ἱστορίαι Historiai
D.L. 3.36-39 Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I (Books I-V), Diogenes Laertius; served verbatim
and that Plato transferred them to Crito because of his enmity to Aeschines. Nowhere in his writings does Plato mention himself by name, except in the dialogue On the Soul * and the Apology. Aristotle remark s that the style of the dialog ues is half-w ay betwee n poetry and prose. And according to Favorinus, when Plato read the dialog ue On the Soul, Aristot le alone stayed to the end; the rest of the audien ce got up and went away. Some say that Philippus of Opus copied out the Laws, which were left upon waxen tablets , and it is said that he was the author of the Epimomis. Euphorion and Panaetius relate that the beginning of the Republic was found several times revised and rewritten, and the Republic itself Aristoxenus declares to have been nearly all of it included in the Controversies of Protagoras. There is a story that the Phaedrus was his first dialogue. For the subject has about it someth ing of the freshn ess of youth. Dicaearchus, however, censures its whole style as vulgar. A story is told that Plato once saw some one playing at dice and rebuked him. And, upon his protesting that he played for a trifle only, “ But the habit,” rejoined Plato, “is not a trifle.’ Being asked whether there would be any memoirs of him as of his predecessors, he replied, ‘A man must first make a name, and he will have no lack of memoir s.” One day, when Xenocrates had come in, Plato asked him to chastise his slave, since he was unable to do it himself because he was in a passion. Further, it is alleged that he said to one of his slaves, “ 1 would have given you a flogging, had I not been in a passion.” Being mounted on horseback, he quickly

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← D.L. 3.36 contents D.L. 3.39-41 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Aristoxenus — a candidate entry Plato — a life

Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I (Books I-V), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. I (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L184) · R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann / New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXV (1925)
license: public-domain (US: published 1925, pre-1930 — the MCMXXV title page verified by the 2026-07-08 acquisition lane, pin in ops/sources/MANIFEST.md; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)