Philosopher-Kings of Antiquity Philosopher-Kings of Antiquity William Desmond Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © William Desmond 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission from the publishers. First published 2011 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-4411-0882-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN To the memory of my grandparents, Jerome and Eilís, Hannah and Eugene Contents Abbreviations ix 1 Fundamental Themes: Kingship and Wisdom 1 1 What is a king? 2 1 Functions of ancient kings 6 1 Kingship, Classical Greece and Republican Rome 10 1 Philosopher-kings and assorted wise rulers 14 2 Plato’s Dream 19 1 Early dialogues and the “royal craft” of politics 21 1 Guardians and demiurges: Republic, Timaeus and Critias 23 1 The direct rule of God: Statesman 32 1 Indirect rule by a wise legislator: Laws 33 1 Plato the activist 40 3 From Plato to Plutarch 45 1 Plato’s contemporaries: Xenophon, Isocrates, Aristotle 46 1 Alexander and the Hellenistic age 51 1 Plutarch’s philosopher-kings 61 4 Marcus Aurelius 87 1 Marcus’ education 90 1 Challenges of Marcus’ reign: plague, wars, revolt 92 1 The Stoicism of Marcus’ Meditations 96 1 Assessments of Marcus: a philosopher-king? 103 1 Marcus’ enduring image 112 5 Julian the Apostate 117 1 Julian’s education 118 1 Julian’s ideas 123 1 Constantinople 129 1 Antioch 134 1 Mesopotamia 139 1 Assessments: a philosopher-king 141 viii CoNTENTS 6 From Moses to Modernity 145 1 Ancient images of Moses: prophet, lawgiver, philosopher 145 1 The Lord’s anointed: Justinian and medieval ideals 156 1 Freedom and system: philosophes and enlightened despots 160 1 Natural light of reason: Thomas Jefferson, philosopher-president 168 1 Scientific wisdom: Marx, Lenin, Stalin 171 1 A concluding fable: orwell’s Animal Farm 176 Notes 183 Bibliography 233 Index 249 Abbreviations In abbreviating author names and book titles, I have followed the conven- tions of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition, ed. S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (1996), with the following exceptions: D.L. = Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers FRLP = “Fragment of a Letter to a Priest” by Julian (trans. W. C. Wright) All translations of Plato, Isocrates, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, the Historia Augusta, Julian, Ammianus and Macchiavelli are by Jowett, Norlin, Dryden, Long, Magie, Wright, Hamilton and Marriott, respectively, unless otherwise noted. All other translations are my own, unless otherwise noted.