[5] Diog. L. iii. 4; Epiktêtus, i. 8-13, εἰ δὲ καλὸς ἦν Πλάτων καὶ ἰσχυρός, &c.
The statement of Sextus Empiricus — that Plato in his boyhood had his ears bored and wore ear-rings — indicates the opulent family to which he belonged. (Sex. Emp. adv. Gramm. s. 258.) Probably some of the old habits of the great Athenian families, as to ornaments worn on the head or hair, were preserved with the children after they had been discontinued with adults. See Thuc. i. 6.
[6] Diog. L. iii. 26.
Early relations of Plato with Sokrates.
According to Diogenes[7] (who on this point does not cite his authority), it was about the twentieth year of Plato’s age (407 B.C.) that his acquaintance with Sokrates began. It may possibly have begun earlier, but certainly not later — since at the time of the conversation (related by Xenophon) between Sokrates and Plato’s younger brother Glaukon, there was already a friendship established between Sokrates and Plato: and that time can hardly be later than 406 B.C., or the beginning of 405 B.C.[8] From 406 B.C. down to 399 B.C., when Sokrates was tried and condemned, Plato seems to have remained in friendly relation and society with him: a relation perhaps interrupted during the severe political struggles between 405 B.C. and 403 B.C., but revived and strengthened after the restoration of the democracy in the last-mentioned year.
[7] Ibid. 6.
[8] Xen. Mem. iii. 6, 1. Sokrates was induced by his friendship for Plato and for Charmides the cousin of Plato, to admonish the forward youth Glaukon (Plato’s younger brother), who thrust himself forward obtrusively to speak in the public assembly before he was twenty years of age. The two discourses of Sokrates — one with the presumptuous Glaukon, the other with the diffident Charmides — are both reported by Xenophon.
These discourses must have taken place before the battle of Ægospotami: for Charmides was killed during the Anarchy, and Glaukon certainly would never have attempted such acts of presumption after the restoration of the democracy, at a time when the tide of public feeling had become vehemently hostile to Kritias, Charmides, and all the names and families connected with the oligarchical rule just overthrown.
I presume the conversation of Sokrates with Glaukon to have taken place in 406 B.C. or 405 B.C.: it was in 405 B.C. that the disastrous battle of Ægospotami occurred.