Portrait of Plato
Roman copy of the portrait of Plato by Silanion, Capitoline Museums, Rome (photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2009) · CC BY 2.5

Author

Plato

428–347 BC

Plato (c. 428–c. 347 BC) was born at Athens to an aristocratic family and became a follower of Socrates, whose trial and death in 399 BC shaped his work. After travels to Megara, Egypt and Sicily, he founded the Academy at Athens around 387 BC and taught there until his death, with two further visits to the court of Syracuse.

His dialogues, nearly all with Socrates as the principal speaker, range over ethics, politics, knowledge, love, the soul and the nature of reality. Their teaching on the Forms, on the immortality of the soul and on the Good was transmitted to the Christian West chiefly through Augustine, Dionysius and Boethius, and through the Latin Timaeus, the only dialogue widely read in the earlier Middle Ages.

The library holds the complete dialogues and letters traditionally attributed to Plato, including works whose authenticity is doubted. The Apology, the Crito and the Phaedo, on the trial and death of Socrates, are the usual starting point; the Timaeus is the dialogue the medieval schools knew best.

Works

Texts currently available in the library.

36

Alcibiades 1

Plato's Alcibiades 1 in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Alcibiades 2

Plato's Alcibiades 2 in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Apology

Plato's Apology in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Charmides

Plato's Charmides in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Cleitophon

Plato's Cleitophon in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.

Cratylus

Plato's Cratylus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Critias

Plato's Critias in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.

Crito

Plato's Crito in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Epinomis

Plato's Epinomis in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Euthydemus

Plato's Euthydemus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Euthyphro

Plato's Euthyphro in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Gorgias

Plato's Gorgias in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Greater Hippias

Plato's Greater Hippias in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Hipparchus

Plato's Hipparchus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Ion

Plato's Ion in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Laches

Plato's Laches in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Laws

Plato's Laws in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.

Lesser Hippias

Plato's Lesser Hippias in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Letters

Plato's Letters in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.

Lovers

Plato's Lovers in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Lysis

Plato's Lysis in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Menexenus

Plato's Menexenus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.

Meno

Plato's Meno in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Minos

Plato's Minos in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Parmenides

Plato's Parmenides in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Phaedo

Plato's Phaedo in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Phaedrus

Plato's Phaedrus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Philebus

Plato's Philebus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Protagoras

Plato's Protagoras in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Republic

Plato's Republic in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Paul Shorey's English translation.

Sophist

Plato's Sophist in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Statesman

Plato's Statesman in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Symposium

Plato's Symposium in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Theaetetus

Plato's Theaetetus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.

Theages

Plato's Theages in the Greek text edited by John Burnet.

Timaeus

Plato's Timaeus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.