Episode 3

With these views and thus nerved to the task, I sailed from home, inthe spirit which some imagined, but principally through a feeling ofshame with regard to myself, lest I might some day appear to myselfwholly and solely a mere man of words, one who would never of hisown will lay his hand to any act. Also there was reason to thinkthat I should be betraying first and foremost my friendship andcomradeship with Dion, who in very truth was in a position ofconsiderable danger. If therefore anything should happen to him, or ifhe were banished by Dionysios and his other enemies and coming to usas exile addressed this question to me: "Plato, I have come to youas a fugitive, not for want of hoplites, nor because I had nocavalry for defence against my enemies, but for want of words andpower of persuasion, which I knew to be a special gift of yours,enabling you to lead young men into the path of goodness andjustice, and to establish in every case relations of friendship andcomradeship among them. It is for the want of this assistance onyour part that I have left Syracuse and am here now. And thedisgrace attaching to your treatment of me is a small matter. Butphilosophy-whose praises you are always singing, while you say sheis held in dishonour by the rest of mankind-must we not say thatphilosophy along with me has now been betrayed, so far as youraction was concerned? Had I been living at Megara, you would certainlyhave come to give me your aid towards the objects for which I askedit; or you would have thought yourself the most contemptible ofmankind. But as it is, do you think that you will escape thereputation of cowardice by making excuses about the distance of thejourney, the length of the sea voyage, and the amount of labourinvolved? Far from it." To reproaches of this kind what creditablereply could I have made? Surely none.

I took my departure, therefore, acting, so far as a man can act,in obedience to reason and justice, and for these reasons leaving myown occupations, which were certainly not discreditable ones, to putmyself under a tyranny which did not seem likely to harmonise withmy teaching or with myself. By my departure I secured my own freedomfrom the displeasure of Zeus Xenios, and made myself clear of anycharge on the part of philosophy, which would have been exposed todetraction, if any disgrace had come upon me for faint-heartedness andcowardice.

On my arrival, to cut a long story short, I found the court ofDionysios full of intrigues and of attempts to create in the sovereignill-feeling against Dion. I combated these as far as I could, but withvery little success; and in the fourth month or thereabouts,charging Dion with conspiracy to seize the throne, Dionysios put himon board a small boat and expelled him from Syracuse with ignominy.

All of us who were Dion's friends were afraid that he might takevengeance on one or other of us as an accomplice in Dion's conspiracy.

With regard to me, there was even a rumour current in Syracuse thatI had been put to death by Dionysios as the cause of all that hadoccurred. Perceiving that we were all in this state of mind andapprehending that our fears might lead to some serious consequence, henow tried to win all of us over by kindness: me in particular heencouraged, bidding me be of good cheer and entreating me on allgrounds to remain. For my flight from him was not likely to redound tohis credit, but my staying might do so. Therefore, he made a greatpretence of entreating me. And we know that the entreaties ofsovereigns are mixed with compulsion. So to secure his object heproceeded to render my departure impossible, bringing me into theacropolis, and establishing me in quarters from which not a singleship's captain would have taken me away against the will of Dionysios,nor indeed without a special messenger sent by him to order myremoval. Nor was there a single merchant, or a single official incharge of points of departure from the country, who would have allowedme to depart unaccompanied, and would not have promptly seized meand taken me back to Dionysios, especially since a statement had nowbeen circulated contradicting the previous rumours and giving out thatDionysios was becoming extraordinarily attached to Plato. What werethe facts about this attachment? I must tell the truth. As time wenton, and as intercourse made him acquainted with my disposition andcharacter, he did become more and more attached to me, and wished meto praise him more than I praised Dion, and to look upon him as morespecially my friend than Dion, and he was extraordinarily eagerabout this sort of thing. But when confronted with the one way inwhich this might have been done, if it was to be done at all, heshrank from coming into close and intimate relations with me as apupil and listener to my discourses on philosophy, fearing thedanger suggested by mischief-makers, that he might be ensnared, and soDion would prove to have accomplished all his object. I endured allthis patiently, retaining the purpose with which I had come and thehope that he might come to desire the philosophic life. But hisresistance prevailed against me.

The time of my first visit to Sicily and my stay there was takenup with all these incidents. On a later occasion I left home and againcame on an urgent summons from Dionysios. But before giving themotives and particulars of my conduct then and showing how suitableand right it was, I must first, in order that I may not treat as themain point what is only a side issue, give you my advice as to whatyour acts should be in the present position of affairs; afterwards, tosatisfy those who put the question why I came a second time, I willdeal fully with the facts about my second visit; what I have now tosay is this.

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