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This is John Batchel, a conversation with the author James Rom, his new book, Plato and the

Tyrant.

This is the background story, the back story of the Republic, the book the Republic, and Plato's philosophy,

which he printed on the minds of the Academy, 4th century of BCE, and for 2,500 years have been a source of inspiration and contest and puzzlement by philosophers of each age,

everybody projecting on the basis of the government at the moment.

The ambition of the philosopher king, I learned from Professor Rom,

did not come to the late 18th century.

In the Greek times, they were thinking, what is a ruler,

what is the best kind of ruler?

Tyrant, democracy, oligarchy, democracy, that means the landed owners.

The landed gentry oak dominated everything.

...