ABSTRACT
One of the many difficulties in the way of interpretation of Stoic ‘utopianism’ is the problem of working out how to place Zeno’s Politeia relative to prior Greek traditions of utopian speculation. This is the topic which I shall make my focus in this chapter. I shall approach it via a recent treatment of the issues in Doyne Dawson’s book Cities of the Gods. Cities of the Gods offers an intelligent and well-informed1 survey of what its author refers to in his subtitle as ‘communist utopias in Greek thought’. But its ‘main justification’2 lies in the emphasis it places on Stoic utopianism.
