37 works, 36 with an English translation; 665,706 words analysed
Life and work
Checked against sources · 30 September 2026
Plato hardly ever appears in his own books. Diogenes Laertius noticed: he names himself only in the Phaedo and the Apology.1 In the Phaedo it is a throwaway line, when the narrator lists who was with Socrates on his last day and adds that Plato was ill.2 In the Apology he is one of the friends standing by at the trial.3
Debated among scholars Apollodorus' chronology puts his birth in 428/7 BC, and Hermippus says he died at a wedding feast in 348/7, in his eighty-first year.4 Some modern books give c. 428–347.5 He came from an aristocratic and influential Athenian family, and two relatives, Critias and Charmides, were among the Thirty who ruled Athens in 404 BC.5
Debated among scholars A letter that bears his name, the Seventh, says that he first reached Syracuse “being about forty years old”.6 It also gives his most famous political verdict: humankind “will have no cessation from evils until either the class of those who are right and true philosophers attains political supremacy”, or rulers become true philosophers.7 Whether Plato wrote the letter is itself disputed.5
He founded the Academy in the 380s BC, and Aristotle arrived there in 367.5
His best-known picture is a cave. “Picture men dwelling in a sort of subterranean cavern”, says Socrates in the Republic, “fettered from childhood”, able to look only at shadows.8 The same book imagines a city that exists only “in the ideal”.9 And the Euthyphro shows the method on a smaller scale: Socrates asks what holiness is, and the two of them tangle over whether the gods love the holy because it is holy, or whether it is holy because they love it.10
You can hear the conversation in the replies. Socrates' partners keep agreeing with πάνυ μὲν οὖν and πάνυ γε, roughly “quite certainly” and “very much so” (our translation). They fill the first book of the Republic.11 LSJ's word for πάνυ is “altogether, perfectly, very”.12
Things readers still argue about
Which works are really Plato's? Plato's complete works are believed to have survived, which is rare for an ancient author, but the collection also holds works by others.5 Scholars broadly doubt Alcibiades II, Epinomis, Hipparchus, Minos, Lovers and Theages, and are more divided over Alcibiades I, Clitophon, the Letters and Menexenus. Nine more, among them the Definitions and the Axiochus, were already counted as spurious in the first century AD.5
Can the dialogues be put in order? The usual early, middle and late groups are a modern reconstruction. Writers are increasingly sceptical that the order of Plato's writings can be fixed with any precision.5
Who finished the Laws, and did the Republic change? Some said that Philip of Opus copied out the Laws, which Plato left on waxen tablets, and that he wrote the Epinomis. Euphorion and Panaetius reported that the beginning of the Republic was found several times revised and rewritten.1
The road of the text
Follow the text from Plato's own day to the book in your hands. The gaps are the long silences between one mark and the next.
c. 428 BCThe authorBorn at Athens, in 428/7 BC by Apollodorus' chronology4,5Debated among scholars
about 40 years laterc. 388 BCThe authorReaches Syracuse “being about forty”, by the Seventh Letter, whose authorship is disputed6,5Debated among scholars
about 3 years laterc. 385 BCThe authorFounds the Academy, in the 380s BC5
about 18 years later367 BCThe authorAristotle arrives at the Academy, shortly before Plato leaves again for Syracuse5
about 19 years laterc. 348 BCThe authorDies at Athens in 348/7 BC, at a wedding feast according to Hermippus4Debated among scholars
about 400 years laterc. AD 50CopiesThrasyllus arranges the dialogues in nine tetralogies (the first century AD)13,5
about 850 years laterAD 895CopiesThe Clarke Plato is written for Arethas of Caesarea: the oldest surviving manuscript for about half the dialogues14
about 590 years later1484Print and editionsFicino's Latin translation is printed at Florence5
29 years later1513Print and editionsAldus Manutius prints the Greek text at Venice, edited by Marcus Musurus16
65 years later1578Print and editionsHenri Estienne (Stephanus) prints Plato at Geneva; its page numbers become the standard way to cite him15
about 330 years laterc. 1905Print and editionsBurnet's Oxford Classical Text appears in five volumes (1900–07)19,21
about 90 years later1995Print and editionsA new Oxford text of volume 1 (Euthyphro to Politicus) replaces Burnet's17,18
8 years later2003Print and editionsSlings' Oxford text of the Republic appears20
The author
Copies
Print and editions
How the words reached us
Manuscripts & transmission
Passed from hand to hand
Nine groups of four. Thrasyllus says Plato published his dialogues in tetralogies, like the tragic poets; he counts fifty-six genuine dialogues (the Republic as ten, the Laws as twelve) in nine tetralogies.13 The text we have rests on that arrangement from the first century AD, by Thrasyllus of Mendes.5
Manuscripts. Some 250 Byzantine manuscripts of Plato survive.5 The oldest for about half the dialogues is the “Clarke Plato” in Oxford's Bodleian Library (MS. E. D. Clarke 39), written in 895 by a professional calligrapher for Arethas of Caesarea, who paid 21 gold coins for it and added notes in the margin. It holds the first six tetralogies: twenty-four works, from the Euthyphro and Apology to the Gorgias.14
The page numbers. References such as Republic 514a come from a three-volume edition of Plato's complete works printed in Geneva in 1578 by Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus), with a Latin translation by Joannes Serranus; each page is split into sections lettered a to e.15
Print. Ficino's Latin translation was printed in Florence in 1484, in 1025 copies.5 The first Greek edition, edited by Marcus Musurus, was printed by Aldus Manutius at Venice in 1513.16
Textual variants
Where the copies disagree
Works in doubt. Most of the open questions about Plato's text are about whole works, not single words: which dialogues and letters are his, and which belong to his school.5
Tablets and drafts. The Laws was said to have been left on wax tablets and copied out by Philip of Opus; the opening of the Republic was said to have been found in several versions.1
Books to read it in
J. Burnet, Platonis Opera, 5 vols (Oxford Classical Texts, 1900–07).19 The Greek Republic in the Scroll is Burnet's text, in Perseus's copy.21
E. A. Duke and others, Platonis Opera, vol. 1 (Oxford Classical Texts, 1995).1718 It replaces Burnet's first volume, from the Euthyphro to the Politicus.
S. R. Slings, Platonis Respublica (Oxford Classical Texts, 2003).20
Paul Shorey's translation of the Republic (Loeb Classical Library, 1935–37).21 The English Republic in the Scroll.
J. M. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works (Hackett, 1997).22 Modern translations of everything attributed to Plato in antiquity, in one volume.
We checked every statement above against these sources on 30 September 2026. Where they disagree, we say so. What we could not confirm, we left out.
Where to begin
The works here with a translation and the most familiar vocabulary: the fewest rare words to look up. That is vocabulary only; grammar, dialect and ideas may still be demanding.