Acknowledgments
The writing of this book was made possible due to the help and encouragement of many friends and colleagues. First, I would like to thank Lee L. Brice for inviting me to contribute to Brill’s Research Perspectives in Ancient History series, and to Georgia Tsouvala for shepherding the manuscript through the review and revision process. Most of all, I am grateful to both of them for the belief that my perspective as a political theorist is a valuable one, and I hope that this book has made good on that belief. At Brill, I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers who helped me improve the manuscript through their generous and detailed feedback.
Parts of section 2 originally appeared, in different versions, in my monograph The Politics of Socratic Humor (2018). My thanks to the University of California Press for permission to repackage them here.
Two undergraduate research assistants, Hank Blackburn and Mary Pelson, read far more Plato with me than one can reasonably expect from an undergraduate. I am deeply grateful for their consistent enthusiasm (even when reading the Laws, and even for gathering to read Plato together after graduation), probing questions, and genuine insights.
My colleagues at William & Mary have been a constant source of support and encouragement. In particular, Mitch Brown, Bill Hutton, Michael Halleran, and Lily Panoussi have generously spent many of their Friday afternoons over the past years reading Plato with me under the auspices of our Greek Reading Group.
Finally, I would like to thank my daughter, Josephine Lombardini, for taking such good naps during the period in which the bulk of this book needed to be written and my wife, Jess Paga, for always believing in me.