Since his death in Babylon in 323 BC, Alexander the Great has inspired an unparalleled legacy founded on both histories and legends. From ancient Alexandria to twentieth-century America, and from politics to popular entertainment, he has remained a source of fascination and debate. Today our conception of Alexander rests upon two Roman inventions of history. The first, that of a bloodthirsty tyrant corrupted by Persian decadence, was recovered in medieval monasteries and thrived for centuries, until the second, which viewed Alexander as an enlightened ruler and the head of a harmonious global empire, flourished in the age of humanism. From this clash of intellectual movements arose our modern debates over Alexander as either a madman or a philosopher-king, the epitome of corruption or of ideal government. This book explores the investigation of Latin and Greek histories of Alexander in twelfth- to seventeenth-century England and the radical evolution of a man still abhorred and imitated today.

Archytas of Tarentum is one of the three most important philosophers in the Pythagorean tradition, a prominent mathematician, who gave the first solution to the famous problem of doubling the cube, an important music theorist, and the leader of a powerful Greek city-state. He is famous for sending a trireme to rescue Plato from the clutches of the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius II, in 361 BC. This 2005 study was the first extensive enquiry into Archytas' work in any language. It contains original texts, English translations and a commentary for all the fragments of his writings and for all testimonia concerning his life and work. In addition there are introductory essays on Archytas' life and writings, his philosophy, and the question of authenticity. Carl A. Huffman presents an interpretation of Archytas' significance both for the Pythagorean tradition and also for fourth-century Greek thought, including the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.

One of Socrates' Athenian disciples in his youth, Xenophon (c. 498-354 bc) fought as a mercenary commander in Cyrus the Younger's campaign to seize the Persian throne, and later wrote a wide range of works on history, politics and philosophy. These six treatises offer his informed insights into the nature of leadership. In the dialogue between the poet Simonides and Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, Xenophon provides a consummate consideration of the burdens of being an absolute dictator and the superior happiness of the private man. Elsewhere, his biography of King Agesilaus II of Sparta depicts the author's patron as a model of piety, justice, courage and wisdom, while other texts consider the essential qualities of the cavalry commander, analyse the skills of the horseman and the hunter, and advance a bold economic plan for democratic Athens.

This work by Aquinas begins by discussing different types of political systems, using the classical classifications. Only rule which is directed "towards the common good of the multitude is fit to be called kingship," he argues. Rule by one man who "seeks his own benefit from his rule and not the good of the multitude subject to him" is called a "tyrant." He argues that "Just as the government of a king is the best, so the government of a tyrant is the worst," maintaining that rule by a single individual is the most efficient for accomplishing either good or evil purposes. He then proceeds to discuss "how provision might be made that the king may not fall into tyranny," stressing education and noting that "government of the kingdom must be so arranged that opportunity to tyrannize is removed." He then proceeds to consider what honor is due to kings, to discuss the appropriate qualities of a king, and to make some points on founding and maintaining a city. Principium autem intentionis nostrae hinc sumere oportet, ut quid nomine regis intelligendum sit, exponatur.

The problem of tyranny preoccupied Plato, and its discussion both begins and ends his famous Republic. Though philosophers have mined the Republic for millennia, Cinzia Arruzza is the first to devote a full book to the study of tyranny and of the tyrant's soul in Plato's Republic. In A Wolf in the City, Arruzza argues that Plato's critique of tyranny intervenes in an ancient debate concerning the sources of the crisis of Athenian democracy and the relation between political leaders and demos in the last decades of the fifth century BCE. Arruzza shows that Plato's critique of tyranny should not be taken as veiled criticism of the Syracusan tyrannical regime, but rather of Athenian democracy. In parsing Plato's discussion of the soul of the tyrant, Arruzza will also offer new and innovative insights into his moral psychology, addressing much-debated problems such as the nature of eros and of the spirited part of the soul, the unity or disunity of the soul, and the relation between the non-rational parts of the soul and reason.

Understanding Plato’s Republic is an accessible introduction to the concepts of justice that inform Plato’s Republic, elucidating the ancient philosopher's main argument that we would be better off leading just lives rather than unjust ones Provides a much needed up to date discussion of The Republic's fundamental ideas and Plato's main argument Discusses the unity and coherence of The Republic as a whole Written in a lively style, informed by over 50 years of teaching experience Reveals rich insights into a timeless classic that holds remarkable relevance to the modern world

On Tyranny is Leo Strauss’s classic reading of Xenophon’s dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss’s commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, and the complete correspondence between the two. This revised and expanded edition introduces important corrections throughout and expands Strauss’s restatement of his position in light of Kojève’s commentary to bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France.