Socrates’ most famous student was a young aristocrat called Plato (c. 428-354 B.C.) who never forgave the Athenian Democrats for murdering his teacher. Democracy for Plato meant chaos and rule by a violent and ignorant mob easily swayed by corrupt politicians. He left Athens in disgust, but later returned to find his City State in deep trouble.
Athens had been defeated by Sparta in 405 B.C. The citizens were discontented and Sophist philosophers like Thrasymachus were spreading rumours that there was no such thing as morality. Plato’s great work The Republic is an extraordinary book because it raises nearly every philosophical question there is. A.N. Whitehead once said that all of Western philosophy is really no more than “footnotes” to Plato.