For Plato's posthumous life more significant than the venerating legend was the fact that Antiquity preserved Plato's legacy and prepared the way to its pure source, unbefouled by the grimy waters of calumnies, derision and malice. The texts of Plato's writings were copied; philological criticism saw to their verbal correctness, safeguarded them from the infiltration of forgeries and endeavoured to coordinate them into a system, and soon also linguistic and factual expositions were written about them. The Romans had them translated into Latin.