Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/232

 200 HISTORY OF GREECE. the capture of Pydna, Potidaea, Torone, and other neighboring places ; while on the other hand he had opposed the Athenians in their attempt against Amphipolis, securing that important place by a Macedonian garrison, both against them and for himself. He was engaged in serious conflicts with the Illyrians. 1 It ap- pears too that he was not without some literary inclinations was an admirer of intellectual men, and in correspondence with Plato at Athens. Distinguished philosophers or sophists, like Plato and Isokrates, enjoyed renown, combined with a certain measure of influence, throughout the whole range of the Grecian world. Forty years before, Archelaus king of Macedonia had shown fa- ver to Plato, 2 then a young man, as well as to his master Sokrates. Amyntas, the father both of Perdikkas and of Philip, had through- out his reign cultivated the friendship of leading Athenians, espe- cially Iphikrates and Timotheus ; the former of whom he had even adopted as his son ; Aristotle, afterwards so eminent as a philosopher (son of Nikomachus the confidential physician of Amyntas 3 ), had been for some time studying at Athens as a pupil of Plato ; moreover Perdikkas during his reign had resident with him a friend of the philosopher Euphneus of Oreus. Perdik- kas lent himself much to the guidance of Euphraeus, who directed him in the choice of his associates, and permitted none to be his guests except persons of studious habits ; thus exciting much dis- gust among the military Macedonians. 4 It is a signal testimony to the reputation of Plato, that we find his advice courted, at one and the same time, by Dionysius the younger at Syracuse, and by Perdikkas in Macedonia. On the suggestion of Plato, conveyed through Euphraeus, Per 1 Antipater (the general of Philip and viceVoy of his son Alexander in Macedonia) is said to have left an historical work, HepdiKKov irpu^eif 'I/Mw- piKuf (SuiJas, v. 'AvrtTrarpof), which can hardly refer to any other Perdik- kas than the one now before us. 2 Athcnaeus, xi. p. 506 E. IMurwv, bv Znevonrnos OTJOL ifoa.-ov vvra Ap%c?.u, etc. 3 Diogenes Laert. v. 1, 1. Athenaeus, XL p. 506 E. p. 508 E. The fourth among the letters of Plato (alluded to by Diogenes Laert. iii. 62) is addressed to Perdikkas partly in recommendation and praise of Euphraus. There appear* nothing to prove it to be spurious ; but whether it be spurious or genuine, .he fact that Plato corresponded with Perdikkas is sufficiently probable.