Alcibiades I | Page 3

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ALCIBIADES I
by Plato (see Appendix I)

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

APPENDIX I.
It seems impossible to separate by any exact line the genuine writings
of Plato from the spurious. The only external evidence to them which is
of much value is that of Aristotle; for the Alexandrian catalogues of a
century later include manifest forgeries. Even the value of the
Aristotelian authority is a good deal impaired by the uncertainty
concerning the date and authorship of the writings which are ascribed
to him. And several of the citations of Aristotle omit the name of Plato,
and some of them omit the name of the dialogue from which they are
taken. Prior, however, to the enquiry about the writings of a particular
author, general considerations which equally affect all evidence to the
genuineness of ancient writings are the following: Shorter works are
more likely to have been forged, or to have received an erroneous
designation, than longer ones; and some kinds of composition, such as
epistles or panegyrical orations, are more liable to suspicion than others;
those, again, which have a taste of sophistry in them, or the ring of a
later age, or the slighter character of a rhetorical exercise, or in which a
motive or some affinity to spurious writings can be detected, or which
seem to have originated in a name or statement really occurring in
some classical author, are also of doubtful credit; while there is no
instance of any ancient writing proved to be a forgery, which combines

excellence with length. A really great and original writer would have
no object in fathering his works on Plato; and to the forger or imitator,
the 'literary hack' of Alexandria and Athens, the Gods did not grant
originality or genius. Further, in attempting to balance the evidence for
and against a Platonic dialogue, we must not forget that the form of the
Platonic writing was common to several of his contemporaries.
Aeschines, Euclid, Phaedo, Antisthenes, and in the next generation
Aristotle, are all said to have composed dialogues; and mistakes of
names are very likely to have occurred. Greek literature in the third
century before Christ was almost as voluminous as our own, and
without the safeguards of regular publication, or printing, or binding, or
even of distinct titles. An unknown writing was naturally attributed to a
known writer whose works bore the same character; and the name once
appended easily obtained authority. A tendency may also be observed
to blend the works and opinions of the master with those of his scholars.
To a later Platonist, the difference between Plato and his imitators was
not so perceptible as to ourselves. The Memorabilia of Xenophon and
the Dialogues of Plato are but a part of a considerable Socratic
literature which has passed away. And we must consider how we
should regard the question of the genuineness of a particular writing, if
this lost literature had been preserved to us.
These considerations lead us to adopt the following criteria