Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/83

 DION. i>7 repulsive. 1 That great philosopher visited Italy and Sicily about 387 B. c., as has been already mentioned. He was in acquaint- ance and fellowship with the school of philosophers called Pytha- goreans ; the remnant of that Pythagorean brotherhood, who had once exercised so powerful a political influence over the cities of those regions and who still enjoyed considerable reputation, even after complete political downfall, through individual ability and rank of the members, combined with habits of recluse study, mys- ticism, and attachment among themselves. With these Pytha- goreans Dion also, a young man of open mind and ardent aspira- tions, was naturally thrown into communication by the proceedings of the elder Dionysius in Italy/ 2 Through them he came into intercourse with Plato, whose conversation made an epoch in his life. The mystic turn of imagination, the sententious brevity, and the mathematical researches of the Pythagoreans, produced doubt- less an imposing effect upon Dion ; just as Lysis, a member of that brotherhood, had acquired the attachment and influenced the sentiments of Epaminondas at Thebes. But Plato's power of working upon the minds of young men was far more impressive and irresistible. He possessed a large range of practical expe rience, a mastery of political and social topics, and a charm of elo- quence, to which the Pythagoreans were strangers. The stirring effect of the Sokratic talk, as well as of the democratical atmos- 1 Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 326 D. ih&ovra 6s pe 6 TUVTIJ heyo/ievof av (3iot; Kv6ai(j.uv, 'Ira^iuTtKuv re not ^vpaKovaiuv rpatre^uv TrA-^p^f, ovda/tri ov6a- H&C fjpEGKe, <5('f re TJJS rj/iepae tfj.Tri(j.TT?ia[j.evov ^v /cat ftTjdexoTt Koipuftevov uovov vvKTup, etc. 2 Cicero, Be Finibus, v. 20; De Republic, i. 10. Jamblichus (Vit. Py- thagorae, c. 199) calls Dion a, member of the Pythagorean brotherhood, which may be doubted ; but his assertion that Dion procured for Plato, though only by means of a large price (one hundred minre), the possession of a book composed by the Pythagorean Philolaus, seems not improbable. The ancient Pythagoreans wrote nothing. Philolaus (seemingly about contemporary with Sokrates) was the first Pythagorean who left any writ- ten memorial. That this book could only be obtained by the intervention of an influential Syracusan and even by him only for a large price is easy to believe. See the instructive Dissertation of Gruppe, Uber die Fragmente dti Archytas und der alteren Pythagoreer, p. 24, 26. 4S, etc.