Growing Up in Wartime Athens

Abstract This chapter goes through what we know of Plato’s childhood and youth, his immediate family, and his extended family. His birth is dated to 424 or 423 BCE, rather than the usual 428/7. The chapter includes a summary of the Peloponnesian War that was being fought between Plato’s native Athens and Sparta. The chapter also resolves the controversy about his name: he was always called Plato, never Aristocles. He was probably not gay. The chapter describes the kind of education Plato would have received as a child. Some of the epigrams that have come down to us under his name, though they are not by him, are presented in translated form. Contrary to some ancient biographers’ depictions of Plato as poor, the chapter shows that he was wealthy. Evidence is also displayed for some of his major characteristics: Plato was intelligent, religious, and snobbish, and he had a subtle sense of humor.