Plato and the Tyrant

Many people know something of Plato’s works, yet few are familiar with his life outside of his writings. In Plato and the Tyrant , acclaimed classicist James Romm uses a little-known set of Plato’s personal letters to introduce the man behind the ethereal image and to explore the formation of his most famous work, Republic . In the second half of his life, an already famous Plato involved himself in the affairs of the two Dionysii, a father and son who ruled Syracuse, at that time the greatest power in the Greek world. Plato’s interventions in the violent contest between Dionysius the Younger and his brother-in-law, Dion—with whom Plato may have had a long love affair—were the backdrop and perhaps the motivation for his masterwork. In a thrilling narrative, Romm captures how Plato’s experiment in enlightened autocracy spiralled into catastrophe and gives us a new account of the origins of Western political philosophy.