n
nefarious murders, by ordering him along with others to arrest Leon
the Salaminian, one of their intended victims; an order which
Socrates, at the peril of his life, disobeyed.

Thus mortified and disappointed, Plato withdrew from public functions.
What part he took in the struggle between the oligarchy and its
democratical assailants under Thrasybulus we are not informed. But
when the democracy was re-established his political ambition revived
and he again sought to acquire some active influence on public
affairs. Now, however, the circumstances had become highly unfavorable
to him. The name of his deceased relative, Critias, was generally
abhorred, and he had no powerful partisans among the popular leaders.
With such disadvantages, with anti-democratical sentiments, and with a
thin voice, we cannot wonder that Plato soon found public life
repulsive, though he admits the remarkable moderation displayed by the
restored Demos. His repugnance was aggravated to the highest pitch of
grief and indignation by the trial and condemnation of Socrates (399
B.C.) four years after the renewal of the democracy. At that moment
doubtless the Socratic men or companions were unpopular in a body.
Plato, after having yielded his best sympathy and aid at the trial of
Socrates, retired along with several others of them to Megara. He made
up his mind that for a man of his views and opinions it was not only
unprofitable, but also unsafe, to embark in active public life, either
at Athens or in any other Grecian city. He resolved to devote himself
to philosophical speculation and to abstain from practical politics,
unless fortune should present to him some exceptional case of a city
prepared to welcome and obey a renovator upon exalted principles.

At Megara Plato passed some time with the Megarian Eucleides, his
fellow-disciple in the society of Socrates and the founder of what is
termed the Megaric school of philosophers. He next visited Cyrene,
where he is said to have become acquainted with the geometrician
Theodorus and to have studied geometry under him. From Cyrene he
proceeded to Egypt, interesting himself much in the antiquities of the
country as well as in the conversation of the priests. In or about 394
B.C., if we may trust the statement of Aristoxenus about the military
service of Plato at Corinth, he was again at Athens. He afterward went
to Italy and Sicily, seeking the society of the Pythagorean
philosophers, Archytas, Echec