Plato's "Republic" is one of the most influential writings of antiquity. What could a just state look like? What about a just society? Plato outlines an ideal state where men and women of the ruling class are equal, there is neither marriage nor family, all children are raised collectively—without knowing their parents—no one owns anything, a cultivated elite oversees law and order, and philosophers guide the fate of the state. Each individual is concerned not with personal happiness, but with the welfare of the state: an ideal or a totalitarian horror vision? Gernot Krapinger's new translation and commentary on this dialogue, which includes the famous Allegory of the Cave, allows even readers without a philosophical background to understand this foundational text of all political theories.