Chapter 649: Meeting with Plato
Chapter 649: Meeting with Plato
That startled Plato, who then immediately smiled and said, “Lysias! It’s great to see you again! You’ve gained weight that I almost didn’t recognise you.”
Indeed, Lysias lived a privileged life after having a successful career at this time and no longer had the appearance of making money by writing defence speeches for others in Athens. He patted his protruding belly under his magnificent chiton and sighed in a seemingly helpless manner. However, he was inwardly pleased with it, “As I get older and older, I gain more and more. I tried to lose it, but there is no other effect.”
Plato replied smilingly, “Because what you gain when getting older are experience and knowledge!”
Lysias smiled when Plato held him. He then pointed to the people beside him and said enthusiastically, “Let me introduce you to a statesman of Theonia and the main organiser of the All-Greek Academic Symposium – Ansitanos.”
“Are you the Ansitanos who wrote the History of Magna Graecia?” Plato asked, feeling surprised.
“I am indeed the one who wrote the History of Magna Graecia; however, it is barely passable.” Ansitanos then modestly continued, “It couldn’t compare to your Republic that shocked the scholars all over Greece, and even our King Davos praised your book by saying it was a political marvel and praised you as the great Plato!”
Hearing Ansitanos’ praise, Plato became slightly embarrassed that he frankly said, “It took me twelve years of travelling the Mediterranean sea to write that book. I use the knowledge I gain from observing and contemplating, but there are still quite a few flaws and drawbacks that I am constantly improving…”
When he wrote this book, Plato received a lot of controversy and criticism in Athens because he was criticising the shortcomings of democracy.
Plato praised him and said, “On the other hand, you, Lord Ansitanos, had written the History of Magna Graecia clearly and rigorously researched. With time as the horizontal line and the events of the city-state of Magna Graecia as the vertical line, you had clearly and lucidly described the hundreds of years of history of Magna Graecia, which I think is no less than Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. Moreover, it gives us native Greeks a good understanding of the hundreds of years of history of the Greek colonies in southern Italy. I had even kept three copies in my Akademia’s library…”
“Stop praising each other; we must leave here quickly. Ansitanos, don’t forget that King Davos is still waiting to meet Plato!” Lysias urged.
“Your king wants to meet me?” Plato was surprised.
“Didn’t I just say King Davos highly respect you? He wants to see you now because the symposium hasn’t yet started, so it won’t be too eye-catching,” explained Ansitanos.
Plato immediately understood once he thought about it. He then smiled and said, “Wonderful, I also want to see the marvellous king who created Theonia’s miracle!”
Unlike the two scholars who arrived earlier, the bystanders recognised Plato more, not because he was more famous at this time, but because it had only been a few years since his travel around the major Mediterranean countries and city-state. Hippocrates and Democritus, on the other hand, had entered their later years, so they rarely travelled far.
For example, Oropes, a merchant from Agrigento, had once met Plato while doing his business in Syracuse and Leontinoi. At this moment, he looked at Plato’s distant figure and thought: Hippocrates, a famous physician in Greece, a knowledgeable scholar who was the student of Democritus, and Plato, a renowned scholar in Athens. In just half a day, Theonia invited three famous scholars from the Greek world. And since the All-Greek Academic Symposium that Theonia held must be a gathering of scholars, it would definitely be quite attractive. Would Thurii replace Athens and become the academic centre of the Greek world?!
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Davos had long been eager to meet this great sage and thinker called the father of philosophy by the west in his previous life. The westerners even had the consensus that Plato is philosophy and philosophy is Plato when it comes to politics and philosophical studies.
Plato also hopes to meet this young king who made a small city-state rapidly rise into one of the most powerful Greek forces in the western Mediterranean. He wanted to ask him about the political mystery of how to make a city-state powerful, which he believed would help perfect his political philosophy.
Thus they quickly meet in the king’s office in the palace of Theonia.
Although Plato wasn’t tall, his physique was good, which is quite different from the traditional image of a Chinese scholar who is handsome and elegant. And as the young king who created the powerful kingdom of Theonia, Davos was also synonymous with the word handsome and mighty.
Since neither of them was an ordinary man, they didn’t look at each other with such a mundane attitude as judging each other by appearances. “Your majesty, while on my way here from the port, I found a massive difference between the citizens of Theonia and those of other Greek city-states -” he paused for a moment and continued after seeing the curious look on Davos’ face, “None of you has beards, is this deliberate?”
It caught Davos off-guard when Plato asked such a question as soon as he opened his mouth, Davos was caught off-guard. He then subconsciously rubbed his bare chin and said with a smile, “That is because we, the Theonians, realise over the years that growing a long beard isn’t good. For example: While our citizen-soldiers fight the enemy, the enemy could easily pull our beard when they notice it is too long, which might lead to injury or even the loss of life. In addition, the physicians of Theonia’s Medical School found after research that a too-thick and too-long bear, if not cleaned frequently, will breed some small things inside that we can’t see and cause us to suffer from a disease. But if we clean it frequently, it will just waste our time and energy. Thus it is better to shave it off completely.”
After listening to Davos, Plato also unconsciously stroked his thick beard and said, “So, the Theonians advocate practicality? And for this reason, they are not even willing to follow our ancient tradition?”
With a smile, Davos said thoughtfully, “Our understanding of the environment and nature would gradually get clearer and richer with the passage of time; the scholars of ancient times wouldn’t be comparable to us now, so many of their views and understanding are simple, or might even be wrong… Still, we would certainly want to inherit the good Greek traditions. But for the bad ones, why should we keep them?! For example, the other city-state would keep their women locked up in their homes, while we in Theonia gave the women of our kingdom more freedom and equal education! Didn’t you also call for equality between men and women in your Republic?!…”
Davos’ words caused Plato to ponder. But instead of responding directly, he asked, “Since you say that you want to inherit the good traditions of the Greeks and discard the bad ones, then you think that aristocracy is superior to other regimes because you became a king and turned Theonia Union into a kingdom, right?”
Davos likewise didn’t answer his question directly. Instead, he looked at him and said thoughtfully, “I have read your Ideal State, and I disagree with your opinion that only philosophers are the best rulers of a city-state. On the contrary, having a philosopher in power will only worsen the city-state!”
When he heard this, Plato widened his eyes. But he quickly recovered his calm and asked in a more serious tone, “Why does your majesty think that?”
Davos unhurriedly said, “We Greeks called it philosophy since it is the love of wisdom, a study that inquires into the evolution of heavy, earth, society, the world… and the profound knowledge of the evolution of everything. And the person who can be called a philosopher must devote all his energy to it to gain insight into the world, which isn’t an easy task. So where does he have the extra time to govern the country?! Look at me here- ”
He then pointed to the mountains of letters, proposals and information on his desk…he sighed and said, “These are the kingdom matters that I have to deal with in a day. Besides that, I will also invite officials to discuss and participate in the deliberation of various proposals of the Senate…thus I barely have free time. Even for this meeting with you, I need to plan it before I can spare half an hour, and this will also result in me having to go home a little later tonight. Otherwise, we couldn’t approve some of the resolutions in time and have to push them to tomorrow, which not only means a reduction in administrative efficiency but also may mean that the lives of the people in a city or a region of the kingdom are greatly affected…
You see, he would have to devote most of his energy to the tedious affairs of the city-state if he wanted to be a good king. The same is true of the praetors of the cities of my kingdom, whose authority is equal to that of a ruler of other city-states, as they must be diligent and on the ground to solve the practical problems of the cities under their jurisdiction. But if they were to spend their energy on studying and learning instead of doing their job, the local council members and tribunal officers would protest against him if I didn’t replace him…”
“Your majesty, I am amazed at your diligence!” Plato complimented first and then said calmly, “You said that philosophy is the love of wisdom, but we couldn’t obtain wisdom just by sitting there and thinking in vain. Instead, we had to refine it through practice. When encountering a difficult problem while dealing with governmental matters, one must think seriously, find the law, and eventually find a solution; Since you could even refine this method into a system and promote it, is this not the result of the use of philosophy?!…”
“It seems that the various praetors within the kingdom and I are sages, so does this means that it is easy to become a philosopher?” retorted Davos.