From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe Peparethians, paired with the Athenians as a possible audience for a political adviser.
- In Alcibiades ISocrates asks whether Alcibiades would laugh at anyone who stood up before either people and declared that just things can sometimes be bad, after agreeing that the just and advantageous are the same.
- In this editionThe supplied note identifies the island with modern Skopelos and interprets the pair as a great city or a small one.
- A place to readThe alternative audience extends the rebuke beyond Athens.
Meaning
The Peparethians, paired with the Athenians as a possible audience for a political adviser.
Use in the book
Socrates asks whether Alcibiades would laugh at anyone who stood up before either people and declared that just things can sometimes be bad, after agreeing that the just and advantageous are the same. The lesser-known audience makes the conclusion portable: the required consistency is not peculiar to the ambitions and prestige of Athens. The dialogue does not stage a visit to the island or attribute a distinctive constitutional view to its inhabitants. Its role is the deliberately wide applicability of the test of advice.
Places to read
- 116d–116eThe alternative audience extends the rebuke beyond Athens.
Translation in this edition
The supplied note identifies the island with modern Skopelos and interprets the pair as a great city or a small one. That explanatory geography is not an additional assertion by Socrates.
Πεπαρήθιος
Attested: Πεπαρηθίοις (peparēthiois; 116d). Peparethian, an alternative civic audience used to extend the test of advice beyond Athens. Lexical identification: lemma: Πεπαρήθιος. See Peparethos.