ABSTRACT
Of a nature far different from the ethico-religious utopias of the prophets is the political utopia, The Republic, projected by the “broad-browed” philosopher of Greece. Plato (427–347 B.C.) 1 lived at a time when his country was passing through a death struggle. The age of Pericles (459–431), the most brilliant period in Grecian history, had just come to a close. In 404 B.C., when Plato was in his early twenties, the Spartans finally won their long struggle against Athens and leveled the long walls of the city to the ground. Then followed the arbitrary though short-lived rule of the thirty Tyrants, the re-establishment of the democratic constitution, and, in 399 B.C., the tragic execution of Plato's master, Socrates.
