Plato is one of history’s most influential thinkers, the “sublime philosopher” whose writings remain foundational to Western culture. He is known for the brilliant dialogues in which he depicted his teacher, Socrates, discussing ethical truths with prominent citizens of Athens. Yet the image we have of Plato—an ethereal figure far removed from society and politics, who conjured abstract ideas in peaceful groves—is a fiction, created by Plato’s admirers and built up over centuries. In fact, Plato was very much a man of the world.

In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato—documents that have long been kept in obscurity—to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power. That dream has echoed down through the ages and given rise to a famous term, one that Plato himself didn’t actually use: philosopher-king.

As Romm reveals, Plato’s time in Syracuse helped shape Republic—and also had disastrous results for Plato himself and for all of Greek Sicily. The younger Dionysius, emotionally unstable but intellectually curious, welcomed Plato with open arms, but soon the relationship soured. Plato’s close friendship with Dionysius’s uncle, Dion—possibly a bond of romantic love—created a rift in the ruling family that led to a chaotic civil war.

Combining thrilling political drama with explorations of Plato’s most cherished ideas, Romm takes us into the heart of Greece’s late classical age, a time when many believed that democracy had failed. Plato’s search for solutions led him to write his fervent plea for a new political order, and also led him to a place where he believed his theories might be put into practice. But Plato and the Tyrant demonstrates how Plato’s experiment with enlightened autocracy spiraled into catastrophe, and also gives us nothing less than a new account of the origins of Western political thought.

[A] finely sifted story…includes abundant historical and social context…Mr. Romm’s portrait of Plato as a scheming, often bumbling political player will be intriguingly new to most readers.—Timothy Farrington, Wall Street Journal

[E]xcellent…a deft and engaging work of history, philosophy and biography, as well as a meta-commentary on the perils of regarding canonical thinkers as disembodied minds… Plato and the Tyrant is full of something that I do not readily associate with the distinguished poster child of Western philosophy: gossip and intrigue. The story of Plato’s stint in Syracuse is as rife with human interest as any melodrama… a kind of intellectual thriller: Romm’s interpretive pyrotechnics demonstrate the extent to which the work of the scholar can resemble that of the detective —Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post

[W]ide-ranging and ambitious…Romm reconstructs with scholarly rigour and literary flair the tale of the philosopher’s attempts to bring about practical political change.—Armand D’Angour, Times Literary Supplement

[A]s compelling as any novel… brilliant… Romm does a superb job of imaginatively reconstructing the backstory to a philosophical masterpiece.—Tim Whitmarsh, Literary Review (UK)

James Romm has taken a little-known episode from ancient Greek history—the somewhat shady-sounding relationship between Plato and the tyrants of Syracuse—and developed it into a fascinating, richly detailed narrative. I may yet have to read the Republic. —Mary Norris, New York Times best-selling author of Between You and Me and Greek to Me

Written with sparkling wit and intelligence, this book will change the way you think about the ancient world’s greatest philosopher.—Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Rebellion

Plato’s vision of a just society has inspired the world for centuries, yet his own attempt to put his ideas into practice ended in failure and disgrace. With this learned yet accessible account of the philosopher’s misadventures in politics, James Romm asks a question that remains all too relevant today: Is it possible for thought to prevail over tyranny?—Adam Kirsch, author of The Revolt Against Humanity

With incisive historical expertise and a bold new perspective on long-disputed Platonic correspondence, James Romm elucidates Plato’s notorious leap of faith from the realm of theory into the real world of politics.—Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons