensible of that defect in their own education, which had caused them to lead their lives in an obscurity unworthy the sons of such renowned fathers, were the more solicitous on account of their own sons, who were now almost of an age to enter into the world. They

4 Vid. Menonem, p. 94. et Theagem, p. 130. et Theætetum, p. 151.

NOTES.

P. 183. Aßatov iepov.] Like the temples and groves of the Σεμναι θεαι, the Furies, Χωρος-αθικτος ουδ' οικητος, &c. Soph. Cd. Col. v. 39.

Ib. ETEрwo.] In the Sicilian expedition.

Ib. Aoрudрeπavov.] A long halbard, whose head was fashioned like a scythe or broad sickle. They were used to cut the rigging of ships down, and in sieges to pull down the battlements of walls, such as Livy, L. 38, calls, "Asseres falcati ad detergendas pinnas." Vid. Fragm. Polybii, v. 2. ed. Gronov. p.

1546.

184. Επιφανεστερος γενοιτο, η οιος ην.] Perhaps we should read oios ny, and omit the ŋ.

185. Αλλ' ου περι του, οὗ ἕνεκα αλλο εζητει.] Perhaps we should read, ὁ ενεκα αλλου εζήτει.

188. Δωριστι, αλλ' ουκ Ιαστι.] A satire on the Athenians, and a compliment to Sparta (V. de Republ. L. 3. p. 398.) which Plato seldom omits, when he finds an opportunity. (Vid. Hippiam Major, p. 283 and 4.—Protogoram, p. 342.—Symposium, p. 209, where he calls the laws of Lycurgus, Σwτnpas τns Ελλαδος.