PLATO. a scandalous and infamous manner. For they, having by impious and unnatural means acquired vast wealth by trickery, are at present highly thought of; as Chæron of Pellene, who was not only a pupil of Plato, but of Xenocrates also. And he too, having usurped the supreme power in his country, and having exercised it with great severity, not only banished the most virtuous men in the city, but also gave the property of the masters to their slaves, and gave their wives also to them, compelling them to receive them as their husbands; having got all these admirable ideas from that excellent Polity and those illegal Laws of Plato.
120. On which account Ephippus the comic poet, in his Shipwrecked Man, has turned into ridicule Plato himself, and some of his acquaintances, as being sycophants for money, showing that they used to dress in a most costly manner, and that they paid more attention to the elegance of their persons than even the most extravagant people among us. And he speaks as follows—
Then some ingenious young man rising up,
Some pupil of the New Academy,
Brought up at Plato's feet and those of Bryso,
That bold, contentious, covetous philosopher,—
And urged by strong necessity, and able,
By means of his small-wages-seeking art,
To speak before th' assembly, in a manner
Not altogether bad; having his hair
Carefully trimm'd with a new-sharpen'd razor,
And letting down his beard in graceful fall,
Putting his well-shod foot in his neat slipper,
Binding his ancles in the equal folds
Of his well-fitting hose, and well protected
Across the chest with the breastplate of his cloak,
And leaning, in a posture dignified,
Upon his staff; said, as it seems to me,
With mouthing emphasis, the following speech,
More like a stranger than a citizen,—
"Men of the land of wise Athenians."
And here let us put an end to this part of the discussion, my friend Timocrates. And we will next proceed to speak of those who have been notorious for their luxury.
