Recommended reading for Plato's Republic

Does anyone have any recommendations for books about the cultural/political milieu Plato lived in when he wrote The Republic (around 380 BCE)?

Thanks,
Roberta

There are, as one might expect, several good books on the Republic. Below are some that I have seen.

But first, Translations:
1. Plato: The Republic (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), Plato. G. R. Ferrari, editor; Tom Griffith translator.
2. The Republic of Plato, Plato. Allan Bloom, commentary and translation.
3. The republic of Plato, Plato. Translated with Introduction and Notes by F.M. Cornford.

If one doesn't have the time or the ability to translate Greek, one should make use of several translations. Also, note that the translation of Benjamin Jowett (4) is freely available on the Web. With passages that I find particularly obscure, I find myself consulting all these translations. The Bloom translation is very literal; I like that.

Book length studies of the entire Republic that I have:
Socrates' Second Sailing : On Plato's Republic, Seth Benardete
Companion to Plato's Republic, Nicholas P. White
Philosopher-Kings, C. D. C. Reeve
The War Lover: A Study of Plato's Republic, Leon Harold Craig
Beautiful City: The Dialectical Character of Plato's Republic David Roochnik
Plato's Republic: A Study Stanley Rosen
An Introduction to Plato's Republic Julia Annas

Rosen and Benardete are the very best Straussians; however, you should also consult White Reeve, and Annas. I have a tag "Plato's Republic" that includes many more books. These are books that only will dedicate a chapter or two (in some cases more) to the Republic and some of them are quite good.

I would suggest that you first be extremely well-read in Peloponnesian War period to understand Plato at all and the politics that led to Socrates death sentence. It is unfortunate that Thucydides did not live to complete his magisterial epic, but there remains Xenophon, inferior yet still insightful in some ways. Xenophon's Hellenika completes the tale of the war but continues (411-362 BBC) well beyond it into the period you are inquiring about.

Wow! I really misread the initial post. Sorry.

Yes, certainly, Xenophon, Thucydides, Pericles and Alcibiades and anything to do with them. Below are some books that might be useful in giving the flavor of the times when Plato wrote; - i.e., after the Peloponnesian War, after Socrates death.

1. Plato's World : Man's Place in the Cosmos, Joseph Cropsey
This is a good study of the dramatic setting of the last days of Socrates. Cropsey looks at eight dialogues.
2. The Paradox of Political Philosophy, Jacob Howland
A better treatment of this scenario than the book by Cropsey, imo. Highlights the differences between the Eleatic Stranger and Socrates. Looks at six dialogues.
3. The Trial of Socrates, I. F. Stone
Socrates got what he deserved!
4. Nietzsche's view of Socrates, Werner J Dannhauser
Ditto.
5. The Clouds, Aristophanes
As Garp said in post #2, Xenophon and Thucydides. Add to that Aristophanes.
6. Socrates and the Political Community: An Ancient Debate, Mary P. Nichols
Socrates reception by Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle.
7. Socrates and Aristophanes, Leo Strauss
Again, Aristophanes.
8. Socrates and Alcibiades: Four Texts (Focus Philosophical Library), David Johnson
Socrates and boy-toy Alcibiades. Includes I & II Alcibiades, and the conclusion of the Symposium. The fourth text is some fragments by Aeschines.
9. Plato and the other Companions of Sokrates, George Grote
Dated certainly, but all these volumes may be on the internet by now for free.

I wouldn't recommend any philosophical commentary on the Republic for that purpose, since most philosophers couldn't care less about historical context. Wouldn't necessarily recommend a contemporary history such as Thucydides', either. Instead I recommend the same book I just recommended in the other thread, The School of History: Athens in the age of Socrates.

Any one have any thoughts about Paideia:The Ideals of Greek Culture in this context?

>1 robertajl: May I strongly suggest you try the Cambridge Companion to Socrates? Lots of information on Plato's fellow disciples of Socrates and the Socratic context. Some works on ancient education might be worth while, Marrou's History of Education in Antiquity (1956) is a classic work. My favourite book on education, however, Rafaella Cribbiore's Gymnastics of the Mind is sadly not quite applicable, I think, to the fifth-fourth centuries, being based on papyrological evidence and therefore very Egyptian in context. Still, worth reading.

>6 March-Hare: Sorry, March-Hare, I've not read it yet.