neither be reconciled to that date, nor indeed to one another; and besides, it is better to allow Plato to be guilty of these inaccuracies in chronology, than of those improprieties of character which must be the consequences of Dacier's supposition. It is plain, that Socrates continues, as in the preceding discourse, to treat Alcibiades with a certain gentle superiority of understanding, and that he prescribes to (and instructs) him in a manner extremely proper to form the mind

NOTES.

P. 144. What Plato would prove in this place is excellent, namely; Το των αλλων επιστημων κτημα, εαν τις ανευ του βελτιστου κεκτημενος η, ολιγακις μεν ωφελειν, βλαπτειν δε τα πλείω τον εχοντα αυτα. See also de Repub. L. 6. p. 506. and de Legibus, L. 2. p. 661.

145. Auтn d' nv.] This relates to what he had proved in the former dialogue, (Alcibiad. 1. p. 116.) which would be absurd if that conversation had passed twenty years before.

147. A line from Homer's Margites; Πολλ' ηπιστατο εργα, κακως δ' ηπιστατο παντα.

148. A Spartan prayer: τα καλα διδοναι επι τοις αγαθοις.

Ib. Οἱ πλειστας μεν θυσιας.] The Athenians were remarkably sumptuous in their temples and publick worship, beyond any other people: two months in the year were taken up entirely in these solemnities. See Aristophan. in Vespis, Schol. ad v. 655, and Xenoph. de Republ. Athen. p. 699.

149. Evonμia.] Proclamation was always made in the beginning of sacrifces in this form: Ευφημεῖτε, ευφημεῖτε, and then followed a solemn prayer.

Ib. Κακον τοκιστην.] Perhaps we should read, Δικαστην.

150. Οὗτος ἐστιν ὡ μελει περι σου.] Socrates may either mean the Divinity here, as in the former dialogue, Alcibiad. 1. p. 135. Εαν βουλη συ. Σωκ: Ου καλώς λεγεις. Αλκιβ: Αλλα πως χρη λεγειν ; Σωκ : Ότι εαν Θεος εθελη : for it was the character of Socrates to assume nothing to himself: he ascribes all to the

of a youth just entering into the world, but ill-bred and impertinent to a man of forty years of age, who had passed through the highest dignities of the state and through the most extraordinary reverses of fortune. Plato himself may convince us of this, by what he makes Socrates say in the first Alcibiades; p. 127. Αλλα χρη θαῤῥεῖν· ει μεν γαρ αὐτο ἦσθου πεπονθως πεντηκονταετης, χαλεπον ην αν σοι επιμεληθηναι σαυτοῦ· νυν δε, ἣν εχεις ἡλικιαν, αύτη εστιν εν ἡ δει αυτο αισθανεσθαι.

The principal difficulties are, that he speaks of Pericles as yet living, who died Ol. 87. 4, and of the

NOTES.

dæmon who directed him, whom he calls his ETTроTоs: or Socrates may here mean himself, as I rather think. Some Christian writers would give a very extraordinary turn to this part of the dialogue, as though Plato meant to prove the necessity of a Revelation: but I spy no such mysteries in it. Socrates has proved that we are neither fit to deal with mankind, till we know them by knowing ourselves; nor to address ourselves to the Divine Power, till we know enough of his nature to know what we owe him: what that nature is, he defers examining till another opportunity, which is done to raise the curiosity and impatience of the young Alcibiades, and to avoid that prolixity, into which a disquisition so important would have naturally led him.

P. 151. Zтepavov.] Alcibiades, as going to perform sacrifice, had a chaplet of flowers on his head, which was the custom for all present at such solemnities.

Ib. 8 Kрewv.] From the Phoenisse of Euripides, v. 886.

Οιωνον εθεμην καλλινικα σου στέφη

Εν γαρ κλυδωνι κειμεθ', ώσπερ οισθα συ.

Ib. Των σων εραστών.] He here continues the same style to Alcibiades, which would be absurd to a man of forty years of age.

۲۰

murder of Archelaus king of Macedon as a fact then recent, which did not happen1 till Ol. 95. 1, the same year with Socrates's death, and near five years after that of Alcibiades.

1 According to Diodorus Siculus, L. 16. p. 266. who, though he may have rightly fixed the period of the reign of Archelaus, contradicts himself as to the duration of it. He says, that he reigned seven years, yet mentions him as king of Macedon (L. 13. p. 175.) ten years before his death. Ol. 92. 3. According to the Marmor Parium, he must have reigned still longer, for there he is said to have come to the throne, Ol. 90. 1. ; but that date is certainly false, as Thucydides speaks of his father Perdiccas, yet living four years afterwards. But let Diodorus be mistaken or not, it is sure, from this passage of Thucydides, that Archelaus came not to the crown till at least thirteen years after the death of Pericles. See also Athenæus, L. 5. p. 217.

VOL. IV.

H

THEAGES.

Η, ΠΕΡΙ ΣΟΦΙΑΣ.

DEMODOCUS of Anagyrus, an old Athenian who had passed with reputation through the highest offices of the state, and now, after the manner of his ancestors, lived chiefly on his lands in the country, (Euthydem, p. 291.) employed in agriculture and rustick amusements, brings with him to Athens his son 1 Theages, a youth impatient to improve himself in the arts then in vogue, and to shine among his companions who studied

1 He actually became a friend and disciple of Socrates, and is mentioned by him as such, together with a brother of his called Paralus, in his Apology, p. 33. Theages was probably dead at the time of the condemnation of Socrates; he is mentioned as of a weak and unhealthy constitution. See De Republ. L. 6. p. 496.

NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT.

Plat. Op. Serrani, Vol. 1. p. 121.

Ρ. 124. Τον νεωστι Αρχοντα.] Archelaus was then just come to the throne, and consequently this year, in which Diodorus first mentions him, was, it is probable, the first of his reign. (V. Alcibiad. II.) Bacis, a prophet, often cited by Herodotus. The Scholiast on Aristophan. Equites, v. 123, says, there were three of the name. (Clemens Alexandr. Strom. L. 1, p. 398.)

Ib. Aμpiλuтov.] The name of this Athenian prophet I do not elsewhere meet with.

eloquence,1 and practised politicks, as soon as ever their age would permit them to appear in the popular assemblies.

Socrates, at the father's desire, enters into conversation with the young man, and decoys him by little and little into a confession that he wanted to be a great man, and to govern his fellow citizens. After diverting himself with the naïveté of Theages, he proposes ironically several sophists of reputation, and several famous statesmen, who were fit to instruct him in this grand art: but as it does not appear that the disciples of those sophists, or even the sons of those statesmen, have been

1 Aristophanes ridicules this turn of the age in which he lived, in many places, particularly in Equitib. v. 1375. Reading, and the knowledge of the Belles Lettres, having more generally diffused itself through the body of the people, than it had done hitherto, had an ill effect on the manners of a nation naturally vain and lively. Every one had a smattering of eloquence and of reasoning, and every one would make a figure and govern; but no one would be governed: the authority of age and of virtue was lost and overborne, and wit and a fluency of words supplied the place of experience and of common sense. See the character of Hippocrates in the Protagoras, p. 312: and Plato himself gives this as the characteristick of the Athenians in his time, Η παντων εις παντα σοφιας δοξα, και παρανομια. See de Legib. L. 3, p. 701.

NOTES.

Ρ. 125. Εις διδασκαλον.] Perhaps Διδασκαλειον.-This poem of Anacreon on Callicrete, the daughter of Cyane, is now lost. Dacier seriously imagines that she was a female politician, like Aspasia; but it is more agreeable to Anacreon's gallantry, that we should suppose the seat of tyranny was only in her face.

128. Aaiμoviov.] See Mr. Foster's note on the Euthyphro, ad p. 22, and Fraguier's Discourse on Socrates, Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript. V. 6.