Guthrie : Life of Plato and philosophical influences

That was the end of Plato’s disastrous involvement in practical politics. Speusippus, who had become friendly with Dion in Athens and accompanied Plato to Sicily, encouraged Dion to return and oppose Dionysius with force. Dion appealed for help to Plato, but this time Plato held firm. He replied that it was at Dion’s instigation that he had formed ties of religion and hospitality with Dionysius, and that Dionysius, though he probably believed the allegations that Plato was plotting with Dion against him, had yet spared his life. In any case he, Plato, was no longer of an age to assist anyone in a war: he would help any move towards reconciliation, but if that was not Dion’s purpose, he must look elsewhere for aid. Dion crossed to Syracuse with a force of mercenaries, fighting and confusion ensued, the city suffered slaughter and pillage, and the venture ended with Dion’s assassination. Even after all this, such was the hold that Dion’s personality had over Plato that he could not bring himself to blame him. If Dionysius had only restored his property, he said, none of this need have occurred, for his own influence could have kept Dion in check. And he wrote the extant epitaph on him, ending with a passionate avowal of their former love, which tradition said was inscribed on his tomb in Syracuse (D.L. 3.30).

Our first conclusion from the evidence of the Seventh Letter and Plutarch must be that Plato was a born theoretician, and not the man to translate his own political and psychological theories into successful action. Νο one will think the less οf him for that. The power of making a quick and correct judgement of men and situations, and of taking prompt decisions for necessary action in a situation where the leaders are being manipulated by others whose motives are purely selfish, is not likely, in any human being, to be found together with the intellectual profundity that produced the ethical and metaphysical theories, the achievements in logic, epistemology and ontology which constitute Plato’s primary and inestimable legacy to the world. It should cause no surprise that the author of the Republic and even of the Laws was something of a political innocent, more at home drawing up laws and constitutions on paper than engaging in the rough-and-tumble of Greek political life; and Syracusan politics, even by Greek standards, were very rough indeed. By temperament he resembled his own philosopher in Republic 6, who sees the impossibility of doing any good to a society bent on wickedness, and stands aside like a man sheltering under a wall while a storm drives over his head. Harward was right to say (Epistles p. 28) that in a matter like safeguarding the interests of Dion ‘ Plato was a child in the hands οf Dionysius, who tricked him at every turn’. Dionysius was not the worst; he wanted to have his own way and Plato for a friend. But there were schemers behind the throne bent on Dion’s downfall and the frustration of his and Plato’s plans for Dionysius, and for these too Plato was no match. His only mistake was in thinking that he ever could be, instead of holding back as he did at the time of the Thirty in Athens.

W.K.C. Guthrie, Life of Plato and philosophical influences

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