![]() ![]() The Athenian Stranger, who resembles Socrates but whose name is never mentioned, joins the other two on their religious pilgrimage from Knossos to the cave of Zeus. The conversation is instead led by an Athenian Stranger ( Greek: ξένος, romanized: xenos) and two other old men, the ordinary Spartan citizen Megillos and Cleinias of Crete, from Knossos. Unlike most of Plato's dialogues, Socrates does not appear in the Laws: the dialogue takes place on the island of Crete, and Socrates appears outside of Athens in Plato's writings only twice, in the Phaedrus, where he is just outside the city's walls, and in the Republic, where he goes down to the seaport Piraeus five miles outside of Athens. The text is noteworthy as Plato's only undisputed dialogue not to feature Socrates. These events are alluded to in the Seventh Letter. Scholars generally agree that Plato wrote this dialogue as an older man, having failed in his effort to guide the rule of the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, instead having been thrown in prison. ![]() Its musings on the ethics of government and law have established it as a classic of political philosophy alongside Plato's more widely read Republic. The conversation depicted in the work's twelve books begins with the question of who is given the credit for establishing a civilization's laws. The Laws ( Greek: Νόμοι, Nómoi Latin: De Legibus ) is Plato's last and longest dialogue. Plato from Raphael's The School of Athens (1509–1511) ![]()
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