ABSTRACT
The Timaeus belongs to the latest group of Plato's works: Sophist and Statesman, Timaeus and Critias, Philebus, Laws.Hermocrates, according to Proclus and modern scholars, is the Syracusan who defeated the Athenian expedition to Sicily in Plato's childhood Thucydides describes him as a man of outstanding intelligence, conspicuous bravery, and great military experience. There is no evidence for the historic existence of Timaeus of Locri. As a consequence, all the doctrines which the forger had found in the Timaeus itself were supposed to be of Pythagorean origin. The only sensible remark recorded by Proclus is the observation of Atticus that he is presumably another visitor from Italy or Sicily, since Socrates asks Timaeus for news of him. Since all this fits on exactly to the end planned for the Critias, it may well have been Platos original purpose to use in the Hermocratesthe material he had been collecting from a study of the laws of Greek states.
