Plato and the Tyrant

Bridging the ancient and the urgent, historian James Romm and acclaimed author and translator Daniel Mendelsohn dive into the dramatic story behind Plato and the Tyrant.

This is not the Plato of abstract thought, but a man deeply entangled in the brutal politics of his time...a philosopher who sought to reshape power itself. Romm and Mendelsohn explore how Plato’s real-world entanglements with tyrants and revolutionaries in Syracuse directly influenced his philosophical masterpiece, Republic, and how the ideal of the philosopher-king emerged from a world teetering on the edge of chaos.

With Mendelsohn’s signature insight and Romm’s vivid storytelling, this event is a dynamic exploration of one of history’s greatest minds, revealing a Plato who was ambitious, politically engaged, and profoundly shaped by personal and political crisis.