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The Origins and Shape of Plato's Six-Book Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Harold Tarrant
Harold Tarrant*
Affiliation:
The University of Newcastle, [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper argues that the six-book Republic used by the lexical author known as the Antiatticista is not, as hitherto conveniently assumed, our Republic arranged in fewer books, but a sub-final version lacking certain parts, most obviously VIII and most of IX, and possessing interesting variations. The argument rests on what would otherwise be a very high error-rate (38%) compared with the more reliable citations of other Platonic works, and with the citations of Herodotus and Thucydides. It demonstrates that VIII and most of IX belong stylistically to the opposite extreme from I, and may therefore be the last composed. It argues that the Platonic collection used by the Antiatticista antedates hiatus-avoiding dialogues, and belongs to a location other than Athens or Alexandria, and probably in Sicily or Italy. It concludes that one cannot trust any attempt to arrange our Republic by the notional six-book order.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 46 , 2012 , pp. 52 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2012

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