Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece

By James Romm

Categories: History, Religion & Spirituality

Classicist James Romm's 2025 history tells how Plato tried to put his political ideas into practice in Syracuse, the most powerful Greek city of his day. Drawing on letters attributed to Plato, Romm traces his bond with Dion, brother-in-law of the tyrant Dionysius I, and his three voyages to Sicily. There Plato attempted to educate the young ruler Dionysius II in just government. Romm recounts the court intrigue that followed and how the episode bears on the Republic.

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