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From, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. IV, Plato: the man and his dialogues, earlier period,
Cambridge University Press, 19896, pp. 8-38.(Ι) LIFE ||| (a) Sources ||| (b) Birth and family connexions ||| (c) Early years ||| (d) Sicily and the Academy ||| (2) PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES \ Greek Fonts \ Plato Home Page
Page 15
Never can a journey have been undertaken more unwillingly. Dragged (as he says) by the envoys from Sicily and practically pushed out by the enthusiasm of his friends in Athens, he yielded to the old argument that he must not fail Dion or his Tarentine friends nor refuse to put Dionysius to the final test. So the third act of the tragedy began. ‘At least’, he says, ‘Ι got away with my life’ an indication of the complete failure of the enterprise. First, he must test the mettle of Dionysius by explaining to him what philosophy really is and the range of preliminary studies through which it must be approached, concealing nothing of the time and labour involved, or the truth that it must be a constant companion and guide for a whole lifetime. Acceptance of this programme Plato regarded as the acid test of a philosophic temperament. In the event he was not even allowed to finish his exposition of it; so sure was Dionysius (the very model of the Ignorant Μan of Socrates, Who does not even know that he is ignorant) that he knew the most important points already from the pernicious instruction that he had imbibed from certain philosophers at his court.[51] Later he went so far as to write a ‘handbook’ (τέχνη) of his own, based, so he claimed, on Plato’s teaching, thereby provoking from Plato the declaration which appears at the beginning of this volume (p. 1 [=Epist. 7.341b-d]).
Things went from bad to worse. Far from recalling Dion, the tyrant took over his property and cut off the income which up to now he had been receiving from it while in Greece. Plato tried to leave, but Dionysius soothed his anger with specious proposals for Dion’s future and the part Plato could play in it. Let him wait till the next sailing season, and Dion would be grateful for his help. The hapless Plato asked for time for reflection and proceeded to weigh υp the pros and cons in his usual deliberate way, only to conclude that in any case no one would give him a passage without a personal order from Dionysius and that, living as he did in the palace grounds, he was practically a prisoner. So he ‘decided’ to remain, and Dionysius proceeded to sell οff the whole of Dion’s property without telling Plato beforehand. From then on, good relations between them were at an end, though they kept up a pretence of friendship to the outside world. After further incidents Plato managed to get a message to Archytas at Tarentum, and his friends there, on the pretext of a political mission, sent one of themselves in a ship, who prevailed on Dionysius to let Plato go.
A Day in Old Athens * A Short History of Greek Philosophy
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Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/guthrie-plato.asp?pg=15
