INTRODUCTION ANALYSEs of the Republic abound. a The object of this sketch is not to follow all the windings of it ideas, but to indicate sufficiently their literary frame- work and setting. Socrates speaks in the first person, as in the Charmides and the Lysis. He relates to Timaeus. Hermocrates. and an unnamed fourth person, as we learn from the introduction of the Timaeus, a conversation which took place"yester davy'' at the Peiraeus. The narrative falls on th day of the Lesser Panathenaea, and its scene, like that of the Timaeus, Proclus affirms to be the city or the Acropolis, a more suitable place, he thinks for the quieter theme and the fit audience but few than the noisy seaport, apt symbol of Socrates contention with the sophists. b The Timaeus, composed some time later than the Republic, is by an afterthought represented as its Dialogues of Plato, vol iii. pp. xvi-clvi plato, rolL iamp Boyd, An I iro Richard Lewis ietlershep rocius, In Rem p. vol. i. p. iF: 3 Kroll. cf also VOL, IINTRODUCTION Analyses of the Republic abound." The object of this sketch is not to follow all the windings of its ideas, but to indicate sufficiently their literary frame￾work and setting. Socrates speaks in the first person, as in the Charmides and the Lysis. He relates to Critias, Timaeus, Hermocrates, and an unnamed fourth person, as we learn from the introduction of the Timaeus, a conversation which took place " yester￾day " at the Peiraeus. The narrative falls on the day of the Lesser Panathenaea, and its scene, like that of the Timaeus, Proclus affirms to be the city or the Acropolis, a more suitable place, he thinks, for the quieter theme and the fit audience but few than the noisy seaport, apt symbol of Socrates' contention with the sophists.* The Timaeus, composed some time later than the Republic, is by an afterthought represented as its * Jowett, Dialogues of Plato, vol. iii. pp. xvi-clvii ; Grote'a P/a<o, vol. iv. pp. 1-94: Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, iii. pp. 54-105 ; William Boyd, An Introduction to the Republic of Plato, London, 1904, pp. 196 flF. ; Richard Lewis Nettleship, Lectures on the Republic o/ P/a<o, Ix)ndon, 1904; Ueberwe^- Praechter, Geschichte der PhiJosophie, Altertum, pp. 231-234 and 269-279 ; Wilamowitz, Platan^ i. pp. 393-449 ; etc. » Cf. Proclus, In Rem P. vol. i. p. 17. 3 KrolL Of. also Laws, 705 A. VOL. I b Vii