Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​in which letters he used to write 'Prosper', whereas Epicurus wrote 'Live well' and Cleon 'Rejoice'—one to Aristodemus, two to Archytas, four to Dionysius, one to Hermias, Erastus, and Coriscus, one to Leodamas, one to Dion, one to Perdiccas, and two to the relatives of Dion. He (Thrasyllus) and certain others divide them in this way. But some, among whom is also Aristophanes the grammarian, arrange the dialogues into trilogies,

​and they place first that which is headed by Republic, Timaeus, Critias; second, Sophist, Statesman, Cratylus; third, Laws, Minos, Epinomis; fourth, Theaetetus, Euthyphro, Apology; fifth, Crito, Phaedo, Epistles. The rest they arrange individually and without fixed order. And some, as was previously said, begin with the Republic; others with the Greater Alcibiades; others with Theages; some with Euthyphro; others with Clitophon; some with Timaeus; others with Phaedrus; still others with Theaetetus; and many make their beginning from the Apology. The dialogues recognized by common consent to be spurious are: Midon or The Horse Breeder, Eryxias or Erasistratus, Halcyon, The Headless Ones or Sisyphus, Axiochus, Phaeacians, Demodocus, Swallow, Seventh, Epimenides; of which the Halcyon seems to be the work of a certain Leon, just as Favorinus says in the fifth book of his Memorabilia.

​He uses a variety of terms in order that his treatise may not be easily surveyed by the unlearned: in the most proper sense he considers 'wisdom' to be the science of the intelligible and truly existing things, which he says is concerned with God and the soul separated from the body; but in a specific sense he also calls philosophy 'wisdom', it being an yearning for divine wisdom; and in a general sense all practical experience is also called 'wisdom' by him, as when he calls the artisan 'wise'. He also uses the same words for differently signified things. At any rate, the word 'simple' (phaulos) is used by him even in the sense of the 'plain' or 'artless', just as in Euripides in the Licymnius it is applied to Heracles in this way: 'Simple, unadorned, noble in the highest degree, curtailing in action all wisdom, unskilled in idle talk.'

​Yet Plato sometimes also uses it in the sense of 'bad', and there are times when he uses it for 'small'. Often, too, he uses different words for the same signified thing. For example, the Idea he calls 'form' (eidos), 'genus' (genos), 'paradigm' (paradeigma), 'principle' (arche), and 'cause' (aition). He also uses contrary expressions for the same thing. At any rate, what is sensible he calls both 'being' and 'not-being': 'being' because of its having becoming, and 'not-being' because of its continuous change. And the Idea he calls 'neither moving nor at rest', and 'the same', and 'one and many'. And he is accustomed to do the same thing in the case of several other topics as well.

​The interpretation of his discourses is threefold: for first, one must explain what each of the things said is; then, for what purpose it was said, whether in a primary sense or by way of an image, and whether for establishing doctrines or for refuting an interlocutor; and thirdly, whether it has been correctly said. Moreover, since certain critical marks are also affixed to his books, come, let us say something concerning these as well. The Chi (Χ) is adopted for the diction, the figures of speech, and in general the Platonic usage; the Diple (›) for the doctrines and the opinions approved by Plato;

​the dotted Chi for select passages and stylistic beauties; the dotted Diple for the corrections made by some; the dotted Obelos for unwarranted rejections; the dotted Antisigma for double usages and transpositions of readings; the Keraunion for the philosophical school training; the Asterisk for the agreement of doctrines; the Obelos for rejection as spurious. These then are the marks and of such number are the books; which books Antigonus of Carystus says in his Life of Zeno, when newly published, if anyone wished to read them through, he paid a fee to their possessors.