316 Db DONALDSON, ON PLATO'S COSMICAL SYSTEM, &c. 



Armenian and as a Pamphylian. In the time of Plato the Armenians spoke Persian (Xen. 

 Anab. iv. 5, ^ 34), and their deities bear Persian names (see Gosche, de Ariana ling, gentisque 

 Armeniacce indole, pp. 8 sqq.). And as it was the nearest seat of the Persian language and 

 religion, the Greeks of Asia Minor may have regarded it as the original home of that system 

 of worship. With regard to Pamphylia, the battle of the Eurymedon in b.c. 466, shows that 

 this province was the most westerly of the Persian possessions on the sea-board of Asia Minor 

 towards the close of their great war with Greece, and there may have been some special traces 

 of the Zoroastrian worship in this district (see Creuzer, Symbolik, ii. p. 600). 



As far as the limits imposed on me have allowed, I have now discussed the cosmical 

 system delineated in the 10th book of the Republic, according to the plan which I proposed 

 to myself at the outset. I shall be very glad if I have succeeded in throwing some new light 

 on a difficult and striking passage in Plato's greatest work, and if I have awakened an 

 interest in the curious question how far Heracleitus mediated between the Arian sage, who 

 influenced the Asiatic mind for so many centuries, and the great Greek philosopher, who has 

 been accepted as an intellectual guide by the profoundest of European speculators. 



Cambkidge, 



16 Februmry, 1859. 



