Ebook: Plato’s Republic

With illustrations by
Angelo Rinaldi

Plato’s world

Plato was born c. 428/427 BCE (possibly 424/423 BCE) into an aristocratic Athenian family at a turbulent time: throughout his youth the city-state (polis) of Athens was engaged in a brutal civil war with the city-state of Sparta. Though they had come together to defeat the threat from the Persian Empire at the beginning of the century, after the Persians were overcome in 480 the two great Greek powers and their allies vied for supremacy; hostilities broke out in 431 and lasted until Athens was defeated in 404. Athens was also divided internally during this period between supporters of a democratic system of government in which all adult male citizens participated directly and those who favoured an oligarchic system in which power was in the hands of a wealthy few. Plato himself had family connections to both factions, and the desire to avoid internal strife shaped his political thinking.

As an aristocrat Plato was destined for a stellar political career. Two things changed his course. The first was his disgust with the violent extremes of the oligarchic faction, particularly when they briefly came to power in 404. Then, when democracy was restored in Athens, it put to death his beloved friend and mentor Socrates, purportedly for refusing to believe in the city’s gods and introducing new ones, and for corrupting the young. In grief and revulsion Plato abandoned a conventional political career for a life in philosophy, ‘the love of wisdom’. After travels in Greece, southern Italy, Sicily and perhaps Cyrene and Egypt, in the 380s he set up a research and teaching institute, the Academy, just outside the Athenian city walls. Apart from two more trips to Sicily, he remained at the Academy for the rest of his life.