Alcibiades II

Editorial Note

The Greek text. The Greek is John Burnet’s, from the second volume of his Oxford Classical Text of Plato (1901), in which the Alcibiades II follows the Alcibiades I. The copy reproduced is the one used for the Alcibiades I of this series: a later impression, undated, printed at Oxford by John Johnson as Printer to the University and published by Humphrey Milford, and so made between 1925 and 1945. It carries Burnet’s preface of March 1901 and a short addendum of April 1910 that concerns the Symposium and Phaedrus. The text is reproduced page for page and line for line: each left-hand page of this edition is one page of Burnet, with his line-ends, his marginal section letters and line numbers, and his apparatus criticus at the foot. The line numbers were counted afresh and agree with his, except in section 146e: its first three lines stand on page 14, so that the first line of page 15 should be e4, but Burnet’s count there starts at 3 (his 5 stands against the third line, and his apparatus keys δοκεῖ in the first line as e3); since his margin and his apparatus keys both follow his count, the edition follows it too. The words were taken from the Perseus Digital Library’s digital transcription of Burnet, and every line was then checked against the photographs of this copy; where the two differ, this edition prints what Burnet printed. Burnet’s paragraphing (a new, indented paragraph at each change of speaker, and once within a speech, at 149c), his abbreviations of the speakers’ names (ΣΩ. for Socrates, ΑΛ. for Alcibiades), his capitals at the openings of speeches and paragraphs, his letterspacing of quoted words, and his setting of quoted verse as verse (143a, 146a, 149d–e, 150d, 151b) are kept. In his text, square brackets [ ] enclose words he believed spurious: his own deletion at 148d4 (seclusi), and two scholars’ deletions that he accepts, Cobet’s of καί at 148e3 and Winckelmann’s of ἢ at 150b2. Angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ enclose words that B and T lack and that he supplies, by conjecture (Sauppe’s repeated καὶ τοῦτο and Dobree’s ἀλλ’ at 141b2–3), from a corrector of a later manuscript (οὐ at 148c7), or from the text of the poet quoted (σὰ at 151b9, from Euripides). A word that B and T lack but an ancient author’s quotation preserves is printed without brackets (ἂν at 143b2, from Priscian).

Reading the apparatus. The notes at the foot of each Greek page are Burnet’s, unaltered, including what appear to be faults of printing: T’s οἱόν at 139a13 lacks the circumflex that B’s οἷόν has in the same entry. Entries are keyed by section letter and line as numbered in the margin, so that “a 4” is the fourth line of section a. The section letters begin again with each Stephanus page, so that on page 2, which runs from 138c to 139a, “a 7” after “c 9” belongs to 139a. A further entry on the same line follows after a wider space without repeating the key. Usually the reading printed in the text comes first, followed by the witnesses that have it; a colon separates it from the alternatives, each followed by its witnesses. Where the text’s reading is followed by a square bracket, the witnesses for the text are not listed and only the alternatives are given. An entry with no colon reports a single proposal without listing the witnesses for the text: an alternative (ὡμολόγητο Stephanus, 140d10), a deletion (140d9), a repetition (141b2) or an addition (141b3). Where Burnet adopts such a proposal the text shows it, in angle brackets for an addition (141b2–3, 148c7) and in square brackets for a deletion (150b2); otherwise the text keeps the manuscripts’ words (140d9, 140d10, 143a4). Where the text joins readings of different witnesses, the entry lists only theirs: at 139a13 Burnet prints εἰ δοκεῖ σοι οἷόν τε, B’s εἰ with T’s δοκεῖ σοι. The apparatus reports each witness’s own spelling, which may differ from the text’s without being a different reading (υἱεῖς in the entry at 138c1 against the text’s ὑεῖς in the next line; ξυμβεβουλευκέναι at 151a8 against the text’s συμβεβουλευκέναι). A word of the text is sometimes shortened to its first letter when the variants concern only the words beside it: at 141c2 “τε καὶ β.” is τε καὶ βαρβάρων. Punctuation inside an entry belongs to the reading reported: Dobree’s αὐτῶν· at 141b5 also puts a stop after the word. Letters printed small above a word stand above it in the manuscript: in T, πολυ over the φιλο of φιλοτεχνίαν at 147a5, and a δ over the last letter of ἐπει at 149a6. A dot over a letter reproduces a dot in the manuscript, the usual sign that the letter is to be deleted: B’s προφήταις at 150a6 has one over its final letter. Huc transposuit, “moved here”, and ante … habent, “have before …”, report a change in the order of words (147a1).

Names and abbreviations. Stephanus is Henri Estienne, whose edition of 1578 supplies the page numbers by which Plato is cited; the Alcibiades II fills pages 138–151 of his second volume. The other names, apart from the ancient authors and Ficino (below), are of modern scholars, cited for the reading of their editions or for a conjecture: editors of Plato’s works (Bekker, Ast, Stallbaum, Baiter, Winckelmann, Hermann and Schanz); Schleiermacher, Plato’s German translator; Buttmann, whose edition of four dialogues, the Meno, the Crito and both Alcibiades, included this one; and others who proposed corrections (Hemsterhuis, Lennep, Dobree, Hirschig, Köppen, Sauppe, Schneider, J. G. Schneider, Struve, Cobet, Naber and Apelt), some of whom also edited dialogues of Plato. Burnet keeps apart men of the same surname: J. G. Schneider from Schneider here, and, elsewhere in the volume, G. Hermann from Hermann. Priscianus and Ficinus are the Latin forms of the names of Priscian and Marsilio Ficino. A scholar’s name standing alone after a reading marks that scholar’s reading, from his edition or a study: at 140d10 the pluperfect ὡμολόγητο is the reading of Stephanus’ edition, at 138b7 λήσει τις Bekker’s. ci. marks a conjecture he proposed (Stallbaum at 139a13). scripsi, “I have written”, marks Burnet’s own correction (139a11), and seclusi, “I have bracketed”, his own deletion (148d4). add., “added”, marks an addition: a scholar’s (Dobree’s ἀλλ’ at 141b3), a corrector’s in a later manuscript (the οὐ at 148c7), or an ancient author’s (add. Priscianus at 143b2, the ἂν that Priscian’s quotation has and B and T lack); Burnet prints all three, the first two in angle brackets. bis scripsit, “wrote twice”, marks a repetition (Sauppe’s καὶ τοῦτο at 141b2, which Burnet prints in angle brackets). del., “deleted”, marks a scholar’s deletion: Burnet keeps the οὔ that Hirschig would delete at 140d9, and brackets the ἢ that Winckelmann deletes at 150b2. secl., “bracketed”, marks a scholar’s judgement that words are spurious; Burnet reports six (143a4, 144a3, 144b1, 144b5, 145d9, 148e5) and follows none, so that κελεύει, which Köppen brackets at 143a4, stands in his text. Words in angle brackets inside an entry are a scholar’s supplement (Buttmann’s ⟨δὲ⟩ at 143d5 and ⟨ὁ⟩ at 150a6), and vel, “or”, gives a second proposal (Dobree’s οὓς or ὧν at 145e5). om. means that a witness leaves the words out. cf., “compare”, points to a related place (148b6 at 143a3). At 146a6, where the verse is also quoted in the Gorgias, hic is “here”, in Gorgia 484 e “in the Gorgias at 484e”, and in Gorgia loc. cit. and Gorg. loc. cit. “in the Gorgias at the place cited”. A name in parentheses after a conjecture gives a witness that supports it: at 142a5 Dobree’s αὐτῇ is supported by Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation of Plato (1484).

The witnesses. Burnet’s apparatus to this dialogue rests on two manuscripts: B, the Bodleian Plato (MS. E. D. Clarke 39, written in 895), and T, the Venice manuscript (Marcianus, Append. Class. 4, cod. 1). W, the Vienna manuscript, which his list of sigla also gives and which he cites in the Alcibiades I, does not appear here. Later hands in B and T are marked b and t, as the list says: b at 139a11 (in “Tb”, T together with a later hand in B) and 146b9, t at 143c9, 143e9, 145b2, 148b3, 149a4 and 150b6. “rec. t” (142d6, 143c4), which the list does not explain, appears to mark a still later hand in T; pr. is a manuscript’s first hand, before correction (144d6). Letters written together share a reading, so that “BT” is B and T. recc. (recentiores) are later manuscripts in general (140b2, 141d4, 142a6, 143e8, 146a8, 149a5, 150c4), al. (alii) other manuscripts (143c9), and vulg. (vulgata) the text of the early printed editions (141c10). Four later manuscripts are named for a corrector’s reading (corr.): the Coislinianus 155 in Paris (141c10, 143a7, 151b4), the Venetus 184 (145b2), the Parisinus 1812 (147d4) and a manuscript of the Laurentian Library at Florence, Laur. lxxxv. 6 (148c7). Burnet’s preface says that the men who corrected the Coislinianus 155 and the Venetus 189 were learned readers after the revival of letters who anticipated many emendations of Heindorf and others, and that their readings rest on conjecture, not on tradition; it does not name the other three. Of ancient authors Burnet cites the anthologist Stobaeus (fifth century AD) for readings at 140e8, 145e4–5 and 146d7; the Neoplatonist Proclus (fifth century), whose commentary on the Republic quotes 142e–143a (I 187.26–188.8 in Kroll’s edition), for his λυγρά, “baneful”, in the couplet at 143a3; and the Latin grammarian Priscian (about AD 500), whose quotation of 143b2 has the ἂν that B and T omit. At 146a6 he cites the Gorgias (484e), where the same line of Euripides’ Antiope is quoted, and at 151b9 he supplies σά from the text of Euripides (Phoenician Women 858) that Socrates quotes.

The English. The translation is new. It aims to be exact, with every clause answering to a clause of the Greek, and to keep Socrates’ manner: his irony, his patience with a proud young man, and the timing of the short exchanges. Nothing is added to make it livelier; where a joke depends on the Greek, a note explains it. Each speech opens with the speaker’s name in small capitals. Words that Burnet brackets as spurious are not translated; words he prints in angle brackets are, without the brackets. The reading Burnet prints is translated, including his conjectures; where his choice changes the sense, a note says so. Quotation marks in the English answer to Burnet’s own marking of a quotation, his letterspacing or his setting of verse, so that at 142d they enclose only the words Socrates takes from Homer, and at 146a they take in “part”, which belongs to Euripides’ line.

Each right-hand page translates the Greek page opposite. When a sentence runs over the turn of Burnet’s page, the English breaks at the nearest point English word order allows. The Stephanus section letters in the margin of the English mark where each section begins.

Key terms. The words on which the argument turns have one rendering each throughout, and the Key Words of the Dialogue explain the chief of them; the Glossary at the back lists them all. As in the Alcibiades I of this series, phronimos is “intelligent”, aphrōn “unintelligent”, phronēsis “intelligence” and aphrosynē “unintelligence”, so that the family stays one family; euchesthai and euchē are “pray” and “prayer”; agnoia is “ignorance”, also where it means failing to recognize someone (144b); kakos is “bad”, never “evil”; and Socrates’ verbs of inquiry are “look into”. Where the Greek idiom tynchanein with a participle says that something is so, the English has “is in fact”.

The notes. The notes identify persons, places and quotations, explain what the English cannot carry, and mark the places where Burnet’s choice of reading changes the sense or the words. Interpretations are labelled as such. They are numbered afresh on each page.