"Plato had many enemies and detractors, and this literary device enabled them to bring against him the charge of plagiarism. Aristoxenos... made the extraordinary statement that most of the Republic was... found in a work by Protagoras. ...He seems also... the... source of the story that Plato bought "three Pythagorean books" from Philolaos and copied the Timaeus out of them. ...[A]ccounts... imply... Plato bought... either a book by Pythagoras, or... notes of his teaching..."