(Σπεύσιππος), the distinguished disciple of Plato, was a native of Athens by birth, and the son of Eurymedon and Potone, a sister of Plato (Diog. Laert. iv. l; Suid. s. v.). We hear nothing of his personal history till the time when he accompanied his uncle Plato on his third journey to Syracuse, where he displayed considerable ability and prudence, especially in his amicable relations with Dion (Plut. Dio 100.22. 17). His moral worth is recognised even by the sillographer Timon,
894
though only that he may heap the more unsparing ridicule on his intellectual endowments (Plut. Dion. 17). And indeed he is not comparable either to Plato or to Aristotle, though the latter appears, among all his Academic antagonists, to have deemed Speusippus worthy of the honour of being refuted, and is even said to have purchased his books for three talents (D. L. 4.5; A. Gellius, Noct. Att. 3.17). The report about his sudden fits of anger, his avarice, and his propensity to voluptuousness, are probably derived from a very impure source : Athenaeus (vii. p. 279e., xii. p. 546d.) and Diogenes Laertius (4.1, 2; camp. Suid. s.v. Tertullian, Apolog. 100.46) can adduce as authority for them scarcely any thing more than some abuse in certain letters of the younger Dionysius, who was banished by Dion, not without the co-operation of Speusippus. Having been selected by Plato as his successor in the office of president of the Academy, he was at the head of the school for only eight years (B. C. 347-339). He died, as it appears, of a lingering paralytic illness (D. L. 4.1, 3, 4). Another account, at variance with this, appears to rest upon a misunderstanding (l.c. 4.4, ib. Interp.).[Ch. A. B.]