G. E. R. Lloyd's economically persuasive study addresses the question of the universalism or relativism of rationality.Footnote ¹ Drawing careful comparisons, primarily between ancient Greek and Chinese thought, but also more widely, Lloyd introduces a range of disciplinary perspectives and specific points of focus. In doing so, he challenges his reader to think critically about their own assumptions and concepts. In particular, he asks us to consider the degree to which our own broad concepts, especially oppositions such as between rationality and irrationality, are themselves informed by their derivation from ancient Greek thought. His first chapter (‘Aims and Methods’) introduces his central commitments. Rationality and irrationality are not universal across societies in such a way that they can be judged by a single set of criteria. But nor are they just cultural constructs, so that the possibility of mutual intelligibility collapses. The truth lies somewhere in between, in the recognition of the heterogeneity to be identified in what is shared across cultures. Lloyd argues that ancient China is a particularly useful foil for a consideration of these questions, since it provides a perspective from beyond the reach of the Graeco-Roman legacy. His subtle middle road is further supported by his second chapter (‘Rationality Reviewed’), which summarizes some influential accounts of rationality and considers the ‘state of play’ across a variety of disciplines, including palaeontology, child development, and psychology, all of which present evidence of continuities between societies. The next four chapters approach the question of the diversity and commonality of reason from a range of perspectives, including cosmology, metaphysics, language, epistemology, and religion. In the case of cosmology, for example, Lloyd argues that we can identify a difference between the Greeks’ tendency to focus on the thing that is ‘Nature’, and the Chinese interest in natural phenomena and processes, absent a concept of ‘Nature’ itself. He is careful to note the difficulty of generalizing across all Greek or all Chinese thinkers. We can, however, identify a significantly similar belief in the two societies: that understanding the cosmos matters for the sake of the life you live as a result of that knowledge. In the case of the binary ‘Seeming and Being’ (as discussed in Chapter 4), Lloyd argues that the Chinese shared with the Greeks an awareness that appearances can be deceptive. However, their conception of the fundamental binary yin and yang is one of interdependence rather than sharp differentiation, such as we sometimes see in Greek thought between Being and Becoming. Throughout the volume, Lloyd argues for the need to recognize both the similarities and the differences identified as a result of careful comparative study. He ends with a recommendation for his readers to reconsider the universal applicability of certain key Western concepts, without resorting to a claim that it is impossible to recognize or communicate similarities. We must, he suggests, work from a position that demonstrates ‘due recognition both of the commonalities in human cognitive capacities, and of the differences in their deployment’ (96).

William J. Prior has produced a new introductory work on Socrates for Polity's ‘Classic Thinkers’ series, the first of this series to treat an ancient philosopher.Footnote ² It combines an appreciation of the need to set things out in an introductory way with an acknowledgement that some of the complexities of Socrates, not least the Socratic Problem itself, cannot be ignored. The volume is aimed at beginners, rather than scholars. It thus makes no assumption of familiarity with secondary literature, although here some guidance on how to familiarize oneself with Stephanus page references would have been valuable (the preface does briefly mention that these are standard references, and points readers towards the Hackett translations to access the dialogues). The book is divided into nine chapters, starting with a discussion of ‘Socrates’ Time and Trial’, and working through method, epistemology, religious thinking, ethics, and politics, to two final chapters which cover the relation between the Socratic and the Platonic and ‘Socrates’ Legacy’ respectively. Prior is explicit that his focus is on Plato's Socrates, and on the Socrates of the ‘elenctic dialogues’ specifically, although Xenophon's version makes the occasional appearance, particularly in the final chapter. That chapter, which traces the later philosophical reception of Socrates in antiquity, Christian thought, and the nineteenth century, is particularly valuable and interesting. It ends with an assessment of Socrates’ role as a political influence in the work of Karl Popper and I. F. Stone. The book contains a very brief guide to recommended reading, supplementing what is already included in the bibliography. This is a clear and readable introduction to Socrates as he is represented in Plato and would be of use to school students, undergraduates starting out in ancient philosophy, and others with a general interest in Socrates.

While Prior concentrates on Plato's Socrates, it is Xenophon's version that provides the subject matter for Thomas L. Pangle's new monograph.Footnote ³ This work offers a close reading of Xenophon's Memorabilia, in an attempt to penetrate to the ‘deeper, jovial Socratic message and teaching’ (1) that Pangle suggests has been missed by others, with some notable exceptions. Pangle is quite explicitly following in the footsteps of his teacher Leo Strauss, whose 1972 volume, Xenophon's Socrates, covered similar ground. As with Xenophon's Socrates and in keeping with the Straussian approach, Pangle's book develops its reading in the manner of an extended commentary, closely following the order of the Memorabilia to build a picture of an essentially political and admirable Socrates. One of the benefits of this technique is that the author presents some particularly useful insights into the structure of the Memorabilia, especially where it seems to undergo a sudden shift in tone or subject matter. Xenophon often suffers in comparison with Plato, with the former sometimes charged with a lack of both humour and profundity. For Pangle, however, Xenophon is a deeply humorous author, whose version of Socrates is closer to Plato's than is generally admitted. Given that Pangle's approach is not so much one of argument as of assertion, the onus is on his reader to work out a way to assess his reading. For some scholars, the Straussian approach will be deeply off-putting. However, committing to a close reading of Pangle's close readings is likely to be valuable in terms of provocation and frustration at the very least. In that respect, the book gives a decent representation of some kind of Socrates.

Alessandro Stavru and Christopher Moore have produced a substantial contribution to the literature on Socrates and Socratic literature.Footnote ⁴ Their edited collection includes around forty chapters on a wide range of Socratic topics. Following an overview chapter by the editors, the volume is divided into five parts: the contemporary Athenian representation of Socrates and the Socratic dialogue, the Socratic circle, Plato, Xenophon, and the later ancient reception of Socrates. This is a rich and stimulating resource which will have something to offer anyone with an interest in Socrates. Although it lacks a subject index, it does include useful indexes of passages, ancient names, and modern names. It is a pity to note how relatively few of its chapters are written by women.

Beatriz Bossi and Thomas M. Robinson have edited a collection of eighteen papers coming out of a 2016 conference on the Politicus in Madrid.Footnote ⁵ The volume serves to promote the work of Platonic scholars in Spain, but also brings together significant figures from North and South America, and Europe. The Politicus is not a widely loved dialogue, especially when compared with Plato's other works of political philosophy, particularly the Republic and Laws. It is, in fact, a dialogue that resists affection, insofar as its purpose, structure, and central concerns are difficult to get clear. This is, of course, why it merits and rewards close scrutiny, and Bossi and Robinson have done an excellent job in bringing together papers which adopt fresh approaches to the dialogue and its various puzzles. The collection is divided into seven parts. In the first of two chapters in Part 1 (‘Defining the Place of the Statesman’), Annie Larivée offers an optimistic reading of the frustrations so often felt by readers of the Politicus. She argues that the apparent failures of the dialogue – to explain the character of the politikos, to explain the nature of political science, and to give a clear indication of its overall purpose, among others – suggest that the Politicus should be read as protreptic. Given the difficulty of the conversation, however, this is not protreptic designed to bring people to philosophy, but rather to turn philosophers to the pursuit of the political science still to come. Giovanni Casertano provides the second of two chapters in Part 2 (‘What Kind of “Science” of Government?’), and considers what the dialogue has to say about the correct method for reaching truth. Focusing on 277e–279a, he argues that the Politicus presents the relationship between the ‘correct’ and the ‘true’, and between epistemē and doxa, in a relatively unique and puzzling way, resulting in a complex relation between epistemology, politics, and theology. Part 3 contains four chapters on the Politicus’ difficult myth, three of which (Blyth, Zamora, and Motta) discuss its later reception in Aristotle and the Neoplatonists. Anna Motta argues that the Neoplatonist readers of the Politicus tended to focus on the myth and the unity of its cosmology and theology. She notes the significance of the tendency of such readings to pursue a harmonizing exegesis and to assume that the myth is where we will find the real purpose of the dialogue as a whole. Part 4, on ‘Measuring, Weaving and Women’, combines four intriguing chapters, including an interesting chapter by Thomas More Robinson arguing that the Politicus’ apparent demotion of women from the political sphere suggests a Platonic reversion to ‘tradition’ such as we also find in the Laws. Josep Monserrat-Molas presents a study of the idea of ‘due measure’ set out towards the centre of the dialogue. He argues that due measure should be understood as relevant to both form and content, as well as to their connection. The passage thus demonstrates the applicability of due measure not only to action, but also to both the object and the progress of dialectic. In the first of two chapters in Part 5 (‘The Statesman and the Sophist’), Lidia Palumbo considers mimesis in the Politicus, arguing that Plato has the aim of encouraging the participation of his readers within the dialogue. She discusses, in particular, the use of visual images within the text, suggesting that the myth itself is in some sense visual. Palumbo concludes that Plato demonstrates his skill in rhetoric by setting out his rejection of sophistry. Miriam Peixoto contributes the only chapter in Part 6 (‘Wisdom and Law’), offering a treatment of the relation between law and the wisdom of the king. In one of three chapters in Part 7 (‘Bonds and Virtue’), Beatriz Bossi considers whether the Politicus demonstrates a commitment to the unity of the virtues such as we find elsewhere in Plato, even though it also seems to suggest that virtues can be possessed in isolation. She argues that it does, as long as we understand that, for most people, virtue will mean something less than philosophical virtue.

A significant new volume presents the collected papers of the late Miriam T. Griffin, who died in 2018 (by which time she had already seen this book into its proof stage).Footnote ⁶ The table of contents gives a good idea of the scope of Griffin's influence and interest. The collection is divided into three parts. The first, on ‘Roman History’, is subdivided into sections of Republican and Imperial history. The second, on ‘Roman Historiography’, is divided between published papers, unpublished lectures, and occasional pieces. The third part, which is likely to hold the most interest for philosophically inclined readers, collects twenty-five chapters on Roman philosophy, particularly Cicero and Seneca. As with the other parts, these chapters are organized more or less chronologically, except for the first, which is chosen as best providing an introduction and orientation to the subject. Some of these chapters will be well known to anyone with an interest in Roman philosophy. These include ‘Imago Vitae Suae’, which offers a thorough assessment of the charge of hypocrisy so often levelled at Nero, and ‘Philosophy, Politics, and Politicians’, which originally appeared in the influential 1989 volume that Griffin co-edited with Jonathan Barnes, Philosophia Togata. As already noted in passing, the volume contains some unpublished papers on historical topics, as well as some occasional pieces (two chapters on Griffin's supervisor, Ronald Syme, and one intriguing piece co-authored with Jasper Griffin and published in 1997 on the Roman resonances of the fraught aftermath of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales). This volume is valuable in several ways. First, it serves as a useful repository for Griffin's collected papers, many of which have been otherwise difficult to access in their original publications. In editing them for publication, translations of substantial passages of Latin and Greek have been added where they were missing. Second, it serves as an inspiration to scholars committed to the notion that Roman philosophy is best understood against and within its historical and political context, combining historical and philosophical techniques of analysis to produce rich rewards. The short author's prologue, with which the volume opens, testifies to Griffin's desire and ability to work across literary, historical, and philosophical issues (something she attributes to her experience studying Greats at Oxford in the 1950s). She ends her prologue with an expression of the hope that the ‘days of patronizing the Roman thinkers are coming to an end’ (viii). Insofar as this is true, it is in large part due to Griffin's own influence in showing us the complexity and vitality of Roman philosophical writing. The volume thus also serves as a testament to Griffin's enduring authority and inspiration as a scholar.

Christina Hoenig has produced a deeply learned, persuasive, and insightful monograph on the afterlives of the Timaeus in later antiquity.Footnote ⁷ Tracing the dialogue's influence on Cicero, Apuleius, Calcidius, and Augustine in turn, she sets out a valuable narrative of the development of Platonism across six centuries. She does a particularly good job of emphasizing the interest of her first three subjects in translation of Plato as a form of exegesis. Hoenig uses her first chapter to establish the central questions and interpretative difficulties of the Timaeus, including the questions of whether the account is intended to be literal or metaphorical, and the status of the Demiurge, Receptacle, World Soul, and so forth. She notes that the status of the Timaeus’ account as eikos (likely, in some sense) creates ambiguity into which Latin interpreters can insert themselves and their exegetical efforts. Hoenig works through her subject chronologically, beginning with Cicero in Chapter 2. Cicero produced an unfinished translation of the Timaeus and he is, as Hoenig points out, explicitly self-conscious of his status as a translator. Hoenig reads Cicero's translation as a sceptical reworking of the Timaeus, transforming the dialogue into a disputatio. Her account is supported by comparative close readings, which demonstrate Cicero's use of Academic sceptical vocabulary in the translation of Timaeus 29b2–d3. In Chapter 3, Hoenig turns to Apuleius and argues that his treatment of the same passage demonstrates his interest in emphasizing fides as a source of authority. Although Apuleius notes the cognitive unreliability of accounts pertaining to physical matters, those accounts should still be regarded as teaching, and his translation represents that greater degree of commitment. Hoenig notes that Apuleius is keen to negotiate a position that aligns Plato and Aristotle by adapting and reconciling versions of the De mundo and the Timaeus. Hoenig's fourth chapter takes as its focus the c. fourth-century ad author Calcidius, known only for his partial translation of and commentary on the Timaeus. In his combination of translation and commentary, we are gifted an insight into some of the translator's own reflections on his process and choices. Calcidius is particularly interested in the pedagogical purpose of the Timaeus, which, he claims, explains, for example, the puzzling way that Plato represents the creation of everlasting objects in temporal terms. Chapter 5 offers a study of Augustine's approach to the Timaeus. Here, Hoenig does a particularly good job of demonstrating the degree to which Augustine is, in part, responding to the examples of Cicero and Apuleius. Indeed, Augustine seems to have viewed Cicero's translation – through which he accessed the Timaeus – as essentially Platonic. Augustine co-opts Plato's cosmogony to corroborate Christian creationism, and thus places the temporal questions within the framework of Genesis. He treats Plato as an unknowing communicator of Christian truths. Hoenig demonstrates a masterful grasp of several authors and periods, and her argument will be of interest to anyone working on any of the four authors on which she focuses. It will also be of real relevance to anyone working on the Timaeus, because her scrupulous work in tracing the influence of its central questions and passages provides a set of fascinating and diverse perspectives.

The influence of the Timaeus is also felt in Damian Caluori's comprehensive account of Plotinus’ various views on the nature of the soul.Footnote ⁸ Caluori presents a systematic interpretation of Plotinus’ thought to establish a clear and thorough analysis. He demonstrates, in a variety of ways and at a variety of levels, that the soul possesses the distinctive activity of discursive and practical reasoning about the sensible world. His first three chapters focus on the hypostasis Soul, both in itself and in terms of its ontological and epistemological relation to individual souls. Chapters 4 and 5 concentrate on the nature of individual souls, again with a focus on the how they facilitate or instantiate a connection between the intelligible and sensible world. The final three chapters consider the process and consequences of the ‘descent’ of the human soul (which Caluori argues is an experience of the soul, rather than a genuine occurrence), and the relation between souls and bodies. Caluori's analysis is clear and detailed. Some readers may well be suspicious of the neatness of the system that he produces from Plotinus’ notoriously difficult writings. However, all readers with an interest in ancient psychology, the Platonist tradition, or Plotinus in particular will find something of value here.