![]() ![]() Solon's heritage can be traced back to Dropides, Archon of the year 644 b.c. Plato's mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet Solon. These claims are not however exploited in the philosopher's dialogues. Codrus himself was a demigod fathered by the God of the sea Poseidon. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laërtius but disputed by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus, and the king of Messenia, Melanthus. Plato's father was Ariston, of the deme of Colytus. Aegina is regarded as Plato's place of birth by Suda as well. Therefore, Nails concludes that "perhaps Ariston was a cleruch, perhaps he went to Aegina in 431, and perhaps Plato was born on Aegina, but none of this enables a precise dating of Ariston's death (or Plato's birth)". On the other hand, at the Peace of Nicias, Aegina was silently left under Athens control, and it was not until the summer of 411 that the Spartans overran the island. Nails points out, however, that there is no record of any Spartan expulsion of Athenians from Aegina between 431 and 411 BC. According to Favorinus, Ariston and his family were sent by Athens to settle as cleruchs (colonists retaining their Athenian citizenship), on the island of Aegina, from which they were expelled by the Spartans after Plato's birth there. Diogenes mentions as one of his sources the Universal History of Favorinus. Diogenes Laërtius states that Plato "was born, according to some writers, in Aegina in the house of Phidiades the son of Thales". For her part, Debra Nails asserts that the philosopher was born in 424/423 BC. Greek philologist Ioannis Kalitsounakis believes that the philosopher was born on May 26 or 27, 427 BC, while Jonathan Barnes regards 428 BC as year of Plato's birth. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff estimates that Plato was born when Diotimos was archon eponymous, namely between July 29 428 BC and July 24 427 BC. Renaissance Platonists celebrated Plato's birth on November 7. Sir Thomas Browne also believes that Plato was born in the 88th Olympiad. According to Suda, Plato was born in Aegina in the 88th Olympiad amid the preliminaries of the Peloponnesian war, and he lived 82 years. The Chronicle of Eusebius names the fourth year of the 89th Olympiad as Plato's, when Stratocles was archon, while the Alexandrian Chronicle mentions the eighty-ninth Olympiad, in the archonship of Isarchus. If we accept Neanthes' version, Plato was younger than Isocrates by six years, and therefore he was born in the second year of the 87th Olympiad, the year Pericles died (429 BC). According to another biographer of him, Neanthes, Plato was eighty-four years of age at his death. The grammarian Apollodorus of Athens argues in his Chronicles that Plato was born in the first year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad (427 BC), on the seventh day of the month Thargelion according to this tradition the god Apollo was born this day. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars estimate that Plato was born between 428 and 427 BC. The specific birthdate of Plato is not known. His father contributed everything necessary to give to his son a good education, and Plato therefore must have been instructed in grammar, music, gymnastics and philosophy by some of the most distinguished teachers of his era. ![]() Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies. Plato came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Little can be known about Plato's early life and education due to the very limited accounts. 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the second of the trio of ancient Greeks including Socrates and Aristotle said to have laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. Plato ( Ancient Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn, "wide, broad-shouldered" c. JSTOR ( January 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. ![]()
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