Page:Early Greek philosophy by John Burnet, 3rd edition, 1920.djvu/294

280 seems also to be the original source of the story that Plato bought "three Pythagorean books" from Philolaos and copied the Timaeus out of them. According to this, the "three books" had come into the possession of Philolaos; and, as he had fallen into great poverty, Dion was able to buy them from him, or from his relatives, at Plato's request, for a hundred minae. It is certain, at any rate, that this story was already current in the third century; for the sillographer Timon of Phleious addresses Plato thus: "And of thee too, Plato, did the desire of discipleship lay hold. For many pieces of silver thou didst get in exchange a small book, and starting from it didst learn to write Timaeus." Hermippos, the pupil of Kallimachos, said that "some writer" said Plato himself bought the books from the relatives of Philolaos for forty Alexandrian minae and copied the Timaeus out of it; while Satyros, the Aristarchean, says he got it through Dion for a hundred minae. There is no suggestion in any of these accounts that the book was by Philolaos himself; they imply rather that what Plato bought was either a book by Pythagoras, or at any rate authentic notes of his teaching, which had come into the hands of Philolaos. In later times, it was generally supposed that the forgery entitled The Soul of the World, which goes by the name of Timaios the Lokrian, was meant; but it has now been proved that this cannot have existed earlier than the first century A.D. Moreover, it is plain that it is based on Plato's Timaeus itself, and that it was written in order to bolster up the story of Plato's plagiarism. It does not, however, fulfil the most important requirement, that of being in three books, which is always an essential feature of that story.