I am, guys. Dumanicus is here. This is the Friends of History Debating Society. We're in Lunditiam.

And we're about to talk Plato. So if you're fair warned, you could leave. It's a live talk

in the 21st century. There are not many of us who want to contest Plato and what he meant

in the Republic. But it comes back to classicists, and every once

and a while they want us to read their books, and we do. I recommend a new book, James Rom,

Professor Bard College. It's called Plato and the Tyrant. It's actually based on activity of Plato

three times he visited a city-state Syracuse on Sicily.

A very powerful Syracuse at the time is his 4th century BC.

After Sparta defeated Athens and before Alexander marched.

And there's a connection to Alexander here.

Plato founded the academy.

Aristotle studied at the academy,

and Aristotle was tutor to Alexander

and his older good friend, Ptolemy.

So there's a connection.

However, we're going to concentrate on

Plato at the end of the Republic.

Now, Plato's idea was here to give advice to government, what government is best and how.

He'd come up against the 30 tyrants in Athens that had led them in despair because they wanted democracy.

But the 30 tyrants included one cousin of Plato, so he felt it personally. And he wanted

to make recommendations about what is the good government. And he had this idea. He didn't

invent this term. That was 18th century,

...