{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "plato.epistles",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/epistles/reference-309/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Letters Attributed to Plato",
    "author": "Plato",
    "date": "4th-3rd centuries BCE; authenticity varies by letter",
    "summary": "Letters transmitted under Plato’s name discuss Syracuse, political counsel, friendship, and life around the Academy. Authenticity is debated item by item; the collection should not be read as uniformly secure personal correspondence.",
    "learning": "Distinguish individual letters, understand criteria in authenticity debates, and avoid building biography on unqualified attribution.",
    "long_summary": "The Seventh Letter develops an account of engagement with Dion and Syracuse’s tyrants while claiming that the highest philosophical knowledge cannot simply be fixed in writing. Other items advise, justify, or maintain alliances.\n\nStyle, chronology, and transmission have produced divergent scholarly verdicts, with several letters widely regarded as spurious. Biographical or doctrinal use therefore depends on explicit attribution. The collective title marks manuscript tradition, not guaranteed authorship of every text.",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "Classical Greek world, 5th century BCE",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Bronze, iron, pottery, simple cranes, and shipbuilding sustain cities. Power still comes mainly from people, animals, wind, and water.",
        "science": "Geometry, astronomy, inquiry into nature, and rational argument advance without modern measuring instruments or standardized experiments.",
        "medicine": "Practitioners observe symptoms, diet, and seasons; healing sanctuaries and ritual treatment also remain common.",
        "transport": "Walking and animals dominate on land. Sailing ships and triremes connect islands, ports, and colonies.",
        "agriculture": "Small farms, grain, vines, olives, goats, and sheep shape the diet; harvests remain vulnerable to weather and war.",
        "communication": "Public speech, messengers, and handwritten letters carry news. Theatre, the civic square, and the banquet are major social media.",
        "clothing": "Women and men drape wool or linen as chitons, peploi, and cloaks. Garments are pinned, belted, and shaped by status rather than tailored like modern clothes."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Bronze, iron, pottery, simple cranes, and shipbuilding sustain cities. Power still comes mainly from people, animals, wind, and water. Geometry, astronomy, inquiry into nature, and rational argument advance without modern measuring instruments or standardized experiments. Practitioners observe symptoms, diet, and seasons; healing sanctuaries and ritual treatment also remain common."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Walking and animals dominate on land. Sailing ships and triremes connect islands, ports, and colonies. Public speech, messengers, and handwritten letters carry news. Theatre, the civic square, and the banquet are major social media."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Small farms, grain, vines, olives, goats, and sheep shape the diet; harvests remain vulnerable to weather and war."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/03-431-bce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Women and men drape wool or linen as chitons, peploi, and cloaks. Garments are pinned, belted, and shaped by status rather than tailored like modern clothes."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "platonism",
        "label": "Socratic and Platonic thought"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "grc",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/plato/epistles/representations/grc.ndjson",
            "language": "grc",
            "records": 55,
            "role": "original",
            "sha256": "15eeb07d3311e8a616054ef4a06a43dedab52eef7fb548e2307862217e19022b",
            "source_id": "perseus-plato-epistles-grc"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/plato/epistles/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 55,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "346869745c0be3a610ae63a02d2d94f6e2b46c0c21e1e5152913b592ff921ee8",
            "source_id": "perseus-plato-epistles-en"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/plato/epistles/representations/fr.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 55,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "6bb618589e867fc6260a0606e685e608aca4c8a06f4da52712380d37d6b72f34",
            "source_id": "wikisource-cousin-epistles-fr-01"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "anger",
            "label": "Anger"
        },
        {
            "id": "beneficence",
            "label": "Beneficence"
        },
        {
            "id": "desire",
            "label": "Desire"
        },
        {
            "id": "dialectic",
            "label": "Dialectic"
        },
        {
            "id": "exile",
            "label": "Exile"
        },
        {
            "id": "faith",
            "label": "Faith"
        },
        {
            "id": "forms",
            "label": "Intelligible forms"
        },
        {
            "id": "fortune",
            "label": "Fortune"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "god",
            "label": "God"
        },
        {
            "id": "honestum_and_utility",
            "label": "Moral rightness and utility"
        },
        {
            "id": "law",
            "label": "Law"
        },
        {
            "id": "philosophical_eros",
            "label": "Philosophical eros"
        },
        {
            "id": "prayer",
            "label": "Prayer"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "salvation",
            "label": "Salvation"
        },
        {
            "id": "service",
            "label": "Service"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "wisdom",
            "label": "Wisdom"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "plato.epistles"
    ],
    "passages": 55,
    "word_count": 23675,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 23675,
        "fr": 22079,
        "grc": 15641
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "plato-stephanus-page-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "stephanus_page",
                "label_fr": "Page Stephanus",
                "label_en": "Stephanus page"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Passage",
        "leaf_en": "Passage"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:plato.epistles:309",
    "canonical_ref": "309",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "Πλάτων Διονυσίῳ εὖ πράττειν. διατρίψας ἐγὼ παρʼ ὑμῖν χρόνον τοσοῦτον καὶ διοικῶν τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀρχὴν πεπιστευμένος πάντων μάλιστα, τὰς ὠφελίας ὑμῶν λαμβανόντων, τὰς διαβολὰς δυσχερεῖς οὔσας ὑπέμενον· ᾔδη γὰρ ὅτι τῶν ὠμοτέρων οὐδὲν ἐμοῦ συνεθέλοντος ὑμῖν δόξει πεπρᾶχθαι· πάντες γὰρ οἱ συμπολιτευόμενοι μεθʼ ὑμῶν ὑπάρχουσί μοι μάρτυρες, ὧν ἐγὼ πολλοῖς συνηγωνισάμην, ἀπολύσας αὐτοὺς οὐ σμικρᾶς ζημίας. αὐτοκράτωρ δὲ πολλάκις τὴν ὑμετέραν πόλιν διαφυλάξας, ἀπεπέμφθην ἀτιμότερον ἢ πτωχὸν ὑμῶν ἀποστελλόντων προσήκει καὶ κελευόντων ἐκπλεῦσαι, τοσοῦτον παρʼ ὑμῖν διατρίψαντα χρόνον. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ βουλεύσομαι τὸ λοιπὸν τρόπον ἀπανθρωπότερον, σὺ δὲ τοιοῦτος ὢν τύραννος οἰκήσεις μόνος. τὸ δὲ χρυσίον τὸ λαμπρόν, ὅπερ ἔδωκας εἰς ἀποστολήν, ἄγει σοι Βακχεῖος ὁ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν φέρων· οὔτε γὰρ ἐφόδιον ἐκεῖνό γʼ ἦν ἱκανὸν οὔτε πρὸς τὸν ἄλλον βίον συμφέρον, ἀδοξίαν δὲ πλείστην τῷ διδόντι σοὶ παρασκευάζον, οὐ πολλῷ δὲ ἐλάττω κἀμοὶ λαμβάνοντι, διόπερ οὐ λαμβάνω. σοὶ δʼ οὐδὲν διαφέρει δῆλον ὅτι καὶ λαβεῖν καὶ δοῦναι τοσοῦτον, ὥστε κομισάμενος ἄλλον τινὰ τῶν ἑταίρων θεράπευσον ὥσπερ ἐμέ· κἀγὼ γὰρ ἱκανῶς ὑπὸ σοῦ τεθεράπευμαι. καί μοι τὸ τοῦ Εὐριπίδου κατὰ καιρόν ἐστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι σοὶ πραγμάτων ἄλλων ποτὲ συμπεσόντων— εὔξῃ τοιοῦτον ἄνδρα σοι παρεστάναι. Eur. Fr. 956 ὑπομνῆσαι δέ σε βούλομαι διότι καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τραγῳδοποιῶν οἱ πλεῖστοι, ὅταν ὑπό τινος ἀποθνῄσκοντα τύραννον εἰσάγωσιν, ἀναβοῶντα ποιοῦσιν—",
            "edition": "perseus-plato-epistles-grc",
            "source_id": "perseus-plato-epistles-grc",
            "translation_type": "original"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Plato to Dionysius wishes well-doing. After I had spent so long a time with you and was trusted above all others in my administration of your government, while you were enjoying the benefits I was enduring the slanders, grievous as they were. For I knew that men would not believe that any of your more brutal acts were done with my consent, seeing that I have for my witnesses all those who take a part in your government, many of whom I have helped in their times of trial and saved them from no small damage. But after I had oftentimes kept guard over your City as sole Dictator, I was dismissed with more ignominy than a beggar would deserve who had stayed with you for so long a time, were you to pack him off and order him to sail away. For the future, therefore, I for my part will consult my own interests in less philanthropic fashion, while you, gross tyrant that you are, will dwell alone. And as for the splendid sum of gold which you gave for my journey home, Baccheius, the bearer of this letter, is taking it back to you. For it was neither a sufficient sum for my journey nor was it otherwise useful for my support; and since it reflects the greatest disgrace on you who offer it, and not much less on me if I accept it, I therefore refuse to accept it. But evidently neither the giving nor the accepting of such an amount makes any difference to you; take it, then, and befriend therewith some other companion of yours as you did me; for I, in sooth, have had enough of your befriending. Indeed, I may appropriately quote the verse of Euripides—that one day, when other fortunes befall you, Thou’lt pray for such a helper by thy side. Eur. Fr. 956 (Nauck) And I desire to remind you that most of the other tragedians also, when they show a tyrant on the stage slaughtered by someone, represent him as crying out—",
            "translator": "Benjamin Jowett",
            "edition": "perseus-plato-epistles-en",
            "source_id": "perseus-plato-epistles-en",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "[309a] Dion à Denys ; bonheur et sagesse. Pendant tout le temps que j’ai passé auprès de vous, associé à votre gouvernement, et plus avant dans votre confiance que vos autres serviteurs, j’ai enduré les plus odieuses calomnies, parce que j’étais certain que jamais on ne me croirait complice de pareilles violences. J’en atteste tous ceux qui ont partagé avec moi le fardeau de vos affaires et que plus d’une fois j’ai eu bien de la peine à soustraire aux châtiments les plus graves. Souvent j’ai commandé en maître absolu dans votre capitale, et me voici chassé plus honteusement qu’il ne conviendrait de faire un mendiant, exilé par vos ordres au delà des mers, moi qui ai passé une si grande partie de mes jours auprès de vous ! Aussi, désormais je veux m’éloigner des hommes ; et toi, tyran que tu es, tu vivras seul dans ton palais. Quant à la brillante somme d’argent [309b] que tu m’as envoyée pour mon voyage, je te la renvoie par Bacchée, porteur de cette lettre : elle ne suffisait pas aux frais de la traversée, et du reste elle m’eût été inutile. Il est honteux à toi de la donner ; il ne le serait guère moins à moi de l’accepter : aussi je la refuse. Peu t’importe de donner ou de recevoir une pareille somme ; reprends-la donc, et porte ce présent à quelque autre de tes amis. Quant à moi, je t’en tiens quitte, et je crois pouvoir dire avec Euripide que, dans d’autres circonstances, Tu souhaiteras d’avoir près de toi un homme tel que moi. Rappelle-toi encore que la plupart des autres poètes tragiques, quand ils font mourir un roi sous les coups d’un traître, ne manquent pas de lui mettre ces mots dans la bouche :",
            "translator": "Victor Cousin",
            "edition": "wikisource-cousin-epistles-fr-01",
            "source_id": "wikisource-cousin-epistles-fr-01",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "310548c2155375209ae027da6bddb8833b754c681f23fa0b374ae05dc055bff7"
}