Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/97

 PLATO AT SYRACUSE. 71 slate of mind in going to Syracuse. At the same time, he inti- mates that his motives were differently interpreted by others. 1 And as the account which we possess was written fifteen yearg after the event when Dion had perished, when the Syracusan enterprise had realized nothing like what was expected, and when Plato looked back upon it with the utmost grief and aver- sion, 2 which must have poisoned the last three or four years of his life we may fairly suspect that he partially transfers back lo 367 B. c. the feelings of 352 B. c. ; and that at the earlier period, he went to Syracuse not merely because he was ashamed to decline, but because he really flattered himself with some hopes of success. However desponding he may have been before, he could hardly fail to conceive hopes from the warmth of his first reception. One of the royal carriages met him at his landing, and conveyed him to his lodging. Dionysius offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods for his safe arrival. The banquets at the acropolis became distinguished for their plainness and sobriety. Never had Dionysius been seen so gentle in answering suitors or trans- acting public business. He began immediately to take lessons in geometry from Plato. Every one around him, of course, was suddenly smitten with a taste for geometry ;3 so that the floors were all spread with sand, and nothing was to be seen except triangles and other figures inscribed upon it, with expositors and a listening crowd around them. To those who had been inmates of the acropolis, under the reign of the former despot, this change was surprising enough. But their surprise was converted into alarm, when, at a periodical sacrifice just then offered, Dionysius himself arrested the herald in pronouncing the customary prayer to the gods " That the despotism might long remain unshaken." " Stop ! (said Dionysius to the herald) imprecate no such cursa upon us ! " 4 To the ears of Philistus, and the old politicians, 1 This is contained in the words ovx y rivef edofafov before cited. 2 Plato, Epistol. vii. p. 350 E. ravra elrrov /jffttar}K(jf rijv wepl 2 K&iav 7r?.av57v Kal arvxiav, etc. Xenokrates seems to have accompanied Plato to Sicily (Diogen Laert, iT 2,1). 1 Plutarch. Do Adulator, ct Amici Discrimine, p. 52 C.
 * Plutarch, Dion, c. 13. Oi> Kavay Karapufisvof %L-iu.