Plato: Crito

This book provides a detailed commentary on the shortest, but also one of the most dramatic of the dialogues of Plato. Socrates’ old friend, Crito, enters the Athenian prison where Socrates is awaiting execution and tries to persuade him to escape. Socrates counters Crito’s arguments drawn from Athenian popular citizen values with his own particular philosophical arguments about justice and obligation which, perhaps surprisingly, lead him to conclude that he must obey the decision of the court and face death by the drinking of hemlock.
This edition aims to combine detailed linguistic help with a full explanation of the contextual issues: dramatic structure, literary style and philosophical ideas.