Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​To Dion he wrote as follows: "Tears indeed for Hecuba and the Ilian women the Fates spun at their birth back then; but for you, Dion, who accomplished the triumph of noble deeds, the deities poured out your fair-flowing hopes. You lie in your spacious fatherland honored by the citizens, O Dion, who drove my heart mad with love."

​This is also said to have been inscribed upon his tomb in Syracuse. They also say that having fallen in love with Alexis and Phaedrus, as mentioned before, he composed in this manner: "Now, when I have only said that Alexis is fair and nothing more, he is gazed upon, and everyone everywhere turns to look at him. My heart, why do you show a bone to dogs? Will you grieve afterwards? Was it not thus that we lost Phaedrus?" And he is said to have possessed Archeanassa, for whom he also composed in this way: "I possess Archeanassa, the courtesan from Colophon, upon whose very wrinkles fierce love used to sit. Ah, wretched ones who encountered that maiden voyage of her youth, through what a great fiery blaze did you pass!"

​And also to Agathon: "Kissing Agathon, I had my soul upon my lips; for the poor thing came as if to cross over." And another: "I throw the apple at you; and if you love me willingly, take it and grant me a share of your maidenhood; but if, after all, you have in mind that which I pray may not happen, take this very fruit and consider how short-lived youth's bloom is." And another: "I am an apple. One who loves you throws me at you; come, nod assent, Xanthippe; for both I and you are withering away."

​They also say that the epigram on the Eretrians caught in the net is by him: "We are of the Eretrian race of Euboea, and we lie near Susa; alas, how far from our native land!" And also this one: "Cypris to the Muses: Maidens, honor Aphrodite, or I will arm Love against you. The Muses to Cypris: Keep such prattle for Ares; this little lad does not fly to us." And another: "A man, finding gold, left a noose behind; while the one who did not find the gold which he had left tied the noose which he found."

​However, Molon, being hostile toward him, said: "It is not this that is surprising, if Dionysius is in Corinth, but if Plato is in Sicily." And Xenophon also seems to have been not well disposed toward him. At any rate, as if in rivalry, they have written similar works: a Symposium, an Apology of Socrates, their moral Memorabilia; then the one wrote a Republic, and the other the Education of Cyrus. And in the Laws Plato says that his education is a fiction, for Cyrus was not such a man; and though both make mention of Socrates, they nowhere mention each other, except that Xenophon mentions Plato in the third book of the Memorabilia.

​It is also related that when Antisthenes was about to read publicly one of his writings, he invited Plato to be present. And when Plato asked what he intended to read, Antisthenes said it was about the impossibility of contradiction; upon which Plato asked: "How then do you write about this very thing?" And when Plato demonstrated that the argument was self-refuting, Antisthenes wrote a dialogue against Plato and entitled it Sathon; from which time they continued to be estranged from one another. They say also that when Socrates heard Plato reading the Lysis, he said: "Heracles, how many lies this youth tells about me!" For the man had written down not a few things that Socrates had never said.

​Plato was also on hostile terms with Aristippus. In the work On the Soul, at any rate, slandering him, he says that he was not present with Socrates at his death, but was in Aegina, though it was close by. And he also felt a certain jealousy toward Aeschines, they say, because he too was held in high regard at the court of Dionysius. When Aeschines arrived in poverty, he was neglected by Plato, but was recommended by Aristippus. And the arguments which Plato assigned to Crito in prison advising escape, Idomeneus says belong to Aeschines, and that Plato assigned them to Crito out of ill-will toward Aeschines.