With these two volumes, in which Plato's "Republic" has been fit with difficulty due to its size and the necessary introductory, commentative, interpretative, and selective material that must accompany the ancient text and its translation, I join the "dance" of specialized Platonic works initiated by esteemed colleagues and collaborators of the "Ancient Authors" series from ZITROS Publications.

My contribution to highlighting the value of Plato's "Republic" is small: it is limited, aside from the analysis of the period during which Plato operated and wrote and a brief reference to his work, to the translation of what useful others, mainly during the late antiquity, have said about Plato in general and about the "Republic" in particular, as well as some other clearly defined selections.

(Th. G. Mavropoulos) [Excerpt from the text of the preface]